Of highest agents, deem'd however wife.
Queen of this universe, do not believe
Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die:
How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge; by the threatner? look on me,
Me who have touch'd and tafted, yet both live,
And life more perfe&t have attain'd than fate
Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my lot.
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
Is open or will God incenfe his ire
For fuch a petty trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounc'd, whatever thing death be,
Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how juft? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, fince easier fhunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt you, and be just;
Not juft, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd:
Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,
Why but to keep you low and ignorant,
His worshippers; he knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that feem fo clear,
Yet are but dim, fhall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd, and ye fhall be as Gods,
Knowing both good and evil as they know.
That ye fhall be as Gods, fince I as Man,
Internal Man, is but proportion meet;
I of brute human, ye of human Gods.
So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wish'd,
Though threaten'd, which no worse than this can bring.
And what are Gods that Man may not become
As they, participating God-like food?
The Gods are first, and that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them proceeds;
I queftion it, for this fair earth I fee,
Warm'd by the fun, producing every kind,
Them nothing: if they all things, who inclos'd
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whofo eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wifdom without their leave? and wherein lies
Th' offenfe, that Man fhould thus attain to know?
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree
Impart against his will if all be his?
envy, and can envy dwell
In heav'nly breafts? thefe, thefe and many more
Caufes import your need of this fair fruit.
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely tafte.
He ended, and his words replete with guile
Into her heart too eafy entrance won :
Fix'd on the fruit she gaz'd, which to behold
Might tempt alone, and in her ears the found
Yet rung of his perfuafive words, impregn'd
With reason, to her feeming, and with truth;
Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and wak'd
An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell
So favory of that fruit, which with defire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,
Floted redundant: pleafing was his shape
And lovely; never fince of ferpent kind
Lovelier, not those that in Illyria chang'd
Hermione and Cadmus, or the God
In Epidaurus; nor to which transform'd
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was feen,
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio the highth of Rome. With tract oblique 510
At first, as one who fought accefs, but fear'd
To interrupt, fide-long he works his way.
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft fo fteers, and shifts her fail : 515
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye; fhe bufied heard the found
Of rufling leaves, but minded not, as us'd
To fuch difport before her through the field,
From every beaft, more duteous at her call,
Than at Circean call the herd disguis'd.
He bolder now, uncall'd before her stood,
But as in gaze admiring: oft he bow'd
His turret creft, and fleek enamel'd neck,
Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon fhe trod.
His gentle dumb expreffion turn'd at length
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he glad
Of her attention gain'd, with ferpent tongue
Organic, or impulfe of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began.
Wonder not, fovran Mistress, if perhaps
Thou canft, who art fole wonder; much less arm
Thy looks, the Heav'n of mildness, with disdain,
Difpleas'd that I approach thee thus, and gaze
Infatiate, I thus fingle, nor have fear'd
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retir'd.
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celeftial beauty' adore
With ravishment beheld, there beft beheld
Where universally admir'd; but here
In this inclosure wild, these beafts among,
Beholders rude, and fhallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Who fees thee'? (and what is one?) who fhouldft be seen A Goddess among Gods, ador'd and ferv'd
By Angels numberless, thy daily train.
So gloz'd the Tempter, and his proem tun'd; Into the heart of Eve his words made way, Though at the voice much marveling; at length Not unamaz'd she thus in answer spake.
What may this mean? language of man pronounc'd By tongue of brute, and human sense express'd? The first at least of these I thought deny'd
To beafts, whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate found;
The latter I demur, for in their looks
Much reas'on, and in their actions oft appears.
Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
I knew, but not with human voice indued;
Redouble then this miracle, and say,
Grow up to their provifion, and more hands
Help to disburden Nature of her birth.
To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad.
Emprefs, the way is ready, and not long,
Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
Faft by a fountain, one small thicket past
Of blowing myrrh and balm; if thou accept
My conduct, I can bring thee thither foon.
Lead then, said Eve. He leading swiftly roll'd
In tangles, and made intricate seem strait,
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy
Brightens his creft; as when a wand'ring fire,
Compact of unctuous vapor, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,
Kindled through agitation to a flame,
Which oft, they fay, fome evil Spi'rit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads th' amaz'd night-wand'rer from his way 640
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallow'd up and loft, from fuccour far.
So glifter'd the dire Snake, and into fraud
Led Eve our credulous mother, to the tree
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;
Which when the faw, thus to her guide she spake.
Serpent, we might have spar'd our coming hither,
Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to' excess,
The credit of whofe virtue rest with thee,
Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects.
But of this tree we may not tafte nor touch;
God fo commanded, and left that command
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