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Lucifer. First-born of the first man! Thy present state of sin and thou art evil

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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!
Cain.

And wherefore didst thou Lead me here only to inform me this? Lucifer. Was not thy quest for knowledge?

Cain.
Yes
The road to happiness!
Lucifer.

Thou hast it.
Cain.

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?

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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

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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,
And yet my sire says he's omnipotent:
Then why is Evil - he being Good?
I asked

This question of my father; and he said,
Because this Evil only was the path
To Good. Strange Good, that must
arise from out

Its deadly opposite. I lately saw
A lamb stung by a reptile: the poor
suckling

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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.
Behold, my son! said Adam, how from
Evil
Springs Good!
Lucifer.
Cain.

What didst thou answer?
Nothing; for

He is my father: but I thought, that

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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
beautiful,

As was the apple in thy mother's eye;
And when it ceases to be so, thy love
Will cease, like any other appetite.
Cain. Cease to be beautiful! how
can that be?
Lucifer. With time.
Cain.

passed, and hitherto

But time has

Even Adam and my mother both are

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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
Which my sire brought us — Death;
thou hast shown me much
But not all: show me where Jehovah

dwells,

In his especial Paradise or thine:

Where is it?

Lucifer.

Here, and o'er all space.

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