IX-1. 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

IX-5. Venial discourse unblam'd: I now must change / Those Notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breach / Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt,

IX-8. And disobedience: On the part of Heav'n / Now alienated, distance and distaste, / Anger and just rebuke, and judgement giv'n, / That brought into this World a world of woe, / Sinne and her shadow Death, and Miserie

IX-12. Deaths Harbinger: Sad task, yet argument / Not less but more Heroic then the wrauth

IX-14. Of stern Achilles on his Foe pursu'd / Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall; or rage / Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd, / Or Neptun's ire or Juno's, that so long / Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's Son;

IX-20. If answerable style I can obtaine / Of my Celestial Patroness, who deignes / Her nightly visitation unimplor'd, / And dictates to me slumb'ring, or inspires / Easie my unpremeditated Verse:

IX-25. Since first this Subject for Heroic Song / Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late; / Not sedulous by Nature to indite

IX-28. Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument / Heroic deem'd, chief maistrie to dissect

IX-30. With long and tedious havoc fabl'd Knights / In Battels feign'd; the better fortitude / Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom

IX-33. Unsung; or to describe Races and Games, / Or tilting Furniture, emblazon'd Shields, / Impreses quaint, Caparisons and Steeds; / Bases and tinsel Trappings, gorgious Knights / At Joust and Torneament; then marshal'd Feast / Serv'd up in Hall with Sewers, and Seneshals; / The skill of Artifice or Office mean, / Not that which justly gives Heroic name / To Person or to Poem. Mee of these

IX-42. Nor skilld nor studious, higher Argument / Remaines, sufficient of it self to raise

IX-44. That name, unless an age too late, or cold / Climat, or Years damp my intended wing / Deprest, and much they may, if all be mine, / Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear.

IX-48. The Sun was sunk, and after him the Starr / Of Hesperus, whose Office is to bring / Twilight upon the Earth, short Arbiter

IX-51. Twixt Day and Night, and now from end to end / Nights Hemisphere had veild the Horizon round:

IX-53. When Satan who late fled before the threats / Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd

IX-55. In meditated fraud and malice, bent / On mans destruction, maugre what might hap / Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd.

IX-58. By Night he fled, and at Midnight return'd. / From compassing the Earth, cautious of day, / Since Uriel Regent of the Sun descri'd / His entrance, and forewarnd the Cherubim / That kept thir watch; thence full of anguish driv'n,

IX-63. The space of seven continu'd Nights he rode / With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line / He circl'd, four times cross'd the Carr of Night / From Pole to Pole, traversing each Colure;

IX-67. On the eighth return'd, and on the Coast averse / From entrance or Cherubic Watch, by stealth

IX-69. Found unsuspected way. There was a place, / Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wraught 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;

IX-74. In with the River sunk, and with it rose / Satan involv'd in rising Mist, then sought

IX-76. Where to lie hid; Sea he had searcht and Land

IX-77. From Eden over Pontus, and the Poole / Mæotis, up beyond the River Ob; / Downward as farr Antartic; and in length / West from Orontes to the Ocean barr'd / At Darien, thence to the Land where flowes / Ganges and Indus: thus the Orb he roam'd

IX-83. With narrow search; and with inspection deep / Consider'd every Creature, which of all / Most opportune might serve his Wiles, and found / The Serpent suttlest 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

IX-90. To enter, and his dark suggestions hide / From sharpest sight: for in the wilie Snake, / Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark, / As from his wit and native suttletie / Proceeding, which in other Beasts observ'd / Doubt might beget of Diabolic pow'r / Active within beyond the sense of brute.

IX-97. Thus he resolv'd, but first from inward griefe / His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd:

IX-99. O Earth, how like to Heav'n, if not preferr'd / More justly, Seat worthier of Gods, as built

IX-101. With second thoughts, reforming what was old! / For what God after better worse would build?

IX-103. Terrestrial Heav'n, danc't round by other Heav'ns / That shine, yet bear thir bright officious Lamps, / Light above Light, for thee alone, as seems, / In thee concentring all thir precious beams

IX-107. Of sacred influence: As God in Heav'n / Is Center, yet extends to all, so thou / Centring receav'st from all those Orbs; in thee,

IX-110. Not in themselves, all thir known vertue appeers / Productive in Herb, Plant, and nobler birth / Of Creatures animate with gradual life / Of Growth, Sense, Reason, all summ'd up in Man.

IX-114. With what delight could I have walkt thee round, / If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange / Of Hill, and Vallie, Rivers, Woods and Plaines, / Now Land, now Sea, and Shores with Forrest crownd,

IX-118. Rocks, Dens, and Caves; but I in none of these

IX-119. 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 Heav'n much worse would be my state.

IX-124. But neither here seek I, no nor in Heav'n / To dwell, unless by maistring Heav'ns Supreame;

IX-126. Nor hope to be my self less miserable / By what I seek, but others to make such

IX-128. As I, though thereby worse to me redound: / For onely in destroying I find ease

IX-130. To my relentless thoughts; and him destroyd, / Or won to what may work his utter loss,

IX-132. For whom all this was made, all this will soon / Follow, as to him linkt in weal or woe, / In wo then: that destruction wide may range:

IX-135. To mee shall be the glorie sole among / The infernal Powers, in one day to have marr'd / What he Almightie styl'd, six Nights and Days

IX-138. Continu'd making, and who knows how long / Before had bin contriving, though perhaps / Not longer then since I in one Night freed / From servitude inglorious welnigh half / Th' Angelic Name, and thinner left the throng / Of his adorers: hee to be aveng'd, / And to repaire his numbers thus impair'd,

IX-145. Whether such vertue spent of old now faild / 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 Heav'nly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed

IX-152. He effected; Man he made, and for him built / Magnificent this World, and Earth his seat, / Him Lord pronounc'd, and, O indignitie! / Subjected to his service Angel wings, / And flaming Ministers to watch and tend

IX-157. Thir earthy Charge: Of these the vigilance / I dread, and to elude, thus wrapt in mist / Of midnight vapor glide obscure, and prie / In every Bush and Brake, where hap may finde / The Serpent sleeping, in whose mazie foulds / To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.

