As the angels point out, whoever tries to rebel against God produces the result opposite to his intention (VII, 613). At the end of the poem Adam is astonished at the power ‘that all this good of evil shall produce’ (XII, 470). This is the exact reverse of the programme Satan had envisaged in Book I, when he hoped, if God attempted any good through him, to ‘pervert that end’ (164); instead he is allowed to do all the evil he wants and finds that he has produced good. Those who will not be God’s sons become His tools.
