But all that fair and good in thy divine Semblance, and in thy beauty's heavenly ray, United I beheld; no fair to thine Equivalent or second, which compelled Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come And gaze, and worship thee, of right declared Sovereign of creatures, universal dame!"
So talked the spirited, sly snake; and Eve, Yet more amazed, unwary thus replied.
Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved: But say, 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 such abundance lies our choice, As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched, 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 past Of blowing myrrh and balm: if thou accept My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon." "Lead then," said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled
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, 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; There swallowed up and lost, from succour far. So glistered 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 rests 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?"
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 parts put on; and, as to passion moved, Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely and in act Raised, as of some great matter to begin. As when of old some orator renowned, In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence Flourished, since mute, to some great cause ad- dressed,
Stood in himself collected; while each part, Motion, each act, won audience ere the tongue; Sometimes in height began, as no delay
Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right: So standing, moving, or to height up grown, The tempter, all impassioned, 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, deemed however wise. Queen of this universe! do not believe Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die: How should ye? by the fruit? it gives you life To knowledge: by the threatener? look on me, Me who have touched 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, Deterred 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 shunned? God therefore can not hurt ye, and be just; Not just, not God; not feared 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 seem so clear, Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then Opened and cleared, 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 wished,
To whom thus Eve, yet sinless. "Of the fruit Though threatened, which no worse than this can
Of each tree in the garden we may eat;
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
And what are gods, that man may not become
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, Warmed 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
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 plucked, she eat! Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo, The guilty serpent; and well might; for Eve, Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed,
In heavenly breasts? These, these and many more In fruit she never tasted, whether true 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: Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned 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, with which desire, Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, Solicited her longing eye; yet first Pausing a while, 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
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 heightened as with wine, jocund and boon, Thus to herself she pleasingly began.
"O sovereign, virtuous, precious of all trees To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed, In Paradise! of operation blest 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 Till, dieted by thee, I grow mature Of thy full branches offered free to all;
In knowledge, as the gods, who all things know; Though others envy what they can not give: For, had the gift been theirs, it had not here
The tongue not made for speech, to speak thy Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe,
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 Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die. How dies the serpent? he hath eaten and 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 brings 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,
Best guide; not following thee, I had remained In ignorance; thou openest wisdom's way, And I perhaps am secret: Heaven is high, And giv'st access, though secret she retire. 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 make him 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, A thing not undesirable, sometime And render me more equal; and perhaps, Superior; for, inferior, who is free? This may be well: but what if God have seen, And Adam, wedded to another Eve, And death ensue? then I shall be no more! Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct; A death to think! Confirmed 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 steps she turned; | Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed;
But first low reverence done, as to the power That dwelt within, whose presence had infused
From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed: Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length First to himself he inward silence broke.
Into the plant sciential sap, 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 labours crown; As reapers oft are wont their harvest queen. Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new Solace in her return, so long delayed: Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, Misgave him; he the faltering 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 smiled, New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused. To him she hasted, in her face excuse Came prologue, and apology too prompt; Which, with bland words at will, she thus ad- Another rib afford, yet loss of thee dressed.
"O fairest of creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost, Defaced, deflowered, 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 ruined; for with thee Certain my resolution is to die:
"Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay? Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived Thy presence; agony of love 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, nor to evi! 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 restrained as we, or not obeying, Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become, Not dead, as we are threatened, but thenceforth Endued with human voice and human sense, Reasoning to admiration; and with me Persuasively hath so prevailed, 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 too late renounce Deity for thee, when fate will not permit."
How can I live without thee! how forego The sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, To live again in these wild woods forlorn! Should God create another Eve, and I
Would never from 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."
So having said, as one from sad dismay Recomforted, and, after thoughts disturbed, Submitting to what seemed remediless, Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned. "Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve,
And peril great provoked, who thus hast dared, Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence, Much more to taste it under ban to touch. But past who can recall, or done undo? Not God omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, Profaned first by the serpent, by him first Made common and unhallowed, ere our taste; Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives; Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as man, Higher degree of life, inducement strong To us, as likely tasting to attain Proportional ascent, which can not be But to be gods, or angels, demi-gods. Nor can I think that God Creator wise, Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy Us his prime creatures, dignified so high, Set over all his works, which in our fall,
For us created, needs with us must fail,
Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story Dependent made; so God shall uncreate,
But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed. On the other side, Adam, soon as he heard The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed, Astonished stood and blank, while horror chill
Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour lose; Not well conceived of God, who, though his power Creation could repeat, yet would be loath
Us to abolish, lest the adversary
Triumph, and say; 'Fickle their state whom God
Most favours; who can please him long? Me first He ruined, now mankind; whom will he next?" Matter of scorn, not to be given the foe. However I with thee have fixed my lot, Certain to undergo like doom: if death Consort with thee, death is to me as life; So forcible within my heart I feel
The bond of nature draw me to my own; My own in thee, for what thou art is mine; Our state can not be severed; we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself." So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied. "O glorious trial of exceeding love, Illustrious evidence, example high! Engaging me to emulate; but, short Of thy perfection, how shall I attain, Adam? from whose dear side I boast me sprung, And gladly of our union hear thee speak, One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof This day affords, declaring thee resolved,
Her former trespass feared, the more to sooth Him with her loved society; that now, As with new wine intoxicated both, They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel Divinity within them breeding wings, Wherewith to scorn the earth: but that false fruit Far other operation first displayed, Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn: Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move. Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, And elegant, of sapience no small part; Since to each meaning savour we apply, And palate called judicious; I the praise Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purveyed. Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained From this delightful fruit, nor known till now Truc relish, tasting; if such pleasure be In things to us forbidden, it might be wished,
Rather than death, or aught than death more For this one tree had been forbidden ten.
