The Adamus exul of Grotius; or The Prototype of Paradise Lost — page 51: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

34 ADAMUS EXUL.- Starts from the rending soil, and with a wild, Though voiceless eloquence, utters—‘*‘ Woman, stay ; Hold thy mad hand. What! darest thou so profane This spell-bound symbol? Is not this the sole, The special prohibition of His will Who gave thee all things richly to enjoy ? Forbear, forbear in time. Who leads you on? One devilish and one brutal thing, the first— This metaphysical animal—and then Your own rash passion. Follow better guides. Let the free grace and bounty of thy God Touch thy hard heart, if thus already steeled To death’s unspeakable curse. Alas! what bliss Can these bestow : consider, and suspect Goods which begin in evil. Now, at least, Your sentence, undetermined, pendulous hangs Reels to and fro with ominous counsels crost. .On your own will.” My trembling anxious soul How long remain thus doubt-racked ? Courage, heart, Is all required ; why vex yourself with fears ? Why agonise with terrors. Come, be firm, Be bold and conquer. Cut the invincible knot, And be thy own free self, and prove at once The luxury of the apple. Wilt thou not Become a goddess then—thy spouse a god ? Wilt thou not scale the inaccessible walls Of heaven, and scan the immeasurable Vastness of vague infinity? Be wise, Be daring. For salvation’s self doth hang On this audacious bite. Wilt thou not bless, By this frank enterprise, the unnumbered heirs Of future ages? Shall thy children be Freeborn or slaves? As gods or mortal men? Which is the brighter destiny? For which Will throng’d posterity most ardently Revere their general mother? Then, if God Should see the happy consequence of sin He can no less than pardon; but for me "Tis better that he sees not. And, forsooth, If so severe he be ag to refuse The merited pardon, I must, even now, Be guilty in his sight, because so near The guilt I meditate. Already part Of the great feat is done: I have approached The tree—have plucked the fruit, and what is worse, Done it deliberately, calm, and bold ; And if I do no more, he will no less Indict me for a criminal. Alas! How vain to attempt to save the sliding step, Half way adown the giddy slope of crime. It is but idiotcy to anatomise (C@ inn @ DOO <S (c@