Or daring, first on me th' affault fhall light.
Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn;
Subtle he needs must be, who could feduce
Angels; nor think fuperfluous others aid.
I from the influence of thy looks receive
Access in every virtue, in thy fight
More wife, more watchful, ftronger, if need were Of outward ftrength; while fhame, thou looking on, Shame to be overcome, or over-reach'd,
Would utmost vigour raife, and rais'd unite.
Why should not thou like sense within thee feel 315 When I am present, and thy trial chuse
With me, best witness of thy virtue try'd?
So fpake domeftic Adam in his care
And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought
Lefs attributed to her faith fincere,
Thus her reply with accent fweet renew'd.
If this be our condition, thus to dwell
In narrow circuit ftraitn'd by a foe,
Subtle or violent, we not endu'd
Single with like defence, wherever met;
How are we happy, ftill in fear of harm ?
But harm precedes not fin: only our foe
Tempting affronts us with his foul esteem
Of our integrity: his foul esteem
Sticks no difhonour on our front, but turns
Foul on himself; then wherefore shunn'd or fear'd
By us? who rather double honour gain
From his furmife prov'd falfe; find peace within,
Favour from heaven, our witness from th' event.
And what is faith, love, virtue unaffay'd
Alone, without exteriour help sustain❜d ? ·
Let us not then fufpect our happy state
Left fo imperfect by the Maker wife,
As not fecure to fingle or combin❜d.
Frail is our happiness, if this be fo,
And Eden were no Eden thus expos'd.
To whom thus Adam fervently reply'd.
O woman, best are all things as the will
Of God ordain'd them: his creating hand
Nothing imperfect or deficient left
Of all that he created; much less man,
Or aught that might his happy state fecure,
Secure from outward force; within himself
The danger lies, yet lies within his power :
Against his will he can receive no harm..
But God left free the will; for what obeys
Reason, is free; and reafon he made right,
But bid her well be ware, and still erect,
Left by fome fair appearing good furpris'd
She dictate falfe, and misinform the will
To do what God exprefsly hath forbid.
Not then miftruft, but tender love, injoins
That I fhould mind thee oft, and mind thou me.
Firm we fubfift, yet poffible to fwerve;
Since reason not impoffibly may meet
Some fpecious object by the foe fuborn'd,
And fall into deception unaware,
Not keeping ftrictest watch, as she was warn'd.
Seek not temptation then, which to avoid
Were better, and moft likely if from me
Thoù fever not: trial will come unfought.
Wouldst thou approve thy conftancy? appove
First thy obedience; th' other who can know,
Not seeing thee attempted? who atteft?
But if thou think, trial unfought may find ́
Us both fecurer than thus warn'd thou feem'ft,
Go; for thy ftay, not free, abfents thee more;.
Go in thy native innocence, rely
On what thou haft of virtue, fummón all,
For God tow'ards thee hath done his part, do thine,
So fpake the patriarch of mankind; but Eve
Perfifted, yet fubmifs, though laft, reply'd.
'With thy permiffion then, and thus forewarn'd,
Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words
Touch'd only, that our trial, when leaft fought, 380
May find us both perhaps far lefs prepar'd,
The willinger I go; nor much expect
A foe fo proud will first the weaker feek;
So bent, the more fhall fhame him his repulfe.
Thus faying, from her husband's hand her hand Soft she withdrew, and like a wood-nymph light Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's train,
Betook her to the groves; but Delia's felf
In gait furpafs'd, and goddefslike deport;
Though not, as fhe, with bow and quiver arm'd, 390
But with fuch gard'ning tools as art yet rudé,
Guiltless of fire, had form'd, or angels brought.
To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorn'd,
Likeft fhe feem'd, Pomona when the fled
Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime,
Yet virgin of Proferpina from Jove..
Her long with ardent look his eye purfu'd
Delighted, but defiring more her stay.
Oft he to her his charge of quick return
Repeated; the to him as oft engage'd
To be return'd by noon amid the bow'r
And all things in beft order to invite
Noontide repaft, or afternoon's repose.
✪ much deceiv'd, much failing, hapless Eve,
To intercept thy way, or fend thee back
Defpoil'd of innocence, of faith, of blifs.
For now, and fince firft break of dawn, the fiend,
Mere ferpent in appearance, forth was come,
And on his quest, where likelieft he might find
The only two of mankind, but in them
The whole included race, his purpos'd prey.
In bower and field he fought, where any
Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,
Their tendance, or plantation for delight;
By fountain or by fhady rivulet
He fought them both, but wish'd his hap might find
Eve separate; he wifh'd, but not with hope
Of what fo feldom chance'd: when to his wifh,
Beyond his hope, Eve feparate he spies,
Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood
Half spy'd, fo thick the roses bufhing round
About her glow'd; oft ftooping to fupport
Each flower of flender flalk, whofe head though gay
Carnation, purple', azure, or speck'd with gold,
Hung drooping unsustain'd: them she upstays
Gently with myrtle band; mindlefs the while
Herfelf, though fairest unsupported flower,
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.
Nearer he drew, and many a walk travérs'd
Of statelieft covert, cedar, pine, or palm;
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now feen
Among thick-woven arborets and flowers
Imborder'd on each bank, the hand of Eve:
Spot more delicious than thofe gardens feign'd
Or of reviv'd Adonis; or renown'd
Alcinous, hoft of old Laertes fon;
Or that, not myftic, where the fapient king
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
Much he the place admir'd, the perfon more.
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and fewers annoy the air,
Forth iffuing on a fummer's morn, to breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight;
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy', each rural fight, each rural found;
If chance, with nymphlike step, fair virgin pafs,
What pleafing feem'd, for her now pleases more,
She most, and in her look fums all delight:
Such pleasure took the ferpent to behold
This flowery plat, the fweet recess of Eve
Thus early, thus alone; her heavenly form
Angelic, but more foft, and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her ev'ry air
Of gesture, or least action, overaw'd
His malice, and with rapine fweet bereav'd
His fiercenefs of the fierce intent it brought:
That space the evil one abstracted food
From his own ev'il, and for the time remain'd
Stupidly good, of enmity difarm'd,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge.
But the hot hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid heaven, foon ended his delight;
And tortures him now more, the more he fees
Of pleasure not for him ordain'd: then foon
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.
Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what fweet Compulfion thus tranfported, to forget
What hither brought us! hate, not love, nor hope
Of Paradife for Hell, hope here to taste
Of pleasure, but all pleafure to deftroy,
Save what is in deftroying; other joy
To me is loft. Then let me not let pass
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