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Cain: A Mystery

<h3>ACT II.</h3> <h4>Scene I.—The Abyss of Space.</h4> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Cain. I tread on air, and sink not—yet I fear To sink. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.   Have faith in me, and thou shalt be Borne on the air, of which I am the Prince. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Can I do so without impiety? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Believe—and sink not! doubt—and perish! thus Would run the edict of the other God, Who names me Demon to his angels; they Echo the sound to miserable things, Which, knowing nought beyond their shallow senses, Worship the word which strikes their ear, and deem10 Evil or good what is proclaimed to them In their abasement. I will have none such: Worship or worship not, thou shalt behold The worlds beyond thy little world, nor be Amerced for doubts beyond thy little life, With torture of my dooming. There will come An hour, when, tossed upon some water-drops, A man shall say to a man, "Believe in me, And walk the waters;" and the man shall walk The billows and be safe. I will not say,20 Believe in me, as a conditional creed To save thee; but fly with me o'er the gulf Of space an equal flight, and I will show What thou dar'st not deny,—the history Of past—and present, and of future worlds.[234] </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Oh God! or Demon! or whate'er thou art, Is yon our earth? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Dost thou not recognise The dust which formed your father? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Can it be? Yon small blue circle, swinging in far ether, With an inferior circlet purpler it still,30 Which looks like that which lit our earthly night? Is this our Paradise? Where are its walls, And they who guard them? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Point me out the site Of Paradise. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;How should I? As we move Like sunbeams onward, it grows small and smaller, And as it waxes little, and then less, Gathers a halo round it, like the light Which shone the roundest of the stars, when I Beheld them from the skirts of Paradise: Methinks they both, as we recede from them,40 Appear to join the innumerable stars Which are around us; and, as we move on, Increase their myriads. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And if there should be Worlds greater than thine own—inhabited By greater things—and they themselves far more In number than the dust of thy dull earth, Though multiplied to animated atoms,[235] All living—and all doomed to death—and wretched, What wouldst thou think? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;I should be proud of thought Which knew such things. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But if that high thought were50 Linked to a servile mass of matter—and, Knowing such things, aspiring to such things, And science still beyond them, were chained down To the most gross and petty paltry wants, All foul and fulsome—and the very best Of thine enjoyments a sweet degradation, A most enervating and filthy cheat To lure thee on to the renewal of Fresh souls and bodies, all foredoomed to be As frail, and few so happy—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Spirit! I60 Know nought of Death, save as a dreadful thing Of which I have heard my parents speak, as of A hideous heritage I owe to them No less than life—a heritage not happy, If I may judge, till now. But, Spirit! if It be as thou hast said (and I within Feel the prophetic torture of its truth), Here let me die: for to give birth to those Who can but suffer many years, and die— Methinks is merely propagating Death,70 And multiplying murder. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Thou canst not All die—there is what must survive. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;The Other Spake not of this unto my father, when He shut him forth from Paradise, with death Written upon his forehead. But at least Let what is mortal of me perish, that I may be in the rest as angels are. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. I am angelic: wouldst thou be as I am?[236] </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I know not what thou art: I see thy power, And see thou show'st me things beyond my power,80 Beyond all power of my born faculties, Although inferior still to my desires And my conceptions. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What are they which dwell So humbly in their pride, as to sojourn With worms in clay? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And what art thou who dwellest So haughtily in spirit, and canst range Nature and immortality—and yet Seem'st sorrowful? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I seem that which I am; And therefore do I ask of thee, if thou Wouldst be immortal? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Thou hast said, I must be90 Immortal in despite of me. I knew not This until lately—but since it must be, Let me, or happy or unhappy, learn To anticipate my immortality. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thou didst before I came upon thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;How? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. By suffering. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And must torture be immortal? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. We and thy sons will try. But now, behold! Is it not glorious? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Oh thou beautiful And unimaginable ether! and Ye multiplying masses of increased100 And still-increasing lights! what are ye? what Is this blue wilderness of interminable Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden? Is your course measured for ye? Or do ye Sweep on in your unbounded revelry Through an aërial universe of endless Expansion—at which my soul aches to think— Intoxicated with eternity?[237] Oh God! Oh Gods! or whatsoe'er ye are!110 How beautiful ye are! how beautiful Your works, or accidents, or whatsoe'er They may be! Let me die, as atoms die, (If that they die), or know ye in your might And knowledge! My thoughts are not in this hour Unworthy what I see, though my dust is; Spirit! let me expire, or see them nearer. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Art thou not nearer? look back to thine earth! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Where is it? I see nothing save a mass Of most innumerable lights. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Look there!120 </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I cannot see it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Yet it sparkles still. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. That!—yonder! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Yea. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And wilt thou tell me so? Why, I have seen the fire-flies and fire-worms Sprinkle the dusky groves and the green banks In the dim twilight, brighter than yon world Which bears them. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Thou hast seen both worms and worlds, Each bright and sparkling—what dost think of them? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. That they are beautiful in their own sphere, And that the night, which makes both beautiful, The little shining fire-fly in its flight,130 And the immortal star in its great course, Must both be guided. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But by whom or what? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Show me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Dar'st thou behold? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;How know I what I dare behold? As yet, thou hast shown nought I dare not gaze on further. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;On, then, with me.[238] Wouldst thou behold things mortal or immortal? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Why, what are things? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Both partly: but what doth Sit next thy heart? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;The things I see. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But what Sate nearest it? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;The things I have not seen, Nor ever shall—the mysteries of Death.140 </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. What, if I show to thee things which have died, As I have shown thee much which cannot die? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Do so. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Away, then! on our mighty wings! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Oh! how we cleave the blue! The stars fade from us! The earth! where is my earth? Let me look on it, For I was made of it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;'Tis now beyond thee, Less, in the universe, than thou in it; Yet deem not that thou canst escape it; thou Shalt soon return to earth, and all its dust: 'Tis part of thy eternity, and mine.150 </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Where dost thou lead me? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;To what was before thee! The phantasm of the world; of which thy world Is but the wreck. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;What! is it not then new? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. No more than life is; and that was ere thou Or I were, or the things which seem to us Greater than either: many things will have No end; and some, which would pretend to have Had no beginning, have had one as mean As thou; and mightier things have been extinct To make way for much meaner than we can160 Surmise; for moments only and the space Have been and must be all unchangeable. But changes make not death, except to clay; But thou art clay—and canst but comprehend That which was clay, and such thou shall behold. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Clay—Spirit—what thou wilt—I can survey.[239] </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Away, then! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But the lights fade from me fast, And some till now grew larger as we approached, And wore the look of worlds. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And such they are. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And Edens in them? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;It may be. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And men?170 </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Yea, or things higher. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Aye! and serpents too? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Wouldst thou have men without them? must no reptiles Breathe, save the erect ones? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;How the lights recede! Where fly we? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;To the world of phantoms, which Are beings past, and shadows still to come. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But it grows dark, and dark—the stars are gone! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And yet thou seest. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;'Tis a fearful light! No sun—no moon—no lights innumerable— The very blue of the empurpled night Fades to a dreary twilight—yet I see180 Huge dusky masses; but unlike the worlds We were approaching, which, begirt with light, Seemed full of life even when their atmosphere Of light gave way, and showed them taking shapes Unequal, of deep valleys and vast mountains; And some emitting sparks, and some displaying Enormous liquid plains, and some begirt With luminous belts, and floating moons, which took, Like them, the features of fair earth:—instead, All here seems dark and dreadful. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But distinct.190 Thou seekest to behold Death, and dead things? </div> <div class="stanza"> 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 To such, I would behold, at once, what I Must one day see perforce.[240] </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Behold! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;'Tis darkness! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And so it shall be ever—but we will Unfold its gates! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Enormous vapours roll Apart—what's this? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Enter! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Can I return? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Return! be sure: how else should Death be peopled?200 Its present realm is thin to what it will be, Through thee and thine. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;The clouds still open wide And wider, and make widening circles round us! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Advance! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And thou! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Fear not—without me thou Couldst not have gone beyond thy world. On! on!  [They disappear through the clouds. </div> </div> <h4>Scene II.—Hades.</h4> Enter Lucifer and Cain. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> 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 deemed 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 matter, which seemed made for life to dwell on,10 Rather than life itself. But here, all is So shadowy, and so full of twilight, that It speaks of a day past. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;It is the realm[241] Of Death.—Wouldst have it present? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Till I know That which it really is, I cannot answer. But if it be as I have heard my father Deal out in his long homilies, 'tis a thing— Oh God! I dare not think on't! Curséd be He who invented Life that leads to Death! Or the dull mass of life, that, being life,20 Could not retain, but needs must forfeit it— Even for the innocent! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Dost thou curse thy father? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Cursed he not me in giving me my birth? Cursed he not me before my birth, in daring To pluck the fruit forbidden? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Thou say'st well: The curse is mutual 'twixt thy sire and thee— But for thy sons and brother? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Let them share it With me, their sire and brother! What else is Bequeathed to me? I leave them my inheritance! Oh, ye interminable gloomy realms30 Of swimming shadows and enormous shapes, Some fully shown, some indistinct, and all Mighty and melancholy—what are ye? Live ye, or have ye lived? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Somewhat of both. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Then what is Death? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What? Hath not he who made ye Said 'tis another life? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Till now he hath Said nothing, save that all shall die. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Perhaps He one day will unfold that further secret. