I turn'd my thoughts, and with capacious mind
Confider'd all things vifible in Heaven,

Or Earth, or Middle, all things fair and good; 605
But all that fair and good in thy divine
Semblance, and in thy beauty's heav'nly ray
United I beheld; no fair to thine

Equivalent or fecond, which compell’d

Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come 610 And gaze, and worship thee of right declar'd Sovran of creatures, univerfal Dame.

So talk'd the spirited fly Snake; and Eve Yet more amaz'd unwary thus reply'd. Serpent, thy overpraifing leaves in doubt

615

The virtue of that fruit, in thee first prov'd:
But fay, where grows the tree, from hence how far?

For many are the trees of God that

grow

In Paradise, and various, yet unknown
To us, in fuch abundance lies our choice,
As leaves a greater ftore of fruit untouch'd,
Still hanging incorruptible, till men

Grow up to their provifion, and more hands
Help to disburden Nature of her birth.

620

To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad. 625
Emprefs, the way is ready, and not long,
Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,

Fast by a fountain, one fmall thicket past
Of blowing myrrh and balm; if thou accept
My conduct, I can bring thee thither foon.
Lead then, faid Eve. He leading swiftly roll'd

630

In

In tangles, and made intricate feem ftrait,
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy
Brightens his creft; as when a wand'ring fire,
Compact of unctuous vapor, which the night 635
Condenses, and the cold environs round,

Kindled through agitation to a flame,

Which oft, they say, fome evil Spi'rit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,

Misleads th' amaz'd night-wand'rer from his way 640
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallow'd up and loft, from fuccour far.
So glifter'd the dire Snake, and into fraud

Led Eve our credulous mother, to the tree
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;

here mix'd together.

643.

645

Which

and into fraud] Fraud fignifies hurt and damage, as well as deceit and delufion. Virg. Æn. X.

where the ferpent is defcrib'd as lines. Philofophy and poetry are rolling forward in all his pride, animated by the evil Spirit, and conducting Eve to her deftruction, while Adam was at too great a diftance from her to give her his affiftance. These several particulars are all of them wrought into the following fimilitude.

Hope elevates, and joy Brightens his creft; as when a wand'ring fire, &c. Addifon. And there is not perhaps any more philofophic account of the ignis fatuus, than what is contain'd in these

72.

Quis Deus in fraudem, quæ dura potentia noftra

Egit?

700

Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounc'd, whatever thing death be, 695
Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how juft? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, fince easier fhunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just ;
Not juft, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd;
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 feem fo clear,
Yet are but dim, fhall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd, and ye shall be as Gods,
Knowing both good and evil as they know.
That ye fhall be as Gods, fince I as Man,

705

710

In

be knows that in the day &c.] Gen. III. 5 For God doth know, that in the day y eat thereof, then your eyes fbail be open'd; andje shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. So that where the author comments and inlarges upon Scripture, he till preferves as much as may be the very words of Scripture.

710. That ye shall be as Gods, &c.] Thele

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 become
As they, participating God-like food?

714

720

The Gods are first, and that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them proceeds;
I question it, for this fair earth I fee,
Warm'd by the fun, producing every kind,
Them nothing if they all things, who inclos'd
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whofo eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies 725
Th' offense, that Man fhould thus attain to know?
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree