<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=421426" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Paradise Lost: Book 09</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">No more of talk where God or Angel guest <br>With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd, <br>To sit indulgent, and with him partake <br>Rural repast; permitting him the while <br>Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change <br>Those notes to tragick; foul distrust, and breach <br>Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt, <br>And disobedience: on the part of Heaven <br>Now alienated, distance and distaste, <br>Anger and just rebuke, and judgement given, <br>That brought into this world a world of woe, <br>Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery <br>Death's harbinger: Sad talk!yet argument <br>Not less but more heroick than the wrath <br>Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued <br>Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage <br>Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd; <br>Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long <br>Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son: <br> <br>If answerable style I can obtain <br>Of my celestial patroness, who deigns <br>Her nightly visitation unimplor'd, <br>And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires <br>Easy my unpremeditated verse: <br>Since first this subject for heroick song <br>Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late; <br>Not sedulous by nature to indite <br>Wars, hitherto the only argument <br>Heroick deem'd chief mastery to dissect <br>With long and tedious havock fabled knights <br>In battles feign'd; the better fortitude <br>Of patience and heroick martyrdom <br>Unsung; or to describe races and games, <br>Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, <br>Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, <br>Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights <br>At joust and tournament; then marshall'd feast <br>Serv'd up in hall with sewers and seneshals; <br>The skill of artifice or office mean, <br>Not that which justly gives heroick name <br>To person, or to poem. Me, of these <br>Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument <br>Remains; sufficient of itself to raise <br>That name, unless an age too late, or cold <br>Climate, or years, damp my intended wing <br>Depress'd; and much they may, if all be mine, <br>Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear. <br>The sun was sunk, and after him the star <br>Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring <br>Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter <br>&quot;twixt day and night, and now from end to end <br>Night's hemisphere had veil'd the horizon round: <br>When satan, who late fled before the threats <br>Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd <br>In meditated fraud and malice, bent <br>On Man's destruction, maugre what might hap <br>Of heavier on himself, fearless returned <br>From compassing the earth; cautious of day, <br>Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried <br>His entrance, and foreworned the Cherubim <br>That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven, <br>The space of seven continued nights he rode <br>With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line <br>He circled; four times crossed the car of night <br>From pole to pole, traversing each colure; <br>On the eighth returned; and, on the coast averse <br>From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth <br>Found unsuspected way. There was a place, <br>Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change, <br>Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise, <br>Into a gulf shot under ground, till part <br>Rose up a fountain by the tree of life: <br>In with the river sunk, and with it rose <br>Satan, involved in rising mist; then sought <br>Where to lie hid; sea he had searched, and land, <br>From Eden over Pontus and the pool <br>Maeotis, up beyond the river Ob; <br>Downward as far antarctick; and in length, <br>West from Orontes to the ocean barred <br>At Darien ; thence to the land where flows <br>Ganges and Indus: Thus the orb he roamed <br>With narrow search; and with inspection deep <br>Considered every creature, which of all <br>Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found <br>The Serpent subtlest beast of all the field. <br>Him after long debate, irresolute <br>Of thoughts revolved, his final sentence chose <br>Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom <br>To enter, and his dark suggestions hide <br>From sharpest sight: for, in the wily snake <br>Whatever sleights, none would suspicious mark, <br>As from his wit and native subtlety <br>Proceeding; which, in other beasts observed, <br>Doubt might beget of diabolick power <br>Active within, beyond the sense of brute. <br>Thus he resolved, but first from inward grief <br>His bursting passion into plaints thus poured. <br>More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built <br>With second thoughts, reforming what was old! <br>O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred <br>For what God, after better, worse would build? <br>Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens <br>That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, <br>Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, <br>In thee concentring all their precious beams <br>Of sacred influence! As God in Heaven <br>Is center, yet extends to all; so thou, <br>Centring, receivest from all those orbs: in thee, <br>Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears <br>Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth <br>Of creatures animate with gradual life <br>Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up in Man. <br>With what delight could I have walked thee round, <br>If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange <br>Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, <br>Now land, now sea and shores with forest crowned, <br>Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these <br>Find place or refuge; and the more I see <br>Pleasures about me, so much more I feel <br>Torment within me, as from the hateful siege <br>Of contraries: all good to me becomes <br>Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my state. <br>But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven <br>To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme; <br>Nor hope to be myself less miserable <br>By what I seek, but others to make such <br>As I, though thereby worse to me redound: <br>For only in destroying I find ease <br>To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroyed, <br>Or won to what may work his utter loss, <br>For whom all this was made, all this will soon <br>Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe; <br>In woe then; that destruction wide may range: <br>To me shall be the glory sole among <br>The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred <br>What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days <br>Continued making; and who knows how long <br>Before had been contriving? though perhaps <br>Not longer than since I, in one night, freed <br>From servitude inglorious well nigh half <br>The angelick name, and thinner left the throng <br>Of his adorers: He, to be avenged, <br>And to repair his numbers thus impaired, <br>Whether such virtue spent of old now failed <br>More Angels to create, if they at least <br>Are his created, or, to spite us more, <br>Determined to advance into our room <br>A creature formed of earth, and him endow, <br>Exalted from so base original, <br>With heavenly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed, <br>He effected; Man he made, and for him built <br>Magnificent this world, and earth his seat, <br>Him lord pronounced; and, O indignity! <br>Subjected to his service angel-wings, <br>And flaming ministers to watch and tend <br>Their earthly charge: Of these the vigilance <br>I dread; and, to elude, thus wrapt in mist <br>Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry <br>In every bush and brake, where hap may find <br>The serpent sleeping; in whose mazy folds <br>To hide me, and the dark intent I bring. <br>O foul descent! that I, who erst contended <br>With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained <br>Into a beast; and, mixed with bestial slime, <br>This essence to incarnate and imbrute, <br>That to the highth of Deity aspired! <br>But what will not ambition and revenge <br>Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low <br>As high he soared; obnoxious, first or last, <br>To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet, <br>Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils: <br>Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed, <br>Since higher I fall short, on him who next <br>Provokes my envy, this new favourite <br>Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite, <br>Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker raised <br>From dust: Spite then with spite is best repaid. <br>So saying, through each thicket dank or dry, <br>Like a black mist low-creeping, he held on <br>His midnight-search, where soonest he might find <br>The serpent; him fast-sleeping soon he found <br>In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled, <br>His head the midst, well stored with subtile wiles: <br>Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den, <br>Nor nocent yet; but, on the grassy herb, <br>Fearless unfeared he slept: in at his mouth <br>The Devil entered; and his brutal sense, <br>In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired <br>With act intelligential; but his sleep <br>Disturbed not, waiting close the approach of morn. <br>Now, when as sacred light began to dawn <br>In Eden on the humid flowers, that breathed <br>Their morning incense, when all things, that breathe, <br>From the Earth's great altar send up silent praise <br>To the Creator, and his nostrils fill <br>With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, <br>And joined their vocal worship to the quire <br>Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake <br>The season prime for sweetest scents and airs: <br>Then commune, how that day they best may ply <br>Their growing work: for much their work out-grew <br>The hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide, <br>And Eve first to her husband thus began. <br>Adam, well may we labour still to dress <br>This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, <br>Our pleasant task enjoined; but, till more hands <br>Aid us, the work under our labour grows, <br>Luxurious by restraint; what we by day <br>Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, <br>One night or two with wanton growth derides <br>Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise, <br>Or bear what to my mind first thoughts present: <br>Let us divide our labours; thou, where choice <br>Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind <br>The woodbine round this arbour, or direct <br>The clasping ivy where to climb; while I, <br>In yonder spring of roses intermixed <br>With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: <br>For, while so near each other thus all day <br>Our task we choose, what wonder if so near <br>Looks intervene and smiles, or object new <br>Casual discourse draw on; which intermits <br>Our day's work, brought to little, though begun <br>Early, and the hour of supper comes unearned? <br>To whom mild answer Adam thus returned. <br>Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond <br>Compare above all living creatures dear! <br>Well hast thou motioned, well thy thoughts employed, <br>How we might best fulfil the work which here <br>God hath assigned us; nor of me shalt pass <br>Unpraised: for nothing lovelier can be found <br>In woman, than to study houshold good, <br>And good works in her husband to promote. <br>Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed <br>Labour, as to debar us when we need <br>Refreshment, whether food, or talk between, <br>Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse <br>Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow, <br>To brute denied, and are of love the food; <br>Love, not the lowest end of human life. <br>For not to irksome toil, but to delight, <br>He made us, and delight to reason joined. <br>These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands <br>Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide <br>As we need walk, till younger hands ere long <br>Assist us; But, if much converse perhaps <br>Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield: <br>For solitude sometimes is best society, <br>And short retirement urges sweet return. <br>But other doubt possesses me, lest harm <br>Befall thee severed from me; for thou knowest <br>What hath been warned us, what malicious foe <br>Envying our happiness, and of his own <br>Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame <br>By sly assault; and somewhere nigh at hand <br>Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find <br>His wish and best advantage, us asunder; <br>Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each <br>To other speedy aid might lend at need: <br>Whether his first design be to withdraw <br>Our fealty from God, or to disturb <br>Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss <br>Enjoyed by us excites his envy more; <br>Or this, or worse, leave not the faithful side <br>That gave thee being, still shades thee, and protects. <br>The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, <br>Safest and seemliest by her husband stays, <br>Who guards her, or with her the worst endures. <br>To whom the virgin majesty of Eve, <br>As one who loves, and some unkindness meets, <br>With sweet austere composure thus replied. <br>Offspring of Heaven and Earth, and all Earth's Lord! <br>That such an enemy we have, who seeks <br>Our ruin, both by thee informed I learn, <br>And from the parting Angel over-heard, <br>As in a shady nook I stood behind, <br>Just then returned at shut of evening flowers. <br>But, that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt <br>To God or thee, because we have a foe <br>May tempt it, I expected not to hear. <br>His violence thou fearest not, being such <br>As we, not capable of death or pain, <br>Can either not receive, or can repel. <br>His fraud is then thy fear; which plain infers <br>Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love <br>Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced; <br>Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy breast, <br>Adam, mis-thought of her to thee so dear? <br>To whom with healing words Adam replied. <br>Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve! <br>For such thou art; from sin and blame entire: <br>Not diffident of thee do I dissuade <br>Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid <br>The attempt itself, intended by our foe. <br>For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses <br>The tempted with dishonour foul; supposed <br>Not incorruptible of faith, not proof <br>Against temptation: Thou thyself with scorn <br>And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong, <br>Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then, <br>If such affront I labour to avert <br>From thee alone, which on us both at once <br>The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare; <br>Or daring, first on me the assault shall light. <br>Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn; <br>Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce <br>Angels; nor think superfluous other's aid. <br>I, from the influence of thy looks, receive <br>Access in every virtue; in thy sight <br>More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were <br>Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on, <br>Shame to be overcome or over-reached, <br>Would utmost vigour raise, and raised unite. <br>Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel <br>When I am present, and thy trial choose <br>With me, best witness of thy virtue tried? <br>So spake domestick Adam in his care <br>And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought <br>Less attributed to her faith sincere, <br>Thus her reply with accent sweet renewed. <br>If this be our condition, thus to dwell <br>In narrow circuit straitened by a foe, <br>Subtle or violent, we not endued <br>Single with like defence, wherever met; <br>How are we happy, still in fear of harm? <br>But harm precedes not sin: only our foe, <br>Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem <br>Of our integrity: his foul esteem <br>Sticks no dishonour on our front, but turns <br>Foul on himself; then wherefore shunned or feared <br>By us? who rather double honour gain <br>From his surmise proved false; find peace within, <br>Favour from Heaven, our witness, from the event. <br>And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed <br>Alone, without exteriour help sustained? <br>Let us not then suspect our happy state <br>Left so imperfect by the Maker wise, <br>As not secure to single or combined. <br>Frail is our happiness, if this be so, <br>And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed. <br>To whom thus Adam fervently replied. <br>O Woman, best are all things as the will <br>Of God ordained them: His creating hand <br>Nothing imperfect or deficient left <br>Of all that he created, much less Man, <br>Or aught that might his happy state secure, <br>Secure from outward force; within himself <br>The danger lies, yet lies within his power: <br>Against his will he can receive no harm. <br>But God left free the will; for what obeys <br>Reason, is free; and Reason he made right, <br>But bid her well be ware, and still erect; <br>Lest, by some fair-appearing good surprised, <br>She dictate false; and mis-inform the will <br>To do what God expressly hath forbid. <br>Not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins, <br>That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me. <br>Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve; <br>Since Reason not impossibly may meet <br>Some specious object by the foe suborned, <br>And fall into deception unaware, <br>Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warned. <br>Seek not temptation then, which to avoid <br>Were better, and most likely if from me <br>Thou sever not: Trial will come unsought. <br>Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve <br>First thy obedience; the other who can know, <br>Not seeing thee attempted, who attest? <br>But, if thou think, trial unsought may find <br>Us both securer than thus warned thou seemest, <br>Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more; <br>Go in thy native innocence, rely <br>On what thou hast of virtue; summon all! <br>For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine. <br>So spake the patriarch of mankind; but Eve <br>Persisted; yet submiss, though last, replied. <br>With thy permission then, and thus forewarned <br>Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words <br>Touched only; that our trial, when least sought, <br>May find us both perhaps far less prepared, <br>The willinger I go, nor much expect <br>A foe so proud will first the weaker seek; <br>So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse. <br>Thus saying, from her husband's hand her hand <br>Soft she withdrew; and, like a Wood-Nymph light, <br>Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's train, <br>Betook her to the groves; but Delia's self <br>In gait surpassed, and Goddess-like deport, <br>Though not as she with bow and quiver armed, <br>But with such gardening tools as Art yet rude, <br>Guiltless of fire, had formed, or Angels brought. <br>To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorned, <br>Likest she seemed, Pomona when she fled <br>Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime, <br>Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove. <br>Her long with ardent look his eye pursued <br>Delighted, but desiring more her stay. <br>Oft he to her his charge of quick return <br>Repeated; she to him as oft engaged <br>To be returned by noon amid the bower, <br>And all things in best order to invite <br>Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. <br>O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve, <br>Of thy presumed return! event perverse! <br>Thou never from that hour in Paradise <br>Foundst either sweet repast, or sound repose; <br>Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers and shades, <br>Waited with hellish rancour imminent <br>To intercept thy way, or send thee back <br>Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss! <br>For now, and since first break of dawn, the Fiend, <br>Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come; <br>And on his quest, where likeliest he might find <br>The only two of mankind, but in them <br>The whole included race, his purposed prey. <br>In bower and field he sought, where any tuft <br>Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, <br>Their tendance, or plantation for delight; <br>By fountain or by shady rivulet <br>He sought them both, but wished his hap might find <br>Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope <br>Of what so seldom chanced; when to his wish, <br>Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies, <br>Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, <br>Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round <br>About her glowed, oft stooping to support <br>Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay <br>Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, <br>Hung drooping unsustained; them she upstays <br>Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while <br>Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, <br>From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh. <br>Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed <br>Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; <br>Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, <br>Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers <br>Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve: <br>Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned <br>Or of revived Adonis, or renowned <br>Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son; <br>Or that, not mystick, where the sapient king <br>Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse. <br>Much he the place admired, the person more. <br>As one who long in populous city pent, <br>Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, <br>Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe <br>Among the pleasant villages and farms <br>Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight; <br>The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine, <br>Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound; <br>If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass, <br>What pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more; <br>She most, and in her look sums all delight: <br>Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold <br>This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve <br>Thus early, thus alone: Her heavenly form <br>Angelick, but more soft, and feminine, <br>Her graceful innocence, her every air <br>Of gesture, or least action, overawed <br>His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved <br>His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought: <br>That space the Evil-one abstracted stood <br>From his own evil, and for the time remained <br>Stupidly good; of enmity disarmed, <br>Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge: <br>But the hot Hell that always in him burns, <br>Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight, <br>And tortures him now more, the more he sees <br>Of pleasure, not for him ordained: then soon <br>Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts <br>Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites. <br>Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what sweet <br>Compulsion thus transported, to forget <br>What hither brought us! hate, not love;nor hope <br>Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste <br>Of pleasure; but all pleasure to destroy, <br>Save what is in destroying; other joy <br>To me is lost. Then, let me not let pass <br>Occasion which now smiles; behold alone <br>The woman, opportune to all attempts, <br>Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh, <br>Whose higher intellectual more I shun, <br>And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb <br>Heroick built, though of terrestrial mould; <br>Foe not informidable! exempt from wound, <br>I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain <br>Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven. <br>She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods! <br>Not terrible, though terrour be in love <br>And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, <br>Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned; <br>The way which to her ruin now I tend. <br>So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed <br>In serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve <br>Addressed his way: not with indented wave, <br>Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear, <br>Circular base of rising folds, that towered <br>Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head <br>Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; <br>With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect <br>Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass <br>Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape <br>And lovely; never since of serpent-kind <br>Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed, <br>Hermione and Cadmus, or the god <br>In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed <br>Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen; <br>He with Olympias; this with her who bore <br>Scipio, the highth of Rome. With tract oblique <br>At first, as one who sought access, but feared <br>To interrupt, side-long he works his way. <br>As when a ship, by skilful steersmen wrought <br>Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind <br>Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail: <br>So varied he, and of his tortuous train <br>Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, <br>To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound <br>Of rusling leaves, but minded not, as used <br>To such disport before her through the field, <br>From every beast; more duteous at her call, <br>Than at Circean call the herd disguised. <br>He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood, <br>But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed <br>His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, <br>Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod. <br>His gentle dumb expression turned at length <br>The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad <br>Of her attention gained, with serpent-tongue <br>Organick, or impulse of vocal air, <br>His fraudulent temptation thus began. <br>Wonder not, sovran Mistress, if perhaps <br>Thou canst, who art sole wonder! much less arm <br>Thy looks, the Heaven of mildness, with disdain, <br>Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze <br>Insatiate; I thus single;nor have feared <br>Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired. <br>Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair, <br>Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine <br>By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore <br>With ravishment beheld! there best beheld, <br>Where universally admired; but here <br>In this enclosure wild, these beasts among, <br>Beholders rude, and shallow to discern <br>Half what in thee is fair, one man except, <br>Who sees thee? and what is one? who should be seen <br>A Goddess among Gods, adored and served <br>By Angels numberless, thy daily train. <br>So glozed the Tempter, and his proem tuned: <br>Into the heart of Eve his words made way, <br>Though at the voice much marvelling; at length, <br>Not unamazed, she thus in answer spake. <br>What may this mean? language of man pronounced <br>By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed? <br>The first, at least, of these I thought denied <br>To beasts; whom God, on their creation-day, <br>Created mute to all articulate sound: <br>The latter I demur; for in their looks <br>Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears. <br>Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field <br>I knew, but not with human voice endued; <br>Redouble then this miracle, and say, <br>How camest thou speakable of mute, and how <br>To me so friendly grown above the rest <br>Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight? <br>Say, for such wonder claims attention due. <br>To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied. <br>Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve! <br>Easy to me it is to tell thee all <br>What thou commandest; and right thou shouldst be obeyed: <br>I was at first as other beasts that graze <br>The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low, <br>As was my food; nor aught but food discerned <br>Or sex, and apprehended nothing high: <br>Till, on a day roving the field, I chanced <br>A goodly tree far distant to behold <br>Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixed, <br>Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze; <br>When from the boughs a savoury odour blown, <br>Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense <br>Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats <br>Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even, <br>Unsucked of lamb or kid, that tend their play. <br>To satisfy the sharp desire I had <br>Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved <br>Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once, <br>Powerful persuaders, quickened at the scent <br>Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen. <br>About the mossy trunk I wound me soon; <br>For, high from ground, the branches would require <br>Thy utmost reach or Adam's: Round the tree <br>All other beasts that saw, with like desire <br>Longing and envying stood, but could not reach. <br>Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung <br>Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill <br>I spared not; for, such pleasure till that hour, <br>At feed or fountain, never had I found. <br>Sated at length, ere long I might perceive <br>Strange alteration in me, to degree <br>Of reason in my inward