Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/195

 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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