IX-163. O foul descent! that I who erst contended / With Gods to sit the highest, am now constraind / Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial slime, / This essence to incarnate and imbrute, / That to the hight of Deitie aspir'd;

IX-168. But what will not Ambition and Revenge

IX-169. Descend to? who aspires must down as low / As high he soard, obnoxious first or last / To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet, / Bitter ere long back on it self recoiles;

IX-173. Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim'd, / Since higher I fall short, on him who next / Provokes my envie, this new Favorite / Of Heav'n, 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.

IX-179. So saying, through each Thicket Danck or Drie, / Like a black mist low creeping, he held on / His midnight search, where soonest he might finde / The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found / In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowld,

IX-184. His head the midst, well stor'd with suttle wiles: / Not yet in horrid Shade or dismal Den, / Nor nocent yet, but on the grassie Herbe

IX-187. Fearless unfeard he slept: in at his Mouth / The Devil enterd, and his brutal sense, / In heart or head, possessing soon inspir'd / With act intelligential; but his sleep / Disturbd not, waiting close th' approach of Morn.

IX-192. Now when as sacred Light began to dawne / In Eden on the humid Flours, that breathd / Thir morning incense, when all things that breath, / From th' Earths great Altar send up silent praise / To the Creator, and his Nostrils fill / With grateful Smell, forth came the human pair / And joind thir vocal Worship to the Quire

IX-199. Of Creatures wanting voice, that done, partake / The season, prime for sweetest Sents and Aires: / Then commune how that day they best may ply

IX-202. Thir growing work: for much thir work outgrew / The hands dispatch of two Gardning so wide. / And Eve first to her Husband thus began.

IX-205. Adam, well may we labour still to dress / This Garden, still to tend Plant, Herb and Flour, / Our pleasant task enjoyn'd, but till more hands / Aid us, the work under our labour 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 wilde. Thou therefore now advise / Or hear what to my minde first thoughts present,

IX-214. Let us divide our labours, thou where choice / Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind / The Woodbine round this Arbour, or direct / The clasping Ivie where to climb, while I / In yonder Spring of Roses intermixt / With Myrtle, find what to redress till Noon:

IX-220. For while so near each other thus all day / Our taske we choose, what wonder if so near / Looks intervene and smiles, or object new / Casual discourse draw on, which intermits / Our dayes work brought to little, though begun / Early, and th' hour of Supper comes unearn'd.

IX-226. To whom mild answer Adam thus return'd. / Sole Eve, Associate sole, to me beyond / Compare above all living Creatures deare, / Well hast thou motion'd, well thy thoughts imployd / How we might best fulfill the work which here / God hath assign'd us, nor of me shalt pass / Unprais'd: for nothing lovelier can be found / In Woman, then to studie houshold good, / And good workes in her Husband to promote.

IX-235. Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos'd / Labour, as to debarr us when we need / Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,

IX-238. Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse / Of looks and smiles, for smiles from Reason flow, / To brute deni'd, and are of Love the food, / Love not the lowest end of human life.

IX-242. For not to irksom toile, but to delight / He made us, and delight to Reason joyn'd.

IX-244. These paths and Bowers doubt not but our joynt hands / Will keep from Wilderness with ease, as wide / As we need walk, till younger hands ere long

IX-247. Assist us: But if much converse perhaps / Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield. / For solitude somtimes is best societie,

IX-250. And short retirement urges sweet returne.

IX-251. But other doubt possesses me, least harm / Befall thee sever'd from me; for thou knowst

IX-253. What hath bin warn'd us, what malicious Foe / Envying our happiness, and of his own / Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame

IX-256. By sly assault; and somwhere nigh at hand / Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find / His wish and best advantage, us asunder, / Hopeless to circumvent us joynd, where each / To other speedie aide might lend at need; / Whether his first design be to withdraw / Our fealtie from God, or to disturb / Conjugal Love, then which perhaps no bliss / Enjoy'd by us excites his envie more;

IX-265. Or this, or worse, leave not the faithful side / That gave thee being, still shades thee and protects. / The Wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, / Safest and seemliest by her Husband staies, / Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.

IX-270. To whom the Virgin Majestie of Eve, / As one who loves, and some unkindness meets, / With sweet austeer composure thus reply'd,

IX-273. Ofspring of Heav'n and Earth, and all Earths Lord, / That such an Enemie we have, who seeks / Our ruin, both by thee informd I learne, / And from the parting Angel over-heard / As in a shadie nook I stood behind, / Just then returnd at shut of Evening Flours.

IX-279. But that thou shouldst my firmness therfore doubt / To God or thee, because we have a foe / May tempt it, I expected not to hear.

IX-282. His violence thou fear'st not, being such, / As wee, not capable of death or paine, / Can either not receave, or can repell.

IX-285. His fraud is then thy fear, which plain inferrs / Thy equal fear that my firm Faith and Love / Can by his fraud be shak'n or seduc't;

IX-288. Thoughts, which how found they harbour in thy brest / Adam, misthought of her to thee so dear?

IX-290. To whom with healing words Adam replyd. / Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve, / For such thou art, from sin and blame entire: / Not diffident of thee do I dissuade

IX-294. Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid / Th' attempt itself, intended by our Foe. / For hee who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses / The tempted with dishonour foul, suppos'd / Not incorruptible of Faith, not prooff

IX-299. Against temptation: thou thy self with scorne / And anger wouldst resent the offer'd wrong,

IX-301. Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then, / If such affront I labour to avert

IX-303. From thee alone, which on us both at once / The Enemie, though bold, will hardly dare, / Or daring, first on mee th' assault shall light.

