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Grow up to their provision, and more hands
Help to disburden Nature of her birth.

To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad.
Emprefs, the way is ready, and not long,
Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
Faft by a fountain, one small thicket past
Of blowing myrrh and balm; if thou accept
My conduct, I can bring thee thither foon.

Lead then, faid Eve. He leading swiftly roll'd
In tangles, and made intricate seem strait,
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy
Brightens his crest; as when a wand'ring fire,

Compact of unctuous vapor, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,
Kindled through agitation to a flame,

Which oft, they say, fome evil Spi’rit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delufive light,

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Misleads th' amaz'd night-wand'rer from his way 640
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallow'd up and loft, from fuccour far.
So glifter'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 whofe virtue reft with thee,
Wondrous indeed, if cause of fuch effects.
But of this tree we may not taste nor touch
God fo commanded, and left that command

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Sole

Sole daughter of his voice; the reft, we live
Law to ourselves, our reason is our law.

To whom the Tempter guilefully reply'd.
Indeed? hath God then faid that of the fruit
Of all these garden trees ye fhall not eat,
Yet Lords declar'd of all in earth or air?

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Of the fruit

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To whom thus Eve yet finless.
Of each tree in the garden we may eat,
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
The garden, God hath faid, Ye fhall not eat

Thereof, nor fhall ye touch it, left ye die.

[bold

She fcarce had faid, though brief, when now more

The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love

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To Man, and indignation at his wrong,

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New part puts on, and as to paffion mov'd,
Fluctuates difturb'd, yet comely and in act
Rais'd, as of fome great matter to begin.
As when of old fome orator renown'd
In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence
Florish'd, fince mute, to fome great cause address'd
Stood in himself collected, while each part,
Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue,
Sometimes in highth began, as no delay
Of preface brooking through his zeal of right:
So ftanding, moving, or to highth up grown,
The Tempter all impaffion'd thus began.

O facred, wife, and wifdom-giving Plant,
Mother of fcience, now I feel thy power
Within me clear, not only to difcern
Things in their causes, but to trace the ways

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of

Of highest agents, deem'd however wife.
Queen of this univerfe, do not believe

Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die:
How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge; by the threatner? look on me,
Me who have touch'd and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfect have attain'd than fate
Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
Is open? or will God incenfe his ire

lot.

For fuch a petty trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounc'd, whatever thing death be,
Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how juft? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, fince easier fhunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt you, and be just;
Not juft, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd:
Your fear itfelf of death removes the fear.
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,
Why but to keep you low and ignorant,
His worshippers; he knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that feem fo clear,
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd, and ye fhall be as Gods,'
Knowing both good and evil as they know.
That ye fhall be as Gods, fince I as Man,
Internal Man, is but proportion meet;
I of brute human, ye of human Gods.

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So

So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off

Human, to put on Gods; death to be wish'd,

Though threaten'd, which no worse than 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 fun, producing every kind,
Them nothing: if they all things, who inclos'd
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whofo eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wifdom without their leave? and wherein lies

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Th' offenfe, that Man fhould 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 breafts? thefe, 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 with guile
Into her heart too eafy entrance won:
Fix'd on the fruit fhe gaz'd, which to behold
Might tempt alone, and in her ears the found
Yet rung of his perfuafive words, impregn'd
With reafon, to her feeming, and with truth;
Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and wak'd
An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell

So favory of that fruit, which with defire,

Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,

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Solicited

Solicited her longing eye; yet first

Pausing a while, thus to herself she mus'd.

Great are thy virtues, doubtlefs, best of fruits, 745 Though kept from man, and worthy to be' admir'd, Whofe 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 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 unknown, fure 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 wife?
Such prohibitions bind not. But if death
Binds us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat

Of this fait fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the Serpent? he hath eat'n and lives,

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And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, 765 Irrational till then. For us alone

Was death invented? or to us deny'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
The good befall'n him, author unfuspect,
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.

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What

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