643
So glistered the dire snake, and into fraud
644
Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree
645
Of prohibition,4990 root of all our woe,
646
Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spoke:
647
“Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither,
648
Fruitless4991 to me, though fruit be here to excess,
649
The credit 4992 of whose virtue rest with thee,
650
Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects.
651
But of this tree we may not taste nor touch.
652
God so commanded, and left that command
653
Sole daughter 4993 of His voice. The rest, we live
654
Law to ourselves. Our reason is our law.
655
To whom the Tempter guilefully replied:
656
“Indeed! Hath God then said that of the fruit
657
Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat,
658
Yet lords declared of all in earth or air?
659
To whom thus Eve, yet sinless:
“Of the fruit
660
Of each tree in the garden we may eat,
661
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
662
The garden, God hath said, ‘Ye shall not eat
663
Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
664
She scarce had said, though brief, when now more bold
665
The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love
666
To man, and indignation at his wrong,
667
New part 4994 puts on and, as 4995 to passion moved,
668
Fluctuates4996 disturbed, yet comely4997 and in act 4998
669
Raised as of some great matter to begin.4999
670
As when of old some orator renowned,
671
In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence
672
Flourished, since mute! to some great cause addressed,5000
673
Stood in himself collected, while each part,
674
Motion, each act, won audience ere the tongue,
675
Sometimes in height began, as no delay
676
Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right.5001
677
So standing, moving, or to height up grown,
678
The Tempter, all impassioned, thus began:
679
“O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant,
680
Mother of science! 5002 Now I feel thy power
681
Within me clear, not only to discern
682
Things in their causes, but to trace the ways
683
Of highest agents,5003 deemed however5004 wise.
684
Queen of this universe! Do not believe
685
Those rigid threats of death. Ye shall not die.
686
How should you? By the fruit? It gives you life
687
To knowledge. By the threat’ner?5005 Look on me,
688
Me, who have touched and tasted, yet both live,
689
And life more perfect have attained than Fate
690
Meant me, by vent’ring5006 higher than my lot.
691
Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast
692
Is open? Or will God incense5007 His ire
693
For such a petty trespass? and not praise
694
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
695
Of death denounced,5008 whatever thing death be,
696
Deterred not from achieving what might lead
697
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil?
698
Of good, how just? Of evil, if what is evil
699
Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
700
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just—
701
Not just, not God. Not feared then, nor obeyed:
702
Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
703
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe?
704
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,
705
His worshippers? He knows that in the day
706
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,
707
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
708
Op’ned and cleared, and ye shall be as gods,
709
Knowing both good and evil, as they know.
710
That ye should be as gods, since I as man,
711
Internal man, is but proportion meet—5009
712
I of brute, human; ye of human, gods.
713
So ye shall die, perhaps, by putting off
714
Human, to put on gods—death to be wished,
715
Though threat’ned, which no worse than this can bring.
716
And what are gods, that man may not become
717
As they, participating 5010 godlike food?
718
The gods are first, and that advantage use5011
719
On our belief that all from them proceeds.
720
I question it, for this fair earth I see,
721
Warmed by the sun, producing every kind,
722
Them5012 nothing. If they all things, who enclosed
723
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
724
That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains
725
Wisdom without their leave? And wherein lies
726
Th’ offence, that man should thus attain to know?
727
What can your knowledge hurt Him, or this tree
728
Impart against His will, if all be His?
729
Or is it envy? and can envy dwell
730
In Heav’nly breasts? These, these, and many more
731
Causes5013 import5014 your need of this fair fruit.
732
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste!
733
He ended, and his words replete5015 with guile
734
Into her heart too easy entrance won.
735
Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold
736
Might tempt alone, 5016 and in her ears the sound
737
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned5017
738
With reason (to her seeming) and with truth.
739
Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked
740
An eager appetite, raised by the smell
741
So savory of that fruit, which with desire,
742
Inclinable5018 now grown to touch or taste,
743
Solicited 5019 her longing eye. Yet first
744
Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused:
745
“Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits,
746
&
nbsp; Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired,
747
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay5020
748
Gave elocution5021 to the mute, and taught
749
The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise.