IX-306. Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn; / Suttle he needs must be, who could seduce / Angels nor think superfluous others aid.

IX-309. I from the influence of thy looks receave / Access in every Vertue, 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-reacht / Would utmost vigor raise, and rais'd unite.

IX-315. Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel / When I am present, and thy trial choose / With me, best witness of thy Vertue tri'd.

IX-318. So spake domestick Adam in his care / And Matrimonial Love; but Eve, who thought / Less attributed to her Faith sincere, / Thus her reply with accent sweet renewd.

IX-322. If this be our condition, thus to dwell / In narrow circuit strait'nd by a Foe, / Suttle or violent, we not endu'd / Single with like defence, wherever met, / How are we happie, still in fear of harm?

IX-327. But harm precedes not sin: onely our Foe

IX-328. Tempting affronts us with his foul esteem / Of our integritie: his foul esteeme / Sticks no dishonor on our Front, but turns / Foul on himself; then wherefore shund or feard

IX-332. By us? who rather double honour gaine / From his surmise prov'd false, find peace within, / Favour from Heav'n, our witness from th' event. / And what is Faith, Love, Vertue unassaid / Alone, without exterior help sustaind?

IX-337. Let us not then suspect our happie State / Left so imperfet by the Maker wise, / As not secure to single or combin'd. / Fraile is our happiness, if this be so, / And Eden were no Eden thus expos'd.

IX-342. To whom thus Adam fervently repli'd. / O Woman, best are all things as the will / Of God ordain'd them, his creating hand / Nothing imperfet or deficient left / Of all that he Created, much less Man, / Or aught that might his happie State secure,

IX-348. Secure from outward force; within himself / The danger lies, yet lies within his power:

IX-350. Against his will he can receave no harme. / But God left free the Will, for what obeyes

IX-352. Reason, is free, and Reason he made right

IX-353. But bid her well beware, and still erect, / Least by some faire appeering good surpris'd / She dictate false, and misinforme the Will / To do what God expresly hath forbid,

IX-357. Not then mistrust, but tender love enjoynes, / 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 subornd, / And fall into deception unaware, / Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warnd.

IX-364. Seek not temptation then, which to avoide / Were better, and most likelie if from mee / Thou sever not: Trial will come unsought.

IX-367. Wouldst thou approve thy constancie, approve / First thy obedience; th' other who can know, / Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?

IX-370. But if thou think, trial unsought may finde / Us both securer then thus warnd thou seemst,

IX-372. Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;

IX-373. Go in thy native innocence, relie / On what thou hast of vertue, summon all, / For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine.

IX-376. So spake the Patriarch of Mankinde, but Eve / Persisted, yet submiss, though last, repli'd.

IX-378. With thy permission then, and thus forewarnd / Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words / Touchd onely, that our trial, when least sought, / May finde us both perhaps farr less prepar'd,

IX-382. The willinger I goe, 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 Husbands hand her hand

IX-386. Soft she withdrew, and like a Wood-Nymph light

IX-387. Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's Traine, / Betook her to the Groves, but Delia's self / In gate surpass'd and Goddess-like deport, / Though not as shee with Bow and Quiver armd, / But with such Gardning Tools as Art yet rude, / Guiltless of fire had formd, or Angels brought. / To Pales, or Pomona, thus adornd, / Likeliest she seemd, Pomona when she fled / Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her Prime, / Yet Virgin of Proserpina from Jove.

IX-397. Her long with ardent look his Eye pursu'd / Delighted, but desiring more her stay.

IX-399. Oft he to her his charge of quick returne / Repeated, shee to him as oft engag'd / To be returnd by Noon amid the Bowre, / And all things in best order to invite / Noontide repast, or Afternoons repose.

IX-404. O much deceav'd, much failing, hapless Eve, / Of thy presum'd return! event perverse! / Thou never from that houre in Paradise / Foundst either sweet repast, or sound repose;

IX-408. Such ambush hid among sweet Flours and Shades / Waited with hellish rancour imminent / To intercept thy way, or send thee back / Despoild of Innocence, of Faith, of Bliss.

IX-412. For now, and since first break of dawne the Fiend, / Meer Serpent in appearance, forth was come, / And on his Quest, where likeliest he might finde / The onely two of Mankinde, but in them / The whole included Race, his purposd prey.

IX-417. In Bowre and Field he sought, where any tuft / Of Grove or Garden-Plot more pleasant lay, / Thir tendance or Plantation for delight, / By Fountain or by shadie Rivulet

IX-421. 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 spies,

IX-425. Veild in a Cloud of Fragrance, where she stood, / Half spi'd, so thick the Roses bushing round / About her glowd, oft stooping to support

IX-428. Each Flour of slender stalk, whose head though gay / Carnation, Purple, Azure, or spect with Gold, / Hung drooping unsustaind, them she upstaies

IX-431. Gently with Mirtle band, mindless the while, / Her self, though fairest unsupported Flour, / From her best prop so farr, and storm so nigh.

IX-434. Neerer he drew, and many a walk travers'd / Of stateliest Covert, Cedar, Pine, or Palme, / Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen / Among thick-wov'n Arborets and Flours

IX-438. Imborderd on each Bank, the hand of Eve: / Spot more delicious then those Gardens feign'd / Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renownd / Alcinous, host of old Laertes Son, / Or that, not Mystic, where the Sapient King / Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian Spouse.

IX-444. Much hee the Place admir'd, the Person more.

IX-445. As one who long in populous City pent, / Where Houses thick and Sewers annoy the Aire, / Forth issuing on a Summers Morn to breathe / Among the pleasant Villages and Farmes / Adjoynd, from each thing met conceaves delight, / The smell of Grain, or tedded Grass, or Kine, / Or Dairie, each rural sight, each rural sound; / If chance with Nymphlike step fair Virgin pass, / What pleasing seemd, for her now pleases more, / She most, and in her look summs all Delight.

