Beyond all other; think the same vouchsaf'd To cattle and each beast; which would not be To them made common and divulg'd, if aught Therein enjoy'd were worthy to subdue The soul of man, or passion in him move. What higher in her society thou find'st Attractive, human, rational, love still; In loving thou dost well, in passion not, Wherein true love consists not: Love refines The thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his seat In reason, and is judicious; is the scale
By which to heavenly love thou may'st ascend, Not sunk in carnal pleasure; for which cause, Among the beasts no mate for thee was found."
To whom thus, half abash'd, Adam replied. "Neither her outside form'd so fair, nor aught In procreation common to all kinds, (Though higher of the genial bed by far, And with mysterious reverence I deem,) So much delights me, as those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies, that daily flow From all her words and actions mix'd with love And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd Union of mind, or in us both one soul; Harmony to behold in wedded pair More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear. Yet these subject not: I to thee disclose What inward thence I feel, not therefore foil'd Who meet with various objects, from the sense Variously representing: yet, still free, Approve the best, and follow what I approve. To love, thou blam'st me not; for Love, thou say'st, Leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide; Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask: Love not the heavenly spirits, and how their love Express they? by looks only? or do they mix Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?"
To whom the angel, with a smile that glow'd Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue, Answered: "Let it suffice thee that thou know'st Us happy, and without love no happiness. Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy'st, (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy In eminence; and obstacle find none Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars; Easier than air with air, if spirits embrace, Total they mix, union of pure with pure Desiring; nor restrain'd conveyance need, As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul. But I can now no more; the parting Sun Beyond the Earth's green cape and verdant isles Hesperian sets, my signal to depart.
Be strong, live happy, and love! but, first of all, Him, whom to love is to obey, and keep His great command: take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught, which else free will Would not admit: thine, and of all thy sons, The weal or woe in thee is plac'd; beware! I in thy persevering shall rejoice,
And all the blest: stand fast; to stand or fall Free in thine own arbitrement it lies. Perfect within, no outward aid require; And all temptation to transgress repel." So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus Follow'd with benediction. "Since to part, Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger, Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore! Gentle to me and affable hath been
Thy condescension, and shall be honor'd ever
With grateful memory: thou to mankind Be good and friendly still, and oft return!" So parted they; the angel up to Heaven From the thick shade, and Adam to his bower.
Satan, having compassed the Earth, with meditated guile returns, as a mist, by night into Paradise; enters into the serpent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labors, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each laboring apart: Adam consents not, alleging the danger, lest that enemy, of whom they were forewarned, should attempt her found alone : Eve, loth to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make trial of her strength; Adam at last yields the serpent finds her alone; his subtle approach, first gazing, then speaking; with much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, wondering to hear the serpent speak, asks how he attained to human speech, and such understanding, not till now; the serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden he attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the tree of knowledge forbidden: the serpent, now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments, induces her at length to eat; she, pleased with the taste, deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or not; at last brings him of the fruit; relates what persuaded her to eat thereof: Adam, at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, resolves, through vehemence of love, to perish with her: and, extenuating the trespass, eats also of the fruit: the effects thereof in them both; they seek to cover their nakedness; then fall to variance and accusation of one another.
No more of talk where God or angel guest With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd To sit indulgent, and with him partake Rural repast; permitting him the while Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt And disobedience: on the part of Heaven Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given, That brought into this world a world of woe, Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery Death's harbinger: sad task, yet argument Not less but more heroic than the wrath Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia discspous'd; Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long Perplex'd the Greek, and Cytherea's son; If answerable style I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse:
Since first this subject for heroic song Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late;
Not sedulous by nature to indite Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroic deem'd; chief mastery to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabled knights In battles feign'd; the better fortitude Of patience and heroic martyrdom Unsung; or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, emblazon'd shields, Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights At joust and tournament; then marshall'd feast Serv'd up in hall with sewers and seneschals; The skill of artifice or office mean, Not that which justly gives heroic name To person or to poem. Me, of these Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument Remains; sufficient of itself to raise That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing Depress'd; and much they may, if all be mine, Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear.
