And cannot ye both reign then?—is there not Enough? why should ye differ? LUCIFER. We both reign. CAIN. But one of you makes evil. LUCIFER. Which? CAIN. Thou! for If thou canst do man good, why dost thou not? LUCIFER. And why not he who made? I made ye not; CAIN. Then leave us His creatures, as thou say'st we are, or show me Thy dwelling, or his dwelling. LUCIFER. I could show thee Both; but the time will come thou shalt see one Of them for evermore. CAIN. And why not now? LUCIFER. Thy human mind hath scarcely grasp to gather And clear thought; and thou wouldst go on aspiring CAIN. And let me perish, so I see them! LUCIFER. There The son of her who snatch'd the apple spake ! But thou wouldst only perish, and not see them; That sight is for the other state. CAIN. Of death? 97 That is the prelude. LUCIFER. CAIN. Then I dread it less, Now that I know it leads to something definite. LUCIFER. And now I will convey thee to thy world, Eat, drink, toil, tremble, laugh, weep, sleep, and die. CAIN. And to what end have I beheld these things Which thou hast shown me? LUCIFER. Didst thou not require Knowledge? And have I not, in what I show'd, Nothing. CAIN. Alas! I seem LUCIFER. And this should be the human sum Of knowledge, to know mortal nature's nothing ness; Bequeath that science to thy children, and "Twill spare them many tortures. No! By heaven, which He Holds, and the abyss, and the immensity Of worlds and life, which I hold with him-No! In highest heaven. Through all eternity, And the interminable realms of space, All, all, will I dispute! And world by world, Or mutual and irrevocable hate? He as a conqueror will call the conquer'd The only evil ones. And you, ye new And scarce-born mortals, what have been his gifts To you already in your little world? CAIN. But few; and some of those but bitter. LUCIFER. Back With me, then, to thine earth, and try the rest |