204
��PARADISE LOST
��Thy praise he also who forbids thy use 750 Conceals not from us, naming thee the Tree Of Knowledge, knowledge both of Good
and Evil;
Forbids us then to taste. But his forbid- ding Commends thee more, while it infers the
good
By thee communicated, and our want; 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 ! 759 Such prohibitions bind not. But, if Death Bind us with after-bands, what profits then Our inward freedom ? In the day we eat Of this fair Fruit, our doom is we shall die ! How dies the Serpent ? He hath eaten,
and lives, And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and
discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone Was death invented ? or to us denied This intellectual food, for beasts reserved ? For beasts it seems; yet that one beast
which first Hath tasted envies not, but brings with
joy 770
The good befallen him, author nnsuspect, Friendly to Man, far from deceit or guile. What fear I, then ? rather, what know to
fear
Under this ignorance of Good and Evil, Of God or Death, of law or penalty ? Here grows the cure of all, this Fruit di- vine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, Of virtue to make wise. What hinders,
then, To reach, and feed at once both body and
mind ? "
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour 780 Forth-reaching to the Fruit, she plucked,
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 guilty Serpent, and well might, for
Eve,
Intent now only on her taste, naught else Regarded ; such delight till then, as seemed, In fruit she never tasted, whether true,
��Or fancied so through expectation high Of knowledge; nor was Godhead from her thought. 790
Greedily she ingorged without restraint, And knew not eating death. Satiate at
length, And hightened as with wine, jocond and
boon, Thus to herself she pleasingly began :
" O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees In Paradise ! of operation blest To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed, 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, offered free to all; Till, dieted by thee, I grow mature In knowledge, as the Gods who all things
know. Though others envy what they cannot
give For, had the gift been theirs, it had not
here Thus grown ! Experience, next to thee I
owe,
Best guide: not following thee, I had re- mained
In ignorance; thou open'st Wisdom's way, And giv'st access, though secret she re- tire. 810 And I perhaps am secret: Heaven is high High, and remote to see from thence dis- tinct
Each thing on Earth; and other care per- haps
May have diverted from continual watch Our great Forbidder, safe with all his Spies About him. But to Adam in what sort Shall I appear ? Shall I to him make
known
As yet my change, and give him to partake Full happiness with me, or rather not, But keep the odds of knowledge in my power 820
Without copartner ? so to add what wants In female sex, the more to draw his love, And render me more equal, and perhaps A thing not undesirable sometime Superior; for, inferior, who is free ? This may be well; but what if God have
seen,
And death ensue ? Then I shall be no more;
�� �
