Of highest agents, deem'd however wife.
Queen of this univerfe, do not believe
Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die:
How fhould 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 perfect 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 dauntlefs 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 just, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd:
Your fear itfelf 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 seem so 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 fhall die perhaps, by putting off
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wifh'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 question 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
Wisdom 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?
Or is it envy, and can envy dwell
In heav'nly breafts? thefe, these and many more
Causes import your need of this fair fruit.
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste.
He ended, and his words replete with guile
Into her heart too easy entrance won :
Fix'd on the fruit fhe 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
eager appetite, rais'd by the smell
So favory of that fruit, which with defire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,
Solicited her longing eye; yet first
Paufing a while, thus to herself the mus'd.
Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, 745 Though kept from man, and worthy to be' admir'd, Whose tafte, too long forborn, at first affay Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise :
Thy praise he also who forbids thy use,
Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree
Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;
Forbids us then to tafte, but his forbidding
Commends thee more, while it infers the good
By thee communicated, and our want:
For good unknown, fure is not had, or had
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wife?
Such prohibitions bind not. But if death
Binds us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the Serpent? he hath eat'n and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, 765 Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? or to us deny'd
This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
Hath tafted, envies not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, author unfuspect,
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then, rather what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
of virtue to make wife: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body' and mind?
So faying, her rafh hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, the pluck'd, the eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her feat
Sighing through all her works gave figns of woe,
That all was loft. Back to the thicket flunk
The guilty Serpent, and well might, for Eve
Intent now wholly on her tafte, nought elfe
Regarded, fuch delight till then, as feem'd,
In fruit fhe never tafted, whether true
Or fancy'd fo, through expectation high
Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought.
Greedily the ingorg'd without reftraint,
And knew not eating death: Satiate at length,
And highten'd as with wine, jocond and boon,
Thus to herself the pleafingly began.
In Paradife, of operation bleft
O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees
To fapience, hitherto obfcur'd, infam'd,
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,
Not without fong, each morning, and due praise,
Shall tend thee, and the fertil burden cafe
Of thy full branches offer'd free to all;
Till dieted by thee I grow mature
In knowledge, as the Gods who all things know;
Though others envy what they cannot give;
For had the gift been theirs, it had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe,
Beft guide; not following thee, I had remain'd
In ignorance; thou open'st wisdom's way,
And giv'ft accefs, though fecret she retire.
And I perhaps am secret; Heav'n is high,
High, and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on earth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great forbidder, fafe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what fort
Shall I appear? fhall I to him make known
As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with me, or rather not,
But keep the odds of knowledge in my power
Without copartner? fo to add what wants
In female fex, the more to draw his love,
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
A thing not undefirable, sometime
Superior; for inferior who is free ?
This may be well: but what if God hath seen,
And death enfue? then I fhall be no more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;
A death to think. Confirm'd then I refolve,
Adam fhall fhare with me in blifs or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
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