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To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both.
—Sir Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Surely I’m not the first person to notice this. The creation of Eve in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
—Genesis 2:18
In Genesis, God simply made the observation that it would not be good to leave the man by himself, and promptly set about making a mate for him.
In Milton’s version, though (Book 8, starting at line 357), it is Adam who begs God to make a mate for him. God agrees, and creates Eve. After that, as we all know, things began to get complicated.
What Milton seems to imply is that the creation of Eve was not part of God’s original plan. Instead, it was Adam’s idea. The first man looked around at everything God had created for him, scratched his head, looked up, and said, “You know, God, this Paradise and stuff is really cool and all—(Great job, really. I love it! And no offense, if you know what I mean.)—but I have a suggestion on how you might improve it.” And God went along with it. In other words, immediately after God made him lord and possessor of “all the Earth . . . and all things that therein live,” Adam’s first act was to try to improve on God’s plan! (A trait which, unfortunately, we have all inherited.) And as he has done ever since, God’s response was, “If that’s what you really want. But don’t blame me—it’s your choice.”
So Milton seems to be saying that if Adam had left well enough alone, he wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble.
Of course, I’m just speculating here. The real theologians can battle this one out. But maybe Milton was just fighting back, trying to give the man a fair break. After all, there’s another way to interpret Genesis 2:18: Some would argue that God realized it could be a bad idea to turn the man loose in Paradise unsupervised . . . .
I’m staying out of it. 
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