Eve Which when she saw, thus to her guide she declares 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! 650 But of this tree we may not taste or 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?'
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 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 highth began, as no delay
Of preface brooking through his zeal of right: So standing, moving, or to highth upgrown, 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 who have touched and tasted, yet both live, And life more perfect have attained than Fate Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot. 690 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 cannot 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 worshipers? 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,
Satan praises the virtue of the fruit
'Ye will Knowing both good and evil, as they know. be as That ye should be as Gods, since I as Man, 710 Internal Man, is but proportion meet
I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods.
shall die perhaps, by putting off Human, to put on Gods death to be wished, Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring!
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
In heavenly breasts? These, these and many
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 of that fruit, which with desire, savoury 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 ad- mired,
Whose taste, too long forborne, 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 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 760 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
She eats Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy 770 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, 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.
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?' So saying, her rash hand in evil hour 780 Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, 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 only on her taste, naught else Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed, In fruit she never tasted, whether true, 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 hightened as with wine, jocund and boon, Thus to herself she pleasingly began
'O sovran, 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, Not without song, each morning, and due praise, Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease Of thy full branches, offered free to all;
« PreviousContinue » |