Indeed? hath God then said
that of the Fruit
               Of all these Garden Trees ye shall not eat,
               Yet Lords declared of all in Earth or Air?

               
            
            
               O Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,
               Mother of Science, Now I feel thy Power
               Within me clear, not only to discern
               Things in their Causes, but to trace the ways
               Of highest Agents, deemed however wise.
               Queen of this Universe, doe not believe
               Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die:
               How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life
               To Knowledge? By the Threatener, look on me,
               Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,
               And life more perfect have attained then Fate
               Meant me, by venturing higher then my Lot.
               Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
               Is open? or will God incense his ire
               For such a petty Trespass, and not praise
               Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
               Of Death denounced, whatever thing Death be,
               Deterred not from achieving what might lead
               To happier life, knowledge of Good and Evil;
               Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
               Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
               God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
               Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed:
               
               Your fear it self of Death removes the fear.
               Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,
               Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,
               His worshippers; he knows that in the day
               Ye Eat thereof, your Eyes that seem so clear,
               Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
               Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods,
               Knowing both Good and Evil as they know.
               That ye should be as Gods, since I as Man,
               Internal Man, is but proportion meet,
               I of brute human, ye of human Gods.
               So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off
               Human, to put on Gods, death to be wished,
               Though threatened, which no worse then this can bring.
               And what are Gods that Man may not become
               As they, participating God-like food?
               The Gods are first, and that advantage use
               On our belief, that all from them proceeds;
               I question it, for this fair Earth I see,
               Warmed by the Sun, producing every kind,
               Them nothing: If they all things, who enclosed
               Knowledge of Good and Evil in this Tree,
               That whosoever eats thereof, forthwith attains
               Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies
               Th'offence, that Man should thus attain to know?
               What can your knowledge hurt him, or this Tree
               Impart against his will if all be his?
               Or is it envy, and can envy dwell
               In heavenly breasts? these, these and many more
               Causes import your need of this fair Fruit.
               Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste.