Lucifer. No! By heaven, which He Holds, and the abyss, and the immensity Of worlds and life, which I hold with him-No!

I have a victor-true; but no superior.
Homage he has from all—but none from me:
I battle it against him, as I battled
In highest heaven. Through all eternity,
And the unfathomable gulfs of Hades,
And the interminable realms of space,
And the infinity of endless ages,
All, all, will I dispute! And world by world,
And star by star, and universe by universe
Shall tremble in the balance, till the great
Conflict shall cease, if ever it shall cease,
Which it ne'er shall, till he or I be quench'd!
And what can quench our immortality,
Or mutual and irrevocable hate?
He as a conqueror will call the conquer'd
Ecil; but what will be the good he gives?
Were I the victor,his works would be deem'd
The only evil ones. And you, ye new
And scarce-born mortals, what have been
his gifts

To you already in your little world?
Cain. But few; and some of those but bitter.
Lucifer. Back

With me, then, to thine earth, and try the rest
Of his celestial boons to ye and yours.
Evil and good are things in their own essence,
And not made good or evil by the giver;
But if he gives you good—so call him; if
Evil springs from him, do not name it mine,
Till ye know better its true fount; and judge
Not by words, though of spirits, but the fruits
Of your existence, such as it must be.
One good gift has the fatal apple given
Your reason:- -let it not be over-sway'd
By tyrannous threats to force you into faith
Gainst all external sense and inward feeling:
Think and endure,—and form an inner world
In your own bosom where the outward fails;
So shall you nearer be the spiritual
Nature, and war triumphant with your own.
[They disappear.

ACT

III.

Cain. Where?

Adah. Here, or

Have I not thee, our boy, our sire, and

brother,

And Zillah-our sweet sister, and our Eve, To whom we owe so much besides our birth? Cain. Yes--death, too, is amongst the debts we owe her.

Adah. Cain! that proud spirit, who withdrew thee hence,

Hath sadden'd thine still deeper. I had hoped The promised wonders which thou hast beheld,

Visions, thou sayst, of past and present worlds,

Would have composed thy mind into the calm

Of a contented knowledge; but I see Thy guide hath done thee evil: still I thank him,

And can forgive him all, that he so soon Hath given thee back to us.

Cain. So soon?

Adah. Tis scarcely

Two hours since ye departed: two long hours To me, but only hours upon the sun.

Cain. And yet I have approach'd that | sun, and seen

Worlds which he once shone on, and never

more

Adah. Alas! thou sinnest now my Cain; thy words

Sound impious in mine ears.
Cain. Then leave me!
Adah. Never,

Though thy God left thee.

Cain. Say, what have we here?
Adah. Two altars, which our brother
Abel made

During thine absence, whereupon to offer
A sacrifice to God on thy return.
Cain. And how knew he, that I would
be so ready

thought

Years had roll'd o'er my absence.
Adah. Hardly hours.

Cain. The mind then hath capacity of time,

And measures it by that which it beholds,
Pleasing or painful; little or almighty.
I had beheld the immemorial works
Of endless beings; skirr'd extinguish'd
worlds;

And, gazing on eternity, methought
I had borrow'd more by a few drops of ages
From its immensity; but now I feel
My littleness again. Well said the spirit,
That I was nothing!

Adah. Wherefore said he so?
Jehovah said not that.

Cain. No: he contents him With making us the nothing which we are; And after flattering dust with glimpses of Eden and Immortality, resolves It back to dust again-for what? Adah. Thou knowetEven for our parents' error. Cain. What is that

To us? they sinn'd, then let them die! Adah. Thou hast not spoken well, nor is that thought

Thy own, but of the spirit who was with thee.

Would I could die for them, so they might live!

Cain. Why, so say I-provided that one victim

Might satiate the insatiable of life,
And that our little rosy sleeper there
Might never taste of death nor human

in the sun

According to the curse:-must I do more?
For what should I be gentle? for a war
With all the elements ere they will yield
The bread we eat? For what must I be
grateful?

For being dust, and groveling in the dust,
Till I return to dust? If I am nothing-
For nothing shall I be an hypocrite,
And seem well pleased with pain? For
what should I

Be contrite? for my father's sin, already
Expiate with what we all have undergone,
And to be more than expiated by
The ages prophesied, upon our seed?
Little deems our young blooming sleeper,
there,

The germ of an eternal misery
To myriads is within him! better 'twere
I snatch'd him in his sleep, and dash'd him
'gainst

The rocks, than let him live to-
Adah. Oh, my God!

Touch not the child-my child! thy child!
Oh Cain!

Cain. Fear not! for all the stars, and all the power

Which sways them, I would not accost yon

Adak. Oh, do not say so! Where were

then the joys,

The mother's joys of watching, nourishing,
And loving him? Soft! he awakes. Sweet
Enoch! [She goes to the child.
Oh Cain! look on him; see how full of life,
Of strength, of bloom, of beauty, and of joy,
How like to me-how like to thee, when
gentle,

For then we are all alike; is 't not so, Cain?
Mother, and sire, and son, our features are
Reflected in cach other; as they are
In the clear waters, when they are gentle, and
When thou art gentle. Love us, then,my Cain!
And love thyself for our sakes, for we love
thee.

Look! how he laughs and stretches out his

arms,

And opens wide his blue eyes upon thine, To hail his father; while his little form Flutters as wing'd with joy. Talk not of pain! The childless cherubs well might envy thee The pleasures of a parent! Bless him, Cain! As yet he hath no words to thank thee, but His heart will, and thine own too.

Cain. Bless thee, boy!

If that a mortal blessing may avail thee,
To save thee from the serpent's curse!
Adah. It shall.

Surely a father's blessing may avert
A reptile's subtlety.

Cain. Of that I doubt;

But bless him ne'er the less.
Adah. Our brother comes.
Cain. Thy brother Abel.

Enter ABEL.

Abel. Welcome, Cain! My brother,

The peace of God be on thee!

Cain. Abel, hail!

I am a tiller of the ground, and must Yield what it yieldeth to my toil-its fruit: [He gathers fruits. Behold them in their various bloom and ripeness.

[They dress their altars, and kindle a flame upon them. Abel. My brother, as the elder, offer first Thy prayer and thanksgiving with sacrifice. Cain. No-I am new to this; lead thou the way,

And I will follow-as I may.

Abel (kneeling). Oh God!

Who made us, and who breathed the breath of life

Within our nostrils, who hath blessed us,
And spared, despite our father's sin, to make
His children all lost,as they might have been,
Had not thy justice been so temper'd with
The mercy which is thy delight, as to
Accord a pardon like a Paradise,
Compared with our great crimes:
Lord of light!

Sole

Of good, and glory, and eternity; Without whom all were evil,and with whom Nothing can err, except to some good end Of thine omnipotent benevolence— Inscrutable, but still to be fulfill'd— Accept from out thy humble first of shepherd's

First of the first-born flocks-an offering, In itself nothing -- as what offering can be Aught unto thee?-but yet accept it for The thanksgiving of him who spreads it in The face of thy high heaven,bowing his own Even to the dust, of which he is, in honour Of thee, and of thy name, for evermore!

Cain (standing erect during this speech). Spirit! whate'er or whosoe'er thou art, Omnipotent, it may be-and, if good, Shown in the exemption of thy deeds from evil;

Jehovah upon earth! and God in heaven!
And it may be with other names, because
Thine attributes seem many, as thy works:-
If thou must be propitiated with prayers,
Take them! If thou must be induced with
altars,

And soften'd with a sacrifice, receive them!
Two beings here erect them unto thee.
If thou lov'st blood, the shepherd's shrine,
which smokes

On my right hand, hath shed it for thy service
In the first of his flock, whose limbs now reek
In sanguinary incense to thy skies;
Or if the sweet and blooming fruits of earth,
And milder seasons, which the unstain'd turf
I spread them on now offers in the face
Of the broad sun which ripen'd them, may

seem

Good to thee, inasmuch as they have not Suffer'd in limb or life, and rather form A sample of thy works, than supplication To look on ours! If a shrine without victim, And altar without gore, may win thy favour,

Look on it! and for him who dresseth it, He is-such as thou mad'st him; and seeks nothing

Which must be won by kneeling: if he's evil, Strike him! thou art omnipotent, and mayst,

For what can he oppose? If he be good, Strike him,or spare him, as thou wilt! since all

Rests upon thee; and good and evil seem To have no power themselves, save in thy will;

And whether that be good or ill I know not,
Not being omnipotent, nor fit to judge
Omnipotence, but merely to endure
Its mandate; which thus far I have endured.
The fire upon the altar of ABEL kindles
into a column of the brightest flame,
and ascends to heaven ; while a whirl-
wind throws down the altar of Cain,
and scatters the fruits abroad upon
the earth.

Abel (kneeling). Oh, brother,
Jehovah's wroth with thee!
Cain. Why so?

pray!

Abel. Thy fruits are scatter'd on the earth. Cain. From earth they came, to earth

let them return;