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 Of swimming shadows and enormous shapes, 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 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. 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? Lucifer. Their earth is gone for ever- It is not with the earth, though I must till it, 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 animals Did 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 Of death-but knowledge still: but what knows man? Lucifer. It may be death leads to the highest knowledge; And being of all things the sole thing certain, Atleast 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. That there was death. Lucifer. But not what was beyond it. Cain. Nor know I now. Lucifer. Thou knowst that there is A state, and many states beyond thine own— And this thou knewest not this morn. 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 Had more of beauty. Lucifer. Hast thou ne'er beheld him? Cain. Many of the same kind (at least so call'd), But never that precisely which persuaded The fatal fruit, nor even of the same aspect. Lucifer. Your father saw him not? Cain. No: 'twas my mother Who tempted him--she tempted by the serpent. 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. Cain. Thy precept comes too late: there is no more For serpents to tempt woman to. Lucifer. But there Are some things still which woman may tempt man to, And man tempt woman:-let thy sons look to it! My counsel is a kind one; for 'tis even 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! 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 planting it. 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 As was the apple in thy mother's eye; Cain. But time has past, and hitherto Even he who made us must be as the maker Its deadly opposite. I lately saw The wound; and by degrees the helpless 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— Lucifer. All that must pass away Cain. I'm sorry for it; but Cain. And I thee who lov'st nothing. Cain, Why should he not? Cain. And so do I. Lucifer. 'Tis well and meekly done. Lucifer. He is the second-born of flesh, Cain. Let him keep Her favour, since the serpent was the first Lucifer. And his father's? Cain. What is that To me? should I not love that which all love? Lucifer. And the Jehovah—the indulgent Lord, I have thought, why recal 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 walk'd the earth Of which ours is the wreck; thou hast pointed out Myriads of starry worlds, of which our own But not all: show me where Jehovah dwells, Lucifer. Here, and o'er all space. Have some allotted dwelling-as all things; tenants; All temporary breathing creatures their Peculiar element; and things which have, Long ceased to breathe our breath, have theirs, thou sayst; And the Jehovah and thyself have thineYe do not dwell together? Lucifer. No, we reign Together, but our dwellings are asunder. Cain. Would there were only one of ye! perchance An unity of purpose might make union Lucifer. Art thou not Abel's brother? And so we shall remain; but were it not so, Lucifer. To reign. Cain. Did ye not tell me that Cain. And what I have seen, Yon blue immensity, is boundless? 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! 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. Lucifer. That is the prelude. Now that I know it leads to something definite. Lucifer. And now I will convey thee to thy world, Where thou shalt multiply the race of Adam, 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, Taught thee to know thyself? |