LUCIFER. Thou hast seen both worms and worlds, Each bright and sparkling,-what dost think of them? CAIN. That they are beautiful in their own sphere, And the immortal star in its great course, Must both be guided. LUCIFER. But by whom or what? CAIN. Show me. LUCIFER. Dar'st thou behold? CAIN. How know I what I dare behold? as yet, thou hast shown nought I dare not gaze on further. LUCIFER. On, then, with me. Wouldst thou behold things mortal or immortal? The things I have not seen, Nor ever shall the mysteries of death. LUCIFER. What, if I show to thee things which have died, As I have shown thee much which cannot die? CAIN. Do so. LUCIFER. Away, then! on our mighty wings. 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. LUCIFER. 'Tis now beyond thee, Less in the universe, than thou in it : Yet deem not that thou canst escape it; thou CAIN. Where dost thou lead me? LUCIFER. To what was before thee! The phantasm of the world; of which thy world Is but the wreck. CAIN. What! is it not then new? LUCIFER. No more than life is: and that was ere thou Or I were, or the things which seem to us No end; and some, which would pretend to have As thou; and mightier things have been extinct But changes make not death, except to clay; CAIN. Clay, spirit! What thou wilt, I can survey. LUCIFER. Away, then! CAIN. But the lights fade from me fast, And some till now grew larger as we approch'd, And wore the look of worlds. To the world of phantoms, which Are beings past, and shadows still to come. CAIN. But it grows dark, and dark—the stars are gone! And yet thou seest. LUCIFER. CAIN. 'Tis a fearful light! No sun, no moon, no lights innumerable. Huge dusky masses; but unlike the worlds |