IX-455. Such Pleasure took the Serpent to behold / This Flourie Plat, the sweet recess of Eve / Thus earlie, thus alone; her Heav'nly forme / Angelic, but more soft, and Feminine,

IX-459. Her graceful Innocence, her every Aire / Of gesture or lest action overawd / 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 remaind / Stupidly good, of enmitie disarm'd, / Of guile, of hate, of envie, of revenge;

IX-467. But the hot Hell that alwayes in him burnes, / Though in mid Heav'n, soon ended his delight,

IX-469. And tortures him now more, the more he sees / Of pleasure not for him ordain'd: then soon

IX-471. Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts / Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.

IX-473. Thoughts, whither have ye led me, with what sweet / Compulsion thus transported to forget / What hither brought us, hate, not love, nor hope

IX-476. Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste / Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy, / Save what is in destroying, other joy

IX-479. To me is lost. Then let me not let pass / Occasion which now smiles, behold alone / The Woman, opportune to all attempts,

IX-482. Her Husband, for I view far round, not nigh, / Whose higher intellectual more I shun, / And strength, of courage hautie, and of limb / Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould, / Foe not informidable, exempt from wound, / I not; so much hath Hell debas'd, and paine / Infeebl'd me, to what I was in Heav'n.

IX-489. Shee fair, divinely fair, fit Love for Gods, / Not terrible, though terrour be in Love / And beautie, not approacht by stronger hate,

IX-492. Hate stronger, under shew of Love well feign'd, / The way which to her ruin now I tend.

IX-494. So spake the Enemie of Mankind, enclos'd / In Serpent, Inmate bad, and toward Eve

IX-496. Address'd his way, not with indented wave, / Prone on the ground, as since, but on his reare, / Circular base of rising foulds, that tour'd / Fould above fould a surging Maze, his Head

IX-500. Crested aloft, and Carbuncle his Eyes; / With burnisht Neck of verdant Gold, erect / Amidst his circling Spires, that on the grass

IX-503. Floted redundant: pleasing was his shape, / And lovely, never since of Serpent kind / Lovelier, not those that in Illyria chang'd / Hermione and Cadmus, or the God / In Epidaurus; nor to which transformd / Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen, / Hee with Olympias, this with her who bore

IX-510. Scipio the highth of Rome. With tract oblique / At first, as one who sought access, but feard / To interrupt, side-long he works his way.

IX-513. As when a Ship by skilful Stearsman wrought / Nigh Rivers mouth or Foreland, where the Wind / Veres oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her Saile;

IX-516. So varied hee, and of his tortuous Traine / Curld many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,

IX-518. To lure her Eye; shee busied heard the sound / Of rusling Leaves, but minded not, as us'd / To such disport before her through the Field,

IX-521. From every Beast, more duteous at her call, / Then at Circean call the Herd disguis'd.

IX-523. Hee boulder now, uncall'd before her stood; / But as in gaze admiring: Oft he bowd / His turret Crest, and sleek enamel'd Neck, / Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon she trod.

IX-527. His gentle dumb expression turnd at length / The Eye of Eve to mark his play; he glad / Of her attention gaind, with Serpent Tongue / Organic, or impulse of vocal Air, / His fraudulent temptation thus began.

IX-532. Wonder not, sovran Mistress, if perhaps / Thou canst, who art sole Wonder, much less arm

IX-534. Thy looks, the Heav'n of mildness, with disdain, / Displeas'd that I approach thee thus, and gaze / Insatiate, I thus single, nor have feard / Thy awful brow, more awful thus retir'd.

IX-538. Fairest resemblance of thy Maker faire, / Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine / By gift, and thy Celestial Beautie adore / With ravishment beheld, there best beheld / Where universally admir'd; but here / In this enclosure wild, these Beasts among, / Beholders rude, and shallow to discerne / Half what in thee is fair, one man except,

IX-546. Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen / A Goddess among Gods, ador'd and serv'd / By Angels numberless, thy daily Train.

IX-549. So gloz'd the Tempter, and his Proem tun'd; / Into the Heart of Eve his words made way, / Though at the voice much marveling; at length / Not unamaz'd she thus in answer spake.

IX-553. What may this mean? Language of Man pronounc't / By Tongue of Brute, and human sense exprest?

IX-555. The first at lest of these I thought deni'd / To Beasts, whom God on thir Creation-Day / Created mute to all articulat sound;

IX-558. The latter I demurre, for in thir looks / Much reason, and in thir actions oft appeers.

IX-560. Thee, Serpent, suttlest beast of all the field / I knew, but not with human voice endu'd;

IX-562. 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.

IX-567. To whom the guileful Tempter thus reply'd. / Empress of this fair World, resplendent Eve, / Easie to mee it is to tell thee all / What thou commandst and right thou shouldst be obeyd: / I was at first as other Beasts that graze

IX-572. The trodden Herb, of abject thoughts and low, / As was my food, nor aught but food discern'd / Or Sex, and apprehended nothing high:

IX-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;

IX-579. When from the boughes a savorie odour blow'n,

IX-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.

IX-584. To satisfie the sharp desire I had / Of tasting those fair Apples, I resolv'd / Not to deferr; hunger and thirst at once, / Powerful perswaders, quick'nd at the scent / Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keene. / About the mossie Trunk I wound me soon,

IX-590. For high from ground the branches would require / Thy utmost reach or Adams: Round the Tree

IX-592. All other Beasts that saw, with like desire / Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.

IX-594. Amid the Tree now got, where plenty hung / 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.

IX-598. Sated at length, ere long I might perceave / Strange alteration in me, to degree

IX-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

IX-604. Considerd all things visible in Heav'n, / Or Earth, or Middle, all things fair and good;

IX-606. 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 / Mee thus, though importune perhaps, to come / And gaze, and worship thee of right declar'd / Sovran of Creatures, universal Dame.

