Lucifer. That Lucifer. Ne'er the less, Him makes thee mine the same. Lucifer. Thou'lt know here-and here- Be taught the mystery of my being. Where I will lead thee. Cain. But I must retire To till the earth-for I had promised- Cain. To cull some first fruits. Cain. To offer up With Abel on an altar. Thou ne'er hadst bent to him who made Lucifer. Saidst thou not Cain. But Abel's earnest prayer has wrought upon me; The offering is more his than mine- and Lucifer. Why dost thou hesitate? Lucifer. Then follow me! Cain. I will. Enter ADAH. Adah. My brother, I have come for thee; Thou dost fall down and worship me-thy It is our hour of rest and joy-and we Lord. Cain. Thou art not the Lord father worships. Lucifer. No. Cain. His equal? my Lucifer. No;-I have nought in common with him! Nor would: I would be aught above- Aught save a sharer or a servant of more Who shall be thou amongst the first. and As yet have bow'd unto my father's God, Lucifer. Hast thou ne'er bow'd Cain. Have I not said it?-need I say it? Could not thy mighty knowledge teach thee that? Lucifer. He who bows not to him has bow'd to me! Cain. But I will bend to neither. Have less without thee. Thou hast labour'd not Come away. Cain. Seest thou not? Of rest?-he is welcome. We have seen many: will he share our hour Cain. But he is not like Adah. Are there, then, others? But he is welcome, as they were; they deign'd To be our guests-will he? Cain. (to Lucifer.) Wilt thou? Thee to be mine. Cain. I must away with him. Adah. Who Adah. Omnipotence Art thou that steppest between heart and Must be all goodness. heart? Of knowledge? Adah. Ay-to our eternal sorrow. And if he did betray you, 'twas with truth; Adah. But all we know of it has gather'd Bear with what we have borne,and love me Lucifer. More than thy mother and thy Adah. I do. Is that a sin, too? It one day will be in your children. Adah. What! Lucifer. Was it so in Eden? Adah. Fiend! tempt me not with beauty; Than was the serpent, and as false. Ask Eve, your mother; bears she not the Of good and evil? Adah. Oh, my mother! thou Than to thyself; thou at the least hast past And heedless, harmless wantonness of bliss. Must not my daughter love her brother Lucifer. Not as thou lovest Cain! Shall they not love and bring forth things that love Out of their love? have they not drawn their milk Out of this bosom? was not he, their father, And cannot be a sin in you-whate'er Adah. What is the sin which is not Lucifer. Higher things than ye are Than them or ye would be so, did they not To that which is omnipotent, because And this should be a cherub - since he loves not. Lucifer. And if the higher knowledge quenches love, What must he be you cannot love when Since the all-knowing cherubim love least, No other choice: your sire hath chosen His worship is but fear. Adah. Oh, Cain! choose love. And sin—and not content with their own Begot me thee-and all the few that are, By ages! And I must be sire of such things! Of sin and pain—or few, but still of sorrow Hath not fulfill'd its promise: If they sinn'd, Of knowledge- and the mystery of death. serable. What need of snakes and fruits to teach us that? Adah. I am not wretched, Cain, and if thou Cain. Be thou happy then alone -- Adah. Alone I could not, Nor would be happy:but with those around us, Lucifer. And thou couldst not Adah. Alone! Oh, my God! Who could be happy and alone, or good? Lucifer. Yet thy God is alone; and is he happy? Lonely and good? Adah. He is not so; he hath Or of his first-born son ; ask your own heart; Adah. Alas! no; and you- Lucifer. If I am not, inquire | Maker of life and living things; it is morn. Adah. It is a beautiful star; I love it for Lucifer. And why not adore? Lufer. But the symbols - Saith that he has beheld the God himself Lucifer. Hast thou seen him? Save in my father, who is God's own image; seemst Like an ethereal night, where long white clouds Streak the deep purple,and unnumber'd stars Spangle the wonderful mysterious vault | With things that look as if they would be suns; So beautiful, unnumber'd, and endearing, Thou scemst unhappy; do not make us so, Lucifer. Alas! those tears! In sooth return within an hour? Lucifer. He shall. | ACT II. SCENE 1.-The Abyss of Space. Cain. I tread on air,and sink not; yet I fear To sink. Lucifer. Have faith in me, and thou shalt be Borne on the air, of which I am the prince. Cain. Can I do so without impiety? Lucifer. Believe-and sink not! doubtand 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 deem Evil or good what is proclaim'd to them In their abasement. I will have none such: Worship or worship not, thou shalt hehold The worlds beyond thy little world, nor be Amerced, for doubts beyond thy little life, With torture of my dooming. There will come With us acts are exempt from time, and we An hour, when toss'd upon some water-drops, We breathe not by a mortal measurementBut that's a mystery. Cain, come on with me. Adah. Will he return? Lucifer. Ay, woman! he alone Of mortals from that place (the first and last Who shall return, save ONE)-shall come back to thee To make that silent and expectant world Adah. Where dwellest thou? should I dwell? Where are Thy God or Gods-there am I; all things are Divided with me; life and death-and timeEternity-and heaven and earth-and that Which is not heaven nor earth, but peopled with Those who once peopled or shall people both These are my realms! So that I do divide His, and possess a kingdom which is not His. If I were not that which I have said, Could I stand here? His angels are within Your vision. Adah. So they were when the fair serpent Spoke with our mother first. Lucifer. Cain! thou hast heard. If thou dost long for knowledge, I can satiate That thirst: nor ask thee to partake of fruits Which shall deprive thee of a single good The conqueror has left thee. Follow me. Cain. Spirit, I have said it. [Exeunt Lucifer and Cain. Adah (follows, exclaiming) Cain! my brother! Cain! 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 Is yon our earth? Lucifer. Dost thou not recognize The dust which form'd your father? Cain. Can it be? Yon small blue circle, swinging in far ether, With an inferior circlet near it still, Which looks like that which lit our earthly night? It this our Paradise? Where are its walls, And they who guard them? Lucifer. Point me out the site Of Paradise. Cain. 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, Appear to join the innumerable stars Which are around us; and, as we move on, Increase their myriads. Lucifer. 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, What wouldst thou think? Cain. I should be proud of thought Which knew such things. Lucifer. But if that high thought were To the most gross and petty paltry wants, Cain. How? Lucifer. By suffering. Cain. And must torture be immortal? Cain. Oh, thou beautiful Is this blue wilderness of interminable Fresh souls and bodies, all foredoom'd to be Sweep on in your unbounded revelry 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 Lucifer. Thou canst not All die-there is what must survive. Spake not of this unto my father, when Lucifer. I am angelic: wouldst thou be Cain. I know not what thou art: I see thy power, And see thou showst me things beyond my power, Beyond all power of my born faculties, Lucifer. What are they, which dwell Cain. And what art thou, who dwellest Lucifer. I seem that which I am; Cain. Thou hast said, I must be Through an aerial universe of endless Oh God! Oh Gods! or whatsoe'er ye are! this hour |