Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/332

She was indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts
Were such as under government well seemed;
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright."
So having said, he thus to Eve in few:
"Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?"
To who sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed,
Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge160
Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied:
"The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat."
Which when the Lord God heard, without delay
To judgment he proceeded on the accused
Serpent, though brute, unable to transfer
The guilt on him who made him instrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his creation; justly then accursed,
As vitiated in nature. Mere to know
Concerned not Man—since he no farther knew—
Nor altered his offence. Yet God at last171
To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied,
Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best;
And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall:
"Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed
Above all cattle, each beast of the field:
Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.
Between thee and the Woman I will put