Lucifer. First-born of the first man! Thy present state of sin and thou art evil 220 Of sorrow — and thou sufferest, are both Eden In all its innocence compared to what Thou shortly may'st be; and that state again, In its redoubled wretchedness, a Paradise To what thy sons' sons' sons, accumulating In generations like to dust (which they In fact but add to), shall endure and do. Now let us back to earth! And wherefore didst thou Lead me here only to inform me this? Lucifer. Was not thy quest for knowledge? Cain. Thou hast it. did well as being 230 If truth be so, Then my father's God When he prohibited the fatal Tree. Lucifer. But had done better in not planting it. But ignorance of evil doth not save From evil; it must still roll on the same, A part of all things. Cain. I'll not believe it Not of all things. No for I thirst for good. Lucifer. And who and what doth not? Lucifer. Then there must be delusion. - What is that Which being nearest to thine eyes is still More beautiful than beauteous things remote ? Cain. My sister Adah.. - All the stars of heaven, The deep blue noon of night, lit by an orb Which looks a spirit, or a spirit's world— The hues of twilight-the Sun's gorgeous coming His setting indescribable, which fills My eyes with pleasant tears as I behold Him sink, and feel my heart float softly with him 261 Along that western paradise of clouds The forest shade, the green bough, the bird's voice The vesper bird's, which seems to sing of love, And mingles with the song of Cherubim, As the day closes over Eden's walls; All these are nothing, to my eyes and heart, Like Adah's face: I turn from earth and heaven Ev'n he who made us must be, as the maker Of things unhappy! To produce destruction Can surely never be the task of joy, This question of my father; and he said, Its deadly opposite. I lately saw 200 Lay foaming on the earth, beneath the vain And piteous bleating of its restless dam; My father plucked some herbs, and laid them to The wound; and by degrees the helpless wretch Resumed its careless life, and rose to drain The mother's milk, who o'er it tremulous Stood licking its reviving limbs with joy. What didst thou answer? He is my father: but I thought, that Lucifer. And, therefore, thou canst not see if I love Or no- except some vast and general purpose, To which particular things must melt like snows. Cain. Snows! what are they? Lucifer. Be happier in not knowing What thy remoter offspring encounter; must But bask beneath the clime which knows no winter. Cain. But dost thou not love something like thyself? Lucifer. And dost thou love thyself? Cain. Yes, but love more 320 What makes my feelings more endurable, And is more than myself, because I love it! Lucifer. Thou lovest it, because 'tis As was the apple in thy mother's eye; passed, and hitherto But time has Even Adam and my mother both are I have thought, why recall a thought (he pauses as agitated) · that Spirit! Here we are in thy world; speak not of mine. Thou hast shown me wonders: thou hast shown me those Mighty Pre-Adamites who walked the earth Of which ours is the wreck: thou hast pointed out 360 Myriads of starry worlds, of which our Own Is the dim and remote companion, in Infinity of life: thou hast shown me shadows Of that existence with the dreaded name dwells, In his especial Paradise or thine: Where is it? Lucifer. Here, and o'er all space. |