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 remain'd In ignorance; thou open'st wisdom's way, And givest access, though secret she retire. And I perhaps am secret, Heaven is high, High, and remote to see from thence distinct Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps 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 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! And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct; A Death to think! Confirm'd then I resolve, Adam shall share with me in bliss or wo : So dear I love him, that with him all Deaths I could endure, without him live no life."
So saying, from the tree her step she turned; But first low reverence done, as to the power That dwelt within, whose presence had infused Into the plant sciential sap, derived
From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while Waiting desirous her return, had wove Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn Her tresses, and her rural labors crown; As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen.
Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new Solace in her return, so long delay'd: Yet of this heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him; he the faultering measure felt And forth to meet her went the way she took That morn when first they parted: by the tree Of knowledge he must pass; there he her met Searce from the tree returning; in her hand A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smiled, New gather'd, and ambrosial smell diffused. To him she hasted; in her face excuse Came prologue and apology, too prompt Wich, with bland words at will, she thus address'd. "Hast thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay? Thee I have miss'd, and thought it long, deprived Thy presence; agony oflove till now
Not felt, nor shall be twice; for never more Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought, The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear: This tree is not, as we are told, a tree Of danger tasted, or to evil unknown Opening the way, but of divine effect
To open eyes, and make them Gods who taste And hath been tasted such: The serpent wise, Or not restrain'd as we, or not obeying, Hath eaten of the fruit; and is become,
Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but thenceforth Endued with human voice and human sense, Reasoning to admiration; and with me Persuasively hath so prevail'd that I Have also tasted, and have also found
The effects to correspond; opener mine eyes, Dim erst; dilated spirits, ampler heart, And growing up to Godhead; which for thee Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise. For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss
Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon. Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot May join us, equal joy, as equal love ; Lest thou not tasting, different degree Disjoin us, and I then to late renoun ce Deity for thee, when fate will not permit.
Thus Eve, with countenance blithe her story told; But in her cheek distemper flushing glow'd. On the other side Adam, soon as he heard The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed, Astonish'd stood and blank, while horror chill Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd; From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve Down dropp'd, and all the fad ed roses shed; Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length First to himself he inward silence broke :
"fairest of creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excell'd Whatever can to sight or thought be form'd, Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost, Defaced, deflower'd, and now to Death devote! Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress The strict forbiddance, how to violate The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, And me with thee hath ruin'd; for with thee Certain my resolution is to die :
How can I live without thee! how forego Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly join'd, To live again in these wild woods forlorn! Should God create another Eve, and I Another rib afford, yet loss of thee Would never from my heart: no, no! I feel The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh, Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state Mine never shall be parted, bliss or wo."
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