The Complete Poetry of John Milton (108 page)

   575     
Till on a day roaving the field, I chanc’d

               
A goodly Tree farr distant to behold

               
Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixt,

               
Ruddie and Gold: I nearer drew to gaze;

               
When from the boughs a savorie odour blown,

   580     
Grateful to appetite, more pleas’d my sense

               
Then smell of sweetest Fenel, or the Teats

               
Of Ewe or Goat dropping with Milk at Eevn,

               
Unsuckt of Lamb or Kid, that tend thir play.

               
To satisfie the sharp desire I had

   585     
Of tasting those fair Apples, I resolv’d

               
Not to deferr; hunger and thirst at once,

               
Powerful perswaders, quick’n’d at the scent

               
Of that alluring fruit, urg’d me so keen.

               
About the mossie Trunk I wound me soon,

   590     
For high from ground the branches would require

               
Thy utmost reach or
Adams:
Round the Tree

               
All other Beasts that saw, with like desire

               
Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.

               
Amid the Tree now got, where plenty hung

   595     
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill

               
I spar’d not, for such pleasure till that hour

               
At Feed or Fountain never had I found.

               
Sated at length, ere long I might perceave

               
Strange alteration in me, to degree

   600     
Of Reason in my inward Powers, and Speech

               
Wanted not long, though to this shape retain’d.

               
Thenceforth to Speculations high or deep

               
I turnd my thoughts, and with capacious mind

               
Considerd all things visible in Heav’n,

   605     
Or Earth, or Middle,
⁴⁸
all things fair and good;

               
But all that fair and good in thy Divine

               
Semblance, and in thy Beauties heav’nly Ray

               
United I beheld; no Fair to thine

               
Equivalent or second, which compel’d

   610     
Mee thus, though importune perhaps, to come

               
And gaze, and worship thee of right declar’d

               
Sovran of Creatures, universal Dame.

           
      
       So talk’d the spirited
⁴⁹
sly Snake; and
Eve

               
Yet more amaz’d unwarie thus reply’d.

    
             Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt

               
The vertue of that Fruit, in thee first prov’d:

               
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

   620     
To us, in such abundance lies our choice,

               
As leaves a greater store of Fruit untoucht,

               
Still hanging incorruptible, till men

               
Grow up to thir provision,
⁵⁰
and more hands

               
Help to disburden Nature of her Birth.

  625  
             To whom the wilie Adder, blithe and glad.

               
Empress, the way is readie, 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

   630     
My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon.

           
      
       Lead then, said
Eve.
Hee leading swiftly rowld

               
In tangles, and made intricate seem strait,

               
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy

               
Bright’ns his Crest, as when a wandring Fire,

   635     
Compact of unctuous vapor, which the Night

               
Condenses, and the cold invirons round,

               
Kindl’d through agitation to a Flame,

               
Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends,

               
Hovering and blazing with delusive Light,

   640     
Misleads th’ amaz’d Night-wanderer from his way

               
To Boggs and Mires, and oft through Pond or Pool,

               
There swallow’d up and lost, from succour farr.

               
So glister’d the dire Snake, and into fraud

               
Led
Eve
our credulous Mother, to the Tree

   645     
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;

               
Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.

           
      
       Serpent, we might have spar’d our coming hither,

               
Fruitless to mee, though Fruit be here to excess,

               
The credit
⁵¹
of whose vertue rest with thee,

   650     
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
⁵²
of his voice; the rest, we live

               
Law to our selves, our Reason is our Law.

   655  
      
       To whom the Tempter guilefully repli’d.
⁵³

               
Indeed? hath God then said that of the Fruit

               
Of all these Garden Trees ye shall not eat,

               
Yet Lords declar’d of all in Earth or Air?

           
      
       To whom thus
Eve
yet sinless. Of the Fruit

   660     
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, least ye die.

           
      
       She scarse had said, though brief, when now more bold

   665     
The Tempter, but with shew of Zeal and Love

               
To Man, and indignation at his wrong,

               
New part puts on, and as to passion mov’d,

               
Fluctuats disturb’d, yet comely, and in act

               
Rais’d, as of som great matter to begin.

   670     
As when of old som Orator renound

               
In
Athens
or free
Rome
, where Eloquence

               
Flourishd, since mute, to som great cause addrest,

               
Stood in himself collected, while each part,

               
Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue,

   675     
Somtimes in highth began, as no delay

               
Of Preface brooking through his Zeal of Right.

               
So standing, moving, or to highth upgrown

               
The Tempter all impassiond thus began.

           
      
       O Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,

   680     
Mother of Science,
⁵⁴
now I feel thy Power

               
Within me cleere, not onely to discern

               
Things in thir Causes,
⁵⁵
but to trace the wayes

               
Of highest Agents, deemd however wise.

               
Queen of this Universe, doe not believe

   685     
Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die:

               
How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives
⁵⁶
you Life

               
To Knowledge; by the Threatner? look on mee,

               
Mee who have touch’d and tasted, yet both live,

               
And life more perfet have attaind then Fate

   690     
Meant mee, by ventring higher then 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 vertue, whom the pain

   695     
Of Death denounc’t,
⁵⁷
whatever thing Death be,

               
Deterrd not from atchieving 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 shunnd?

   700     
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;

               
Not just, not God; not feard then, nor obeyd:

               
Your fear it self of Death removes the fear.

               
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,

               
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,

   705     
His worshippers; he knows that in the day

               
Ye Eat thereof, your Eyes that seem so cleer,

               
Yet are but dim, shall perfetly be then

               
Op’n’d and cleerd, and ye shall be as Gods,

               
Knowing both Good and Evil as they know.

   710     
That ye should be as Gods, since I as Man,

               
Internal Man, is but proportion meet,

               
I of brute human, yee of human Gods.

               
So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off

               
Human, to put on Gods, death to be wisht,

   715     
Though threat’n’d, which no worse then this can bring.

               
And what are Gods that Man may not become

               
As they, participating God-like food?

               
The Gods are first, and that advantage use

               
On our belief, that all from them proceeds;

   720     
I question it, for this fair Earth I see,

               
Warm’d by the Sun, producing every kind,

               
Them nothing: If they all things, who enclos’d

               
Knowledge of Good and Evil in this Tree,

               
That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains

   725     
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies

               
Th’ offence, that Man should thus attain to know?

               
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this Tree

               
Impart against his will if all be his?

               
Or is it envie, and can envie dwell

   730     
In heav’nly brests? these, these and many more

               
Causes import your need of this fair Fruit.

               
Goddess humane,
⁵⁸
reach then, and freely taste.

           
      
       He ended, and his words replete with guile

               
Into her heart too easie entrance won: