Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve
First thy obedience; the other who can know ?
Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?
But if thou think, trial unsought may find
Us both securer, than thus warn'd thou seem'st,
Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;
Go, in thy native innocence; rely
On what thou hast of virtue, summon all;
For God towards thee hath done his part; do thine."
So spake the patriarch of mankind; but Eve
Persisted, yet submiss, though last, reply'd.
"With thy permission then, & thus forwarned,
Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words
Touch'd only, that our trial, when least sought,
May find us both perhaps far less prepared;
The willinger I go; nor much expect
A foe so proud, will first the weaker seek;
So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse.

Thus saying, 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 self In gait surpass'd, and goddess-like deport; Though not, as she, with bow & quiver armed, But with such gardening tools, as art, yet rude, Guiltless of fire, had form'd, or angels brought. To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorn'd, Likest she seem'd; Pomona, when she fled Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime, Yet virgin of Proserpina, from Jove. Her long, with ardent look, his eye pursu'd, Delighted, but desired more her stay. Oft he to her his charge of quick return Repeated; she to him as oft engaged To be return'd by noon, amid the bower, And all things in best order, to invite Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve, Of thy presumed return! event perverse! Thou never, from that hour, in Paradise Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose; Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers & shades, Waited, with hellish rancour imminent, To intercept thy way, or send thee back Despoil'd of innocence, of faith, of bliss. For now, & since first break of dawn, the fiend, Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come,

And on his quest, where likeliest he might find
The only two of mankind; but in them
The whole included race, his purposed prey.
In bower and field he sought, where any tuft
Of grove, or garden-plot, more pleasant lay,
Their tendance, or plantation for delight;
By fountain, or by shady rivulet, [find
He sought them both; but wish'd his hap might
Eve separate; he wish'd, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanced, when, to his wish,
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,
Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,
Half spy'd, so thick the roses, blushing round
About her, glow'd, oft stooping to support [gay,
Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though
Carnation, purple, azure, or speck'd with gold,
Hung drooping, unsustain'd; them she upstays
Gently with myrtle band; mindless the while
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower,
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.
Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm;
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets and flowers,
Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve:
Spot more delicious than those gardens feign'd
Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renown'd
Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son;
Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
Much he the place admired, the person more.
As one, who, long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick, and sewers, annoy the air,
Forth issuing, on a summer'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 sight, each rural sound;
If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass,
What pleasing seem'd, for her, now pleases more,
She most, and in her look sums all delight:
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve,
Thus early, thus alone. Her heavenly form
Angelic, but more soft, and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gesture or least action, over-awed

His malice; and, with rapine sweet bereaved
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought.
That space, the evil one abstracted stood
From his own evil, & for the time remain'd
Stupidly good, of enmity disarm'd,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge;
But the hot hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight,
And tortures him now more, the more he sees
Of pleasure, not for him ordain'd. Then soon
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.

"Thoughts, whither have ye led me? with what
Compulsion, thus transported, to forget [sweet
What hither brought us? hate, not love, nor hope
Of Paradise for Hell; hope here to taste
Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying; other joy
To me is lost. Then let me not let pass
Occasion, which now smiles; behold alone
The woman, opportune to all attempts;
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh;
Whose higher intellectual more I shun,
And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb
Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould,
Foe not informidable, exempt from wound;
I not; so much hath Hell debased, & pain
Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven.
She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods;
Not terrible, though terror be in love
And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate;
Hate stronger, under show of love well feign'd,
The way which to her ruin now I tend."

So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed
In serpent, inmate bad; and toward Eve
Address'd his way; not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd,
Fold above fold, a surging maze; his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;

With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape,
And lovely; never since of serpent kind
Lovelier; not those that in Illyra changed
Hermione and Cadmus, or the God
In Epidarus; nor to which transform'd,

Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen;
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio the highth of Rome. With tract oblique,
At first, as one who sought access, but fear'd
To interrupt, side-long he works his way:
As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought,
Nigh river's mouth, or foreland, where the wind
Veers off, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail;
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath, in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used
To such disport before her through the field,
From every beast; more duteous at her call,
Than at Čircean call, the herd disguised.
He, bolder now, uncall'd before her stood
But as in gaze admiring: oft he bow'd
His turret crest, and sleek enamell'd neck,
Fawning; & lick'd the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb expression turn'd, at length,
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad
Of her attention gain'd, with serpent tongue
Organic, or impulse of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began.

"Wonder not, sovereign mistress, if perhaps
Thou canst, who art sole wonder; much less arm
Thy looks, the heaven of mildness, with disdain,
Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze
Insatiate, I, thus single; nor have feared
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired.
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore,
With ravishment beheld; there best beheld
Where universally admired; but here,
In this inclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair; one man except, [seen,
Who sees thee? & what is one? who shouldst be
A goddess among gods, adored and served
Ay angels numberless, thy daily train."

So glozed the Tempter, & his proem tuned ;
Into the heart of Eve his words made way,
Though at the voice much marvelling; at length,
Not unamazed, she thus in answer spake. [nounced
"What may this mean? language of man, pro-
By tongue of brute, and human sense express'd!

The first, at least, of these I thought denied
To beasts, whom God, on their creation-day,
Created mute to all articulate sound:
The latter I demur; for in their looks
Much reason, & in their actions, oft appears.
Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
I knew, but not with human voice endued;
Redouble then this miracle, and say
How camest thou speakable of mute; and how
To me so friendly grown, above the rest
Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight:
Say, for such wonder claims attention due.”

To whom the guileful tempter thus replied.
"Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve,
Easy to me it is to tell thee all [be obeyed.
What thou commandst, & right thou shouldst
I was, at first, as other beasts that graze
The trodden herb, of abject thoughts, and low
As was my food; nor ought but food discern'd,
Or sex, and apprehended nothing high:
Till on a day, roving the field, I chanced
A goodly tree, far distant, to behold.
Loaden with fruit of fairest colours, mix'd
Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze,
When from the boughs a savoury odour blown,
Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense
Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats
Of ewe or goat, dropping with milk at even,
Unsuck'd of lamb or kid, that tend their play,
To satisfy the sharp desire I had
Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved
Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
Powerful persuaders, quicken'd at the scent
Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen.
About the mossy trunk I wound me soon; [quire
For, high from ground, the branches would re-
Thy utmost reach, or Adam's: round the tree,
All other beasts that saw, with like desire,
Longing & envying stood, but could not reach.
Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung,
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill
I spared not; for such pleasure, till that hour,
At feed or fountain never had I found.
Sated at length; ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration in me, to degree
Of reason, in my inward powers; & speech
Wanted not long, tho' to this shape retain'd.