powers; and speech <br>Wanted not long; though to this shape retained. <br>Thenceforth to speculations high or deep <br>I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind <br>Considered all things visible in Heaven, <br>Or Earth, or Middle; all things fair and good: <br>But all that fair and good in thy divine <br>Semblance, and in thy beauty's heavenly ray, <br>United I beheld; no fair to thine <br>Equivalent or second! which compelled <br>Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come <br>And gaze, and worship thee of right declared <br>Sovran of creatures, universal Dame! <br>So talked the spirited sly Snake; and Eve, <br>Yet more amazed, unwary thus replied. <br>Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt <br>The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved: <br>But say, where grows the tree? from hence how far? <br>For many are the trees of God that grow <br>In Paradise, and various, yet unknown <br>To us; in such abundance lies our choice, <br>As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched, <br>Still hanging incorruptible, till men <br>Grow up to their provision, and more hands <br>Help to disburden Nature of her birth. <br>To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad. <br>Empress, the way is ready, and not long; <br>Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat, <br>Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past <br>Of blowing myrrh and balm: if thou accept <br>My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon <br>Lead then, said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled <br>In tangles, and made intricate seem straight, <br>To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy <br>Brightens his crest; as when a wandering fire, <br>Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night <br>Condenses, and the cold environs round, <br>Kindled through agitation to a flame, <br>Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends, <br>Hovering and blazing with delusive light, <br>Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his way <br>To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool; <br>There swallowed up and lost, from succour far. <br>So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud <br>Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree <br>Of prohibition, root of all our woe; <br>Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake. <br>Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither, <br>Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess, <br>The credit of whose virtue rest with thee; <br>Wonderous indeed, if cause of such effects. <br>But of this tree we may not taste nor touch; <br>God so commanded, and left that command <br>Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we live <br>Law to ourselves; our reason is our law. <br>To whom the Tempter guilefully replied. <br>Indeed! hath God then said that of the fruit <br>Of all these garden-trees ye shall not eat, <br>Yet Lords declared of all in earth or air$? <br>To whom thus Eve, yet sinless. Of the fruit <br>Of each tree in the garden we may eat; <br>But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst <br>The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat <br>Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die. <br>She scarce had said, though brief, when now more bold <br>The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love <br>To Man, and indignation at his wrong, <br>New part puts on; and, as to passion moved, <br>Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely and in act <br>Raised, as of some great matter to begin. <br>As when of old some orator renowned, <br>In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence <br>Flourished, since mute! to some great cause addressed, <br>Stood in himself collected; while each part, <br>Motion, each act, won audience ere the tongue; <br>Sometimes in highth began, as no delay <br>Of preface brooking, through his zeal of right: <br>So standing, moving, or to highth up grown, <br>The Tempter, all impassioned, thus began. <br>O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant, <br>Mother of science! now I feel thy power <br>Within me clear; not only to discern <br>Things in their causes, but to trace the ways <br>Of highest agents, deemed however wise. <br>Queen of this universe! do not believe <br>Those rigid threats of death: ye shall not die: <br>How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life <br>To knowledge; by the threatener? look on me, <br>Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live, <br>And life more perfect have attained than Fate <br>Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot. <br>Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast <br>Is open? or will God incense his ire <br>For such a petty trespass? and not praise <br>Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain <br>Of death denounced, whatever thing death be, <br>Deterred not from achieving what might lead <br>To happier life, knowledge of good and evil; <br>Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil <br>Be real, why not known, since easier shunned? <br>God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; <br>Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed: <br>Your fear itself of death removes the fear. <br>Why then was this forbid? Why, but to awe; <br>Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant, <br>His worshippers? He knows that in the day <br>Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear, <br>Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then <br>Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods, <br>Knowing both good and evil, as they know. <br>That ye shall be as Gods, since I as Man, <br>Internal Man, is but proportion meet; <br>I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods. <br>So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off <br>Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished, <br>Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring. <br>And what are Gods, that Man may not become <br>As they, participating God-like food? <br>The Gods are first, and that advantage use <br>On our belief, that all from them proceeds: <br>I question it; for this fair earth I see, <br>Warmed by the sun, producing every kind; <br>Them, nothing: if they all things, who enclosed <br>Knowledge of good and evil in this tree, <br>That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains <br>Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies <br>The offence, that Man should thus attain to know? <br>What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree <br>Impart against his will, if all be his? <br>Or is it envy? and can envy dwell <br>In heavenly breasts? These, these, and many more <br>Causes import your need of this fair fruit. <br>Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste! <br>He ended; and his words, replete with guile, <br>Into her heart too easy entrance won: <br>Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold <br>Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound <br>Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned <br>With reason, to her seeming, and with truth: <br>Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and waked <br>An eager appetite, raised by the smell <br>So savoury of that fruit, which with desire, <br>Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, <br>Solicited her longing eye; yet first <br>Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused. <br>Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, <br>Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired; <br>Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay <br>Gave elocution to the mute, and taught <br>The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise: <br>Thy praise he also, who forbids thy use, <br>Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree <br>Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil; <br>Forbids us then to taste! but his forbidding <br>Commends thee more, while it infers the good <br>By thee communicated, and our want: <br>For good unknown sure is not had; or, had <br>And yet unknown, is as not had at all. <br>In plain then, what forbids he but to know, <br>Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise? <br>Such prohibitions bind not. But, if death <br>Bind us with after-bands, what profits then <br>Our inward freedom? In the day we eat <br>Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die! <br>How dies the Serpent? he hath eaten and lives, <br>And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, <br>Irrational till then. For us alone <br>Was death invented? or to us denied <br>This intellectual food, for beasts reserved? <br>For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first <br>Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy <br>The good befallen him, author unsuspect, <br>Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. <br>What fear I then? rather, what know to fear <br>Under this ignorance of good and evil, <br>Of God or death, of law or penalty? <br>Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine, <br>Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, <br>Of virtue to make wise: What hinders then <br>To reach, and feed at once both body and mind? <br>So saying, her rash hand in evil hour <br>Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat! <br>Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, <br>Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, <br>That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk <br>The guilty Serpent; and well might;for Eve, <br>Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else <br>Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed, <br>In fruit she never tasted, whether true <br>Or fancied so, through expectation high <br>Of knowledge; not was Godhead from her thought. <br>Greedily she ingorged without restraint, <br>And knew not eating death: Satiate at length, <br>And hightened as with wine, jocund and boon, <br>Thus to herself she pleasingly began. <br>O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees <br>In Paradise! of operation blest <br>To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed. <br>And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end <br>Created; but henceforth my early care, <br>Not without song, each morning, and due praise, <br>Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease <br>Of thy full branches offered free to all; <br>Till, dieted by thee, I grow mature <br>In knowledge, as the Gods, who all things know; <br>Though others envy what they cannot give: <br>For, had the gift been theirs, it had not here <br>Thus grown. Experience, next, to thee I owe, <br>Best guide; not following thee, I had remained <br>In ignorance; thou openest wisdom's way, <br>And givest access, though secret she retire. <br>And I perhaps am secret: Heaven is high, <br>High, and remote to see from thence distinct <br>Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps <br>May have diverted from continual watch <br>Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies <br>About him. But to Adam in what sort <br>Shall I appear? shall I to him make known <br>As yet my change, and give him to partake <br>Full happiness with me, or rather not, <br>But keeps the odds of knowledge in my power <br>Without copartner? so to add what wants <br>In female sex, the more to draw his love, <br>And render me more equal; and perhaps, <br>A thing not undesirable, sometime <br>Superiour; for, inferiour, who is free <br>This may be well: But what if God have seen, <br>And death ensue? then I shall be no more! <br>And Adam, wedded to another Eve, <br>Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct; <br>A death to think! Confirmed then I resolve, <br>Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe: <br>So dear I love him, that with him all deaths <br>I could endure, without him live no life. <br>So saying, from the tree her step she turned; <br>But first low reverence done, as to the Power <br>That dwelt within, whose presence had infused <br>Into the plant sciential sap, derived <br>From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while, <br>Waiting desirous her return, had wove <br>Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn <br>Her tresses, and her rural labours crown; <br>As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen. <br>Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new <br>Solace in her return, so long delayed: <br>Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, <br>Misgave him; he the faltering measure felt; <br>And forth to meet her went, the way she took <br>That morn when first they parted: by the tree <br>Of knowledge he must pass; there he her met, <br>Scarce from the tree returning; in her hand <br>A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smiled, <br>New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused. <br>To him she hasted; in her face excuse <br>Came prologue, and apology too prompt; <br>Which, with bland words at will, she thus addressed. <br>Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay? <br>Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived <br>Thy presence; agony of love till now <br>Not felt, nor shall be twice; for never more <br>Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought, <br>The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange <br>Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear: <br>This tree is not, as we are told, a tree <br>Of danger tasted, nor to evil unknown <br>Opening the way, but of divine effect <br>To open eyes, and make them Gods who taste; <br>And hath been tasted such: The serpent wise, <br>Or not restrained as we, or not obeying, <br>Hath eaten of the fruit; and is become, <br>Not dead, as we are threatened, but thenceforth <br>Endued with human voice and human sense, <br>Reasoning to admiration; and with me <br>Persuasively hath so prevailed, that I <br>Have also tasted, and have also found <br>The effects to correspond; opener mine eyes, <br>Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart, <br>And growing up to Godhead; which for thee <br>Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise. <br>For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss; <br>Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon. <br>Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot <br>May join us, equal joy, as equal love; <br>Lest, thou not tasting, different degree <br>Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce <br>Deity for thee, when Fate will not permit. <br>Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told; <br>But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed. <br>On the other side Adam, soon as he heard <br>The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed, <br>Astonied stood and blank, while horrour chill <br>Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed; <br>From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve <br>Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed: <br>Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length <br>First to himself he inward silence broke. <br>O fairest of Creation, last and best <br>Of all God's works, Creature in whom excelled <br>Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, <br>Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! <br>How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost, <br>Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote! <br>Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress <br>The strict forbiddance, how to violate <br>The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud <br>Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, <br>And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee <br>Certain my resolution is to die: <br>How can I live without thee! how forego <br>Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, <br>To live again in these wild woods forlorn! <br>Should God create another Eve, and I <br>Another rib afford, yet loss of thee <br>Would never from my heart: no, no!I feel <br>The link of Nature draw me: flesh of flesh, <br>Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state <br>Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe. <br>So having said, as one from sad dismay <br>Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbed <br>Submitting to what seemed remediless, <br>Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned. <br>Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve, <br>And peril great provoked, who thus hast dared, <br>Had it been only coveting to eye <br>That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence, <br>Much more to taste it under ban to touch. <br>But past who can recall, or done undo? <br>Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so <br>Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact <br>Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, <br>Profaned first by the serpent, by him first <br>Made common, and unhallowed, ere our taste; <br>Nor yet on him found deadly; yet he lives; <br>Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as Man, <br>Higher degree of life; inducement strong <br>To us, as likely tasting to attain <br>Proportional ascent; which cannot be <br>But to be Gods, or Angels, demi-Gods. <br>Nor can I think that God, Creator wise, <br>Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy <br>Us his prime creatures, dignified so high, <br>Set over all his works; which in our fall, <br>For us created, needs with us must fail, <br>Dependant made; so God shall uncreate, <br>Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour lose; <br>Not well conceived of God, who, though his power <br>Creation could repeat, yet would be loth <br>Us to abolish, lest the Adversary <br>Triumph, and say; &quot;Fickle their state whom God <br>&quot;Most favours; who can please him long? Me first <br>&quot;He ruined, now Mankind; whom will he next?&quot; <br>Matter of scorn, not to be given the Foe. <br>However I with thee have fixed my lot, <br>Certain to undergo like doom: If death <br>Consort with thee, death is to me as life; <br>So forcible within my heart I feel <br>The bond of Nature draw me to my own; <br>My own in thee, for what thou art is mine; <br>Our state cannot be severed; we are one, <br>One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself. <br>So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied. <br>O glorious trial of exceeding love, <br>Illustrious evidence, example high! <br>Engaging me to emulate; but, short <br>Of thy perfection, how shall I attain, <br>Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung, <br>And gladly of our union hear thee speak, <br>One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof <br>This day affords, declaring thee resolved, <br>Rather than death, or aught than death more dread, <br>Shall separate us, linked in love so dear, <br>To undergo with me one guilt, one crime, <br>If any be, of tasting this fair fruit; <br>Whose virtue for of good still good proceeds, <br>Direct, or by occasion, hath presented <br>This happy trial of thy love, which else <br>So eminently never had been known? <br>Were it I thought death menaced would ensue <br>This my attempt, I would sustain alone <br>The worst, and not persuade thee, rather die <br>Deserted, than oblige thee with a fact <br>Pernicious to thy peace; chiefly assured <br>Remarkably so late of thy so true, <br>So faithful, love unequalled: but I feel <br>Far otherwise the event; not death, but life <br>Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys, <br>Taste so divine, that what of sweet before <br>Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh. <br>On my experience, Adam, freely taste, <br>And fear of death deliver to the winds. <br>So saying, she embraced him, and for joy <br>Tenderly wept; much won, that he his love <br>Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur <br>Divine displeasure for her sake, or death. <br>In recompence for such compliance bad <br>Such recompence best merits from the bough <br>She gave him of that fair enticing fruit <br>With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat, <br>Against his better knowledge; not deceived, <br>But fondly overcome with female charm. <br>Earth trembled from her entrails, as again <br>In pangs; and Nature gave a second groan; <br>Sky loured; and, muttering thunder, some sad drops <br>Wept at completing of the mortal sin <br>Original: while Adam took no thought, <br>Eating his fill; nor Eve to iterate <br>Her former trespass feared, the more to sooth <br>Him with her loved society; that now, <br>As with new wine intoxicated both, <br>They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel <br>Divinity within them breeding wings, <br>Wherewith to scorn the earth: But that false fruit <br>Far other operation first displayed, <br>Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve <br>Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him <br>As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn: <br>Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move. <br>Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, <br>And elegant, of sapience no small part; <br>Since to each meaning savour we apply, <br>And palate call judicious; I the praise <br>Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purveyed. <br>Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained <br>From this delightful fruit, nor known till now <br>True relish, tasting; if such pleasure be <br>In things to us forbidden, it might be wished, <br>For this one tree had been forbidden ten. <br>But come, so well refreshed, now let us play, <br>As meet is, after such delicious fare; <br>For never did thy beauty, since the day <br>I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorned <br>With all perfections, so inflame my sense <br>With ardour to enjoy thee, fairer now <br>Than ever; bounty of this virtuous tree! <br>So said he, and forbore not glance or toy <br>Of amorous intent; well understood <br>Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire. <br>Her hand he seised; and to a shady bank, <br>Thick over-head with verdant roof imbowered, <br>He led her nothing loth; flowers were the couch, <br>Pansies, and violets, and asphodel, <br>And hyacinth; Earth's freshest softest lap. <br>There they their fill of love and love's disport <br>Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal, <br>The solace of their sin; till dewy sleep <br>Oppressed them, wearied with their amorous play, <br>Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, <br>That with exhilarating vapour bland <br>About their spirits had played, and inmost powers <br>Made err, was now exhaled; and grosser sleep, <br>Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams <br>Incumbered, now had left them; up they rose <br>As from unrest; and, each the other viewing, <br>Soon found their eyes how opened, and their