Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/314

Would never from my heart. No no! I feel
The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe."
So having said, as one from sad dismay
Recomforted, and, after thoughts disturbed,
Submitting to what seemed remediless,
Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned: 920
"Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve,
And peril great provoked, who thus hast dared.—
Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence,
Much more to taste it under ban to touch . . .
But past who can recall, or done undo?
Not God omnipotent, nor Fate. Yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact
Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit,
Profaned first by the Serpent, by him first 930
Made common and unhallowed, ere our taste,
Nor yet on him found deadly; yet he lives;
Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as Man,
Higher degree of life; inducement strong
To us, as likely tasting to attain
Proportional ascent; which cannot be
But to be Gods, or Angels, demi-gods.
Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,
Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy