Thou look'st almost a god; and
Lucifer.
I am none:
And having fail'd to be one, would be nought
Save what I am.
He conquer'd; let him
reign!
Cain. Who?

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Lucifer. Thy sire's Maker and the earth's. Cain. And heaven's, And all that in them is. So I have heard His seraphs sing; and so my father saith. Lucifer. They say — what they must sing and say on pain

Of being that which I am
Of spirits and of men.

Cain.
And what is that?
Lucifer. Souls who dare use their immor-
tality
Souls who dare look the Omnipotent tyrant

in

Are ye happy?

-

ence

and thou art

His everlasting face, and tell him that
His evil is not good! If he has made, 140
As he saith which I know not, nor be-
lieve

But, if he made us - he cannot unmake: We are immortal!-nay, he'd have us so, That he may torture:- let him! He is great

But, in his greatness, is no happier than We in our conflict! Goodness would not make

Evil; and what else hath he made? But let him

Sit on his vast and solitary throne,
Creating worlds, to make eternity
Less burthensome to his immense exist-
150

And unparticipated solitude;
Let him crowd orb on orb: he is alone

Save with the truth: was not the tree, the tree

Of knowledge? and was not the tree of life Still fruitful? Did I bid her pluck them

not?

Did I plant things prohibited within
The reach of beings innocent, and curious
By their own innocence? I would have
made ye

Gods; and even He who thrust ye forth, so thrust ye

200

Because 'ye should not eat the fruits of life,

And become gods as we.' Were those his words?

Cain. They were, as I have heard from those who heard them,

In thunder.

Lucifer. Then who was the demon? He Who would not let ye live, or he who would Have made ye live for ever in the joy And power of knowledge?

Cain. Would they had snatch'd both The fruits, or neither!

Lucifer. One is yours already; The other may be still. Cain.

How so?

Lucifer. By being Yourselves, in your resistance. Nothing

can

210

Quench the mind, if the mind will be itself
And centre of surrounding things — 't is
made
To sway.

Cain. But didst thou tempt my parents?
Lucifer.
I?

Poor clay! what should I tempt them for, or how?

Cain. They say the serpent was a spirit. Lucifer. Who Saith that? It is not written so on high: The proud One will not so far falsify, Though man's vast fears and little vanity Would make him cast upon the spiritual

nature

His own low failing. The snake was the snake

No more; and yet not tempted,

In nature being earth also more in wisdom, Since he could overcome them, and foreknew

The knowledge fatal to their narrow joys. Think'st thou I'd take the shape of things that die?

220

less than those he

Cain. But the thing had a demon? Lucifer. He but woke one In those he spake to with his forky tongue. I tell thee that the serpent was no more Than a mere serpent: ask the cherubim Who guard the tempting tree. thousand ages

When

230

Have roll'd o'er your dead ashes, and your seed's,

The seed of the then world may thus array Their earliest fault in fable, and attribute To them a shape I scorn, as I scorn all That bows to him who made things but to bend

Cain.

Ah!

I thought it was a being: who could do 261
Such evil things to beings save a being?
Lucifer. Ask the Destroyer.
Cain.

Who?

Lucifer.

The Maker - call him Which name thou wilt: he makes but to destroy.

Cain. I knew not that, yet thought it, since I heard

And thou?

Thoughts unspeakable Crowd in my breast to burning, when I hear Of this almighty Death, who is, it seems, Inevitable. Could I wrestle with him? I wrestled with the lion, when a boy, In play, till he ran roaring from my gripe. Lucifer. It has no shape; but will absorb all things

That bear the form of earth-born being.

269

Of death; although I know not what it is,
Yet it seems horrible. I have look'd out
In the vast desolate night in search of him;
And when I saw gigantic shadows in
The umbrage of the walls of Eden, chequer'd
By the far-flashing of the cherubs' swords,
I watch'd for what I thought his coming; for
With fear rose longing in my heart to know
What 't was which shook us all but no-
thing came.

And then I turn'd my weary eyes from off
Our native and forbidden Paradise,
Up to the lights above us,
in the azure,
Which are so beautiful: shall they, too,
die?

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