Chapter 11 10
So spake our general Mother, and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreprovd,
And meek surrender, half imbracing lean
On our first Father, half her swelling Breast [ 495 ]
Naked met his under the flowing Gold
Of her loose tresses hid: he in delight
Both of her Beauty and Submissive Charms
Smiling with superior Love, as Jupiter
On Juno smiles, when he impregns the Clouds [ 500 ]
That shed May Flowers; and pressed her Matron lip
With kisses pure: aside the Devil turn
For envie, yet with jealous leer maligne
Eyd them askance, and to himself thus plaind.
Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two [ 505 ]
Imparadist in one anothers arms
The happier Eden, shall enjoy thir fill
Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least, [ 510 ]
Still unfulfilled with pain of long pines;
Yet let me not forget what I have gained
From thir own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:
One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge calld,
Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidden? [515]
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should thir Lord
Envie them that? can it be sin to know,
Can it be death? and do they only stand
By Ignorance, is that thir happy state,
The proof of thir obedience and thir faith? [ 520 ]
O fair foundation laid whereon to build
Thir ruin! Hence I will excite thir minds
With more desire to know, and to reject
Envious commands, invented with design
To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt [ 525 ]
Equal with Gods; aspiring to be such,
They taste and die: what likelier can ensue?
But first with narrow search I must walk round
This Garden, and no corner leave unspid;
A chance but chance may lead where I may meet [ 530 ]
Some wandring Spirit of Heavn, by Fountain side,
Or in thick shade retirement, from him to draw
What further would be learned. Live while ye may,
Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return,
Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed. [ 535 ]
So saying, his proud step he scornful turn,
But with sly circumspection, and began
Through wood, through waste, ore hill, ore dale his roam.
Mean while in extreme Longitude, where Heavn
With Earth and Ocean meets, the setting Sun [ 540 ]
Slowly descended, and with right aspect
Against the eastern Gate of Paradise
Leveld his eevning Rayes: it was a Rock
Of Alablaster, pild up to the Clouds,
Conspicuous farr, winding with one ascent [ 545 ]
Accessible from Earth, one entrance high;
The rest was craggie cliff, that overhung
Still as it rose, impossible to climb.