SCENE II.-Hades.
Enter Lucifer and Cain.

Cain. How silent and how vast are these dim worlds!

For they seem more than one, and yet more peopled Than the huge brilliant luminous orbs which swung So thickly in the upper air, that I

Had deem'd them rather the bright populace

Of some all unimaginable heaven,

Than things to be inhabited themselves,
But that on drawing near them I beheld
Their swelling into palpable immensity

Of inatter, which seem'd made for life to dwell on,
Rather than life itself. But here, all is
So shadowy and so full of twilight, that
It speaks of a day past.

Cain. What are these mighty phantoms which I Floating around me?-They wear not the form [see Of the intelligences I have seen

Round our regretted and unenter'd Eden,
Nor wear the form of man as I have view'd it
In Adam's, and in Abel's, and in mine,
Nor in any sister-bride's, nor in my children's:
And yet they have an aspect, which, though not
Of men nor angels, looks like something which,
If not the last, rose higher than the first,
Haughty, and high, and beautiful, and full
Of seeming strength, but of inexplicable
Shape; for I never saw such. They bear not
The wing of seraph, nor the face of man,
Nor form of mightiest brute, nor aught that is
Now breathing; mighty yet and beautiful
As the most beautiful and mighty which
Live, and yet so unlike them, that I scarce
Can call them living.

Intelligent, good, great, and glorious things,

As much superior unto all thy sire,
Adam, could e'er have been in Eden, as
The sixty-thousandth generation shall be,
In its dull damp degeneracy, to

Thee and thy son: and how weak they are, judge
By thy own flesh.

Cain.
Ah me! and did they perish?
Lucifer. Yes, from their earth, as thou wilt fade
Cain. But was mine theirs?
[from thine.
Lucifer.
Cain.

It is too little and too lowly to
Sustain such creatures.

Lucifer.

It was.
But not as now.

True, it was more glorious.

Ask Him who fells.

Cain. And wherefore did it fall?

Lucifer.

Cain. But how?

[other

Had more of beauty.
Lucifer.
Hast thou ne'er beheld him?
Cain. Many of the same kind (at least so call'd),
But never that precisely which persuaded

The fatal fruit, nor even of the same aspect.
Lucifer. Your father saw him not?
Cain.
No; 'twas my mother
Who tempted him-she tempted by the serpent.
Lucifer. Good man! whene'er thy wife, or thy
sons' wives,

Tempt thee or them to augl.t that's new or strange,
Be sure thou seest first who hath tempted them.
Cain. Thy precept comes too late; there is no
For serpents to tempt woman to.
[more

Lucifer.

But there Are some things still which woman may tempt

For crime, I know not; but for pain I have felt much.

Lucifer.

First-born of the first man!
Thy present state of sin, and thou art evil-
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.
Lead me here only to inform me this?
Lucifer. Was not thy quest for knowledge?
Cain.
Yes; as being

And wherefore didst thou

The road to happiness.

Lucifer.

Thou hast it.

Cain.

If truth be so,

Then my father's God did well

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. Not of all things. No: Ill not believe it-for I thirst for good.

Lucifer. And who and what doth not?

covets evil

For its own bitter sake? None-nothing! 'tis The leaven of all life, and lifelessness.

Cain. Within those glorious orbs which we beheld,

Distant, and dazzling, and innumerable,

Ere we came down into this phantom realm,

Ill cannot come: they are too beautiful.
Lucifer. Thou hast seen them from afar-
Cain.
And what of that?
Distance can but diminish glory; they,
When nearer, must be more ineffable.

Lucifer. Approach the things of earth most beautiful,

And judge their beauty near.
Cain.

I have done this-
The loveliest thing I know is loveliest nearest.
Lucifer. Then there must be delusion.

is that,

What

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
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
To gaze on it.

Lucifer.

'Tis fair as frail mortality,
In the first dawn and bloom of young creation,
And earliest embraces of earth's parents
Can make its offspring; still it is delusion.
Cain. You think so, being not her brother.
Lucifer.

Mortal!
My brotherhood's with those who have no children.
Cain. Then thou canst have no fellowship with us.
Lucifer. It may be that thine own shall be for me.
But if thou dost possess a beautiful
Being beyond all beauty in thine eyes,
Why art thou wretched?

Cain.

Why do I exist? Why art thou wretched? why are all things so? Even 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 ask'd This question of my father; and he said, Because this evil only was the path

To good. Strange good that must arise from cut
Its deadly opposite. I lately saw

A lamb stung by a reptile: the poor suckling
Lay foaming on the earth, beneath the vain
And piteous bleating of its restless dam,

What thy remoter offspring must encounter;
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
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.

To me? should I not love that which all love?
Lucifer. And the Jehovah-the indulgent Lord,
And bounteous planter of barr'd Paradise—
He, too, looks smilingly on Abel.
Cain.

I

Ne'er saw Him, and I know not if he smiles. Lucifer. But you have seen His angels. Cain.

Lucifer.

Rarely.

But

Sufficiently to see they love your brother:
His sacrifices are acceptable.

Cain. So be they! wherefore speak to me of this!
Lucifer. Because thou hast thought of this cre

I have thought, why recall a thought that-the pauses, as agitated]-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 walk'd the earth

Of which ours is the wreck; thou hast pointed out 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

Have some allotted dwelling-as all things;
Clay has its earth, and other worlds their tenants;
All temporary breathing creatures their
Peculiar element; and things which have

Long ceased to breathe our breath, have theirs, thou say'st;

And the Jehovah and thyself have thine-
Ye do not dwell together?

Lucifer.

No, we reign

Together: but our dwellings are asunder.

Cain. Would there were only one of ye! Fer chance

An unity of purpose might make union

In elements which seem now jarr'd in storms.
How came ye, being spirits, wise and infinite,
To separate? Are ye not as brethren in
Your essence, and your nature, and your glory?
Lucifer. Art thou not Abel's brother?

Cain.
We are brethren,
And so we shall remain: but were it not so,
Is spirit like to flesh? can it fall out?

Lucifer. That is the prelude. Cain. Then I dread it less, Now that I know it leads to sormething definite. Lucifer. And now I will convey thee to thy world, Where thou shalt multiply the race of Adain, Eat, drink, toil, tremble, laugh, weep, sleep, and die. Cain. And to what end have I beheld these things Which thou hast shown me?

Lucifer. Didst thou not require Knowledge? And have I not, in what I show'd,

Taught thee to know thyself?

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
Evil; 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 celestia! boons to you 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.

And longest; but no matter-lead me to him.
[They go up to the child.

How lovely he appears! his little cheeks,
In their pure incarnation, vying with
The rose leaves strewn beneath them.
Adah.

And his lips, too,

How beautifully parted! No; you shall not Kiss him, at least not now: he will awake soon