He ended and his Words, full of Craft and Deceit, found a too eafy Entrance into her Heart; She fixed her Eyes upon the Fruit, and stood gazing, which only to fee was strong Temptation; and the Sound of his perfuafive Words yet was in her Ear, feeming to her full of Reafon and Truth: Mean Time it drew near the Hour of Noon, which excited her Appetite, raised by the delicious and favoury Smell of that Fruit; which occafioned her to look on it with longing Eyes, and at Length (being grown inclinable to touch or tafte) with Defire: Yet paufing a While, fhe first said musing to herself :

DOUBTLESS thy Virtues are great, thou best of Fruits, and worthy to be held in Admiration, though dened to MAN; whofe Tafte at once gave Eloquence to the Mute, and taught the Tongue that was not made for Speech, to speak thy Praife. He also, who forbids us thy Ufe, does not conceal thy Praise from us, naming thee the Tree of Knowledge, both of Good and Evil: Then forbids us to taste! but his forbidding only commends thee the more, while it acknowledges the Good thou wouldeft communicate to us, and difcovers to us, what we want and are debarred from: For the Good that we do not know, farely we have not; or if we have and dont know it, it is juft the fame Thing, as if we had it not at all. In plain Words then, what he forbids us is Knowledge; forbids us that which is good, forbids us to be wife? Such Prohibitions are not binding. ----- But, if DEATH fhould feize, and bind us afterwards, what Profit fhould we have from our inward Freedom? In the Day that we eat of this fair Fruit, our Doom is, THAT WE SHALL DIE.---- How does the Serpent die? He has eat of it, and lives, and knows, and Ipeaks, and reafons, and difcerns; though he was irrational 'till then. Was DEATH invented then

only

only for us? Or was this intellectual Food prohibited us, to be preserved for the Beafts? Yet, for the Beafts it feems! yet that one Beaft, which has tafted it first, he does not envy, but brings the Good befallen him, with Joy in a friendly Manner to MEN, without any Deceit or Guile. What am I afraid of then? Or rather, what do I know to fear under fuch Ignorance, of Good and Evil, of GOD or DEATH, of Law or Penalty? Here grows the Cure of all, this divine Fruit, beautiful to the Eye, inviting to the Taste, and whose Virtue is, to make thofe who eat it wife! What hinders then, but that I gather of it, and at once feed both Body and Mind?

So faying, in an evil Hour reaching forth her Hand to the Fruit, fhe plucked, and fhe eat. The whole Earth felt the Wound, and Nature fighing through all her Works, gave Signs of Woe that all was loft. The guilty Serpent flunk back again to the Thicket; which he might very cafily do, without being obferved by her, for fhe wholly intent upon her Tafte, minded nothing elfe; it feemed to her that she had never tasted Fruit with fuch Delight 'till then, whether it were true, or that fhe only fancied fo, through her great Expectation of high Knowledge; nor was Godhead from her Thoughts and Hopes. She eat greedily without Reftraint, and did not know that she was eating DEATH: At length fatisfied, and her Spirits lifted up as with Wine, jocund, and gay, fhe thus pleasingly began to fay to herself:

O SOVEREIGN, fulleft of Virtue, and moft precious of all the Trees in PARADISE! bleft in the Power to operate Knowledge, 'till now kept in Obscurity, and unknown; and thy fair Fruit fuffered to hang, as created for no Purpose: But henceforth (not without Song and due Praise every Morning) my early Care fhall be to tend thee, and ease the fruitful Burthen of

