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Cain: A Mystery

<h2> CAIN: A MYSTERY.</h2> "Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." Genesis, Chapter 3rd, verse 1. <h3>DRAMATIS PERSONÆ</h3> <h4>MEN.</h4> Adam Cain Abel <h4>SPIRITS.</h4> Angel of the Lord Lucifer <h4>WOMEN.</h4> Eve Adah Zillah <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h2>CAIN: A MYSTERY. </h2> <hr class="dbl" /> <h3>ACT I.</h3> <h4>Scene I.—The Land without Paradise.—Time, Sunrise.</h4> Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Adah, Zillah, offering a Sacrifice. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Adam. God, the Eternal! Infinite! All-wise!— Who out of darkness on the deep didst make Light on the waters with a word—All Hail! Jehovah! with returning light—All Hail! </div> <div class="stanza"> Eve. God! who didst name the day, and separate Morning from night, till then divided never— Who didst divide the wave from wave, and call Part of thy work the firmament—All Hail! </div> <div class="stanza"> Abel. God! who didst call the elements into Earth, ocean, air and fire—and with the day10 And night, and worlds which these illuminate, Or shadow, madest beings to enjoy them, And love both them and thee—All Hail! All Hail! </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. God! the Eternal parent of all things! Who didst create these best and beauteous beings, To be belovéd, more than all, save thee— Let me love thee and them:—All Hail! All Hail! </div> <div class="stanza"> Zillah. Oh, God! who loving, making, blessing all, Yet didst permit the Serpent to creep in, And drive my father forth from Paradise,330[214] Keep us from further evil:—Hail! All Hail! </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam. Son Cain! my first-born—wherefore art thou silent? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Why should I speak? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam.&zwj;To pray. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Have ye not prayed? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam. We have, most fervently. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And loudly: I Have heard you. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam.&zwj;So will God, I trust. </div> <div class="stanza"> Abel.&zwj;Amen! </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam. But thou my eldest born? art silent still? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. 'Tis better I should be so. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam.&zwj;Wherefore so? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I have nought to ask. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam.&zwj;Nor aught to thank for? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;No. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam. Dost thou not live? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Must I not die? </div> <div class="stanza"> Eve.&zwj;Alas! The fruit of our forbidden tree begins30 To fall. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam.   And we must gather it again. Oh God! why didst thou plant the tree of knowledge? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And wherefore plucked ye not the tree of life? Ye might have then defied him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam.&zwj;Oh! my son, Blaspheme not: these are Serpent's words. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Why not? The snake spoke truth; it was the Tree of Knowledge; It was the Tree of Life: knowledge is good, And Life is good; and how can both be evil? </div> <div class="stanza"> Eve. My boy! thou speakest as I spoke in sin, Before thy birth: let me not see renewed40 My misery in thine. I have repented. Let me not see my offspring fall into The snares beyond the walls of Paradise, Which even in Paradise destroyed his parents. Content thee with what is. Had we been so, Thou now hadst been contented.—Oh, my son! </div> <div class="stanza"> Adam. Our orisons completed, let us hence,[215] Each to his task of toil—not heavy, though Needful: the earth is young, and yields us kindly Her fruits with little labour. </div> <div class="stanza"> Eve.&zwj;Cain—my son—50 Behold thy father cheerful and resigned— And do as he doth.[Exeunt Adam and Eve. </div> <div class="stanza"> Zillah.&zwj;Wilt thou not, my brother? </div> <div class="stanza"> Abel. Why wilt thou wear this gloom upon thy brow, Which can avail thee nothing, save to rouse The Eternal anger? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;My belovéd Cain Wilt thou frown even on me? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;No, Adah! no; I fain would be alone a little while. Abel, I'm sick at heart; but it will pass; Precede me, brother—I will follow shortly. And you, too, sisters, tarry not behind;60 Your gentleness must not be harshly met: I'll follow you anon. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;If not, I will Return to seek you here. </div> <div class="stanza"> Abel.&zwj;The peace of God Be on your spirit, brother!  [Exeunt Abel, Zillah, and Adah. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain (solus).&zwj;And this is Life?—Toil! and wherefore should I toil?—because My father could not keep his place in Eden? What had I done in this?—I was unborn: I sought not to be born; nor love the state To which that birth has brought me. Why did he Yield to the Serpent and the woman? or70 Yielding—why suffer? What was there in this? The tree was planted, and why not for him? If not, why place him near it, where it grew The fairest in the centre? They have but One answer to all questions, "'Twas his will, And he is good." How know I that? Because He is all-powerful, must all-good, too, follow? I judge but by the fruits—and they are bitter— Which I must feed on for a fault not mine. Whom have we here?