750
Thy praise He also, who forbids thy use,
751
Conceals not from us, naming thee the Tree
752
Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil,
753
Forbids us then to taste! But His forbidding
754
Commends thee more, while it infers the good
755
By thee communicated, and our want.5022
756
For good unknown sure is not had or, had
757
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
758
In plain5023 then, what forbids He but to know,
759
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
760
Such prohibitions bind not. But if death
761
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
762
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
763
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die!
764
How dies the serpent? He hath eaten and lives,
765
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
766
Irrational5024 till then. For us alone
767
Was death invented? Or to us denied
768
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
769
For beasts it seems. Yet that one beast which first
770
Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy
771
The good befall’n him, author unsuspect,5025
772
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
773
What fear I then? Rather, what know to fear
774
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
775
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
776
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
777
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
778
Of virtue to make wise. What hinders then
779
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?”
780
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
781
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate!5026
782
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
783
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe,
784
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
785
The guilty 5027 serpent, and well might, for Eve,
786
Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else
787
Regarded.5028 Such delight till then, as seemed,
788
In fruit she never tasted, whether true
789
Or fancied so, through expectation high
790
Of knowledge, nor was godhead from her thought.
791
Greedily she ingorged without restraint,
792
And knew not eating death. Satiate at length,
793
And heightened as with wine, jocund and boon,5029
794
Thus to herself she pleasingly began:
795
“O sov’reign, virtuous, precious of all trees
796
In Paradise! Of operation5030 blest
797
To sapience,5031 hitherto obscured,5032 infamed,5033
798
And thy fair fruit let5034 hang, as to no end 5035
799
Created. But henceforth my early care,
800
Not without song, each morning, and due praise,
801
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
802
Of thy full branches offered free to all,
803
Till dieted 5036 by thee I grow mature
804
In knowledge, as the gods, who all things know,
805
Though others envy what they cannot give—
806
For had the gift been theirs, it had not here
807
Thus grown. Experience, next, to thee I owe,
808
Best guide. Not following thee, I had remained
809
In ignorance. Thou op’nest wisdom’s way,
810
And giv’st access, though secret she retire.
811
And I perhaps am secret.5037 Heav’n is high,
812
High and remote to see from thence distinct
813
Each thing on earth. And other care perhaps
814
May have diverted from continual watch
815
Our great Forbidder, safe with all His spies
816
About him. But to Adam in what sort5038
817
Shall I appear? Shall I to him make known
818
As yet my change, and give him to partake5039
819
Full happiness with me, or rather not,
820
But keep the odds of knowledge in my power
821
Without co-partner? So to add what wants5040
822
In female sex, the more to draw his love,
823
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
824
A thing not undesirable, sometime
825
Superior—for inferior, who is free?
826
This may be well. But what if God have seen,
827
And death ensue?5041 Then I shall be no more!
828
And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
829
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct:
830
A death to think! 5042 Confirmed then I resolve,
831
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe!
832
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
833
I could endure, without him live no life.”
834
So saying, from the tree her step she turned,
835
But first low reverence done, as to the power
836
That dwelt within, whose presence had infused
837
Into the plant sciential 5043 sap, derived
838
From nectar, drink of gods. Adam the while,
839
Waiting desirous her return, had wove
840
Of choicest flow’rs a garland, to adorn
841
Her tresses, and her rural labors crown,
842
As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen.
843
Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
844
Solace in her return, so long delayed,
845
Yet oft his heart, divine5044 of something ill,
846
Misgave him. He the fault’ring5045 measure5046 felt,5047
847
And forth to meet her went, the way she took
848
That morn when first they parted. By the Tree
849
Of Knowledge he must pass. There he her met,
850
Scarce from the tree returning, i
n her hand
851
A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smiled,
852
New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused.
853
To him she hasted. In her face excuse
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 48
