248 PARADISE LOST. Boox.IX. Is open ? Or will God incenfe his ire For fuch a petty trelpafF, and not praife Rather your dauntlefs virtue, whom the pain Or death denounc'd (whatever thing death be) 695 Deter'd not from atchieving what might lead To happier life, knowledge of good and evil ? Of good, how juft ? of evil, (it what is evil Be real) why not known, fince eafier Ihunn'd ? God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be jull : 7©0 Not jut}, not God ; not fear'd then, nor obey'd : Your fear it felf of death removes the fear, Why then was this forbid ? Why, but to awe; Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant, His worfhippers : He knows that in the day 735 You eat thereof, your eyes (that feet fo clear, Yet are but dim) (hall perfealy be then Open'd and clear'd : and ye (hall be as Gods, Knowing both Good and Evil, as they know. That ye (hall be as Gods, fince I as Man, 710 Internal man, is but proportion meet : I of brute, human ; ye of human, Gods. So ye (hall die perhaps, by putting off Human, to put on Gods ; death to be wi(h'd 714. Tho' threaten'd, which no worfe than this can bring And what are Gods, that man may not become As they, participating God-like food ? The Gods are firft, and that advantage ufe On our belief, that all from them proceeds : I quettion it ! for this fair earth I fee, 720 Warm'd by the fun, producing every kind ; Them, nothing : if they all things, who inclos'd Knowledge of Good and Evil in this tree, That whofo eats thereof, forthwith attains Wifdom without their leave ? and wherein lies 725 Th' offence, that man ihould thus attain to know ? What
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