In heav'nly 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 eafie entrance won:
Fixt on the Fruit the gaz'd, which to behold
Might tempt alone, and in her ears the found
Yer rung of his perfuafive words, impregn'd
With Reason, to her seeming, and with Truth.
Mean while the hour of Noon drew on, and wak'd
An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell
So favoury of that Fruit, which with defire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or tafte,
Sollicited her longing Eye; yet first
Paufing a while, thus to her self she mus’d.
Great are thy Virtues, doubtlefs, beft of Fruits,
Though kept from Man, and worthy to be admir'd,
Whose tafte: too long forborn, at first assay
Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The Tongue not made for Speech to speak thy praife: Thy praife he alfo who forbids thy use,
Conceals not from us, naming thee the Tree
Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;
Forbids us then to tafte, 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
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this fair Fruit, our doom is, we fhall die.
How dies the Serpent? he hath eat❜n and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reafons, and difcerns, 765
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? or to us deny'd
This intellectual food, for beafts referv'd?
For Beafts it seems: yet that one Beaft which firft
Hath tafted, envies not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, Author unfufpect,
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 Tafte,
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, she 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 naught elfe
Regarded, fuch delight till then, as seem❜d,
In Fruit fhe never tafted, whether true
Or fancy'd fo, through expectation high
Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought.
Greedily fhe ingorg'd without restraint,
And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,
And heighten'd as with Wine, jocund and boon,
Thus to her felf fhe pleasingly began.
O Sov'reign, virtuous, precious of all Trees
In Paradise, of operation bleft
To Sapience, hitherto obscur'd, infam'd,
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 fertil burden cafe
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'ft Wisdom's way,
And giv'ft access, though secret she retire.
And I perhaps am fecret: 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, fafe 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? fa to add what wants.
In Female Sex, the more to draw his Love,
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
A thing not undefirable, sometime
Superior; for inferior who is free?
This may be well: but what if God have seen,
And Death enfue? then I fhall be no more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extin&t;
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
I could endure, without him live no life.
So faying from the Tree her step she turn'd,
But first low rev'rence done, as to the power
That dwelt within, whofe prefence had infus'd
Into the plant fciential fap, deriv'd
From Nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while
Waiting defirous her return, had wove
Of choiceft Flours a Garland to adorn
Her Treffes, and her rural labours crown,
As Reapers oft are wont their Harvest Queen.
Great joy he promis'd to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long delay'd;
Yet oft his heart, diyine of fomething ill,
Mifgave him; he the faultring measure felt s
And forth to meet her went, the way she took
That Morn when firft 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 fhe hafted, in her face excufe
Came Prologue, and Apology to prompt,
Which with bland words at will fhe thus addreft.
Haft thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have mifs'd, and thought it long, depriv'd
Thy presence, agony of love till now
Not felt, nor fhall be twice, for never more
Mean Ito try, what rash untry'd I fought,
The pain of absence 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 tafted, nor to evil unknown
Op'ning the way; but of divine effect
To open Eyes, and make them Gods who taste ;
And hath been tafted fuch; the Serpent wife,
Or not reftrain'd as we, or not obeying,
Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become
Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but thenceforth
Endu'd with human voice and human sense,
Reasoning to admiration, and with me
Perfuafively hath so prevail'd, that I
Have alfo 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 tafte, that equal Lot
May joyn us, equal Joy, as equal Love;
Left thou not tafting, different degree'
Disjoynus, and I then too late renounce
Deity for thee, when Fate will not permit.
Thus Eve with Count'nance blithe her story told ;'
But in her Cheek diftemper flufhing glow'd.
On th' other fide, Adam, foon as he heard
The fatal Trespass 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 Éve
Down drop'd, and all the faded Roses shed:
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
Firft to himself he inward filence broke.
O faireft of Creation, laft and beft
Of all God's works, Creature in whom excell'a
Whatever can to fight or thought be form'd,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or fweet!
How art thou loft, how on a fudden loft,
Defac'd, deflour'd, and now to Death devote?
Rather how haft thou yielded to tranfgrefs
The ftrict forbiddance, how to violate
The facred Fruit forbidd'n! fome curfed fraud
Of Enemy hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown,
And me with thee hath ruin'd, for with thee
Certain my refolution is to Die ;
How can I live without thee, how forego
Thy sweet Converse and Love, so dearly join'd,
To live again in these wild Woods forlorn?
Should God create another Eve, and I
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