IX.567 - IX.833

Many thanks to The Milton Reading Room edited by Thomas H. Luxon and copyrighted by the Trustees of Dartmouth College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.dartmouth.edu.

Luxon, Thomas H., ed. The Milton Reading Room, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton, March, 2015.

To whom the guileful Tempter thus reply'd.

Empress of this fair World, resplendent Eve,

Easie to mee it is to tell thee all

What thou commandst and right thou shouldst be obeyd: [ 570 ]

I was at first as other Beasts that graze

The trodden Herb, of abject thoughts and low,

As was my food, nor aught but food discern'd

Or Sex, and apprehended nothing high:

Till on a day roaving the field, I chanc'd [ 575 ]

A goodly Tree farr distant to behold

Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixt,

Ruddie and Gold: I nearer drew to gaze;

When from the boughes a savorie odour blow'n,

Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense, [ 580 ]

Then smell of sweetest Fenel or the Teats

Of Ewe or Goat dropping with Milk at Eevn,

Unsuckt of Lamb or Kid, that tend thir play.

To satisfie the sharp desire I had

Of tasting those fair Apples, I resolv'd [ 585 ]
Not to deferr; hunger and thirst at once,
Powerful perswaders, quick'nd at the scent

Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keene.

About the mossie Trunk I wound me soon,

For high from ground the branches would require [ 590 ]
Thy utmost reach or Adams: Round the Tree
All other Beasts that saw, with like desire
Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.

Amid the Tree now got, where plenty hung

Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill [ 595 ]

I spar'd not, for such pleasure till that hour

At Feed or Fountain never had I found.

Sated at length, ere long I might perceave

Strange alteration in me, to degree

Of Reason in my inward Powers, and Speech [ 600 ]

Wanted not long, though to this shape retain'd.

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; [ 605 ]

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 [ 610 ]

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 [ 615 ]

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, [ 620 ]

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. [ 625 ]

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. [ 630 ]

Lead then, said Eve. Hee leading swiftly rowld

In tangles, and made 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 [ 635 ]

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 [ 640 ]

To Boggs and Mires, and 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; [ 645 ]

Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.

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

Fruitless to mee, though Fruit be here to excess,

The credit of whose vertue rest with thee,

Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects. [ 650 ]

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. [ 655 ]
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, [ 660 ]

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 [ 665 ]

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 [ 670 ]

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 [ 675 ]

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 [ 680 ]

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: [ 685 ]

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. [ 690 ]

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 vertue, whom the pain

Of Death denounc't, whatever thing Death be, [ 695 ]

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; [ 700 ]

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

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 [ 705 ]

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, [ 710 ]

Internal Man, is but proportion meet,

I of brute human, yee of human Gods.

So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off

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

Though threat'nd, which no worse then this can bring. [ 715 ]

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, [ 720 ]

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 [ 725 ]

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 [ 730 ]

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 easie entrance won:

Fixt on the Fruit she gaz'd, which to behold [ 735 ]

Might tempt alone, and in her ears the sound

Yet rung of his perswasive 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 [ 740 ]

So savorie of that Fruit, which with desire,

Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,

Sollicited her longing eye; yet first

Pausing a while, thus to her self she mus'd.

Great are thy Vertues, doubtless, best of Fruits. [ 745 ]
Though kept from Man, and worthy to be admir'd,
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay
Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The Tongue not made for Speech to speak thy praise:

Thy praise hee also who forbids thy use, [ 750 ]

Conceales 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 inferrs the good

By thee communicated, and our want: [ 755 ]

For good unknown, 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 binde not. But if Death [ 760 ]

Bind us with after-bands, what profits then

Our inward freedom? In the day we eate

Of this fair Fruit, our doom is, we shall die.

How dies the Serpent? hee hath eat'n and lives,

And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, [ 765 ]

Irrational till then. For us alone

Was death invented? or to us deni'd

This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?

For Beasts it seems: yet that one Beast which first

Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy [ 770 ]

The good befall'n him, Author unsuspect,

Friendly to man, farr from deceit or guile.

What fear I then, rather what know to feare

Under this ignorance of good and Evil,

Of God or Death, of Law or Penaltie? [ 775 ]

Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine,
Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,
Of vertue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both Bodie and Mind?

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour [ 780 ]

Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,

That all was lost. Back to the Thicket slunk

The guiltie Serpent, and well might, for Eve [ 785 ]

Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else

Regarded, such delight till then, as seemd,

In Fruit she never tasted, whether true

Or fansied so, through expectation high

Of knowledg, nor was God-head from her thought. [ 790 ]

Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint,

And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,

And hight'nd as with Wine, jocond and boon,

Thus to her self she pleasingly began.

O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees [ 795 ]

In Paradise, of operation blest

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 [ 800 ]

Shall tend thee, and the fertil burden ease

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 envie what they cannot give; [ 805 ]
For had the gift bin theirs, it had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe,
Best guide; not following thee, I had remaind
In ignorance, thou op'nst Wisdoms way,

And giv'st access, though secret she retire. [ 810 ]

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 [ 815 ]

About him. But to Adam in what sort

Shall I appeer? shall I to him make known

As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with mee, or rather not,
But keep the odds of Knowledge in my power [ 820 ]
Without Copartner? so to add what wants

In Femal Sex, the more to draw his Love,

And render me more equal, and perhaps,

A thing not undesireable, somtime

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 more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;
A death to think. Confirm'd then I resolve, [ 830 ]
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.

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