Or that, not myftic, where the fapient king
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
Much he the place admir'd, the perfon more.
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick, and fewers 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 fight, each rural found;
If chance,with nymphlike step, fair virgin pass,
What pleasing seem'd, for her now pleases more;
She most, and in her look fums all delight:
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
This flow'ry plat, the sweet recess of Eve,
Thus early, thus alone; her heav'nly form
Angelic, but more foft, and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gefture,or leaft action, overaw'd
His malice, and with rapin fweet 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 Heav'n, foon ended his delight,
And tortures him now more, the more he fees
Of pleasure not for him ordain'd: then foon
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.
Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what sweet Compulfion thus tranfported to forget
What hither brought us! hate, not love, nor hope 475
Of Paradife for Hell; hope here to taste
Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying; other joy
To me is loft. Then let me not let pafs
Occasion which now fmiles; behold alone
The woman, opportune to all attempts;
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh;
Whofe higher intellectual more I shun,
And ftrength; of courage haughty, and of limb
Heroic built; though of terrestrial mold,
Foe not informidable, exempt from wound,
I not; so much hath Hell debas'd, and pain
Infeebled 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 ftronger, under fhow of love well feign'd;
The way which to her ruin now I tend.
So fpake the enemy of mankind, inclos'd
In ferpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve
Addrefs'd his way; not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as fince, but on his rear,
Circular base of rifing folds, that tower'd,
Fold above fold a furging maze, his head
Crefted aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling fpires, that on the grass
Floted redundant: pleasing was his shape,
And lovely; never fince of serpent kind
Lovelier; not those that in Illyria chang'd
Hermione and Cadmus, or the God
In Epidaurus; nor to which transform'd
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was feen;
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio,the highth of Rome. With tract oblique 510
At first, as one who fought access, but fear'd
To interrupt, fide-long he works his way.
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 fail:
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath in fight of Eve,
To lure her eye; fhe,bufied,heard the found
Of rufling leaves, but minded not, as us'd
To such disport before her through the field.
From every beaft; 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 creft, and fleek enamel'd neck,
Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon fhe trod.
His gentle dumb expreffion turn'd at length
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad
Of her attention gain'd, with ferpent tongue
Organic, or impulfe of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began.
Wonder not, fovran Mistress, if perhaps
Thou canft, who art fole wonder; much less arm
Thy looks, the Heav'n of mildness, with disdain,
Difpleas'd that I approach thee thus, and gaze 535
Infatiate; I thus fingle, 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 celeftial beauty adore,
With ravishment beheld; there beft beheld
Where univerfally admir'd; but here,
In this inclosure wild, thefe beafts among,
Beholders rude, and fhallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Who fees thee? (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen
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 marveling; at length, Not unamaz'd,fhe thus in answer spake. What may this mean? language of man pronounc'd
By tongue of brute, and human sense express'd?
The firft at least of these I thought deny'd
To beafts, whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate found;
The latter I demur, for in their looks
Much reason, and in their actions oft appears.
Thee, Serpent, fubtleft beast of all the field
I knew, but not with human voice indued;
Redouble then this miracle, and say,
How cam'ft thou speakable, of mute; and how
To me fo friendly grown above the rest
Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight:
Say, for fuch wonder clames attention due.
To whom the guileful Tempter thus reply'd.
Empress of this fair world, refplendent Eve,
Easy to me it is to tell thee all
What thou command'st, and right thou fhould'st be' was, at first, as other beasts that
The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low,
As was my food; nor ought but food difcern'd,
Or fex, and apprehended nothing high:
Fill,on a day, roving the field, I chanc'd
A goodly tree far diftant to behold
Loaden with fruit of faireft colors mix'd,
Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze;
When from the boughs a favory odor blown,
Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense
Than fmell offweetest fennel, or the teats
|