minds <br>How darkened; innocence, that as a veil <br>Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone; <br>Just confidence, and native righteousness, <br>And honour, from about them, naked left <br>To guilty Shame; he covered, but his robe <br>Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong, <br>Herculean Samson, from the harlot-lap <br>Of Philistean Dalilah, and waked <br>Shorn of his strength. They destitute and bare <br>Of all their virtue: Silent, and in face <br>Confounded, long they sat, as strucken mute: <br>Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed, <br>At length gave utterance to these words constrained. <br>O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear <br>To that false worm, of whomsoever taught <br>To counterfeit Man's voice; true in our fall, <br>False in our promised rising; since our eyes <br>Opened we find indeed, and find we know <br>Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got; <br>Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know; <br>Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void, <br>Of innocence, of faith, of purity, <br>Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, <br>And in our faces evident the signs <br>Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store; <br>Even shame, the last of evils; of the first <br>Be sure then.--How shall I behold the face <br>Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy <br>And rapture so oft beheld? Those heavenly shapes <br>Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze <br>Insufferably bright. O! might I here <br>In solitude live savage; in some glade <br>Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable <br>To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad <br>And brown as evening: Cover me, ye Pines! <br>Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs <br>Hide me, where I may never see them more!-- <br>But let us now, as in bad plight, devise <br>What best may for the present serve to hide <br>The parts of each from other, that seem most <br>To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen; <br>Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sewed, <br>And girded on our loins, may cover round <br>Those middle parts; that this new comer, Shame, <br>There sit not, and reproach us as unclean. <br>So counselled he, and both together went <br>Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose <br>The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renowned, <br>But such as at this day, to Indians known, <br>In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms <br>Branching so broad and long, that in the ground <br>The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow <br>About the mother tree, a pillared shade <br>High over-arched, and echoing walks between: <br>There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, <br>Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds <br>At loop-holes cut through thickest shade: Those leaves <br>They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe; <br>And, with what skill they had, together sewed, <br>To gird their waist; vain covering, if to hide <br>Their guilt and dreaded shame! O, how unlike <br>To that first naked glory! Such of late <br>Columbus found the American, so girt <br>With feathered cincture; naked else, and wild <br>Among the trees on isles and woody shores. <br>Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part <br>Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind, <br>They sat them down to weep; nor only tears <br>Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within <br>Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate, <br>Mistrust, suspicion, discord; and shook sore <br>Their inward state of mind, calm region once <br>And full of peace, now tost and turbulent: <br>For Understanding ruled not, and the Will <br>Heard not her lore; both in subjection now <br>To sensual Appetite, who from beneath <br>Usurping over sovran Reason claimed <br>Superiour sway: From thus distempered breast, <br>Adam, estranged in look and altered style, <br>Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed. <br>Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and staid <br>With me, as I besought thee, when that strange <br>Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn, <br>I know not whence possessed thee; we had then <br>Remained still happy; not, as now, despoiled <br>Of all our good; shamed, naked, miserable! <br>Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve <br>The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek <br>Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail. <br>To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve. <br>What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe! <br>Imputest thou that to my default, or will <br>Of wandering, as thou callest it, which who knows <br>But might as ill have happened thou being by, <br>Or to thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there, <br>Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned <br>Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake; <br>No ground of enmity between us known, <br>Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm. <br>Was I to have never parted from thy side? <br>As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. <br>Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head, <br>Command me absolutely not to go, <br>Going into such danger, as thou saidst? <br>Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay; <br>Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. <br>Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, <br>Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me. <br>To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied. <br>Is this the love, is this the recompence <br>Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve! expressed <br>Immutable, when thou wert lost, not I; <br>Who might have lived, and joyed immortal bliss, <br>Yet willingly chose rather death with thee? <br>And am I now upbraided as the cause <br>Of thy transgressing? Not enough severe, <br>It seems, in thy restraint: What could I more <br>I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold <br>The danger, and the lurking enemy <br>That lay in wait; beyond this, had been force; <br>And force upon free will hath here no place. <br>But confidence then bore thee on; secure <br>Either to meet no danger, or to find <br>Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps <br>I also erred, in overmuch admiring <br>What seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought <br>No evil durst attempt thee; but I rue <br>The errour now, which is become my crime, <br>And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall <br>Him, who, to worth in women overtrusting, <br>Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; <br>And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue, <br>She first his weak indulgence will accuse. <br>Thus they in mutual accusation spent <br>The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning; <br>And of their vain contest appeared no end.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Milton">John Milton</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=421426" data-title="Paradise Lost: Book 09 de John Milton" data-description="No more of talk where God or Angel guest With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd, To sit indulgent, and with him partake Rural repast; permitting him the while Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change Those notes to tragick; foul dist..."></div> </div> </div>

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