BOOK FIFTH
��With gentle voice; I thought it thine. It said,
' Why sleep'st thou, Eve ? now is the plea- sant time,
The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
To the night - warbling bird, that now awake 40
Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song; now reigns
Full-orbed the moon, and, with more pleas- ing light,
Shadowy sets off the face of things in vain,
If none regard. Heaven wakes with all his eyes;
Whom to behold but thee, Nature's de- sire,
In whose sight all things joy, with ravish- ment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze ? '
I rose as at thy call, but found thee not:
To find thee I directed then my walk;
And on, methought, alone I passed through ways s
That brought me on a sudden to the Tree
Of interdicted Knowledge. Fair it seemed,
Much fairer to my fancy than by day;
And, as I wondering looked, beside it stood
One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven
By us oft seen: his dewy locks distilled
Ambrosia. On that Tree he also gazed ;
And, ' O fair plant,' said he, ' with fruit surcharged,
Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet,
Nor God nor Man ? Is knowledge so de- spised ? 60
Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste ?
Forbid who will, none shall from me with- hold
Longer thy offered good, why else set here ? '
This said, he paused not, but with ventrous arm
He plucked, he tasted. Me damp horror chilled
At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold;
But he thus, overjoyed: ' O fruit divine,
Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt,
Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit
For gods, yet able to make gods of men ! 70
��And why not gods of men, since good, the
more
Communicated, more abundant grows, The author not impaired, but honoured
more ?
Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve ! Partake thou also: happy though thou art, Happier thou may'st be, worthier canst not
be. Taste this, and be henceforth among the
gods
Thyself a goddess; not to Earth confined, But sometimes in the Air, as we ; sometimes Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine, and see What life the gods live there, and such live
thou.' 81
So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held, Even to my mouth of that same fruit held
part
Which he had plucked: the pleasant sa- voury smell
So quickened appetite that I, methought, Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the
clouds
With him I flew, and underneath beheld The Earth outstretched immense, a pro- spect wide And various. Wondering at my flight and
change
To this high exaltation, suddenly 9
My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk
down,
And fell asleep; but, O, how glad I waked To find this but a dream ! " Thus Eve her
night
Related, and thus Adam answered sad:
" Best image of myself, and dearer half,
The trouble of thy thoughts this night in
sleep
Affects me equally; nor can I like This uncouth dream of evil sprung, I
fear; Yet evil whence ? In thee can harbour
none,
Created pure. But know that in the soul Are many lesser faculties, that serve 101 Reason as chief. Among these Fancy next Her office holds; of all external things, Which the five watchful senses represent, She forms imaginations, aerie shapes, Which Reason, joining or disjoining, frames All what we affirm or what deny, and call Our knowledge or opinion; then retires Into her private cell when Nature rests. Oft, in her absence, mimic Fancy wakes II0
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