Made common and unhallow'd e're our taste:
Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives,
Lives, as thou faidft. and gains to live as man
Higher degree of life: inducement strong
To us, as likely tafting to attain
Proportional afcent; which cannot be
But to be Gods, or Angels, Demi-gods.
Nor can I think that God, Creator wife!
Thoug threatning, will in earnest so destroy
Us his prime creatures; dignified so high,
Set over all his works; which in our fall,
For us created, needs with us muft fail,
Depentent made: fo God fhall uncreate,
Be fruftrate, do, undo, and labor lofe;
Not well conceiv'd of God: who tho' his pow'r
Creation could repeat, yet would be loath
Us to abolish; left the Adverfary
Triumph and fay:,, Fickle their state whom God:
Moft favors! who can please him long? Me first
He ruis'd, now mankind: whom will he next? “950
Matter of fcorn, not to be giv'n the Foe.
However I with thee have fix'd my lot,
Certain to undergo like doom: if death
Confort with thee, death is to me as life:
So forcible within my hearth I feel
The bond of nature draw me to my own,
My own in in thee for what thou art is mine:
Our state cannot be fever'd, we are one,
One flesh; tho lofe thee were to lose myself.
So Adam; and thus Eve to him reply'd.
O glorious tryal of exceeding love,
Illuftrious evidence, example high,
Ingaging me to emulate! but short
Of thy perfection, how fhall I attain,
Adam? from whose dear fide I boast me sprung?) 965
And gladly of or union hear thee speak,
One heart one foul in both! whereof good proof,
This day affords; declaring thee refolv'd,
Rather than death or ought than death more dread, t Shall feparate us, link'd in love fo dear!
To undergo with me one guilt, one crime,
`If any be, of tasting this fair fruit:
Whofe virtue, for of good ftill good proceeds,
Direct, or by occafion, hath prefented
This happy trial of thy love; which elfe
So eminently never had been known.
Were it I thought Death menanc'd would enfue
This my attempt, I would sustain alone
The worst, and not perfuade thee; rather die
Deferted, than oblige thee with a fact
Pernicious to thy peace, chiefly affur'd
Remarkably fo late of thy fo true,
So faithful love unequal'd; but I feel
Far otherwise th' event, not death, but life
Augmented; open'd eyes, new hopes, new joys, 985
Tafte fo divine! that what of fweet before
Hath touch'd my fenfe, flat feems to this, and harfa.
On my experience, Adam, freely tafte,
And fear of death deliver to the winds.
So faying, the embrac'd him, and for joy
Tenderly wept; much won, that he his love
Had fo innobled, as of choice t incur
Divine difpleasure for her fake, or death.
Ir recompenfe, for fuch compliance bad
Such recompenfe beft merits, from the bough
She gave him of that fair inticing fruit
With liberal hand: he fcrupl'd not to eat,
Against his better knowledge; not déceiv'd,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
Earth trembl'd from her entrails, as again
In pangs, and Nature gave a fecond groan.
Sky lour'd, and mutt'ring thunder, fome fad drops.
Wept, at compleating of the mortal fin
Original! while Adam took no thought,
Eating his fill; nor Eve to iterate
Her former trefpafs fear'd; the more to footh
Him, with her lov'd fociety: that now,
As with new wine intoxicated both,
They fwim in mirth, and fancy that they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings,
Wherewith to fcorn the earth. But that false fruit
Far other operation firft difplay'd,
Carnal defire inflaming: he on Eve
Began to caft lafcivious eyes; the him
As wantonly repaid; in luft they burn:
Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move.
Eve, now I fee thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of fapience no fmall part;
Since to each meaning favor we apply,
And palate call judicious: I the praise
Yield thee, fo well this day thou haft purvey'd.
Much pleasure we have loft, while we abstain'd
From this delightful fruit, nor known till now
True relish, tafting: if fuch pleasure be
In things to us forbidd'n, it might be wifh'd,
For this one tree had been forbidden ten.
