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'offenfe, that Man fhould 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 heav'nly breasts? these, these and many more 730
Causes import your need of this fair fruit.
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely tafte.
He ended, and his words, replete with guile,
Into her heart too eafy entrance won:
Fix'd on the fruit fhe gaz'd, which to behold
Might tempt alone; and in her ears the found
Yet rung of his perfuafive 'words; impregn'd
With reason, to her feeming, and with truth;
Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and wak'd
An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell
So favory of that fruit; which,with desire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,
Solicited her longing eye; yet first
Pausing a while, thus to herself she mus'd.
Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, 745 Though kept from man, and worthy to be admir'd, Whose tafte, too long forborn, at first assay Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise:
IX. 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 tafte; but his forbidding
Commends thee more, while it infers the good
By thee communicated, and our want:
For good unknown, fure 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
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the Serpent? he hath eat'n and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns; 765
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? or to us deny'd
This intellectual food, for beafts referv'd?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
Hath tafted, envies not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n 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 wife: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
So faying, her rash hand, in evil hour, 780
Forth reaching to the fruit, fhe pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
Sighing, through all her works gave figns of woe,
That all was loft. Back to the thicket flunk
The guilty Serpent, and well might; for Eve, 785
Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else
Regarded; fuch delight till then, as seem'd,
In fruit fhe never tafted, whether true
Or fancy'd fo, through expectation high
Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought. Greedily fhe ingorg'd without restraint,
And knew not eating death: Satiate at length,
And highten'd as with wine, jocond and boon,
Thus to herself she pleasingly began.
O fovran, virtuous, precious of all trees 795 In Paradise, of operation blest
To fapience, hitherto obscur'd, infam'd,
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,
Not without fong, each morning, and due praise, 800
Shall tend thee, and the fertil 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;
For had the gift been theirs, it had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe,
Beft guide; not following thee, I had remain'd
In ignorance; thou open'st wisdom's way,
And giv'ft access, though secret she retire.
And I perhaps am fecret; Heav'n is high,
High, and remote to fee from thence diftinct
Each thing on carth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great forbidder, safe with all his fpies
About him. But to Adam in what fort
Shall I appear? fhall 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, 820
Without copartner? fo to add what wants
In female fex, the more to draw his love,
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
A thing not undefirable, fometime
Superior; for inferior who is free?
This may be well: but what if God have seen,
And death enfue? then I fhall be no more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;
A death to think. Confirm'd then I refolve,
Adam fhall fhare with me in blifs or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could indure, without him live no life.
So faying, from the tree her step she turn'd,
But firft low reverence done, as to the Power
That dwelt within, whose presence had infus'd
Into the plant fciential fap, deriv'd
From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while,
Waiting defirous her return, had wove
Of choiceft flow'rs a garland to adorn
Her treffes, and her rural labors crown,
As reapers
oft are wont their harvest queen.
Great joy he promis'd to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, fo long delay'd;
Yet oft his heart, divine of fomething ill,
Misgave him; he the faltring 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,
Scarce from the tree returning; in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit, that downy fmil'd,
New gather'd, and ambrosial smell diffus'd.
To him she hasted; in her face excuse
Came prologue, and apology too prompt,
Which, with bland words at will, fhe thus addrefs'd. Haft thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have miss'd, and thought it long, depriv'd
Thy presence, agony of love till now
Not felt, nor shall be twice; for never more
Mean I to try, what rafh untry'd I fought,
The pain of absence from thy fight. But strange
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