# The living sapphires above Eden

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH04.P033](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH04.P033/#char=553,588): "they are called so in Milton's Eden"

The reference is to *Paradise Lost*, IV.604–609: the evening firmament glows with ‘living Saphirs’ before the moon appears. The inspected witness is Toronto's transcription of the second edition (1674), not the first edition of 1667. Chesterton accurately recalls the image, modernizing its spelling rather than quoting a whole line.

The setting matters: immediately after this description Adam speaks to Eve about rest and their appointed work. These celestial jewels belong to the inhabited world of the first human pair. Chesterton similarly brings the heavens within domestic care: stars become valuables one might lose or save. His ‘economical’ affection also answers this chapter's earlier image of stars as an endless income of halfpence. The connection with Milton makes the jeweled sky concrete; the claim that the entire cosmos is uniquely priceless remains Chesterton's own argument.

## Sources

- [John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV (1674), Representative Poetry Online](https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/paradise-lost-book-iv-1674), Edition statement; IV.604–620
- [Cambridge University Library, Living at This Hour: John Milton 1608–2008](https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/CUL/exhibitions/Milton/captions.html), Paradise Lost first-edition entry (1667)
- [G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16769), Chapter IV, paragraph beginning ‘It happened that I had that emotion’

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