“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 Made common and unhallowed ere our taste, Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet 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 Us his prime creatures, dignified so high, Set over all his works, which in our fall, For us created, needs with us must fail, Dependent made; so God shall uncreate, Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour lose;