Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil?
Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just:
Not just, 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
You eat thereof, your eyes, that seem so clear,
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd; and ye shall be as gods,
Knowing both good and evil, as they know.
That ye shall be as gods, since 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,
Tho' 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 see,
Warm'd by the sun, producing every kind,
Them nothing if they all things, who enclosed
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies
The offence, that man should 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 heavenly breasts? These, these, & 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,
In to her heart too easy entrance won.
Fix'd on the fruit she gazed, which to behold
Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregn'd
With reason, to her seeming, and with truth.
Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, & waked
An eager appetite, raised by the smell
So savoury of that fruit, which with desire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,

Solicited her longing eye; yet first,
Pausing awhile, thus to herself she mused.

"Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, Though kept from man, & worthy to be admired; Whose taste, too long forborne, at first essay, Gave elocution to the mute, and taught The tongue, not made for speech, to speak thy Thy praise He also, who forbids thy use, [praise: Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree Of knowledge, knowledge both of good & evil: Forbids us then to taste; but his forbidding Commends thee more, while it infers the good By thee communicated, and our want: For good unknown, sure, 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 wise? Such prohibitions bind not. But if death Bind 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 eaten and lives, And knows, & speaks, & reasons, & discerns, Irrational till then. For us alone Was death invented? or to us denied This intellectual food, for beasts reserved? For beasts it seems: yet that one beast, which first Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy The good befallen him, author unsuspect, 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 wise: what hinders then To reach, and feed at once both body & mind?” So saying, her rash hand, in evil hour, Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat: Earth felt the wound, & nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk The guilty serpent; and well might, for Eve, Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else Regarded, such delight till then, as seem'd, In fruit she never tasted, whether true Or fancied so, through expectation high

Of knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought.
Greedily she ingorged without restraint,
And knew not eating death. Satiate at length,
And heighten'd as with wine, jocund and boon,
Thus, to herself, she pleasingly began.

"O sovereign, virtuous, precious of all trees In Paradise! of operation blest

To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed, And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end Created; but henceforth my early care, Not without song, each morning, & due praise, Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease 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, Best guide; not following thee I had remain'd In ignorance; thou open'st wisdom's way, And givest access, though secret she retire. And I perhaps am secret: Heaven 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, safe with all his spies About him. But to Adam, in what sort Shall I appear? Shall 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 co-partner? so to add what wants In female sex, the more to draw his love, And render me more equal, and perhaps, A thing not undesirable, sometime Superior; for inferior, who is free? This may be well: but what if God have seen, And death ensue? then I shall be no more, And Adam, wedded to another Eve, Shall live with her enjoying; I extinct: A death to think. Confirm'd then, I resolve, Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe; So dear I love him, that with him, all deaths I could endure, without him, live no life.”

So saying, from the tree her steps she turned, But first low reverence done, as to the power That dwelt within, whose presence had infused

Into the plant sciential sap, derived
From nectar, drink of gods. Adam the while
Waiting, desirous her return, had wove
Of choicest flowers, a garland, to adorn
Her tresses, and her rural labours crown :
As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen.
Great joy he promised to his thoughts, & new
Solace in her return, so long delayed:
Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him; he the faltering measure felt;
And forth to meet her went the way she took
That morn, when first they parted: by the tree
Of knowledge he must pass; there he her met,
Scarce from the tree returning in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smiled,
New gather'd, and ambrosial smell diffused.
To him she hasted; in her face excuse
Came prologue, and apology to prompt;
Which, with bland words at will, she thus address'd.
"Hast thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have miss'd, & thought it long, deprived
Thy presence; agony of love till now
Not felt, nor shall be twice; for never more
Mean I to try, what, rash, untried I sought,
The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange
Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear :
This tree is not, as we are told, a tree
Of danger, tasted, nor to evil unknown
Opening the way; but of divine effect,
To open eyes, and make them gods who taste;
And hath been tasted such: the serpent, wise,
Or not restrain'd as we, or not obeying,
Hath eaten of the fruit; and is become
Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but henceforth
Endued with human voice, and human sense,
Reasoning to admiration; and with me.
Persuasively hath so prevailed, that I
Have also tasted, and have also found
The effects to correspond; opener mine eyes,
Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart,
And growing up to godhead; which for thee
Chiefly I sought, without thee, can despise..
For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss,
Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon.
Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot
May join us, equal joy, as equal love;
Lest thou, not tasting, different degree

Disjoin us, and I then, too late, renounce
Deity for thee, when fate will not permit."
Thus Eve with countenance blithe, her story told;
But in her cheek distemper, flushing, glow'd
On the other side, Adam, soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed,
Astonied stood and blank, while horror chill
Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd;
From his slack hand the garland, wreath'd for Eve,
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:
Speechless he stood, and pale, till thus at length,
First to himself, he inward silence broke:
"O fairest of creation! last and best
Of all God's works! creature in whom excell'd
Whatever can to sight, or thought, be form'd,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!
How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,
Defaced, deflowered, & now to death devote?
Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress
The strict forbiddance, how to violate
The sacred fruit forbidden? some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,
And me, with thee, hath ruin'd; for with thee
Certain my resolution is to die:

How can I live without thee, how forego
Thy sweet converse and love, so dearly join'd,
To live again in these wild woods forlorn?
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart; no, no, I feel
The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe."

So having said, as one from sad dismay
Re-comforted, and, after thoughts disturb'd,
Submitting to what seem'd remediless,
Thus, in calm mood, his words to Eve he turn'd.
"Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve,
And peril great provoked, who thus hath dared,
Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence,
Much more to taste it under ban to touch.
But past, who can recal, or done, undo;
Not God omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die; perhaps the fact
Is not so heinous now; foretasted fruit,
Profaned first by the serpent, by him first