inobedient

(493-503) Raphael's speech is of course prelapsarian, and the dynamic capabilities of man seem somewhat diminished when they are found inobedient. Accordingly, with regard to mankind the dynamic capacity of the scala naturae appears to be only theoretical, yet in fact postlapsarian Adam and Eve ontologically decline not just in potentia but also in real terms: they are punished with the increased burdens of physical labour and childbirth labour and they change to become substantially one with the material dross of the created world which falls with them: "for thou / Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth, / For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return" (10.206-8).