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Happy the day! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Yes; happy! when unfolded, Through agonies unspeakable, and clogged40 With agonies eternal, to innumerable Yet unborn myriads of unconscious atoms, All to be animated for this only! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. What are these mighty phantoms which I see Floating around me?—They wear not the form[242] Of the Intelligences I have seen Round our regretted and unentered Eden; Nor wear the form of man as I have viewed it In Adam's and in Abel's, and in mine, Nor in my sister-bride's, nor in my children's:50 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 which60 Live, and yet so unlike them, that I scarce Can call them living. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Yet they lived. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Where? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Where Thou livest. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;When? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;On what thou callest earth They did inhabit. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Adam is the first. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Of thine, I grant thee—but too mean to be The last of these. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And what are they? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;That which Thou shalt be. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But what were they? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Living, high, Intelligent, good, great, and glorious things, As much superior unto all thy sire Adam could e'er have been in Eden, as70 The sixty-thousandth generation shall be,[243] In its dull damp degeneracy, to Thee and thy son;—and how weak they are, judge By thy own flesh. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Ah me! and did they perish? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Yes, from their earth, as thou wilt fade from thine. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But was mine theirs? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;It was. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But not as now. It is too little and too lowly to Sustain such creatures. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;True, it was more glorious. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And wherefore did it fall? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Ask him who fells. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But how? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;By a most crushing and inexorable80 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;'Tis awful! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And true. Behold these phantoms! they were once Material as thou art. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And must I be Like them? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Let He who made thee answer that. I show thee what thy predecessors are, And what they were thou feelest, in degree90 Inferior as thy petty feelings and Thy pettier portion of the immortal part Of high intelligence and earthly strength. What ye in common have with what they had Is Life, and what ye shall have—Death: the rest Of your poor attributes is such as suits[244] Reptiles engendered out of the subsiding Slime of a mighty universe, crushed into A scarcely-yet shaped planet, peopled with Things whose enjoyment was to be in blindness—100 A Paradise of Ignorance, from which Knowledge was barred as poison. But behold What these superior beings are or were; Or, if it irk thee, turn thee back and till The earth, thy task—I'll waft thee there in safety. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. No: I'll stay here. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;How long? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;For ever! Since I must one day return here from the earth, I rather would remain; I am sick of all That dust has shown me—let me dwell in shadows. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. It cannot be: thou now beholdest as110 A vision that which is reality. To make thyself fit for this dwelling, thou Must pass through what the things thou seest have passed— The gates of Death. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;By what gate have we entered Even now? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;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 Is come! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And these, too—can they ne'er repass To earth again? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Their earth is gone for ever—120 So changed by its convulsion, they would not Be conscious to a single present spot Of its new scarcely hardened surface—'twas— Oh, what a beautiful world it was! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And is! It is not with the earth, though I must till it, I feel at war—but that I may not profit By what it bears of beautiful, untoiling, Nor gratify my thousand swelling thoughts With knowledge, nor allay my thousand fears[245] Of Death and Life. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What thy world is, thou see'st,130 But canst not comprehend the shadow of That which it was. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And those enormous creatures, Phantoms inferior in intelligence (At least so seeming) to the things we have passed, Resembling somewhat the wild habitants Of the deep woods of earth, the hugest which Roar nightly in the forest, but ten-fold In magnitude and terror; taller than The cherub-guarded walls of Eden—with Eyes flashing like the fiery swords which fence them—140 And tusks projecting like the trees stripped of Their bark and branches—what were they? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;That which The Mammoth is in thy world;—but these lie By myriads underneath its surface. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But None on it? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No: for thy frail race to war With them would render the curse on it useless— 'Twould be destroyed so early. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But why war? </div> <div class="stanza"> 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,150 And pangs, and bitterness; these were the fruits Of the forbidden tree. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But animals— Did they, too, eat of it, that they must die? </div> <div class="stanza"> 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 Fallen, all had stood. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;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!160 It was a lying tree—for we know nothing. At least it promised knowledge at the price[246] Of death—but knowledge still: but what knows man? </div> <div class="stanza"> 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;These dim realms! I see them, but I know them not. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Because Thy hour is yet afar, and matter cannot Comprehend spirit wholly—but 'tis something170 To know there are such realms. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;We knew already That there was Death. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But not what was beyond it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Nor know I now. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Thou knowest that there is A state, and many states beyond thine own— And this thou knewest not this morn. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But all Seems dim and shadowy. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Be content; it will Seem clearer to thine immortality. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And yon immeasurable liquid space Of glorious azure which floats on beyond us, Which looks like water, and which I should deem180 The river which flows out of Paradise Past my own dwelling, but that it is bankless And boundless, and of an ethereal hue— What is it? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.   There is still some such on earth, Although inferior, and thy children shall Dwell near it—'tis the phantasm of an Ocean. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. 'Tis like another world; a liquid sun— And those inordinate creatures sporting o'er Its shining surface? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Are its inhabitants, The past Leviathans. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And yon immense190[247] 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 looked on— Is he not of the kind which basked beneath The Tree in Eden? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Eve, thy mother, best Can tell what shape of serpent tempted her. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. This seems too terrible. No doubt the other Had more of beauty. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Hast thou ne'er beheld him? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Many of the same kind (at least so called)200 But never that precisely, which persuaded The fatal fruit, nor even of the same aspect. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Your father saw him not? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;No: 'twas my mother Who tempted him—she tempted by the serpent. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Good man! whene'er thy wife, or thy sons' wives, Tempt thee or them to aught that's new or strange, Be sure thou seest first who hath tempted them! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Thy precept comes too late: there is no more For serpents to tempt woman to. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But there Are some things still which woman may tempt man to,210 And man tempt woman:—let thy sons look to it! My counsel is a kind one; for 'tis even Given chiefly at my own expense; 'tis true, 'Twill not be followed, so there's little lost. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I understand not this. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;The happier thou!— Thy world and thou are still too young! Thou thinkest Thyself most wicked and unhappy—is it Not so? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. For crime, I know not; but for pain, I have felt much. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;First-born of the first man! Thy present state of sin—and thou art evil,220 Of sorrow—and thou sufferest, are both Eden[248] 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! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And wherefore didst thou Lead me here only to inform me this? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Was not thy quest for knowledge? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Yes—as being230 The road to happiness! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;If truth be so, Thou hast it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Then my father's God did well When he prohibited the fatal Tree. </div> <div class="stanza"> 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Not of all things. No— I'll not believe it—for I thirst for good. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And who and what doth not? Who covets evil For its own bitter sake?—None—nothing! 'tis240 The leaven of all life, and lifelessness. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Within those glorious orbs which we behold, Distant, and dazzling, and innumerable, Ere we came down into this phantom realm, Ill cannot come: they are too beautiful. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thou hast seen them from afar. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And what of that? Distance can but diminish glory—they, When nearer, must be more ineffable. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Approach the things of earth most beautiful, And judge their beauty near. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;I have done this—250 The loveliest thing I know is loveliest nearest. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Then there must be delusion.—What is that Which being nearest to thine eyes is still More beautiful than beauteous things remote?[249] </div> <div class="stanza"> 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 behold260 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;'Tis fair as frail mortality, In the first dawn and bloom of young creation,270 And earliest embraces of earth's parents, Can make its offspring; still it is delusion. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. You think so, being not her brother. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Mortal! My brotherhood's with those who have no children. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Then thou canst have no fellowship with us. </div> <div class="stanza"> 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? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Why do I exist? Why art thou wretched? why are all things so?280 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 suckling290 Lay foaming on the earth, beneath the vain And piteous bleating of its restless dam;[250] 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! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What didst thou answer? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Nothing; for He is my father: but I thought, that 'twere300 A better portion for the animal Never to have been stung at all, than to Purchase renewal of its little life With agonies unutterable, though Dispelled by antidotes. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But as thou saidst Of all belovéd things thou lovest her Who shared thy mother's milk, and giveth hers Unto thy children—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Most assuredly: What should I be without her? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What am I? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Dost thou love nothing? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What does thy God love?310 </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. All things, my father says; but I confess I see it not in their allotment here. </div> <div class="stanza"> 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Snows! what are they? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Be happier in not knowing What thy remoter offspring must encounter;[251] But bask beneath the clime which knows no winter. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But dost thou not love something like thyself? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And dost thou love thyself? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Yes, but love more320 What makes my feelings more endurable, And is more than myself, because I love it! </div> <div class="stanza"> 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Cease to be beautiful! how can that be? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. With time. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But time has passed, and hitherto Even Adam and my mother both are fair: Not fair like Adah and the Seraphim—330 But very fair. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;All that must pass away In them and her. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;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 me in seeing perish such a work. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. I pity thee who lovest what must perish. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And I thee who lov'st nothing. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And thy brother— Sits he not near thy heart? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Why should he not? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thy father loves him well—so does thy God.340 </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And so do I. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;'Tis well and meekly done. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Meekly! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;He is the second born of flesh, And is his mother's favourite.[252] </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Let him keep Her favour, since the Serpent was the first To win it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And his father's? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;What is that To me? should I not love that which all love? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And the Jehovah—the indulgent Lord, And bounteous planter of barred Paradise— He, too, looks smilingly on Abel. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;I Ne'er saw him, and I know not if he smiles.350 </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. But you have seen his angels. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain&zwj;Rarely. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But Sufficiently to see they love your brother: His sacrifices are acceptable. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. So be they! wherefore speak to me of this? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Because thou hast thought of this ere now. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And if I have thought, why recall a thought that—— (he 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 walked the earth Of which ours is the wreck: thou hast pointed out360 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? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Here, and o'er all space. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But ye Have some allotted dwelling—as all things; Clay has its earth, and other worlds their tenants;370 All temporary breathing creatures their Peculiar element; and things which have[253] Long ceased to breathe our breath, have theirs, thou say'st; And the Jehovah and thyself have thine— Ye do not dwell together? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No, we reign Together; but our dwellings are asunder. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Would there were only one of ye! perchance An unity of purpose might make union In elements which seem now jarred in storms. How came ye, being Spirits wise and infinite,380 To separate? Are ye not as brethren in Your essence—and your nature, and your glory? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Art not thou Abel's brother? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;We are brethren, And so we shall remain; but were it not so, Is spirit like to flesh? can it fall out— Infinity with Immortality? Jarring and turning space to misery— For what? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;To reign. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Did ye not tell me that Ye are both eternal? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Yea! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And what I have seen— Yon blue immensity, is boundless? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Aye.390 Cain. And cannot ye both reign, then?—is there not Enough?—why should ye differ? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;We both reign. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But one of you makes evil. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Which? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Thou! for If thou canst do man good, why dost thou not? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And why not he who made? I made ye not; Ye are his creatures, and not mine. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Then leave us His creatures, as thou say'st we are, or show me Thy dwelling, or his dwelling. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I could show thee Both; but the time will come thou shalt see one[254] Of them for evermore. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And why not now?400 </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thy human mind hath scarcely grasp to gather The little I have shown thee into calm And clear thought: and thou wouldst go on aspiring To the great double Mysteries! the two Principles! And gaze upon them on their secret thrones! Dust! limit thy ambition; for to see Either of these would be for thee to perish! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And let me perish, so I see them! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;There The son of her who snatched the apple spake! But thou wouldst only perish, and not see them;410 That sight is for the other state. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Of Death? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. That is the prelude. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Then I dread it less, Now that I know it leads to something definite. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And now I will convey thee to thy world, Where thou shall multiply the race of Adam, Eat, drink, toil, tremble, laugh, weep, sleep—and die! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And to what end have I beheld these things Which thou hast shown me? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Didst thou not require Knowledge? And have I not, in what I showed, Taught thee to know thyself? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Alas! I seem420 Nothing.[255] </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And this should be the human sum Of knowledge, to know mortal nature's nothingness; Bequeath that science to thy children, and 'Twill spare them many tortures. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Haughty spirit! Thou speak'st it proudly; but thyself, though proud, Hast a superior. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No! By heaven, which he Holds, and the abyss, and the immensity Of worlds and life, which I hold with him—No! I have a Victor—true; but no superior. Homage he has from all—but none from me:430 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 quenched!440 And what can quench our immortality, Or mutual and irrevocable hate? He as a conqueror will call the conquered[256] Evil; but what will be the Good he gives? Were I the victor, his works would be deemed The only evil ones. And you, ye new And scarce-born mortals, what have been his gifts To you already, in your little world? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But few; and some of those but bitter. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Back With me, then, to thine earth, and try the rest450 Of his celestial 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 overswayed460 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. </div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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