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 veild the horizon round: When Satan, who late fled before the threats Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd In meditated fraud and malice, bent On Man's destruction, maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd. By night he fled, and at midnight return'd From compassing the Earth; cautious of day, Since Uriel, regent of the Sun, descried His entrance, and forewarn'd the cherubim That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driv'n, The space of seven continued nights he rode With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line He circled; four times cross'd the car of night From pole to pole traversing each colure; On the eighth return'd; and on the coast averse From entrance or cherubic watch, by stealth Found unsuspected way. There was a place, Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change, Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise, Into a gulf shot under ground, till part Rose up a fountain by the tree of life: In with the river sunk, and with it rose Satan, involv'd in rising mist; then sought Where to lie hid; sea he had search'd, and land, From Eden over Pontus and the pool Mrotis, up beyond the river Ob; Downward as far antarctic; and in length, West from Orontes to the ocean barr'd At Darien; thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd With narrow search; and with inspection deep Consider'd every creature, which of all Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found The serpent subtlest beast of all the field. Him, after long debate, irresolute
Of thoughts revolv'd, his final sentence chose Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom To enter, and his dark suggestions hide 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 observ'd, Doubt might beget of diabolic power
Active within, beyond the sense of brute. Thus he resolv'd, but first from inward grief His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd.
"O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferr'd More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built With second thoughts, reforming what was old! For what god, after better, worse would build ? Terrestrial Heaven, danc'd round by other Heavens That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone as seems, In thee concentring all their precious beams Of sacred influence! as God in Heaven Is centre, yet extends to all; so thou, Centring, receiv'st from all those orbs: in thee, Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth Of creatures animate with gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in Man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round, If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crown'd, Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these Find place or refuge; and the more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me, as from the hateful siege Of contraries: all good to me becomes Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my state. But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven
To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme; Nor hope to be myself less miserable By what I seek, but others to make such As I, though thereby worse to me redound: For only in destroying I find ease
To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroy'd, Or won to what may work his utter loss, For whom all this was made, all this will soon Follow, as to him link'd in weal or woe; In woe then; that destruction wide may range : To me shall be the glory sole among The infernal powers, in one day to have marr'd What he, Almighty styl'd, six nights and days Continued making; and who knows how long Before had been contriving? though perhaps Not longer than since I, in one night, freed From servitude inglorious well nigh half The angelic name, and thinner left the throng Of his adorers: he, to be aveng'd, And to repair his numbers thus impair'd, Whether such virtue spent of old now fail'd More angels to create, if they at least Are his created, or, to spite us more, Determin'd to advance into our room A creature form'd of earth, and him endow, Exalted from so base original,
With heavenly spoils, our spoils: what he decreed, He effected; Man he made, and for him built Magnificent this world, and Earth his seat, Him lord pronounc'd; and, O indignity! Subjected to his service angel-wings, And flaming ministers to watch and tend Their earthly charge: of these the vigilance I dread: and, to elude, thus wrapt in mist Of midnight vapor glide obscure, and pry In every bush and brake, where hap may find The serpent sleeping; in whose mazy folds To hide me, and the dark intent I bring. O foul descent! that I, who erst contended With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrain'd
Into a beast; and, mix'd with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute, That to the height of deity aspir'd! But what will not ambition and revenge
Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low As high he soar'd; obnoxious, first or last,
Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos'd Labor, as to debar us when we need Refreshment, whether food, or talk between. Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow. To brute denied, and are of love the food;
To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet, Love, not the lowest end of human life.
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils:
Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim'd, Since higher I fall short, on him who next Provokes my envy, this new favorite Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite, Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker rais'd From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid." So saying, through each thicket dank or dry, Like a black mist low-creeping, he held on His midnight-search, where soonest he might find The serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found In labyrinth of many a round self-roll'd,
For not to irksome toil, but to delight,
He made us, and delight to reason join'd.
These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint han-is Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide As we need walk, till younger hands ere long Assist us: but, if much converse perhaps Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield: For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return. But other doubt possesses me, lest harm Befall thee sever'd from me; for thou know'st What hath been warn'd us, what malicious foe,
His head the midst, well stor'd with subtle wiles: Envying our happiness, and of his own
Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den, Nor nocent yet; but, on the grassy herb, Fearless, unfear'd he slept: in at his mouth The Devil enter'd; and his brutal sense, In heart or head, possessing, soon inspir'd With act intelligential; but his sleep Disturb'd not, waiting close the approach of morn. Now, when as sacred light began to dawn In Eden on the humid flowers, that breath'd Their morning incense, when all things, that breathe, From the Earth's great altar send up silent praise To the Creator, and his nostrils fill With grateful smell, forth came the human pair, And join'd their vocal worship to the quire Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake The season, prime for sweetest scents and airs: Then commune, how that day they best may ply Their growing work: for much their work outgrew The hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide, And Eve first to her husband thus began.
"Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, Our pleasant task enjoin'd; but till more hands Aid us, the work under our labor grows, Luxurious by restraint; what we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind. One night or two with wanton growth derides, Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise, Or bear what to my mind first thoughts present: Let us divide our labors; thou, where choice Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind The woodbine round this arbor, or direct The clasping ivy where to climb; while I, In yonder spring of roses intermix'd With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: For, while so near each other thus all day Our task we choose, what wonder if so near Looks intervene and smiles, or object new Casual discourse draw on: which intermits Our day's work, brought to little, though begun Early, and the hour of supper comes unearn'd ""* To whom mid answer Adam thus return'd "Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond Compare above all living creatures dear! Well hast thou motion i well thy thoughts employ`d. How we might best fulfil the work which here God hath assign'd us; nor of me shall pass Unpraised for nothing loveller can be found In woman, than to study household good. And good works in her hasinad to promote.
Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame By sly assault: and somewhere nigh at hand Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find His wish and best advantage, us asunder; Hopeless to circumvent us join'd, where each To other speedy aid might lend at need: Whether his first design be to withdraw Our fealty from God, or to disturb Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss Enjoy'd by us excites his envy more: Or this, or worse, leave not the faithful side That gave thee being, still shades thee, and protects The wife, where danger or dishonor lurks, Safest and seemliest by her husband stays. Who guards her, or with her the worst endures."
To whom the virgin majesty of Eve.
As one who loves, and some unkindness meets, With sweet austere composure thus replied. -Offspring of Heaven and Earth, and all Earth's Lord!
That such an enemy we have, who seeks Our ruin. both by thee inform'd I learn. And from the parting angel overbeard, As in a shady nook I stood behind. Just then return'd at shut of evening flowers. But that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt To God or thee, because we have a foe May tempt it, I expected not to hear. His violence thou fear'st not, being such As we, not capable of death or pain. Can either not receive, or can repel His fraud is then thy fear; which plain infers Thy equal fear. that my firm taith and love Can by his fraud be shaken or seduc'd; Thoughts, which how found they harbor in thy breast, Adam, mis-thought of her to thee so dear!
To whom with healing words Adam replied -Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve! For such thou art: from sin and blame entire: Not diffident of thee do I dissuade Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid 'The attempt itself, intended by our foe. For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses 'The tempted with dishonor foai; suppos`d Not incorruptible of tlich, not proof Against temptation: thou theseit with scorn And anger wouldst resent the offer'd wrong, |Though ineffectual found - misdeem not then, If such affront I laber to avert
From thee aivae, which on us both at once
The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare; Or daring, first on me the assault shall light. Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn; Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels; nor think superfluous other's aid. I from the influence of thy looks receive Access in every virtue; in thy sight
More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were, Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on, Shame to be overcome or over-reach'd, Would utmost vigor raise, and rais'd, unite. Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel When I am present, and thy trial choose With me, best witness of thy virtue tried?"
