Sated at length, ere long I might perceive Strange alteration in me, to degree
Of reason in my inward powers, and speech Wanted not long, though to this shape retained. Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind Considered all things visible in Heaven,
Or earth, or middle; all things fair and good. 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 vapor, 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 succor far: So glistered the dire snake, and into fraud Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree Of prohibition, root of all our woe; 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 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 part puts 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 addressed,
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:
Oh, 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, 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 presently 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, 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 offense, 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 more 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 savory of that fruit, which, with desire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, Solicited her longing eye. Yet first, Pausing awhile, 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
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 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 or 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,
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