Hov'ring and blazing with delusive light,

Misleads th' amazed night-wand'rer 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!

645

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 rest 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 reply'd:
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?

650

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
The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat

660

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

[bold 666

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, 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 Flourish'd, since mute, to some great cause address'd Stood in himself collected, while each part,

643. Fraud, hurt or damage.

670

644. The tree of prohibition, an Hebraism for the prohibited

tree.

653. Another Hebraism; the expression signifies among the Jews, a voice from heaven,' or any mysterious revelation by signs or dreanis.

673. There is a similar Italian expression, in se raccolto. A new reading is proposed by Bentley, thus,

Stood in himself collected whole, while each
Motion, each air:

But the best commentators prefer the present text.

Motion, each act won audience, ere the tongue,
Sometimes in highth began, as no delay
Of preface brooking through his zeal of right:
So standing, moving, or to highth up grown,
The Tempter, all impassion'd, thus began:

675

680

685

690

O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant, Mother of science, now I feel thy pow'r Within me clear, not only to discern 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. How should ye? by the fruit? It gives you life To knowledge; by the threat'ner? Look on me, Me who have touch'd and tasted, yet both live, And life more perfect have attain'd 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, 695 Deterr'd 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 shunn'd? God therefore cannot hurt ye and be just: Not just, 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 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. So

ye shall die perhaps, by putting off Human, to put on Gods; death to be wish'd,

705. Gen. iii. 5.

714. To put on Gods; to become divine instead of human,

700

705

710

Tho' threaten'd, which no worse than this can bring.
And what are Gods, that Man may not become 71€
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 ev'ry kind;
Them nothing. If they all things, who inclosed
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whoso eats thereof, forth with attains

720

Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies 725 Th' 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

In heav'uly breasts? These, these and many more 730
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:
Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked
An eager appetite, raised by the smell
So savoury 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 mused:

735

749

Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, 745 Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired, Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay Gave elocution to the mute, and taught The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise. Thy praise he also, who forbids thy use, 750

738. This is one of the few instances of bad taste really affecting the beauty of the narrative, to be found in the poem. The whole of Satan's speech had tended to inspire spiritual pride and a bold desire of knowledge; all the following reflections of Eve are in correspondence with the address of the tempter. The idea, therefore, here introduced of her sharpened appetite, and of the savoriness of the fruit, is in bad keeping with the general tone of the passage; and I am not a little surprised that any of Milton's commentators could have attempted to find a beauty in its introduction.

755

Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree
Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil:
Forbids us then to taste; but bis 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

760

766

Was death invented? or to us deny'd

This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?

770

For beasts it seems; yet that one beast which first
Hath tasted, 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?

775

Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,

780

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 pluck'd, she eat!
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
Or fancy'd so, through expectation high

785

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

And knew not eating death. Satiate at length,
And heighten'd as with wine, jocund, and boon,
L

791

Thus to herself she pleasingly began:

O sov'reign, virtuous, precious of all trees
In Paradise, of operation blest

To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed,
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,

795

Not without song, each morning, and due praise 800
Shall tend thee, and the fertile 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,
Best guide; not following thee I had remain'd
In ignorance: thou open'st Wisdom's way,
And giv'st access, though secret she retire.
And I perhaps am secret: Heav'n 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,

805

810

815

But keep the odds of knowledge in my pow'r
Without copartner? so to add what wants

820

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?

825

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 woe:
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 turn'd:

818. To give to partake; an elegant mode of expression classic authors.

830