Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/246

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��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;

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