As leaves a greater store of fruit untouch'd, Still hanging incorruptible, till men
Grow up to their provision, and more hands Help to disburden Nature of her birth."
"To whom the wily adder, blithe and glad ; Empress the way is ready, and not long ; Beyond a row of myrtles on a flat, Fast by a fountain, one small thicket pass'd Of blowing myrrh and balm: if thou accept My conduct, I bring thee thither soon."
Lead then, said Eve. He, leading swiftly roll'd In tangles, and made intricate seem straight, To mischief swift. elevates, and joy
Brightens his crest; as when a wandering fire, Compact of unctuos vapor, which the night Condenses, and the cold environs round, Kindled through agitation to a flame,
Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends, Covering and blazing with delusive light, Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his way To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool, There swallow'd up and lost, from succour far : So glister'd the dire snake, and into fraud
Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree Of prohibition, root of all our wo;
Which when she saw thus to her guide she spake:
"Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither, Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess, The credit of whose virtue rest with thee; Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects. But of this tree we may not taste nor touch; God so commanded, and left that command Sole daughter of his voice the rest, we live Law to ourselves; our reason is our law."
To whom the tempter guilefully replied: "Indeed! hath God then said that of the fruit Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat, Yet Lords declared of all in Earth or air?"
To whom thus Eve, yet sinless: "Of the fruit Of each tree in the garden we may eat;
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
She scarce had said, though brief, when now more bold The tempter, but with show of zeal and love
To man, and indignation at his wrong, New part puts on; and, as to passion moved, Fluctuates disturb'd, yet comely and in act Raised, as of some great matter to begin. As when of old some orator renown'd, In Athens of free Rome, where eloquence Flourish'd, since mute! to some great cause address'd, Stood in himself collected; while each part Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue; Sometimes in heighth began, as no delay Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right : So standing, moving, or to heighth up grown, The tempter, all impassion'd, thus began:
"O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant, Mother of science! now I feel thy power Within me clear; not only to discern Things in their causes, but to trace the ways Of highest agents deem'd however wise. Queen of this universe! do not believe
Those rigid threats of Death: ye shall not dic: How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life To knowledge; by the threatner? look on me, Me, who have touch'd and tasted; yet both live, And life more perfect have attained than fate Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot. Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast Is open! or will God incense his ire For such a petty trespass? and not praise Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of Death denounced, whatever thing Death be, 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 obeyed : Your fear itself of Death removes the fear. Why then was this forbid? Why, but to awe? Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant His worshippers? He knows that in the day Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seems 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, Though threaten'd, which no worse than this can bring. And what are gods, that man may not becoine
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, 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 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, and 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, and worthy to be admired; Whose taste, too long forborne, at first assay 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 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 prohibitous bind not. But if Death Bind us with after-binds, what profits then Our inward freedom? In the day we eat Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die! How does the serpent he hath eaten lives, And knows and speaks, and reasons, and 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 bring 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 and mind?” So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit she pluck'd, she eat Earth felt the wound; and nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo, 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 sov'reign, virtuous, precious of all trees In Paradise! of operation bless'd
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, and 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 :
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