Chapter 9 8

This Paradise I give thee, count it thine To Till and keep, and of the Fruit to eat: [ 320 ] Of every Tree that in the Garden grows Eate freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth: But of the Tree whose operation brings Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set The Pledge of thy Obedience and thy Faith, [ 325 ] Amid the Garden by the Tree of Life, Remember what I warne thee, shun to taste, And shun the bitter consequence: for know, The day thou eatst therefore, my sole command Transgrest, inevitably thou shalt dye; [ 330 ] From that day mortal, and this happy State

Shalt loose, expelled from henceforth into a World Of woe and sorrow. Sternly he pronounced The rigid interdiction, which resounds Yet dreadful in mine eare, though in my choice [ 335 ] Not to incur; but soon his cleer aspect Return and gracious purpose thus renewed. Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth To thee and to thy Race I give; as Lords Possess it, and all things that therein live, [ 340 ] Or live in Sea, or Aire, Beast, Fish, and Fowle. In signe whereof each Bird and Beast behold After thir kinds; I bring them to receave From thee thir Names, and pay thee fealtie

With low subjection; understand the same [ 345 ] Of Fish within thir watry residence, Not hither summond, since they cannot change Thir Element to draw the thinner Aire. As thus he spake, each Bird and Beast behold Approaching two and two, These cowring low [ 350 ] With blandishment, each Bird stooped on his wing. I namd them, as they passed, and understood Thir Nature, with such knowledge God endud My sudden apprehension: but in these I found not what me thought I wanted still; [ 355 ] And to the Heavnly vision thus presumd.