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Should God create another Eve, and I
Another rib afford; yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart: no, no! I feel
The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.

So having said, as one from sad dismay
Recomforted, and after thoughts disturb'd
Submitting to what seem'd remediless,

Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turn'd:
Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve,
And peril great provok'd, who thus hast dared,
Had it been only coveting to eye

That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence;
Much more to taste it, under ban to touch.
But past who can recall, or done undo?
Not God omnipotent, nor fate: yet so

Perhaps thou shalt not die; perhaps the fact
Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit,
Profaned first by the serpent, by him first
Made common, and unhallow'd, ere our taste;
Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives;
Lives, as thou said'st, and gains to live, as man,
Higher degree of life: inducement strong
To us, as likely tasting to attain
Proportional ascent; which cannot be
But to be gods, or angels, demigods.
Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,

Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy
Us his prime creatures, dignified so high,
Set over all his works; which in our fall,
For us created, needs with us must fail,
Dependent made; so God shall uncreate,
Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour lose;

Not well conceived of God, who, though his power
Creation could repeat, yet would be loth
Us to abolish, lest the adversary

Triumph, and say,-Fickle their state, whom God
Most favours; who can please him long? Me first
He ruin'd, now mankind; whom will he next?—
Matter of scorn, not to be given the foe.
However, I with thee have fix'd my lot,
Certain to undergo like doom: if death
Consort with thee, death is to me as life;
So forcible within my heart I feel
The bond of nature draw me to my own;
My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;

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928. Perhaps thou shalt not die. How | mind, and its aptness to be warped into just a picture does Milton here give us of the natural imbecility of the human

false judgments and reasonings by passion and inclination!-THYER.

Our state cannot be sever'd; we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.
So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied:
O glorious trial of exceeding love,
Illustrious evidence, example high!
Engaging me to emulate; but, short
Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,

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Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung,

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And gladly of our union hear thee speak,

One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof

This day affords, declaring thee resolved,

Rather than death, or aught than death more dread,

Shall separate us, link'd in love so dear,

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To undergo with me one guilt, one crime,
If any be, of tasting this fair fruit;

Whose virtue (for of good still good proceeds,
Direct, or by occasion) hath presented
This happy trial of thy love, which else
So eminently never had been known?

Were it I thought death menaced would ensue
This my attempt, I would sustain alone

The worst, and not persuade thee; rather die
Deserted than oblige thee with a fact
Pernicious to thy peace; chiefly, assured
Remarkably so late of thy so true,

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So faithful, love unequall'd: but I feel

Far otherwise the event; not death, but life

Augmented, open'd eyes, new hopes, new joys,

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Taste so divine, that what of sweet before

Hath touch'd my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.

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So saying, she embraced him, and for joy

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Tenderly wept; much won, that he his love
Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur
Divine displeasure for her sake, or death.
In recompense, (for such compliance bad
Such recompense best merits) from the bough
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat,
Against his better knowledge; not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm.

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Earth trembled from her entrails, as again

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In pangs; and Nature gave a second groan;

Sky lour'd, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops

Wept at completing of the mortal sin

Original: while Adam took no thought,

Eating his fill; nor Eve to iterate

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Her former trespass fear'd, the more to soothe

980. Oblige is here used in the sense of the Latin obligo, "to render obnoxious to guilt and punishment."

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They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel

Divinity within them breeding wings,

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Wherewith to scorn the earth: but that false fruit

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Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him
As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn:
Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move:
Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of sapience no small part;
Since to each meaning savour we apply,
And palate call judicious: I the praise
Yield 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
In things to us forbidden, it might be wish'd,
For this one tree had been forbidden ten.
But come, so well refresh'd, now let us play,
As meet is, after such delicious fare;
For never did thy beauty, since the day
I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorn'd
With all perfections, so inflame my sense
With ardour to enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever; bounty of this virtuous tree!

So said he, and forbore not glance or toy

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Of amorous intent; well understood
Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire.