But come, fo well refresh'd, now let us play,
As meet is, after fuch delicious fare:
For never did thy beauty fince the day
I saw thee first, and wedded thee, adorn'd
With all perfections, so inflame my fenfe
With ardor to enjoy thee; fairer now
Than ever, bounty of this virtuous tree!
So faid he, and forbore not glance, or toy
Of amorous intent; well unterstood
Of Eve, whofe eye darted contagious fire.
Her hand he faiz'd and to a fhady bank,
Thick over-head with verdant roof imbowr'd,
He led her nothing loath: flowr's were the couch,
Panfies, and violets, and afphodel,
And hyacinth, earth's freshest fofteft lap.
There they their fill of love, and love's difport
Took largely of their mutual guilt the feal,
The folace of their fin; till dewy fleep
Opprefs'd them, wearied with their amorous play. 1045 Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit,
That with exhilarating vapor bland
About their fpirits had play'd, and inmost pow'rs
Made err, was now exhal'd; and groffer sleep,
Bred of unkindly fumes, with confcious dreams 1050
Incumber'd, now had left them; up they rofe
As from unreft, and each the other viewing,
Soon found their eyes how open'd, and their minds
How darken'd! Innocence, that, as a veil
Had fhadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone: 1055
Juft confidence, and native righteousness
And honor from about them, naked left
To guilty fhame: he cover'd, but his robe
Uncover'd more. So rofe the Danite strong,
Herculean Sampfon, from the harlot-lap
Of Philiftéan Dalilah, and wak'd
Shorn of his ftrength. They, deftitute, and bare
Of all their virtue: filent, and in face..
Confounded, long they fat, as ftrucken mute:
Till Adam, though no lefs than Eve abafh'd,
At length gave utterance to these words constrain'd.
O Eve! in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that falfe worm, of whomfoever taught
To counterfeit man's voice; true in our fall,
Falfe in our promis'd rifing: fince our eyes
Open'd we find indeed, and find we know
Both Good and Evil; Good loft, and Evil got.
Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know,
Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void,
Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments, now foil'd and ftain'd!
And in our faces evidend the signs
Of foul concupifcence; whence evil ftore;
Ev'n fhame, the last of evils; of the first
Be fure then.- How fhall I behold the face
Henceforth of God or Angel, erft with joy
And rapture fo oft beheld? thofe heav'nly fhapes
Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze
Infufferably bright. O, might I here
In folitude live favage, in fome glade
Obfcur'd, where highest woods impenetrable
To ftar or fun-light, fpread their umbrage broad
And brown as evening! Cover me, ye Pines!
Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never fee them more! 1090
But let us now, as in bad plight, devise
What best may for the present serve to hide
The parts of each from other, that seem most
To fhame obnoxious, and unfeemlieft feen:
Some tree, whose broath smooth leaves together fow'd,
And girded on our loins, may cover round
Thofe middle parts, that this new comer, Shame,
There fit not, and reproach us as unclean.
So counsel'd he, and both together went
Into the thickest wood; there foon they chofe
The Fig tree, not that kind forruit renown'd;
But fuch as at this day, to Indians known
In Malabar, or Decan, fpreads her arms
Branching fo broad and long, that in the ground
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 1105
About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade
High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between:
There oft the Indian herdsman fhunning heat
Schelters in cool, and tends his pafturing herds
At loopholes cut thro' thickeft fhade: thofe leaves
They gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe,
And with what fkill they had, together fow'd,
To gird their waift; vain covering, if to hide
Their guilt, and dreaded fhame! O, how unlike
To that first naked glory! ́fuch of late
Columbus found th' American, fo girt
With feather'd cincture; naked elfe, and wild
Among the trees, on ifles and woody fhores.
Thus fenc'd, and, as they thought, their shame in part Cover'd, but not at reft or ease of mind.
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