Paradise Lost

by John Milton

or will God incense his ire231 For such a petty trespass, and not praise Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain232 695 Of death denounced, whatever thing death be,233, 234 Deterred not from achieving what might lead To happier life, knowledge of good and evil; Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil235 Be real, why not known, since easier shunned? 700 God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed:236 Your fear itself of death removes the fear. Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe, Why but to keep ye low and ignorant, 705 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. 710 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 off237 Human, to put on gods, death to be wished, 715 Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring. And what are gods that man may not become As they, participating god-like food?238