Cain. Why, what are things? Lucifer. Both partly: but what doth Sit next thy heart? Cain. The things I see. Sate nearest it? Cain. The things I have not seen, Nor ever shall-the mysteries of death. Lucifer. What, if I show to thee things which have died, Cain. But it grows dark, and dark-the stars are gone! Lucifer. And yet thon seest. No sun, no moon, no lights innumerable. As I have shown thee much which cannot die? Seem'd full of life even when their atmoCain. Do so. Lucifer. Away, then! on our mighty wings. Cain. Oh! how we cleave the blue! The stars fade from us! sphere Of light gave way, and show'd them taking shapes Unequal, of deep valleys and vast mountains; The earth! where is my earth? let me look | And some emitting sparks, and some dis on it, For I was made of it. Lucifer. 'Tis now beyond thee, Less in the universe, than thou in it: playing Enormous liquid plains, and some begirt With luminous belts, and floating moons, which took instead, Yet deem not that thou canst escape it; thou Like them the features of fair earth:— Shalt soon return to earth, and all its dust; 'Tis part of thy eternity, and mine. Cain. Where dost thou lead me? Lucifer. To what was before thee! The phantasm of the world; of which thy world can survey. Lucifer. Away, then! Cain. But the lights fade from me fast, And some till now grew larger as we approach'd, And wore the look of worlds. Lucifer. And such they are. Lucifer. It may be. Cain. And men? Lucifer. Yea, or things higher. Lucifer. Wouldst thou have men without them? must no reptiles Breathe, save the erect ones? Cain. How the lights recede! Where fly we? Lucifer. To the world of phantoms, which Are beings past, and shadows still to come. All here seems dark and dreadful. Thou seekest to behold death, and dead things? Cain. I seek it not; but as I know there are Such, and that my sire's sin makes him and me, And all that we inherit, liable Cain. "Tis darkness. Lucifer. And so it shall be ever; but we will Unfold its gates! Cain. Enormous vapours roll Cain. Can I return? Lucifer. Return! be sure: how else should death be peopled? Its present realm is thin to what it will be, Through thee and thine. Cain. The clouds still open wide And wider, and make widening circles round us. Lucifer. Advance! Cain. And thou! Lucifer. Fear not-without me thou Couldst not have gone beyond thy world. On! on! [They disappear through the clouds. 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 | If not the last, rose higher than the first; Of some all unimaginable Heaven Rather than life itself. But here, all is Lucifer. It is the realm Of death.-Wouldst have it present? That which it really is, I cannot answer. Lucifer. Dost thou curse thy father? Cain. Cursed he not me in giving me my birth? Cursed he not me before my birth, in daring To pluck the fruit forbidden? Lucifer. Thou sayst well: 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 Lucifer. Yet they lived. Lucifer. Where Thou livest. Cain. When? Lucifer. On what thou callest earth They did inhabit. Cain. Adam is the first. Lucifer. Of thine, I grant thee—but too mean to be The last of these. Cain. And what are they? Thou shalt be. Cain. But what were they? The curse is mutual 'twixt thy sire and thee Intelligent, good, great, and glorious things, But for thy sons and brother! Cain. Let them share it With me, their sire and brother! What else is Bequeath'd to me? I leave them my inheritance. Oh ye interminable gloomy realms Lucifer. Somewhat of both. Lucifer. What? Hath not he who made ye Said 'tis another life? Cain. Till now he hath Said nothing, save that all shall die. He one day will unfold that further secret. Lucifer. Yes, happy! when unfolded Through agonies unspeakable, and clogg'd With agonies eternal, to innumerable Yet unborn myriads of unconscious atoms, All to be animated for this only! Cain. What are these mighty phantoms which I see Floating around me?-they wear not the form As much superior unto all thy sire, By thy own flesh. Cain. Ah me! and did they perish? Lucifer. Yes, from their earth, as thou wilt fade from thine. Cain. But was mine theirs? Cain. But not as now. It is too little and too lowly to Lucifer, True, it was more glorious. Lucifer. By a most crushing and inexorable Destruction and disorder of the elements, Which struck a world to chaos, as a chaos Subsiding has struck out a world: such things, Though rare in time, are frequent in eternity. Pass on, and gaze upon the past. Lucifer. And true. Behold these phantoms! they were once Of the intelligences I have seen not Of men nor angels, looks like something, which, Material as thou art. Cain. And must I be Lucifer. Let Him who made thee answer that. I show thee what thy predecessors are, And what they were thou feelest, in degree | Roar nightly in the forest, but ten-fold In magnitude and terror; taller than rest Of your poor attributes is such as suits Reptiles engender'd out of the subsiding Slime of a mighty universe, crush'd into A scarcely-yet shaped planet, peopled with Things whose enjoyment was to be in blindness A Paradise of Ignorance, from which Cain. No: I'll stay here. I must one day return here from the earth, Lucifer. It cannot be: thou now beholdest as A vision that which is reality. To make thyself fit for this dwelling, thou Must pass through what the things thou seest have pass'd The gates of death. Cain. By what gate have we enter'd Even now? Lucifer. By mine! But, plighted to return, My spirit buoys thee up to breathe in regions Where all is breathless save thyself. Gaze on; But do not think to dwell here till thine hour ls come. Cain. And these,too; can they ne'er repass To earth again? And tusks projecting like the trees stripp'd of The Mammoth is in thy world; but these lie Lucifer. No: for thy frail race to war With them would render the curse on it useless "Twould be destroy'd so early. Cain. But why war? Lucifer. You have forgotten the denunciation Which drove your race from Eden war with all things, And death to all things, and disease to most things, And pangs, and bitterness; these were the fruits Of the forbidden tree. Cain. But animalsDid they too eat of it, that they must die? Lucifer. Your Maker told ye, they were made for you, As you for him.-You would not have their doom Superior to your own? Had Adam not Cain. Alas! the hopeless wretches! They too must share my sire's fate, like his sons; Like them, too, without having shared the apple; Like them, too, without the so dear-bought knowledge! It was a lying tree-for we know nothing. At least it promised knowledge at the price death-but knowledge still: but what Lucifer. Their earth is gone for ever-Of It is not with the earth, though I must till it, knows man? Lucifer. It may be death leads to the highest knowledge; And being of all things the sole thing certain, | At least leads to the surest science: therefore The tree was true, though deadly. Cain. These dim realms! I see them, but I know them not. Thy hour is yet afar, and matter cannot Comprehend spirit wholly-but 'tis something To know there are such realms. Lucifer. But not what was beyond it. Lucifer. Thou knowst that there is And those inordinate creatures sporting o'er Its shining surface? Lucifer. Are its habitants, The past leviathans. Cain. And yon immense Serpent, which rears his dripping mane and vasty Head ten times higher than the haughtiest cedar Forth from the abyss, looking as he could coil Himself around the orbs we lately look'd onIs he not of the kind which bask'd beneath The tree in Eden? Lucifer. Eve, thy mother, best Can tell what shape of serpent tempted her. Cain. This seems too terrible. No doubt the other Thy world and thou are still too young! Thyself most wicked and unhappy: is it Cain. 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 mayst be; and that state again, In its redoubled wretchedness, a Paradise Cain. And wherefore didst thou The road to happiness. Lucifer. If truth be so, Thou hast it. Cain. Then my father's God did well When he prohibited the fatal tree. Lucifer. But had done better in not But ignorance of evil doth not save Cain. Not of all things. No: I'll not believe it-for I thirst for good. Lucifer. And who and what doth not? Who covets evil For its own bitter sake? None-nothing! 'tis The leaven of all life and lifelessness. Cain. Within those glorious orbs which we behold Why art thou wretched? why are all Will cease, like any other appetite. things so? 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: My father pluck'd some herbs, and laid them to The wound; and by degrees the helpless wretch Resumed its careless life, and rose to drain Lucifer. What didst thou answer? He is my father: but I thought, that 'twere Never to have been stung at all, than to Lucifer. But as thou saidst Of all beloved things thou lovest her Who shared thy mother's milk, and giveth hers Unto thy children - Cain. Cease to be beautiful! how can that be? Lucifer. With time.. Cain. But time has past, and hitherto Even Adam and my mother both are fair: Not fair like Adah and the seraphim— But very fair. Lucifer. All that must pass away In them and her. Cain. I'm sorry for it; but Cannot conceive my love for her the less. And when her beauty disappears, methinks He who creates all beauty will lose more Than I in seeing perish such a work. Lucifer. I pity thee who lovest what must perish. Cain. And I thee who lov'st nothing. < Lucifer. And thy brotherSits he not near thy heart? Cain, Why should he not? Lucifer. Thy father loves him well-so does thy God. |