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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 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,

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, 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 wife?
Such prohibitions bind not. But if death
Binds 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,

750.

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And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and difcerns, 765 Irrational till then. For us alone

Was death invented? or to us deny'd

This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?

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.

770

What

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,

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
Forth reaching to the fruit, fhe pluck'd, the eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her feat
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
Intent now wholly on her taste, nought elfe
Regarded, fuch delight till then, as feem'd,
In fruit fhe never tasted, whether true
Or fancy'd fo, through expectation high

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Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought.
Greedily the ingorg'd without restraint,

And knew not eating death: Satiate at length,
And highten'd as with wine, jocond and boon,
Thus to herself the pleasingly began.

O fovran, virtuous, precious of all trees
In Paradife, of operation bleft

To fapience, hitherto obfcur'd, infam'd,
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,

795

Not without fong, each morning, and due praife, 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 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 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
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 hath feen,
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

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I could

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 sap, deriv'd

From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while,
Waiting defirous her return, had wove
Of choicest flow'rs a garland to adorn
Her treffes, and her rural labors crown,

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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;

845

Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Mifgave 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 faireft fruit, that downy fmil'd,
New gather'd, and ambrofial smell diffus'd.
To him the hafted; in her face excufe
Came prologue, and apology too prompt,

850

Which with bland words at will fhe thus addrefs'd. 855 Haft thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?

Thee I have miss'd, and thought it long, depriv'd

Thy prefence, agony of love till now

Not felt, nor fhall be twice, for never more

Mean I to try, what rash untry'd I fought,

860

The pain of abfence from thy fight. But ftrange

Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear:

This tree is not as we are told, a tree
Of danger tasted, nor to' evil unknown
Opening the way, but of divine effect

To open eyes, and make them Gods who taste;
And hath been tafted fuch; the ferpent wife,
Or not restrain'd as we, or not obeying,

Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become,

865

Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but thenceforth 870

Indued with human voice and human fenfe,

Reasoning to admiration, and with me
Persuasively hath so prevail'd, that I
Have also tafted, and have also found
Th' effects to correfpond, opener mine eyes,
Dim erft, dilated spirits, ampler heart,
And growing up to Godhead; which for thee
Chiefly I fought, without thee can despise.
For blifs, as thou haft part, to me is blifs,
Tedious, unfhar'd with thee, and odious foon.
Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot
May join us, equal joy, as equal love;
Left, thou not tafting, different degree
Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce
Deity for thee, when fate will not permit.

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Thus Eve with count'nance blithe her story told;

But in her cheek distemper flushing glow'd.
On th' other fide, Adam, foon as he heard
The fatal trefpafs done by Eve, amaz'd,
Aftonied ftood and blank, while horror chill
Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd;
From his flack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve

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