Shall separate us, linked in love so dear, To undergo with me one guilt, one crime, If any be, of tasting this fair fruit, Whose virtue (for of good still good proceeds, Direct, or by occasion) hath presented This happy trial of thy love, which else So eminently never had been known. Were it I thought death menaced would ensue This my attempt, I would sustain alone The worst, and not persuade thee, rather die Deserted, than oblige thee with a fact Pernicious to thy peace; chiefly assured Remarkably so late of thy so true, So faithful love unequalled; but I feel Far otherwise the event; not death, but life Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys, Taste so divine, that what of sweet before Had touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh. On my experience, Adam, freely taste, And fear of death deliver to the winds." So saying, she embraced him, and for joy Tenderly wept; much won that he his love Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur Divine displeasure for her sake, or death In recompense (for such compliance bad Such recompense best merits) from the bough She gave him of that fair enticing fruit With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat, Against his better knowledge; not deceived, But fondly overcome with female charm. Earth trembled from her entrails, as again In pangs; and Nature gave a second groan; Sky lowered; and, muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal sin Original: while Adam took no thought, Eating his fill; nor Eve to iterate
But come, so well refreshed, now let us play, As meet is, after such delicious fare, For never did thy beauty, since the day I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorned With all perfections, so inflame my sense With ardour to enjoy thee, fairer now Than ever; bounty of this virtuous tree!"
So said he, and forbore not glance or toy Of amorous intent, well understood Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire, Her hand he seized, and to a shady bank, Thick overhead with verdant roof embowered, He led her, nothing loath; flowers were the couch, Pansies, and violets, and asphodel, And hyacinth, earth's freshest softest lap. There they their fill of love and love's disport Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal, The solace of their sin; till dewy sleep Oppressed them, wearied with their amorous play, Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, That with exhilarating vapour bland About their spirits had played, and inmost powers Made err, was now exhaled; and grosser sleep, Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams Encumbered, now had left them; up they rose As from unrest; and, each the other viewing, Soon found their eyes how opened, and their minds How darkened; innocence, that as a veil Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone; Just confidence and native righteousness, And honour, from about them, naked left To guilty shame; he covered, but his robe Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong, Herculean Samson, from the harlot-lap Of Philistean Dalilah, and waked Shorn of his strength, they destitute and bare Of all their virtue: silent and in face Confounded, long they sat, as stricken mute,
Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed, At length gave utterance to these words constrained. "O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear To that false worm, of whomsoever taught To counterfeit man's voice; true in our fall, False in our promised rising; since our eyes Opened we find indeed, and find we know Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got; Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know, Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store; Even shame, the last of evils; of the first Be sure then. How shall I behold the face Henceforth of God or angel, erst with joy And rapture so oft beheld? those heavenly shapes Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze Insufferably bright. O might I here In solitude live savage; in some glade Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad And brown as evening: cover me, ye pines! Ye cedars with innumerable boughs Hide me, where I may never see them more! But let us now, as in bad plight, devise What best may for the present serve to hide The parts of each from other, that seem most To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen: Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sew'd,
And girded on our loins, may cover round Those middle parts; that this new comer, shame, There sit not, and reproach us as unclean."
So counselled he, and both together went Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renowned, But such as at this day to Indians known, In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms
They sat them down to weep; nor only tears Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate, Mistrust, suspicion, discord, and shook sore Their inward state of mind, calm region once And full of peace, now tost and turbulent: For understanding ruled not, and the will Heard not her lore; both in subjection now To sensual appetite, who from beneath, Usurping over sovereign reason, claimed Superior sway: from thus distempered breast Adam, estranged in look and altered style, Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed. "Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,
I know not whence possessed thee; we had then Remained still happy; not as now despoiled Of all our good; shamed, naked, miserable! Let none henceforth seek needless cause t' approve The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail."
To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve.
"What words have passed thy lips, Adam, severe! Imputest thou that to my default, or will
Of wandering, as thou call'st it, which who knows But might as ill have happened thou being by, Or to thyself perhaps? hadst thou been there, Or here th' attempt, thou couldst not have dis- cerned
Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake, No ground of enmity between us known, Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm. Was I to have never parted from thy side? As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head, Command me absolutely not to go, Going into such danger as thou saidst?
Branching so broad and long, that in the groundToo facile then thou didst not much gainsay,
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree, a pillared shade High over-arched, and echoing walks between: There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds At loop-holes cut through thickest shade: Those leaves
They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe, And, with what skill they had, together sewed, To gird their waist; vain covering, if to hide Their guilt and dreaded shame! O how unlike To that first naked glory! Such of late Columbus found th' American, so girt With feathered cincture, naked else, and wild Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me.”
To whom then first incensed Adam replied. "Is this the love, is this the recompense Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, expressed Immutable, when thou wert lost, not I; Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss, Yet willingly chose rather death with thee? And am I now upbraided as the cause Of thy transgressing? not enough severe, It seems, in thy restraint: what could I more? I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking enemy That lay in wait; beyond this had been force,
Thus fenced, and as they thought, their shame in And force upon free will hath here no place part
Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind,
But confidence then bore thee on; secure, Either to meet no danger, or to find
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