Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how juft? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier fhunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be juft; 700
Not juft, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd:
Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
Why then was this forbid? Why, but to awe;
Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant,
His worshippers? He knows that in the day 705
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,
Yet are but dim, fhall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd, and ye fhall be as Gods,
Knowing both good and evil, as they know.
That ye fhall be as Gods, fince I as Man,
Internal Man, is but proportion meet;
I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods.

710

Ver. 702. Your fear itself of death removes the fear.] Juftice is infeparable from the very being and effence of God, so that could he be unjust, he would be no longer God, and then neither to be obeyed nor feared; fo that the fear of death, which does imply injustice in God, deftroys itself, becaufe God can as well ceafe to be, as to be juft. A Satanick fyllogifm. HUME.

Ver. 704.

Why, but to awe ;

Why, but to keep ye low &c.] The reader may here notice part of the Serpent's speech to Eve, in the Adamo del Cavalier Pona, Venet. 1664.-" Non conofcete l' artificio di chi v' impose d' aftenerui dal pomo: Quafi pentito Dio di hauerui creati così eccellenti, conofcendo, che di poco fiete inferiori à Lui: e che quel non molto, che vi manca per adeguarlo, può andar fupplito dalla virtu rara di queste pome, ve l' hà vietate, &c. Lib. i. p. 30, TODD.

So ye fhall die perhaps, by putting off
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wish'd,
Though threaten'd, which no worse than this can

bring.

715

720

And what are Gods, that Man may not become
As they, participating God-like food?
The Gods are first, and that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them proceeds:
I queftion it; for this fair earth I fee,
Warm'd by the fun, producing every kind;
Them, nothing: if they all things, who enclos'd
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whofo eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies
The offence, that Man fhould thus attain to
know?
726
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree
Impart against his will, if all be his?

ruption." NEWTON.

to put on Gods ;] The Scripture expreffion, "For this corruptible muft put on incor

Ver. 720. I question it; for this fair earth I fee, &c.] Compare the Cyclops of Euripides, v. 351.

Ἡ γῆ δ ̓ ἀνάγκη, κἂν θέλῃ, καὶ μὴ θέλη,

Τίκτεσα ποίαν, τάμα πιαίνει βοτά,

Α γω τι θύω, πλὴν ἐμοί, θεοῖσι δ' ε, κ. τ. λ.

STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. 727. What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree Impart against his will, if all be his ?] Dr. Bentley fays, that Milton had faid Gods in all the argument before, and therefore defigned here,

Or is it envy? and can envy dwell

In heavenly breafts?-Thefe, these, and many

more

730

Causes import your need of this fair fruit.
Goddefs humane, reach then, and freely tafte!
He ended; and his words, replete with guile,'
Into her heart too easy entrance won:
Fix'd on the fruit the gaz'd, which to behold 735
Might tempt alone; and in her ears the found
Yet rung of his perfuafive words, impregn'd
With reason, to her feeming, and with truth:
Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and wak'd'
An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell

"What can your knowledge hurt them, or this tree
"Impart against their will, if all be theirs?"

740

But Milton had faid God in v. 692, and v. 700: And, I think, he ufes the fingular number in the very next preceding fentence, v. 722.

"who enclos'd

"Knowledge of good and evil in this tree?"

So that him and his here refer to him, who enclos'd &c. PEARCE.

He feems to use both numbers promifcuously, fometimes fpeaking of God, fometimes of Gods; and, I think, we may obferve, that he generally fpeaks of Gods, when the fentiment would be too horrid, if it was fpoken of God. NEWTON.

Ver. 739. Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and wak'd An eager appetite,] This is a circumftance beautifully added by our author to the Scripture account, in order to make the folly and impiety of Eve appear lefs extravagant and monftrous. NEWTON.

I should not however attribute beauty to this circumstance on the ground, on which Dr. Newton has done it. All thefo

So favoury of that fruit, which with defire,
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,
Solicited her longing eye; yet first

Paufing a while, thus to herself she mus'd.

Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits, * Though kept from man, and worthy to be ad

mir'd;

740

Whose tafte, too long forborn, at first affay
Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The tongue not made for speech to speak thy
praise :

750

Thy praise he alfo, who forbids thy use,
Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree
Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;
Forbids us then to tafte! but his forbidding
Commends thee more, while it infers the good
By thee communicated, and our want:
For good unknown fure is not had; or, had
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,

755

little circumstances, marking the particular hour of any tranfaction and noting the proceffion of time, furnish materials that are interesting and enlivening; and I would estimate them as varying and relieving the general narration and description. It may be obferved that, in Paradife Regained, Milton has laid the temptation of the banquet nearly at noon, B. ii. 292,

Ver. 750.

DUNSTER.

he alfo, who forbids] As if it had not been God who had forbidden; but God was not now in all her thoughts. She afterwards profeffes herself ignorant of him, v, 775. NEWTON.

Forbids us good, forbids us to be wife?
Such prohibitions bind not. But, if death 760
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we fhall die!
How dies the Serpent? he hath eaten and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and difcerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone

Was death invented? or to us denied

766

This intellectual food, for beafts referv'd?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy 770
The good befallen him, author unsuspect,
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then? rather, what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,

775

Of virtue to make wife: What hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
So faying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, fhe pluck'd, fhe eat!
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her feat,

780

Ver. 780. in evil hour] Adam juftly repeats the expreffion in ver. 1067. It is Spenferian. See Faer. Qu. iv. iii. 20, vi. xi. 15. TODD.

Ver. 782.

and Nature from her feat, Sighing through all her works, gave figns of woe,] Compare the Sarcotis of Mafenius, lib. ii. p. 110, ed. Barbou;