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 can bring thee thither soon.

625

Lead then, said Eve. He, leading, swiftly ro.l'd 630 In tangles, and made intricate seem straight, To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy Brightens his crest; as when a wandering fire, Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night Condenses, and the cold environs round; Kindled through agitation to a flame,

635

Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his way
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool; 640
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 woe;

644

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 xest 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.

650

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?

655

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

660

The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat

Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

[bold

She scarce had said, though brief, when now more

The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love

To Man, and indignation at his wrong,

665

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 or free Rome, where eloquence

670

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 height began, as no delay

675

Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right :
So standing, moving, or to height 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

680

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 die :

690

How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life 685
To knowledge; by the threatener? 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

695

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: 700
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 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.

705

710

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 become

715

As they, participating Godlike 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

720

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 726
Impart against his will, if all be his?

Or is it envy? and can envy dwell

730

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:

735

Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked
An eager appetite, raised by the smell

So savoury of that fruit, which with desire,

740

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 essay Gave elocution to the mute, and taught

746

750

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 prohibitions bind not. But if death
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat

755

760

Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die!

How dies the Serpent? he hath eaten, lives,

And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone

765

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 1 then? rather, what know to fear

770

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

775

Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat! 780
Earth felt the wound; and 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

785

Or fancied so, through expectation high

Of knowledge; nor was Godhead from her thought. Greedily she ingorged without restraint,

790

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

795

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

800

Of thy full branches offer'd free to ali;

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,

805

810