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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 copartner? 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 wo :
So dear I love him, that with him all Deaths
I could endure, without him live no life."

So saying, from the tree her step 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 labors crown;
As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen.

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Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long delay'd:
Yet of this heart, divine of something ill,

Misgave him; he the faultering 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
Searce 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, too prompt
Wich, with bland words at will, she thus address'd.
"Hast thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have miss'd, and thought it long, deprived
Thy presence; agony oflove 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, or 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 thenceforth
Endued with human voice and human sense,
Reasoning to admiration; and with me
Persuasively hath so prevail'd 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 to late renoun ce
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,
Astonish'd stood and blank, while horror chill
Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd;
From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve
Down dropp'd, and all the fad ed roses shed;
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
First to himself he inward silence broke :

"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, deflower'd, and 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 wo."

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