an extasy or in
a trance; in which was showed to him the celestial court. Wherefore when
he awoke he prophesied of the conjunction of Christ to his church, and
of the flood that was to come, and of the doom and destruction of the
world by fire he knew, which afterward he told to his children.

Whiles that Adam slept, God took one of his ribs, both flesh and bone,
and made that a woman, and set her tofore Adam. Which then said: This is
now a bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; and Adam gave her a name
like as her lord, and said she should be called virago, which is as much
as to say as made of a man, and is a name taken of a man. And anon, the
name giving, he prophesied, saying: Because she is taken of the side of
a man, therefore a man shall forsake and leave father and mother and
abide and be adherent unto his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh;
and though they be two persons, yet in matrimony and wedlock they be but
one flesh, and in other things twain. For why, neither of them had power
of his own flesh. They were both naked and were not ashamed, for they
stood both in the state of innocence. Then the serpent which was hotter
than any beast of the earth and naturally deceivable, for he was full
of the devil Lucifer, which was deject and cast out of heaven, had great
envy to man that was bodily in Paradise, and knew well, if he might make
him to trespass and break God's commandments, that he should be cast out
also.

Yet he was afeard to be taken or espied of the man, he went to the
woman, not so prudent and more prone to slide and bow. And in the form
of the serpent, for then the serpent was erect as a man. Bede saith that
he chose a serpent having a maiden's cheer [face], for like oft apply to
like, and spake by the tongue of the serpent to Eve, and said: Why
commanded you God that ye should not eat of all the trees of Paradise?
This he said to find occasion to say that he was come for. Then the
woman answered and said: Ne forte moriamur, lest haply we die, which she
said doubting, for lightly she was flexible to every part. Whereunto
anon he answered: Nay in no wise ye shall die, but God would not that ye
should be like him in science, and knowing that when ye eat of this tree
ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil, he as envious forbade you.
And anon the woman, elate in pride and willing to be like to God,
accorded thereto and believed him. The woman saw that the tree was fair
to look on, and clean a