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"Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come "And gaze, and worship thee, of right declared "Sovran of creatures, universal dame!"

So talked the spirited sly snake; and Eve, Yet more amazed, unwary thus replied:

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Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt "The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved:

"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,
"As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched,
"Still hanging incorruptible, till men

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

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To whom the wily adder blithe and glad : Empress! the way is ready, and not long; "Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,

"Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past
"Of blowing myrrh and balm : if thou accept
"My conduct, I can bring thee hither soon.'

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"Lead then," said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled

In tangles, and made intricate seem straight,

To mischief swift.

Brightens his crest. As when a wandering fire,

Hope elevates, and joy

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

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(Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends,)
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallowed up and lost, from succour far:
So glistered 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 :

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Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither, "Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess, "The credit of whose virtue rest with thee;

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"Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects!
"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 ourselves: our reason is our law."
To whom the tempter guilefully replied:
"Indeed! hath God then said that of the fruit
"Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat,
"Yet lords declared of all in earth or air?"

To whom thus Eve, yet sinless: "Of the fruit
"Of each tree in the garden we may eat,
"But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
"The garden, God hath said, 'Ye shall not eat
Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'

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She scarce had said, though brief, when now, more bold, The tempter, but with show of zeal and love

To Man, and indignation at his wrong,
New part puts on; and, as to passion moved,
Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely, and in act
Raised, as of some great matter to begin.
As when of old some orator renowned,
In Athens, or free Rome, where eloquence

Flourished, since mute, to some great cause addressed,
Stood in himself collected, while each part,
Motion, each act, won audience ere the tongue,
Sometimes in height, began, as no delay
Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right;
So standing, moving, or to height upgrown,
The tempter, all impassioned thus began:

"O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant,
"Mother of science? now I feel thy power
"Within me clear; not only to discern

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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 you? 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 perfect have attained than fate ha

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"Meant me, by venturing 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?
"God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just:
"Not just, not God-nor 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 worshippers? He knows, that in the day
"Ye eat thereof, your eyes, that seem so clear,—
"Yet are but dim,—shall perfectly be then
"Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods,
"Knowing both good and evil, as they know.
"That ye shall be as Gods, since I as Man,
"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,

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'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,
"Warmed by the sun, producing every kind;
"Them, nothing: if they all things, who inclosed
"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 knoweldge hurt him, or this tree

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"In heavenly breasts? These, these, and many more
"Causes, import your need of this fair fruit.
"Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste."

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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, impregned
With reason, to her seeming, and with truth:
Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked
An eager appetite, raised by the smell

So savoury of that fruit which, with desire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,
Solicited her longing eye; yet first

Pausing awhile 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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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

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'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?
"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

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"Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy
"The good befallen him-author unsuspect-
"Friendly to man-far from deceit or guile.
"What fear I then? rather, what know to fear
"Under this ignorance of good or evil-
"Of God, or death-of law, or penalty?
"Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
"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,
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked—she ate!
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 wholly 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

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Of knowledge: nor was godhead from her thought.

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Greedily she engorged without restraint,

And knew not eating death! Satiate at length,

And heightened as with wine, jocund 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,

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"Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease

"Of thy full branches offered free to all;

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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 remained
"In ignorance; thou openest wisdom's way

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