BOOK NINTH
��203
��The Tempter, all impassioned, thus be- gan:
' O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant, Mother of science ! now I feel thy power Within me clear, not only to discern 681 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 Threatener ? look
on me, Me who have touched and tasted, yet both
live, And life more perfet have attained than
Fate 689
Meant me, by ventring 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 evil if what is evil Be real, why not known, since easier
shunned ? 699
God, therefore, cannot hurt ye, and be just ; Sot 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 perfetly be then Opened and cleared, 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; 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, participating godlike 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 Warmed by the Sun, producing every kind; Them nothing. If they all things, who
enclosed
Knowledge of Good and Evil in this Tree, That whoso eats thereof forthwith attains Wisdom without their leave ? and wherein
lies The 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 envy ? and can envy dwell In Heavenly breasts? 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 easy entrance won. Fixed on the Fruit she gazed, which to
behold Might tempt alone; and in her ears the
sound Yet rung of his persuasive words, im-
pregned
With reason, to her seeming, and with truth. Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and
waked
An eager appetite, raised by the smell 740 So savoury 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
mused : " 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.
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