So spake domestic Adam in his care And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought Less attributed to her faith sincere, Thus her reply with accent sweet renew'd.
"If this be our condition, thus to dwell In narrow circuit straiten'd by a foe, Subtle or violent, we not endued
Single with like defence, wherever met; How are we happy, still in fear of harm? But harm precedes not sin: only our foe, Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem Of our integrity: his foul esteem
Sticks no dishonor on our front, but turns Foul on himself; then wherefore shunn'd or fear'd By us? who rather double honor gain
From his surmise prov'd false; find peace within, Favor from Heaven, our witness, from the event. And what is faith, love, virtue, unassay'd Alone, without exterior help sustain'd? Let us not then suspect our happy state Left so imperfect by the Maker wise, As not secure to single or combin'd. Frail is our happiness, if this be so, And Eden were no Eden, thus expos'd." To whom thus Adam fervently replied. 'O Woman, best are all things as the will Of God ordain'd them: his creating hand Nothing imperfect or deficient left
Of all that he created, much less Man, Or aught that might his happy state secure, Secure from outward force; within himself The danger lies, yet lies within his power: Against his will he can receive no harm. But God left free the will; for what obeys Reason, is free; and reason he made right, But bid her well beware, and still erect; Lest, by some fair-appearing goou surpris'd, She dictate false; and misinform the will To do what God expressly hath forbid. Not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins, That I should mind thee oft: and mind thou me. Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve, Since reason not impossibly may meet Some specious object by the foe suborn'd, And fall into deception unaware,
Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warn'd. Seek not temptation then, which to avoid Were better, and most likely if from me Thou sever not: trial will come unsought. Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve First thy obedience; the other who can know, Not seeing thee attempted, who attest? But if thou think, trial unsought may find Us both securer than thus warn'd thou seem'st, Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more; Go in thy native innocence, rely
On what thou hast of virtue; summon all! For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine." So spake the patriarch of mankind; but Eve Persisted; ; yet submiss, though last, replied. "With thy permission then, and thus forewarn'd Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words Touch'd only; that our trial, when least sought, May find us both perhaps far less prepar'd, The willinger I go, nor much expect A foe so proud will first the weaker seek; So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse."
Thus saying, from her husband's hand her hand Soft she withdrew; and, like a wood-nymph light, Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's train,
Betook her to the groves; but Delia's self In gait surpass'd, and goddess-like deport, Though not as she with bow and quiver arm'd, But with such gardening tools as art yet rude. Guiltless of fire, had form'd, or angels brought. To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorn'd, Likest she seem'd, Pomona when she fled Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime, Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove. Her long with ardent look his eye pursued |Delighted, but desiring more her stay. Oft he to her his charge of quick return Repeated; she to him as oft engag'd To be return'd by noon amid the bower, And all things in best order to invite Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. O much deceiv'd, much failing, hapless Eve, Of thy presum'd return! event perverse! Thou never from that hour in Paradise Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose; Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers and shades, Waited with hellish rancor imminent
To intercept thy way, or send thee back Despoil'd of innocence, of faith, of bliss! 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 The whole included race, his purpos'd 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
He sought them both, but wish'd his hap might find Eve separate; he wish'd, but not with hope Of what so seldom chanc'd; when to his wish, Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spics, Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round About her glow'd, oft stooping to support
Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay Carnation, purple, azure, or speck'd with gold, Hung drooping unsustain'd; them she upstays Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh. Nearer he drew, and many a walk travers'd Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers Imborder'd on each bank, the hand of Eve: Spot more delicious than those gardens feign'd Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renown'd Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son; Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse
Much he the place admir'd, the person more. As one who long in populous city pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe Among the pleasant villages and farms Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight; The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine, Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound; If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass, What pleasing seem'd, for her now pleases more,' She most, and in her look sums all delight: Such pleasure took the serpent to behold This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve Thus early, thus alone: her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft, and feminine, Her graceful innocence, her every air Of gesture, or least action, overaw'd His malice, and with rapine sweet bereav'd His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought: That space the evil-one abstracted stood From his own evil, and for the time remain'd Stupidly good; of enmity disarm'd, Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge. But the hot Hell that always in him burns, Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight, And tortures him now more, the more he sees Of pleasure. not for him ordain'd: then soon Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts Of mischief. gratulating, thus excites. "Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what Where universally admir'd; but here
As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail : So varied he, and of his tortuous train Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as us'd To such disport before her through the field, From every beast; more duteous at her call, Than at Circean call the herd disguis'd. He, bolder now, uncall'd before her stood, But as in gaze admiring: oft he bow'd His turret crest, and sleek enamell'd neck, Fawning; and lick'd the ground whereon she trod His gentle dumb expression turn'd at length The eye of Eve, to mark his play; he, glad Of her attention gain'd, with serpent-tongue Organic, or impulse of vocal air, His fraudulent temptation thus began.
Compulsion thus transported, to forget
"Wonder not, sovran mistress, if perhaps Thou canst who art sole wonder! much less arm Thy looks, the Heaven of mildness, with disdain, Displeas'd that I approach thee thus, and gaze Insatiate; I thus single; nor have fear'd Thy awful brow, more awful thus retir'd. 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,
In this inclosure wild, these beasts among, Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
What hither brought us! hate, not love; nor hope Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste Of pleasure; but all pleasure to destroy, Save what is in destroying; other joy To me is lost. Then, let me not let pass Occasion which now smiles; behold alone The woman. opportune to all attempts, Her husband, for I view far round. not nigh, Whose higher intellectual more I shun, And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould; Foe not informidable! exempt from wound, I not; so much hath Hell debas'd. and pain Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven- She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods! Not terrible, though terror be in love And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate, Hate stronger, under show of love well feign'd; The way which to her ruin now I tend."
So spake the enemy of mankind, inclos'd In serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve Address'd his way: not with indented wave, Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear, Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; With barnish'd neck of verdant goid, erect Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape And lovely; never since of serpent-kind Lovelier, not those that in Hyria chang'd Hermione and Cadmus, or the god In Epidaurus: nor to which transform'd Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen; He with Olympias: this with her who bore Scipio, the height of Rome. With tract oblique At first, as one who sought access, but fear'd To interrupe sidelar he works his way.
Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who should be A goddess among gods, ador'd and serv'd By angels numberless, thy daily train."
So gloz'd the tempter, and his proem tun'd: Into the heart of Eve his words made way, Though at the voice much marvelling; at length. Not unamaz'd, she thus in answer spake. (nounc'd "What may this mean? language of man pro- By tongue of brute, and human sense express'd? The first, at least, of these I thought denied To beasts; whom God, on their creation-day, Created mute to all articulate sound: The latter I demur; for in their looks Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears Thee, serpent, subtlest beast of all the field I knew, but not with human voice endued; Redouble then this miracle, and say, How cam'st thou speakable of mute, and how To me so friendly grown above the rest Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight? Say, for such wonder claims attention due."
To whom the gilleful terapter thus replied. Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve! Easy to me it is to tell thee all (obey'd. What thou command'st; and right thou shouldst be I was at first as other beasts that graze The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low, As was my food; nor aught bet food discern'd Or sex, and apprehended nothing high: Till on a day roving the field. I chane'd A goodly tree far distant to behold Loaden with fruit of fairest colors mix'd, Roddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze; When from the boughs a savory odor blown, Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the tears Of ewe or goat, dropping with milk at even
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