IX-613. So talk'd the spirited sly Snake; and Eve / Yet more amaz'd unwarie thus reply'd.

IX-615. Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt / The vertue of that Fruit, in thee first prov'd:

IX-617. But say, where grows the Tree, from hence how far?

IX-618. For many are the Trees of God that grow / In Paradise, and various, yet unknown / 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, and more hands / Help to disburden Nature of her Bearth.

IX-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 Balme; if thou accept / My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon.

IX-631. Lead then, said Eve. Hee leading swiftly rowld / In tangles, and made intricate seem strait,

IX-633. To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy / Bright'ns his Crest, as when a wandring Fire / 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, / Misleads th' amaz'd Night-wanderer from his way / To Boggs and Mires, and oft through Pond or Poole, / There swallow'd up and lost, from succour farr.

IX-643. So glister'd the dire Snake, and into fraud

IX-644. Led Eve our credulous Mother, to the Tree / Of prohibition, root of all our woe; / Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.

IX-647. Serpent, we might have spar'd our coming hither, / Fruitless to mee, though Fruit be here to excess, / The credit of whose vertue rest with thee, / 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 of his voice; the rest, we live / Law to our selves, our Reason is our Law.

IX-655. To whom the Tempter guilefully repli'd. / Indeed? hath God then said that of the Fruit / Of all these Garden Trees ye shall not eate, / Yet Lords declar'd of all in Earth or Aire?

IX-659. To whom thus Eve yet sinless. Of the Fruit / Of each Tree in the Garden we may eate, / But of the Fruit of this fair Tree amidst / The Garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eate / Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, least ye die.

IX-664. She scarse had said, though brief, when now more bold / The Tempter, but with shew of Zeale and Love / To Man, and indignation at his wrong,

IX-667. New part puts on, and as to passion mov'd, / Fluctuats disturbd, yet comely and in act / Rais'd, as of som great matter to begin. / As when of old som Orator renound / In Athens or free Rome, where Eloquence / Flourishd, since mute, to som great cause addrest,

IX-673. Stood in himself collected, while each part, / Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue, / 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.

IX-679. O Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant, / Mother of Science, Now I feel thy Power / Within me cleere, not onely to discerne / Things in thir Causes, but to trace the wayes / Of highest Agents, deemd however wise.

IX-684. Queen of this Universe, doe not believe / Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die:

IX-686. How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life

IX-687. 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

IX-690. Meant mee, by ventring higher then my Lot. / Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast

IX-692. Is open? or will God incense his ire / For such a petty Trespass, and not praise / Rather your dauntless vertue, whom the pain / Of Death denounc't, whatever thing Death be, / Deterrd not from atchieving what might leade / To happier life, knowledge of Good and Evil;

IX-698. Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil / Be real, why not known, since easier shunnd?

IX-700. God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; / Not just, not God; not feard then, nor obeyd:

IX-702. Your feare it self of Death removes the feare.

IX-703. Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe, / Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,

IX-705. His worshippers; he knows that in the day / Ye Eate thereof, your Eyes that seem so cleere, / Yet are but dim, shall perfetly be then / Op'nd and cleerd, and ye shall be as Gods, / Knowing both Good and Evil as they know.

IX-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.

IX-713. So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off / Human, to put on Gods, death to be wisht, / Though threat'nd, which no worse then this can bring.

IX-716. And what are Gods that Man may not become / As they, participating God-like food?

IX-718. The Gods are first, and that advantage use / On our belief, that all from them proceeds;

IX-720. I question it, for this fair Earth I see, / Warm'd by the Sun, producing every kind,

IX-722. Them nothing: If they all things, who enclos'd / Knowledge of Good and Evil in this Tree, / That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains / Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies

IX-726. Th' offence, that Man should thus attain to know?

IX-727. What can your knowledge hurt him, or this Tree / Impart against his will if all be his?

IX-729. Or is it envie, and can envie dwell

IX-730. In Heav'nly brests? these, these and many more / Causes import your need of this fair Fruit. / Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste.

IX-733. He ended, and his words replete with guile / Into her heart too easie entrance won:

IX-735. Fixt on the Fruit she gaz'd, which to behold

IX-736. Might tempt alone, and in her ears the sound / Yet rung of his perswasive words, impregn'd / With Reason, to her seeming, and with Truth;

IX-739. Mean while the hour of Noon drew on, and wak'd / An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell / So savorie of that Fruit, which with desire, / Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, / Sollicited her longing eye; yet first / Pausing a while, thus to her self she mus'd.

IX-745. Great are thy Vertues, doubtless, best of Fruits. / Though kept from Man, and worthy to be admir'd, / Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay

IX-748. Gave elocution to the mute, and taught / The Tongue not made for Speech to speak thy praise:

IX-750. Thy praise hee also who forbids thy use, / Conceales not from us, naming thee the Tree / Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;

IX-753. Forbids us then to taste, but his forbidding / Commends thee more, while it inferrs the good

IX-755. By thee communicated, and our want: / For good unknown, sure is not had, or had / And yet unknown, is as not had at all.

IX-758. In plain then, what forbids he but to know, / Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise? / Such prohibitions binde not. But if Death

IX-761. Bind us with after-bands, what profits then / Our inward freedom? In the day we eate / Of this fair Fruit, our doom is, we shall die. / How dies the Serpent? hee hath eat'n and lives, / And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,

IX-766. Irrational till then. For us alone

IX-767. Was death invented? or to us deni'd / This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?

IX-769. For Beasts it seems: yet that one Beast which first / Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy / The good befall'n him, Author unsuspect, / Friendly to man, farr from deceit or guile.

IX-773. What fear I then, rather what know to feare / Under this ignorance of good and Evil, / Of God or Death, of Law or Penaltie?

IX-776. Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine, / Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,

IX-778. Of vertue to make wise: what hinders then / To reach, and feed at once both Bodie and Mind?

IX-780. So saying, her rash hand in evil hour / Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:

IX-782. Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat / Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,

IX-784. That all was lost. Back to the Thicket slunk / The guiltie Serpent, and well might, for Eve

IX-786. Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else / Regarded, such delight till then, as seemd, / In Fruit she never tasted, whether true

IX-789. Or fansied so, through expectation high / Of knowledg, nor was God-head from her thought. / Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint,

IX-792. And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length, / And hight'nd as with Wine, jocond and boon,

IX-794. Thus to her self she pleasingly began.

IX-795. O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees / In Paradise, of operation blest / To Sapience, hitherto obscur'd, infam'd, / And thy fair Fruit let hang, as to no end

IX-799. Created; but henceforth my early care, / Not without Song, each Morning, and due praise / Shall tend thee, and the fertil burden ease / Of thy full branches offer'd free to all;

IX-803. Till dieted by thee I grow mature / In knowledge, as the Gods who all things know;

IX-805. Though others envie what they cannot give; / For had the gift bin theirs, it had not here

IX-807. Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe, / Best guide; not following thee, I had remaind / In ignorance, thou op'nst Wisdoms way, / And giv'st access, though secret she retire.

IX-811. And I perhaps am secret; Heav'n is high,

IX-812. High and remote to see from thence distinct

IX-813. Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps / May have diverted from continual watch / Our great Forbidder, safe with all his Spies

IX-816. About him. But to Adam in what sort

IX-817. Shall I appeer? shall I to him make known / As yet my change, and give him to partake / Full happiness with mee, or rather not,

IX-820. But keep the odds of Knowledge in my power / Without Copartner? so to add what wants / In Femal Sex, the more to draw his Love, / And render me more equal, and perhaps,

IX-824. A thing not undesireable, somtime / Superior: for inferior who is free?

IX-826. This may be well: but what if God have seen / And Death ensue? then I shall be no more,

IX-828. And Adam wedded to another Eve,

IX-829. Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;

IX-830. A death to think. Confirm'd then I resolve, / Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe: / So dear I love him, that with him all deaths / I could endure, without him live no life.

IX-834. So saying, from the Tree her step she turnd, / But first low Reverence don, as to the power / That dwelt within, whose presence had infus'd / Into the plant sciential sap, deriv'd

IX-838. From Nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while / Waiting desirous her return, had wove / Of choicest Flours a Garland to adorne / Her Tresses, and her rural labours crown, / As Reapers oft are wont thir Harvest Queen.

IX-843. Great joy he promis'd to his thoughts, and new / Solace in her return, so long delay'd; / Yet oft his heart, divine of somthing ill, / Misgave him; hee the faultring measure felt;

IX-847. And forth to meet her went, the way she took / That Morn when first they parted; by the Tree

IX-849. Of Knowledge he must pass, there he her met, / Scarse from the Tree returning; in her hand / A bough of fairest fruit that downie smil'd, / New gatherd, and ambrosial smell diffus'd.

IX-853. To him she hasted, in her face excuse / Came Prologue, and Apologie to prompt, / Which with bland words at will she thus addrest.

IX-856. Hast thou not wonderd, Adam, at my stay?

IX-857. Thee I have misst, and thought it long, depriv'd / Thy presence, agonie of love till now / Not felt, nor shall be twice, for never more / Mean I to trie, what rash untri'd I sought, / The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange

IX-862. Hath bin the cause, and wonderful to heare:

IX-863. This Tree is not as we are told, a Tree / Of danger tasted, nor to evil unknown

IX-865. Op'ning the way, but of Divine effect / To open Eyes, and make them Gods who taste;

IX-867. And hath bin tasted such: the Serpent wise, / Or not restraind as wee, or not obeying,

IX-869. Hath eat'n of the fruit, and is become, / Not dead, as we are threatn'd, but thenceforth / Endu'd with human voice and human sense,

IX-872. Reasoning to admiration, and with mee / Perswasively hath so prevaild, that I / Have also tasted, and have also found / Th' effects to correspond, opener mine Eyes / Dimm erst, dilated Spirits, ampler Heart, / And growing up to Godhead; which for thee

IX-878. Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise. / For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss, / Tedious, unshar'd with thee, and odious soon.

IX-881. Thou therefore also taste, that equal Lot / May joyne us, equal Joy, as equal Love;

IX-883. Least thou not tasting, different degree / Disjoyne us, and I then too late renounce / Deitie for thee, when Fate will not permit.

IX-886. Thus Eve with Countnance blithe her storie told; / But in her Cheek distemper flushing glowd.

IX-888. On th' other side, Adam, soon as he heard / The fatal Trespass don by Eve, amaz'd,

IX-890. Astonied stood and Blank, while horror chill / Ran through his veins, and all his joynts relax'd;

IX-892. From his slack hand the Garland wreath'd for Eve / Down drop'd, and all the faded Roses shed:

IX-894. Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length / First to himself he inward silence broke.

IX-896. O fairest of Creation, last and best / Of all Gods works, Creature in whom excell'd / Whatever can to sight or thought be formd, / Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! / How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost, / Defac't, deflourd, and now to Death devote?

IX-902. Rather how hast thou yeelded to transgress / The strict forbiddance, how to violate / The sacred Fruit forbidd'n! som cursed fraud

IX-905. Of Enemie hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown,

IX-906. And mee with thee hath ruind, for with thee / Certain my resolution is to Die; / How can I live without thee, how forgoe / Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd, / To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn?

IX-911. Should God create another Eve, and I / Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee

IX-913. 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 woe.

IX-917. So having said, as one from sad dismay / Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbd / Submitting to what seemd remediless, / Thus in calm mood his Words to Eve he turnd.

IX-921. Bold deed thou hast presum'd, adventrous Eve / And peril great provok't, who thus hath dar'd / Had it been onely coveting to Eye / That sacred Fruit, sacred to abstinence,

IX-925. Much more to taste it under banne to touch.

IX-926. But past who can recall, or don undoe? / Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate, yet so

IX-928. Perhaps thou shalt not Die, perhaps the Fact / Is not so hainous now, foretasted Fruit, / Profan'd first by the Serpent, by him first / Made common and unhallowd ere our taste;

IX-932. Nor yet on him found deadly, he yet lives, / Lives, as thou saidst, and gaines to live as Man

IX-934. Higher degree of Life, inducement strong / To us, as likely tasting to attaine / Proportional ascent, which cannot be / But to be Gods, or Angels Demi-gods.

IX-938. Nor can I think that God, Creator wise, / Though threatning, will in earnest so destroy / Us his prime Creatures, dignifi'd so high,

IX-941. Set over all his Works, which in our Fall, / For us created, needs with us must faile,

IX-943. Dependent made; so God shall uncreate, / Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour loose, / Not well conceav'd of God, who though his Power

IX-946. Creation could repeate, yet would be loath / Us to abolish, least the Adversary

IX-948. Triumph and say; Fickle their State whom God / Most Favors, who can please him long; Mee first / He ruind, now Mankind; whom will he next?

IX-951. Matter of scorne, not to be given the Foe,

IX-952. However I with thee have fixt my Lot,

IX-953. Certain to undergoe like doom, if Death / Consort with thee, Death is to mee as Life;

IX-955. So forcible within my heart I feel / The Bond of Nature draw me to my owne, / My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;

IX-958. Our State cannot be severd, we are one, / One Flesh; to loose thee were to loose my self.

IX-960. So Adam, and thus Eve to him repli'd. / O glorious trial of exceeding Love, / Illustrious evidence, example high!

IX-963. Ingaging me to emulate, but short / Of thy perfection, how shall I attaine,

IX-965. Adam, from whose deare side I boast me sprung, / And gladly of our Union heare thee speak, / One Heart, one Soul in both; whereof good prooff / This day affords, declaring thee resolvd, / Rather then Death or aught then Death more dread / Shall separate us, linkt in Love so deare,

IX-971. To undergoe with mee one Guilt, one Crime, / If any be, of tasting this fair Fruit,

IX-973. Whose vertue, for of good still good proceeds, / Direct, or by occasion hath presented / This happie trial of thy Love, which else / So eminently never had bin known.

IX-977. Were it I thought Death menac't would ensue / This my attempt, I would sustain alone / The worst, and not perswade thee, rather die / Deserted, then oblige thee with a fact / Pernicious to thy Peace, chiefly assur'd / Remarkably so late of thy so true, / So faithful Love unequald; but I feel

IX-984. Farr otherwise th' event, not Death, but Life / Augmented, op'nd Eyes, new Hopes, new Joyes,

IX-986. Taste so Divine, that what of sweet before / Hath toucht my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.

IX-988. On my experience, Adam, freely taste, / And fear of Death deliver to the Windes.

IX-990. So saying, she embrac'd him, and for joy / Tenderly wept, much won that he his Love / Had so enobl'd, as of choice to incurr / Divine displeasure for her sake, or Death. / In recompence (for such compliance bad / Such recompence best merits) from the bough

IX-996. She gave him of that fair enticing Fruit

IX-997. With liberal hand: he scrupl'd not to eat / Against his better knowledge, not deceav'd, / But fondly overcome with Femal charm.

IX-1000. Earth trembl'd from her entrails, as again / In pangs, and Nature gave a second groan, / Skie lowr'd, and muttering Thunder, som sad drops / Wept at compleating of the mortal Sin

IX-1004. Original; while Adam took no thought,

IX-1005. Eating his fill, nor Eve to iterate / Her former trespass fear'd, the more to soothe / Him with her lov'd societie, that now

IX-1008. As with new Wine intoxicated both / They swim in mirth, and fansie that they feel / Divinitie within them breeding wings

IX-1011. Wherewith to scorne the Earth: but that false Fruit / Farr other operation first displaid,

IX-1013. Carnal desire enflaming, hee on Eve / Began to cast lascivious Eyes, she him / As wantonly repaid; in Lust they burne: / Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move,

IX-1017. Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, / And elegant, of Sapience no small part, / Since to each meaning savour we apply,

IX-1020. And Palate call judicious; I the praise / Yeild thee, so well this day thou hast purvey'd. / Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstain'd / From this delightful Fruit, nor known till now / True relish, tasting; if such pleasure be

IX-1025. In things to us forbidden, it might be wish'd, / For this one Tree had bin forbidden ten.

IX-1027. But come, so well refresh't, now let us play, / As meet is, after such delicious Fare;

IX-1029. For never did thy Beautie since the day / I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorn'd / With all perfections, so enflame my sense / With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now / Then ever, bountie of this vertuous Tree.

IX-1034. So said he, and forbore not glance or toy / Of amorous intent, well understood / Of Eve, whose Eye darted contagious Fire.

IX-1037. Her hand he seis'd, and to a shadie bank, / Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr'd

IX-1039. He led her nothing loath; Flours were the Couch, / Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel, / And Hyacinth, Earths freshest softest lap.

IX-1042. There they thir fill of Love and Loves disport / Took largely, of thir mutual guilt the Seale, / The solace of thir sin, till dewie sleep

IX-1045. Oppress'd them, wearied with thir amorous play.

IX-1046. Soon as the force of that fallacious Fruit, / That with exhilerating vapour bland / About thir spirits had plaid, and inmost powers / Made erre, was now exhal'd, and grosser sleep / Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams / Encumberd, now had left them, up they rose

IX-1052. As from unrest, and each the other viewing, / Soon found thir Eyes how op'nd, and thir minds

IX-1054. How dark'nd; innocence, that as a veile / Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gon,

IX-1056. Just confidence, and native righteousness / And honour from about them, naked left

IX-1058. To guiltie shame hee cover'd, but his Robe / Uncover'd more, so rose the Danite strong / Herculean Samson from the Harlot-lap / Of Philistean Dalilah, and wak'd / Shorn of his strength, They destitute and bare / Of all thir vertue: silent, and in face

IX-1064. Confounded long they sate, as struck'n mute, / Till Adam, though not less then Eve abasht, / At length gave utterance to these words constraind.

IX-1067. O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give eare / To that false Worm, of whomsoever taught / To counterfet Mans voice, true in our Fall,

IX-1070. False in our promis'd Rising; since our Eyes / Op'nd we find indeed, and find we know

IX- 1073. Both Good and Evil, Good lost, and Evil got, / Bad Fruit of Knowledge, if this be to know, / Which leaves us naked thus, of Honour void, / Of Innocence, of Faith, of Puritie, / Our wonted Ornaments now soild and staind,

IX-1077. And in our Faces evident the signes / Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store; / Even shame, the last of evils; of the first

IX-1080. Be sure then. How shall I behold the face / Henceforth of God or Angel, earst with joy

IX-1082. And rapture so oft beheld? those heav'nly shapes / Will dazle now this earthly, with thir blaze

IX-1084. Insufferably bright. O might I here / In solitude live savage, in some glade / Obscur'd, where highest Woods impenetrable / To Starr or Sun-light, spread thir umbrage broad, / And brown as Evening: Cover me ye Pines, / Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs / Hide me, where I may never see them more.

IX-1091. But let us now, as in bad plight, devise / What best may for the present serve to hide / The Parts of each from other, that seem most / To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen, / Some Tree whose broad smooth Leaves together sowd, / And girded on our loyns, may cover round / Those middle parts, that this new commer, Shame, / There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.

IX-1099. So counsel'd hee, and both together went / Into the thickest Wood, there soon they chose / The Figtree, not that kind for Fruit renown'd, / But such as at this day to Indians known / In Malabar or Decan spreds her Armes / Braunching so broad and long, that in the ground / The bended Twigs take root, and Daughters grow / About the Mother Tree, a Pillard shade / High overarch't, and echoing Walks between;

IX-1108. There oft the Indian Herdsman shunning heate / Shelters in coole, and tends his pasturing Herds

IX-1110. At Loopholes cut through thickest shade: Those Leaves / They gatherd, broad as Amazonian Targe, / And with what skill they had, together sowd, / To gird thir waste, vain Covering if to hide

IX-1114. Thir guilt and dreaded shame; O how unlike / To that first naked Glorie. Such of late

IX-1116. Columbus found th' American so girt / With featherd Cincture, naked else and wilde / Among the Trees on Iles and woodie Shores.

IX-1119. Thus fenc't, and as they thought, thir shame in part / Coverd, but not at rest or ease of Mind,

IX-1121. They sate them down to weep, nor onely Teares

IX-1122. Raind at thir Eyes, but high Winds worse within / Began to rise, high Passions, Anger, Hate, / Mistrust, Suspicion, Discord, and shook sore / Thir inward State of Mind, calm Region once / And full of Peace, now tost and turbulent:

IX-1127. For Understanding rul'd not, and the Will / Heard not her lore, both in subjection now / To sensual Appetite, who from beneathe / Usurping over sovran Reason claimd / Superior sway: From thus distemperd brest,

IX-1132. Adam, estrang'd in look and alterd stile, / Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewd.

IX-1134. Would thou hadst heark'nd to my words, and stai'd / With me, as I besought thee, when that strange / Desire of wandring this unhappie Morn,

IX-1137. I know not whence possessd thee; we had then / Remaind still happie, not as now, despoild / Of all our good, sham'd, naked, miserable.

IX-1140. Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve / The Faith they owe; when earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude, they then begin to faile.

IX-1143. To whom soon mov'd with touch of blame thus Eve.

IX-1144. What words have past thy Lips, Adam severe,

IX-1145. Imput'st thou that to my default, or will / Of wandring, as thou call'st it, which who knows

IX-1147. But might as ill have happ'nd thou being by, / Or to thy self perhaps: hadst thou been there,

IX-1149. Or here th' attempt, thou couldst not have discernd / Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake; / No ground of enmitie between us known, / Why hee should mean me ill, or seek to harme.

IX-1153. Was I to have never parted from thy side? / As good have grown there still a liveless Rib.

IX-1155. Being as I am, why didst not thou the Head / Command me absolutely not to go, / Going into such danger as thou saidst?

IX-1158. Too facil then thou didst not much gainsay, / Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss.

IX-1160. Hadst thou bin firm and fixt in thy dissent, / Neither had I transgress'd, nor thou with mee.

IX- 1162. To whom then first incenst Adam repli'd,

IX-1163. Is this the Love, is this the recompence / Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, exprest

IX-1165. Immutable when thou wert lost, not I, / Who might have liv'd and joyd immortal bliss,

IX- 1167. Yet willingly chose rather Death with thee:

IX-1168. And am I now upbraided, as the cause / Of thy transgressing? not enough severe,

IX-1170. It seems, in thy restraint: what could I more?

IX-1171. I warn'd thee, I admonish'd thee, foretold / The danger, and the lurking Enemie / That lay in wait; beyond this had bin force,

IX-1174. And force upon free Will hath here no place.

IX-1175. But confidence then bore thee on, secure

IX-1176. Either to meet no danger, or to finde / Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps

IX-1178. I also err'd in overmuch admiring

IX- 1179. What seemd in thee so perfet, that I thought / No evil durst attempt thee, but I rue

IX-1181. That errour now, which is become my crime, / And thou th' accuser. Thus it shall befall

IX-1183. Him who to worth in Women overtrusting

IX-1184. Lets her Will rule; restraint she will not brook, / And left to her self, if evil thence ensue, / Shee first his weak indulgence will accuse.

IX-1187. Thus they in mutual accusation spent / The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning, / And of thir vain contest appeer'd no end.