When Milton instructs his muse, "Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view," there's something more here than the primary sense of the word, which is just "first in sequence."

弥尔顿写到缪斯的时候，“请先说，天界和地狱深渊在您的眼中，一切都了如指掌“,这句中“先“除了它本身的意思“最先“之外，还有其他的含义“

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

So creation in Genesis 1 is not described As a process of making something out of nothing: creation of something out of utter nothing.

因此在《创世纪》第一章中并没有描述开创,没有从虚无中创造事物的过程：,从完全的虚无中有所创造。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

Now we might at first think that Satan's vaunting here is the product of nothing more elevated than hate and a desire for revenge, but Milton's doing something truly extraordinary.

我们首先会想到撒旦之所以在这里自吹自擂,不过是因为他的仇恨和复仇的欲望，不过弥尔顿在这里做了不同寻常的艺术处理。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

But, it ceased being funny, and it was nothing like the siege of Leningrad where something like a million people died in World War Two of starvation; but, there were all sorts of little caskets being dragged along to what passed then for mortuaries.

但是,这不再那么有趣了,而这和列宁格勒之围比就相形见绌了,二战时期的大概有一百万人,被活活饿死,但是,巴黎有各种棺材,被拖到太平间去

耶鲁公开课 - 1871年后的法国课程节选

God was so afraid of us that He actually doubted His hold on His own empire, an empire that He was only actually able to maintain because of good luck or something like superior military firepower, but certainly nothing as grand and as absolute as omnipotence."

上帝是如此害怕我们,都开始怀疑自己能否驾驭自己的帝国了，他维系这个帝国,靠的是运气或者是强大的火力，绝非是靠什么伟大的无所不能的神力“

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选