Nn 2

thy

thy full Branches, which are freely offered to all; 'till by feeding on thee I grow ripe in Knowledge, as the Gods who know all Things; though it appear by them, that others envy what they cannot give; for if the Gift had been theirs, it had never grown here.. Experience next to Knowledge I owe to thee, thou beft Guide! for not following thee, I had remained in Ignorance: Thou openeft the Way of Wisdom, and givest Access to her, though fhe may retire in fecret : Perhaps I am in fecret; Heaven is a great Way off, very high, and 'tis remote from thence to fee diftinctly every Thing upon Earth; and perhaps fome other Care may have diverted our great Forbidder from his continual Wrath, fafe with all his Spies about him. ----But in what Manner fhall I appear to ADAM? Shall I as yet make my Change known to him, and let him partake full Happinefs with me? Or rather not do it, but keep the Odds of Knowledge in my own Power without an equal Partner? and fo make an Addition of what is wanting in the Female Sex, to draw his Love the more, and render me more his Equal; and perhaps (which is a Thing very defirable) fometimes his Superior; for being inferior, who is free? This may do well.-----But what if GOD has feen me, and DEATH fhould follow? Then I fhall be no more! and ADAM will be wedded to another EVE, and live enjoying all Happinefs with her, when I am dead: O it is DEATH to think of that! then I am confirmed in my Refolution, that ADAM fhall fhare with me in Happiness or Mifery: So dearly I love him, that I could endure all DEATH with him, nor would live any Life without him.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

Eve brings of the Fruit to Adam, he eats alfo the Effects thereof on them both.

S

AYING this, Eve turned from the Tree, ha

ving first bowed low to it, as in Reverence to

the Power that dwelt within; who had infused into the Plant, what could communicate Knowledge, and fit to be partook of by Gods. Mean Time ADAM, waiting for and defiring her Return, had wove a Garland of the choiceft Flowers to adorn her Hair, and crown her, after her rural Labour, as Reapers are accustomed to do their Harvest Queen: He promised great Joy to himfelf, and new Delight at her Return, which was fo long delayed; yet his Heart foreboding fomething ill, often mifgave him, and he felt it fail him; fo that he went forth to meet her in the Way that fhe took that Morning, when they firft parted. He could not pafs any other Way, but by the Tree of Knowledge, and there he met her juft returning from it; in her Hand fhe had a Bough of fairest Fruit with the Down on it, juft gathered, of beautiful Appearance and delicious Fragrancy. She hafted to him, and in her Face feemed to carry an Excufe, and an Apology for what was done; which with pleafing Words, that to her were never wanting, fhe thus addreffed to ADAM:

HAST thou not wondered at my Stay? I have miffed thee, and thought it long, deprived of thy Prefence; I have had fuch Anxiety of Mind, fuch Agony of Love, which I never knew 'till now, nor ever will again; for I never more intend to try (what I now rafhly have) what Pain there is in being abfent from thee. But ftrange and wonderful to hear hath been the Caufe: This Tree is not, as we have been

told

told, dangerous to talte of, nor opening the Way to any unknown Evil; but of divine Effect to open their Eyes, and make them Gods, who tafte of it, and fuch it has been tafted. The wife Serpent, (either not forbid like us, or elfe not obeying) he hath eaten of the Fruit and is not become dead, as we were threatened; but instead of that, indued with human Voice and Senfe, reasoning to Admiration! and with fuch Perfuafion hath fo wrought and prevailed with me, that I have tasted too, and have found the Effects to correspond too with me; my Eyes that were before dim, grown opener; my Spirits dilated, my Heart enlarged, and I growing up to Godhead: Which I chiefly fought for thee, and can despise without thee; for Happiness is only fo to me, while thou haft Part; it would foon grow tedious and odious, if thou didst not fhare it with me: Therefore do thou taste too, that the fame Lot may join us, equal Joy, and equal Love; left, if thou tafte not, Difference of Degree fhould feparate us, and I too late fhould defire to renounce Deity for thy Sake, when Fate will not per

mit it.

THUS EVE told her Story with a chearful Countenance; but there was fomething like Diffimulation and Shame, flushing on her Cheek. ADAM, on the other Side, as foon as he heard of the fatal Trefpafs committed by EVE, stood astonished and confounded, while a cold Horror ran through all his Veins, and relaxed his Joints. The Garland he had wreathed for EVE he let fall out of his Hand, and fhed all the faded Rofes; he remained speechlefs and pale, 'till at Length he first to himself broke inward Silence :

O FAIREST Part of Greation! the last and best of all God's Works! a Creature who excelled whatever can be formed either to Sight or Thought, of holy, divine, good, amiable, or fweet! how art thou loft,

how