LITMIR.BIZ

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to this shape retaind. Thenceforth to Speculations high or deep I turnd my thoughts, and with capacious mind Considerd all things visible in Heav’n, Or Earth, or Middle, all things fair and good; But all that fair and good in thy Divine Semblance, and in thy Beauties heav’nly Ray United I beheld; no Fair to thine Equivalent or second, which compel’d Mee thus, though importune perhaps, to come And gaze, and worship thee of right declar’d Sovran of Creatures, universal Dame.

      So talk’d the spirited sly Snake; and Eve Yet more amaz’d unwarie thus reply’d.

      Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt

       The vertue of that Fruit, in thee first prov’d:

       But say, where grows the Tree, from hence how far?

       For many are the Trees of God that grow

       In Paradise, and various, yet unknown

       To us, in such abundance lies our choice,

       As leaves a greater store of Fruit untoucht,

       Still hanging incorruptible, till men

       Grow up to thir provision, and more hands

       Help to disburden Nature of her Bearth.

      To whom the wilie Adder, blithe and glad.

       Empress, the way is readie, and not long,

       Beyond a row of Myrtles, on a Flat,

       Fast by a Fountain, one small Thicket past

       Of blowing Myrrh and Balme; if thou accept

       My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon.

      Lead then, said Eve. Hee leading swiftly rowld In tangles, and make intricate seem strait, To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy Bright’ns his Crest, as when a wandring Fire Compact of unctuous vapor, which the Night Condenses, and the cold invirons round, Kindl’d through agitation to a Flame, Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends, Hovering and blazing with delusive Light, Misleads th’ amaz’d Night-wanderer from his way To Boggs and Mires, & oft through Pond or Poole, There swallow’d up and lost, from succour farr. So glister’d the dire Snake and into fraud Led Eve our credulous Mother, to the Tree Of prohibition, root of all our woe; Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.

      Serpent, we might have spar’d our coming hither,

       Fruitless to me, though Fruit be here to excess,

       The credit of whose vertue 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 our selves, our Reason is our Law.

      To whom the Tempter guilefully repli’d.

       Indeed? hath God then said that of the Fruit

       Of all these Garden Trees ye shall not eate,

       Yet Lords declar’d of all in Earth or Aire?

      To whom thus Eve yet sinless. Of the Fruit Of each Tree in the Garden we may eate, But of the Fruit of this fair Tree amidst The Garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eate Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, least ye die.

      She scarse had said, though brief, when now more bold

       The Tempter, but with shew of Zeale and Love

       To Man, and indignation at his wrong,

       New part puts on, and as to passion mov’d,

       Fluctuats disturbd, yet comely, and in act

       Rais’d, as of som great matter to begin.

       As when of old som Orator renound

       In Athens or free Rome, where Eloquence Flourishd, since mute, to som great cause addrest, Stood in himself collected, while each part, Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue, Somtimes in highth began, as no delay Of Preface brooking through his Zeal of Right. So standing, moving, or to highth upgrown The Tempter all impassiond thus began.

      O Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,

       Mother of Science, Now I feel thy Power

       Within me cleere, not onely to discerne

       Things in thir Causes, but to trace the wayes

       Of highest Agents, deemd however wise.

       Queen of this Universe, doe 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 Threatner, look on mee,

       Mee who have touch’d and tasted, yet both live,

       And life more perfet have attaind then Fate

       Meant mee, by ventring higher then my Lot.

       Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast

       Is open? or will God incense his ire

       For such a pretty Trespass, and not praise

       Rather your dauntless vertue, whom the pain

       Of Death denounc’t, whatever thing Death be,

       Deterrd not from atchieving what might leade

       To happier life, knowledge of Good and Evil;

       Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil

       Be real, why not known, since easier shunnd?

       God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;

       Not just, not God; not feard then, nor obeid:

       Your feare it self of Death removes the feare.

       Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,

       Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,

       His worshippers; he knows that in the day

       Ye Eate thereof, your Eyes that seem so cleere,

       Yet are but dim, shall perfetly be then

       Op’nd and cleerd, and ye shall be as Gods,

       Knowing both Good and Evil as they know.

       That ye should be as Gods, since I as Man,

       Internal Man, is but proportion meet,

       I of brute human, yee of human Gods.

       So ye shalt die perhaps, by putting off

       Human, to put on Gods, death to be wisht,

       Though threat’nd, which no worse then this can bring

       And what are Gods that Man may not become

       As they, participating God-like food?

       The Gods are first, and that advantage use

       On our belief, that all from them proceeds,

       I question it, for this fair Earth I see,

       Warm’d by the Sun, producing every kind,

       Them nothing: If they all things, who enclos’d

       Knowledge of Good and Evil in this Tree,

       That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains

       Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies

       Th’ offence, 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 envie, and can envie dwell

       In heav’nly brests? 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

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