was gifted with greater
knowledge than he had yet enjoyed and endowed with the power of
speech. Deeming the fruit of such a tree might have equally beneficial
effects upon her and make her more nearly equal to her consort, Eve
longs to partake of it too, and readily follows her guide to the
centre of the garden. But, when the serpent points out the forbidden
tree, Eve prepares to withdraw, until the tempter assures her God's
prohibition was not intended to be obeyed. He argues that, although he
has tasted the fruit he continues to live and has obtained new
faculties, and by this specious reasoning induces Eve to pluck and eat
the fruit. As it touches her lips nature gives "signs of woe," and
the guilty serpent links back into the thicket, leaving Eve to gorge
upon the fruit whose taste affords her keener delight than she ever
experienced before. In laudatory terms she now promises to care for
the tree, and then wonders whether Adam will perceive any difference
in her, and whether it will be wise to impart to him the happiness she
has tasted. Although at first doubtful, Eve, fearing lest death may
ensue and Adam replace her by another partner, determines to induce
her husband to share this food too, for she loves Adam too dearly to
live without him.

"Confirmed then I resolve,
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life."

This decision reached, Eve hastens to Adam, and volubly explains that
the tree is not what God depicted, for the serpent, having tasted of
its fruit, has been endowed with eloquence so persuasive that he has
induced her to taste it too. Horror-stricken, Adam wails his wife is
lost; then he wonders how he will be able to exist without her, and is
amazed to think she should have yielded to the very first onslaught of
their foe. But, after this first outburst of grief, he vows he will
share her doom and die with her. Having made a decision so flattering
to Eve, he accepts the fruit which she tenders, and nature again
shudders, for Adam, although not deceived, yields to temptation
because of his love for Eve. No sooner have both fed upon the tree
than its effects become patent, for it kindles within them the
never-before-experienced sense of lust. The couple therefore emerge on
the morrow from their bower, their innocence lost, and overwhelmed,
for the first time in their lives, by a crushing sense of shame. Good