CAIN:

A MYSTERY.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-The Land without Paradise.-Time, Sunrise.

ADAM, EVE, CAIN, ABEL, ADAH, ZILLAH, offering a
Sacrifice.

Adam. GOD, the Eternal! Infinite! All-wise!-
Who out of darkness on the deep didst make
Light on the waters with a word-All Hail!
Jehovah ! with returning light-All Hail!

Eve. God! who didst name the day, and separate
Morning from night, till then divided never-
Who didst divide the wave from wave, and call
Part of thy work the firmament—All Hail!

Abel. God who didst call the elements into
Earth, ocean, air and fire-and with the day
And night, and worlds which these illuminate,
Or shadow, madest beings to enjoy them,
And love both them and thee-All Hail! All Hail!
Adah. God! the Eternal parent of all things!
Who didst create these best and beauteous beings,
To be beloved, more than all, save thee—

Let me love thee and them :-All Hail! All Hail!
Zillah. Oh, God! who loving, making, blessing all,

Yet didst permit the Serpent to creep in,
And drive my father forth from Paradise,

ΙΟ

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Keep us from further evil :-Hail! All Hail!

Adam. Son Cain! my first-born-wherefore art thou

Adam. But thou my eldest born? art silent still ?
Cain. 'Tis better I should be so.
Adam.

Wherefore so?

Adam. And we must gather it again.

Oh God! why didst thou plant the tree of knowledge? Cain. And wherefore plucked ye not the tree of life? Ye might have then defied him.

Adam.

Blaspheme not: these are Serpent's words.

Cain.

Oh! my son,

Why not?

The snake spoke truth; it was the Tree of Knowledge;
It was the Tree of Life: knowledge is good,

And Life is good; and how can both be evil?
Eve. My boy! thou speakest as I spoke in sin,
Before thy birth: let me not see renewed
My misery in thine. I have repented.
Let me not see my offspring fall into

The snares beyond the walls of Paradise,

Which even in Paradise destroyed his parents.
Content thee with what is. Had we been so,
Thou now hadst been contented.-Oh, my son !
Adam. Our orisons completed, let us hence,

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Each to his task of toil-not heavy, though

Needful: the earth is young, and yields us kindly
Her fruits with little labour.

Wilt thou not, my brother?

Zillah.

Abel. Why wilt thou wear this gloom upon thy brow, Which can avail thee nothing, save to rouse

The Eternal anger?

Adah.

Wilt thou frown even on me?

Cain.

My beloved Cain

No, Adah! no;

I fain would be alone a little while.
Abel, I'm sick at heart; but it will pass;
Precede me, brother-I will follow shortly.
And you, too, sisters, tarry not behind;
Your gentleness must not be harshly met :
I'll follow you anon.

Adah.

If not, I will

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[Exeunt ABEL, ZILLAH, and ADAH.

Life?-Toil! and wherefore should I toil?-because
My father could not keep his place in Eden?
What had I done in this ?-I was unborn :
I sought not to be born; nor love the state
To which that birth has brought me. Why did he
Yield to the Serpent and the woman? or
Yielding-why suffer? What was there in this ?
The tree was planted, and why not for him?
If not, why place him near it, where it grew
The fairest in the centre? They have but
One answer to all questions, ""Twas his will,
And he is good." How know I that? Because
He is all-powerful, must all-good, too, follow?
I judge but by the fruits-and they are bitter-
Which I must feed on for a fault not mine.
Whom have we here ?-A shape like to the angels

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Yet of a sterner and a sadder aspect
Of spiritual essence: why do I quake?
Why should I fear him more than other spirits,
Whom I see daily wave their fiery swords
Before the gates round which I linger oft,
In Twilight's hour, to catch a glimpse of those
Gardens which are my just inheritance,
Ere the night closes o'er the inhibited walls
And the immortal trees which overtop
The Cherubim-defended battlements ?

If I shrink not from these, the fire-armed angels,

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Why should I quail from him who now approaches?
Yet he seems mightier far than them, nor less
Beauteous, and yet not all as beautiful

As he hath been, and might be: sorrow seems
Half of his immortality. And is it
So? and can aught grieve save Humanity?
He cometh.

And being so, canst thou

I know the thoughts 100

How !

They are the thoughts of all

Leave them, and walk with dust?
Lucifer.

Of dust, and feel for it, and with you.
Cain.

You know my thoughts?

Lucifer.

Worthy of thought;-'tis your immortal part 2

2. According to the Manichæans, the divinely created and immortal

Which speaks within you.
Cain.

What immortal part?
This has not been revealed: the Tree of Life
Was withheld from us by my father's folly,
While that of Knowledge, by my mother's haste,
Was plucked too soon; and all the fruit is Death!
Lucifer. They have deceived thee; thou shalt live.
Cain.

But live to die; and, living, see no thing

To make death hateful, save an innate clinging,
A loathsome, and yet all invincible

Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I

Despise myself, yet cannot overcome-
And so I live. Would I had never lived!
Lucifer. Thou livest-and must live for ever.

not

The Earth, which is thine outward cov'ring, is
Existence-it will cease-and thou wilt be-
No less than thou art now.
Cain.

No more?

I live,

IIO

Think

No less and why

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Lucifer. It may be thou shalt be as we.

Cain. And ye?

Lucifer.

Are everlasting.

Cain.

Are ye happy?

Lucifer. We are mighty.

Cain.

Are ye happy?

Lucifer.

No: art thou?

Cain. How should I be so? Look on me!
Lucifer.

And thou pretendest to be wretched! Thou!

Poor clay !

Cain. I am :-and thou, with all thy might, what art

thou?

Lucifer. One who aspired to be what made thee, and Would not have made thee what thou art.

Cain.

Thou look'st almost a god; and

Lucifer.

Ah!

I am none:

And having failed to be one, would be nought

soul is imprisoned in an alien and evil body. There can be no harmony between soul and body.]