| |
THE SUN was sunk, and after him the star | |
| Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring | |
| Twilight upon the Earth, short arbiter | |
| ’Twixt day and night, and now from end to end | |
| Night’s hemisphere had veiled the horizon round: | 5 |
| When Satan, who late fled before the threats | |
| Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improved | |
| In meditated fraud and malice, bent | |
| On Man’s destruction, maugre what might hap | |
| Of heavier on himself, fearless returned. | 10 |
| By night he fled, and at midnight returned | |
| From compassing the Earth; * * * * * The orb he roamed | |
| With narrow search; and with inspection deep | |
| Considered every creature, which of all | |
| Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found | 15 |
| The serpent subtlest beast of all the field. | |
| Him, after long debate, irresolute | |
| Of thoughts revolved, his final sentence chose | |
| Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom | |
| To enter, and his dark suggestions hide | 20 |
| From sharpest sight: for, in the wily snake | |
| Whatever sleights, none would suspicious mark, | |
| As from his wit and native subtlety | |
| Proceeding; which, in other beasts observed, | |
| Doubt might beget of diabolic power | 25 |
| Active within, beyond the sense of brute. * * * * * | |
| For now, and since first break of dawn, the fiend, | |
| Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come; | |
| And on his quest, where likeliest he might find | |
| The only two of mankind, but in them | 30 |
| The whole included race, his purposed prey. | |
| In bower and field he sought where any tuft | |
| Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, | |
| Their tendance, or plantation for delight; | |
| By fountain or by shady rivulet | 35 |
| He sought them both, but wished his hap might find | |
| Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope | |
| Of what so seldom chanced; when to his wish, | |
| Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies, | |
| Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, | 40 |
| Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round | |
| About her glowed. * * * * * | |
| “She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods. | |
| Not terrible, though terror be in love | |
| And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, | 45 |
| Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned; | |
| The way which to her ruin now I tend.” | |
| So spake the enemy of mankind, inclosed | |
| In serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve | |
| Addressed his way: not with indented wave, | 50 |
| Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear, | |
| Circular base of rising folds, that towered | |
| Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head | |
| Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; | |
| With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect | 55 |
| Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass | |
| Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape | |
| And lovely; never since of serpent-kind | |
| Lovelier. * * * * * | |
| So varied he, and of his tortuous train | 60 |
| Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, | |
| To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound | |
| Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used | |
| To such disport before her through the field, | |
| From every beast; more duteous at her call, | 65 |
| Than at Circean call the herd disguised. | |
| He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood, | |
| But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed | |
| His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, | |
| Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod. | 70 |
| His gentle dumb expression turned at length | |
| The eye of Eve, to mark his play; he, glad | |
| Of her attention gained, with serpent-tongue | |
| Organic, or impulse of vocal air, | |
| His fraudulent temptation thus began. | 75 |
| “Wonder not, sovran mistress, if perhaps | |
| Thou canst who art sole wonder! much less arm | |
| Thy looks, the Heaven of mildness, with disdain, | |
| Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze | |
| Insatiate; I thus single; nor have feared | 80 |
| Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired. | |
| Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair, | |
| Thee all things living gaze on all things thine | |
| By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore | |
| With ravishment beheld! there best beheld, | 85 |
| Where universally admired; but here | |
| In this inclosure wild, these beasts among, | |
| Beholders rude, and shallow to discern | |
| Half what in thee is fair, one man except, | |
| Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who should be seen | 90 |
| A goddess among gods, adored and served | |
| By angels numberless, thy daily train.” | |
| So glozed the tempter, and his proem tuned: | |
| Into the heart of Eve his words made way. * * * * *
[After some discourse, the Tempter praises the Tree of Knowledge.] So standing, moving, or to height up grown, | |
| The tempter, all impassioned, thus began. | 95 |
| “O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant, | |
| Mother of science! now I feel thy power | |
| Within me clear; not only to discern | |
| Things in their causes, but to trace the ways | |
| Of highest agents, deemed however wise. | 100 |
| Queen of this universe! do not believe | |
| Those rigid threats of death: ye shall not die: | |
| How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life | |
| To knowledge; by the threatener? look on me, | |
| Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live, | 105 |
| And life more perfect have attained than Fate | |
| Meant me, by venturing higher than 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 | 110 |
| Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain | |
| Of death denounced, whatever thing death be, | |
| Deterred not from achieving what might lead | |
| To happier life, knowledge of good and evil; | |
| Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil | 115 |
| Be real, why not known, since easier shunned? | |
| God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; | |
| Not just, not God: not feared then, nor obeyed: | |
| Your fear itself of death removes the fear. | |
| Why then was this forbid? Why, but to awe; | 120 |
| Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant, | |
| His worshippers? He knows that in the day | |
| Ye eat thereof, your eyes, that seem so clear, | |
| Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then | |
| Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as gods, | 125 |
| Knowing both good and evil, as they know. | |
| That ye shall be as gods, since I as Man, | |
| Internal Man, is but proportion meet; | |
| I, of brute, human; ye, of human, gods. | |
| So ye shall die, perhaps, by putting off | 130 |
| Human, to put on gods; death to be wished, | |
| Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring. | |
| And what are gods, that man may not become | |
| As they, participating godlike food? | |
| The gods are first, and that advantage use | 135 |
| On our belief, that all from them proceeds: | |
| I question it; for this fair Earth I see, | |
| Warmed by the Sun, producing every kind; | |
| Them, nothing: if they all things, who inclosed | |
| Knowledge of good and evil in this tree, | 140 |
| That whoso eats thereof forthwith attains | |
| Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies | |
| The 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? | 145 |
| Or is it envy? and can envy dwell | |
| In heavenly breasts?—These, these, and many more | |
| Causes import your need of this fair fruit. | |
| Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste.” | |
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