Paradise Lost

by John Milton

  “Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither,

  Fruitless648 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,

  Fluctuates668 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 mute672, to some great cause addressed,

  Stood in himself collected, while each part,

  Motion674, each act won audience ere the tongue,

  Sometimes in highth began, as no delay

  Of preface brooking through his zeal of right.

  So standing, moving, or to highth upgrown

  The Tempter all impassioned thus began.

  “O sacred, wise,679 and wisdom-giving plant,

  Mother of science680, 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 threat’ner? Look on me,

  Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,

  life more perfect have attained than fate

  Meant me, by vent’ring 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 evil698, 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 perfectly be then

  Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as gods,

  Knowing both good and evil as they know.

  That ye710 should 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, participating717 godlike food?

  The gods are first, and that advantage use

  On our belief, that all from them proceeds;

  I question720 it, for this fair Earth I see,

  Warmed by the sun, producing every kind,

  Them nothing: if they all things722, who enclosed

  Knowledge of good and evil in this Tree,

  That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains

  Wisdom without their leave? And wherein lies

  Th’ 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 Heav’nly breasts? These, these and many more

  Causes import your need of this fair fruit.

  Goddess humane732, reach then, and freely taste.”

  He ended, and his words replete with guile

  Into her heart too easy entrance won:

  Fixed on735 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 a while, thus to herself she mused744.

  “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 unknown756, 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 eat’n 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 befall’n him, author unsuspect771,

  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 cure776 of all, this fruit divine,

  Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,

  Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then

  To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?”

  So saying, her rash hand780 in evil hour

  Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:

  Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

  Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,

  That all was lost784. Back to the thicket slunk

  The guilty serpent, and well might, for Eve

  Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else

  Regarded, such delight till then, as seemed,

  In fruit she never tasted, whether true

  Or fancied so, through expe
ctation high

  Of knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought.

  Greedily she engorged without restraint,

  And knew not eating death792: satiate at length,

  And heightened as with wine, jocund and boon,

  Thus to herself she pleasingly began.

  “O sov’reign, virtuous, precious of all trees

  In Paradise, of operation blessed

  To sapience797, hitherto obscured, infamed,

  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 fertile burden ease

  Of thy full branches offered 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,

  Best guide; not following thee, I had remained

  In ignorance, thou open’st wisdom’s way,

  And giv’st access, though secret she retire.

  And I perhaps am secret; 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, safe with all his spies

  About him. But to Adam in what sort

  Shall I appear? Shall I to him make known

  As yet my change, and give him to partake

  Full happiness with me, or rather not,

  But keep the odds820 of knowledge in my power

  Without copartner? So to add what wants

  In female sex, the more to draw his love,

  And render me more equal823, and perhaps,

  A thing not undesirable, sometime

  Superior; for inferior who is free?825

  This may be well: but what if God have seen,

  And death ensue? Then I shall be no more827,

  And Adam wedded to another Eve,

  Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;

  A death to think. Confirmed then I resolve;

  Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:

  So dear I love him, that with him all deaths

  I could endure, without him live no life.”

  So saying, from the Tree her step she turned,

  But first low reverence835 done, as to the power

  That dwelt within, whose presence had infused

  Into the plant sciential837 sap, derived

  From nectar, drink of gods. Adam the while

  Waiting desirous her return, had wove

  Of choicest flow’rs a garland to adorn

  Her tresses, and her rural labors crown,

  As reapers oft are wont their harvest queen.

  Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new

  Solace in her return, so long delayed;

  Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill845,

  Misgave him; he the falt’ring measure846 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 fairest fruit that downy smiled851,

  New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused.

  To him she hasted, in her face Excuse853

  Came prologue, and Apology to prompt853,

  Which with bland855 words at will she thus addressed.

  “Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay?

  Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived

  Thy presence, agony of love till now

  Not felt, nor shall be twice, for never more

  Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought,

  The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange

  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

  Op’ning the way, but of divine effect

  To open eyes, and make them gods who taste;

  And hath been tasted such: the serpent wise,

  Or not restrained as we, or868 not obeying,

  Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become,

  Not dead, as we are threatened, but thenceforth

  Endued with human voice and human sense,

  Reasoning to admiration, and with me

  Persuasively hath so prevailed, that I

  Have also tasted, and have also found

  Th’ effects to correspond, opener mine eyes,

  Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart,

  And growing up to Godhead; which for thee

  Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise.

  For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss,

  Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon.

  Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot

  May join us, equal joy, as equal love;

  Lest thou not tasting, different degree

  Disjoin us, 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 distemper flushing glowed.

  On th’ other side, Adam, soon as he heard

  The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed,

  Astonied890 stood and blank, while horror chill

  Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed;

  From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve

  Down dropped, and all the faded roses893 shed:

  Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length

  First to himself he inward silence broke895.

  “O fairest of creation, last and best896

  Of all God’s works, creature in whom excelled

  Whatever can to sight or thought be formed,

  Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!

  How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,

  Defaced, deflow’red901, and now to death devote?

  Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress

  The strict forbiddance, how to violate

  The sacred fruit forbidd’n! Some cursèd fraud

  Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,

  And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee

  Certain my resolution is to die;

  How can I live without thee, how forgo

  Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined,

  To live again in these wild woods forlorn?

  Should God create another Eve911, and I

  Another rib afford, yet loss of thee

  Would never from my heart; no no, I feel

  The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,

  Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state

  Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe916.”

  So having said, as one from sad dismay

  Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbed

  Submitting to what seemed remediless,

  Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned.

  “Bold deed thou hast presumed, advent’rous Eve,

  And peril great provoked, who thus hath dared

  Had it been only coveting to eye

  That sacred924 fruit, sacred to abstinence,

  Much more to taste it under ban to touch.

  But past926 who can recall, or done undo?

  Not God omnipotent, nor Fate, yet so

  Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact928

  Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit,

  Profaned first by the serpent, by him first

  Made common and unhallowed ere our taste;

  Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives,

  Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live as man

  Highe
r degree of life, inducement strong

  To us, as likely tasting to attain

  Proportional ascent936, which cannot be

  But to be gods, or angels, demi-gods.

  Nor can I think that God, creator wise,

  Though threat’ning, 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 must fail,

  Dependent made; so God shall uncreate,

  Be frustrate, do, undo, and labor lose,

  Not well conceived of God, who though his power

  Creation could repeat, yet would be loath

  Us to abolish, lest947 the Adversary

  Triumph and say, ‘Fickle their state whom God

  Most favors; who can please him long? Me first

  He ruined, now mankind; whom will he next?’

  Matter of scorn, not to be given the foe.

  However I with thee have fixed my lot,

  Certain to undergo like doom; if death

  Consort with thee, death is to me as life954;

  So forcible within my heart I feel

  The bond of nature draw me to my own,

  My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;

  Our state cannot be severed, we are one,

  One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”

  So Adam, and thus Eve to him replied.

  “O glorious trial of exceeding love,

  Illustrious evidence, example high!

  Engaging me to emulate, but short

  Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,

  Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung,

  And gladly of our union hear thee speak,

  One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof

  This day affords, declaring thee resolved,

  Rather than death or aught than death more dread

  Shall separate us, linked in love so dear,

  To undergo with me one guilt, one crime,

  If any be, of tasting this fair fruit,

  Whose virtue, for of good still good proceeds,

  Direct, or by occasion hath presented

  This happy trial of thy love, which else

  So eminently never had been known.

  Were it I thought death menaced would ensue

  This my attempt, I would sustain alone

  The worst, and not persuade thee, rather die

  Deserted, than oblige980 thee with a fact

  Pernicious to thy peace, chiefly assured

  Remarkably so late of thy so true,

  So faithful love unequaled; but I feel

  Far otherwise th’ event, not death, but life

  Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys,

  Taste so divine, that what of sweet before

  Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.

  On my experience, Adam, freely taste988,