all Devolved; though should I hold my peace, yet thou Wouldst easily detect what I conceal. This woman, whom thou mad’st to be my help, And gav’st me as thy perfect gift, so good, So fit, so acceptable, so divine, That from her hand I could suspect no ill, And what she did, whatever in itself, Her doing seemed to justify the deed; She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
To whom the Sovereign Presence thus replied: “Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey Before his voice? or was she made thy guide, Superior, or but equal, that to her Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place Wherein God set thee above her, made of thee And for thee, whose perfection far excelled Hers in all real dignity? Adorned 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