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Her hand he seized; and to a shady bank,

Thick over-head with verdant roof embower'd,

He led her nothing loth; flowers were the couch,
Pansies, and violets, and asphodel,

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And hyacinth; earth's freshest, softest lap.

There they their fill of love and love's disport

Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal,
The solace of their sin; till dewy sleep
Oppress'd them, wearied with their amorous play.
Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit,
That with exhilarating vapour bland
About their spirits had play'd, and inmost powers
Made err, was now exhaled, and grosser sleep,
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams
Encumber'd, now had left them, up they rose
As from unrest; and, each the other viewing,
Soon found their eyes how open'd, and their minds
How darken'd; innocence, that as a veil

1034. What a fine contrast does this description of the amorous follies of our first parents after the Fall make, to that

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lovely picture of the samne passion in its state of innocence, described at line 510 of the preceding book!-THYER.

Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone;
Just confidence, and native righteousness,
And honour, from about them, naked left
To guilty Shame: he cover'd, but his robe
Uncover'd more. So rose the Danite strong,
Herculean Samson, from the harlot-lap
Of Philistéan Dalilah, and waked

Shorn of his strength; they destitute and bare
Of all their virtue: silent, and in face

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Confounded, long they sat, as stricken mute:

Till Adam, though not less than Eve abash'd,

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At length gave utterance to these words constrain'd:
O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear

To that false worm, of whomsoever taught
To counterfeit man's voice; true in our fall,
False in our promised rising; since our eyes
Open'd we find indeed, and find we know
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 purity,

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Our wonted ornaments now soil'd and stain'd,
And in our faces evident the signs

Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store,

Ev'n shame, the last of evils; of the first

Be sure then. How shall I behold the face

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Henceforth of God or angels, erst with joy

And rapture so oft beheld? Those heavenly shapes

Will dazzle now this earthly, with their blaze
Insufferably bright. O, might I here
In solitude live savage, in some glade

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Obscured; where highest woods, impenetrable
To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad
And brown as evening! cover me, ye pines!
Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see them more!
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;

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Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sew'd, 1095
And girded on our loins, may cover round

Those middle parts; that this new-comer, Shame,
There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.

So counsell'd he, and both together went
Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose
The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd;
But such as at this day, to Indians known,

1058. He cover'd: That is, Shame perBonified. The meaning is, this Shame covered Adam and Eve with his robe,

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but this robe of his uncovered them
more.-NEWTON.-1059. The Danite, Sam.
son, who was of the tribe of Dan.
1102. Such, the banyan tree.

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In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade
High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between:
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade: those leaves 1110
They gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe;
And, with what skill they had, together sew'd,
To gird their waist; vain covering, if to hide
Their guilt and dreaded shame! O, how unlike
To that first naked glory! Such of late
Columbus found the American, so girt
With feather'd cincture; naked else, and wild
Among the trees on isles and woody shores.

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Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part
Cover'd, but not at rest or ease of mind,

They sat them down to weep; nor only tears

Rain'd at their eyes, but high winds worse within
Began to rise; high passions, anger, hate,
Mistrust, suspicion, discord; and shook sore
Their inward state of mind, calm region once
And full of peace, now tost and turbulent:
For understanding ruled not, and the will
Heard not her lore; both in subjection now
To sensual appetite, who from beneath
Usurping over sovran reason claim'd

Superiour sway: from thus distemper'd breast,

Adam, estranged in look and alter'd style,

Speech intermitted thus to Eve renew'd:

Would thou hadst hearken'd to my words, and stay'd

With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,

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I know not whence possess'd thee; we had then
Remain'd still happy: not, as now, despoil'd

Of all our good; shamed, naked, miserable!

Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve

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The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek
Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.

To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve: What words have pass'd thy lips, Adam, severe? Imputest thou that to my default, or will

Of wandering, as thou call'st it, which who knows
But might as ill have happen'd, thou being by,
Or to thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there,

Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discern'd
Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake;
No ground of enmity between us known,
Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm.
Was I to have never parted from thy side?
As good have grown there still a lifeless rib.

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