CAIN.

I should be proud of thought

Which knew such things.

LUCIFER.

But if that high thought were

Link'd to a servile mass of matter, and,

Knowing such things, aspiring to such things,
And science still beyond them, were chain'd 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 foredoom'd to be
As frail, and few so happy-

CAIN.

Spirit! I

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,
And multiplying murder.

LUCIFER.

Thou canst not

All die-there is what must survive.

CAIN.

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.

LUCIFER.

I am angelic: wouldst thou be as I am?

CAIN.

I know not what thou art: I see thy power,
And see thou show'st me things beyond my power,
Beyond all power of my born faculties,

Although inferior still to my desires

And my conceptions.

LUCIFER.

What are they, which dwell

So humbly in their pride, as to sojourn

With worms in clay?

CAIN.

And what art thou, who dwellest

So haughtily in spirit, and canst range
Nature and immortality—and yet

Seem'st sorrowful?

LUCIFER.

I seem that which I am;

And therefore do I ask of thee, if thou

Wouldst be immortal?

CAIN.

Thou hast said, I must be

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.

CAIN.

And must torture be immortal?

LUCIFER.

We and thy sons will try. But now, behold!

Is it not glorious?

CAIN.

Oh, thou beautiful

And unimaginable ether! and

Ye multiplying masses of increased

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 aerial universe of endless
Expansion, at which my soul aches to think,
Intoxicated with eternity?

Oh God! Oh Gods! or whatsoe❜er ye are!
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.

LUCIFER.

Art thou not nearer? look back to thine earth!

CAIN.

Where is it? I see nothing save a mass

Of most innumerable lights.

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.