—A shape like to the angels80[216] Yet of a sterner and a sadder aspect Of spiritual essence: why do I quake? Why should I fear him more than other spirits, Whom I see daily wave their fiery swords Before the gates round which I linger oft, In Twilight's hour, to catch a glimpse of those Gardens which are my just inheritance, Ere the night closes o'er the inhibited walls And the immortal trees which overtop The Cherubim-defended battlements?90 If I shrink not from these, the fire-armed angels, Why should I quail from him who now approaches? Yet—he seems mightier far than them, nor less Beauteous, and yet not all as beautiful As he hath been, and might be: sorrow seems Half of his immortality. And is it So? and can aught grieve save Humanity? He cometh. </div> </div> Enter Lucifer. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Mortal! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Spirit, who art thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Master of spirits. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And being so, canst thou Leave them, and walk with dust? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I know the thoughts100 Of dust, and feel for it, and with you. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;How! You know my thoughts? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;They are the thoughts of all Worthy of thought;—'tis your immortal part[217] Which speaks within you. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;What immortal part? This has not been revealed: the Tree of Life Was withheld from us by my father's folly, While that of Knowledge, by my mother's haste, Was plucked too soon; and all the fruit is Death! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. They have deceived thee; thou shalt live. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;I live, But live to die; and, living, see no thing110 To make death hateful, save an innate clinging, A loathsome, and yet all invincible Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I Despise myself, yet cannot overcome— And so I live. Would I had never lived! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thou livest—and must live for ever. Think not The Earth, which is thine outward cov'ring, is Existence—it will cease—and thou wilt be— No less than thou art now. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;No less! and why No more? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;It may be thou shalt be as we.120 </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. And ye? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Are everlasting. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Are ye happy? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. We are mighty. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Are ye happy? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No: art thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. How should I be so? Look on me! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Poor clay! And thou pretendest to be wretched! Thou! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I am:—and thou, with all thy might, what art thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. One who aspired to be what made thee, and Would not have made thee what thou art. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Ah! Thou look'st almost a god; and—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I am none: And having failed to be one, would be nought[218] Save what I am. He conquered; let him reign!130 </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Who? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Thy Sire's maker—and the Earth's. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And Heaven's, And all that in them is. So I have heard His Seraphs sing; and so my father saith. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. They say—what they must sing and say, on pain Of being that which I am,—and thou art— Of spirits and of men. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And what is that? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Souls who dare use their immortality— Souls who dare look the Omnipotent tyrant in His everlasting face, and tell him that His evil is not good! If he has made,140 As he saith—which I know not, nor believe— But, if he made us—he cannot unmake: We are immortal!—nay, he'd have us so, That he may torture:—let him! He is great— But, in his greatness, is no happier than We in our conflict! Goodness would not make Evil; and what else hath he made? But let him Sit on his vast and solitary throne— Creating worlds, to make eternity Less burthensome to his immense existence150 And unparticipated solitude; Let him crowd orb on orb: he is alone Indefinite, Indissoluble Tyrant; Could he but crush himself, 'twere the best boon He ever granted: but let him reign on! And multiply himself in misery! Spirits and Men, at least we sympathise— And, suffering in concert, make our pangs[219] Innumerable, more endurable, By the unbounded sympathy of all160 With all! But He! so wretched in his height, So restless in his wretchedness, must still Create, and re-create—perhaps he'll make One day a Son unto himself—as he Gave you a father—and if he so doth, Mark me! that Son will be a sacrifice! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Thou speak'st to me of things which long have swum In visions through my thought: I never could Reconcile what I saw with what I heard. My father and my mother talk to me170 Of serpents, and of fruits and trees: I see The gates of what they call their Paradise Guarded by fiery-sworded Cherubim, Which shut them out—and me: I feel the weight Of daily toil, and constant thought: I look Around a world where I seem nothing, with Thoughts which arise within me, as if they Could master all things—but I thought alone This misery was mine. My father is Tamed down; my mother has forgot the mind180 Which made her thirst for knowledge at the risk Of an eternal curse; my brother is A watching shepherd boy, who offers up The firstlings of the flock to him who bids The earth yield nothing to us without sweat; My sister Zillah sings an earlier hymn Than the birds' matins; and my Adah—my Own and belovéd—she, too, understands not The mind which overwhelms me: never till[220] Now met I aught to sympathise with me.190 'Tis well—I rather would consort with spirits. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And hadst thou not been fit by thine own soul For such companionship, I would not now Have stood before thee as I am: a serpent Had been enough to charm ye, as before. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Ah! didst thou tempt my mother? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I tempt none, Save with the truth: was not the Tree, the Tree Of Knowledge? and was not the Tree of Life Still fruitful? Did I bid her pluck them not? Did I plant things prohibited within200 The reach of beings innocent, and curious By their own innocence? I would have made ye Gods; and even He who thrust ye forth, so thrust ye Because "ye should not eat the fruits of life, And become gods as we." Were those his words? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.   They were, as I have heard from those who heard them, In thunder. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Then who was the Demon? He Who would not let ye live, or he who would Have made ye live for ever, in the joy And power of Knowledge? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Would they had snatched both210 The fruits, or neither! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;One is yours already, The other may be still. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;How so? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;By being Yourselves, in your resistance. Nothing can Quench the mind, if the mind will be itself And centre of surrounding things—'tis made To sway. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But didst thou tempt my parents? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I? Poor clay—what should I tempt them for, or how? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. They say the Serpent was a spirit. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Who[221] Saith that? It is not written so on high: The proud One will not so far falsify,220 Though man's vast fears and little vanity Would make him cast upon the spiritual nature His own low failing. The snake was the snake— No more; and yet not less than those he tempted, In nature being earth also—more in wisdom, Since he could overcome them, and foreknew The knowledge fatal to their narrow joys. Think'st thou I'd take the shape of things that die? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But the thing had a demon? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;He but woke one In those he spake to with his forky tongue.230 I tell thee that the Serpent was no more Than a mere serpent: ask the Cherubim Who guard the tempting tree. When thousand ages Have rolled o'er your dead ashes, and your seed's, The seed of the then world may thus array Their earliest fault in fable, and attribute To me a shape I scorn, as I scorn all That bows to him, who made things but to bend Before his sullen, sole eternity; But we, who see the truth, must speak it. Thy240 Fond parents listened to a creeping thing, And fell. For what should spirits tempt them? What Was there to envy in the narrow bounds Of Paradise, that spirits who pervade Space——but I speak to thee of what thou know'st not, With all thy Tree of Knowledge. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But thou canst not Speak aught of Knowledge which I would not know, And do not thirst to know, and bear a mind To know. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.   And heart to look on? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Be it proved. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Darest thou look on Death? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;He has not yet250 Been seen. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. But must be undergone. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;My father[222] Says he is something dreadful, and my mother Weeps when he's named; and Abel lifts his eyes To Heaven, and Zillah casts hers to the earth, And sighs a prayer; and Adah looks on me, And speaks not. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Thoughts unspeakable Crowd in my breast to burning, when I hear Of this almighty Death, who is, it seems, Inevitable. Could I wrestle with him? I wrestled with the lion, when a boy,260 In play, till he ran roaring from my gripe. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. It has no shape; but will absorb all things That bear the form of earth-born being. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Ah! I thought it was a being: who could do Such evil things to beings save a being? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Ask the Destroyer. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Who? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;The Maker—Call him Which name thou wilt: he makes but to destroy. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I knew not that, yet thought it, since I heard Of Death: although I know not what it is— Yet it seems horrible. I have looked out270 In the vast desolate night in search of him; And when I saw gigantic shadows in The umbrage of the walls of Eden, chequered By the far-flashing of the Cherubs' swords, I watched for what I thought his coming; for With fear rose longing in my heart to know What 'twas which shook us all—but nothing came. And then I turned my weary eyes from off Our native and forbidden Paradise, Up to the lights above us, in the azure,280 Which are so beautiful: shall they, too, die? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Perhaps—but long outlive both thine and thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I'm glad of that: I would not have them die— They are so lovely. What is Death? I fear, I feel, it is a dreadful thing; but what, I cannot compass: 'tis denounced against us,[223] Both them who sinned and sinned not, as an ill— What ill? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. To be resolved into the earth. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But shall I know it? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;As I know not death, I cannot answer. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Were I quiet earth,290 That were no evil: would I ne'er had been Aught else but dust! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;That is a grovelling wish, Less than thy father's—for he wished to know! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But not to live—or wherefore plucked he not The Life-tree? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;He was hindered. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Deadly error! Not to snatch first that fruit:—but ere he plucked The knowledge, he was ignorant of Death. Alas! I scarcely now know what it is, And yet I fear it—fear I know not what! </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And I, who know all things, fear nothing; see300 What is true knowledge. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Wilt thou teach me all? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Aye, upon one condition. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Name it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;That Thou dost fall down and worship me—thy Lord. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Thou art not the Lord my father worships. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. His equal? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No;—I have nought in common with him! Nor would: I would be aught above—beneath— Aught save a sharer or a servant of His power. I dwell apart; but I am great:— Many there are who worship me, and more Who shall—be thou amongst the first.[224] </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;I never310 As yet have bowed unto my father's God. Although my brother Abel oft implores That I would join with him in sacrifice:— Why should I bow to thee? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Hast thou ne'er bowed To him? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Have I not said it?—need I say it? Could not thy mighty knowledge teach thee that? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. He who bows not to him has bowed to me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. But I will bend to neither. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Ne'er the less, Thou art my worshipper; not worshipping Him makes thee mine the same. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;And what is that?320 </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thou'lt know here—and hereafter. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Let me but Be taught the mystery of my being. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Follow Where I will lead thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But I must retire To till the earth—for I had promised—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;What? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. To cull some first-fruits. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Why? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;To offer up With Abel on an altar. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Said'st thou not Thou ne'er hadst bent to him who made thee? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Yes— But Abel's earnest prayer has wrought upon me; The offering is more his than mine—and Adah—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Why dost thou hesitate? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;She is my sister,330[225] Born on the same day, of the same womb; and She wrung from me, with tears, this promise; and Rather than see her weep, I would, methinks, Bear all—and worship aught. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Then follow me! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. I will. </div> </div> Enter Adah. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;My brother, I have come for thee; It is our hour of rest and joy—and we Have less without thee. Thou hast laboured not This morn; but I have done thy task: the fruits Are ripe, and glowing as the light which ripens: Come away. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Seest thou not? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;I see an angel;340 We have seen many: will he share our hour Of rest?—he is welcome. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But he is not like The angels we have seen. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Are there, then, others? But he is welcome, as they were: they deigned To be our guests—will he? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain (to Lucifer).&zwj;Wilt thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;I ask Thee to be mine. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;I must away with him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. And leave us? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Aye. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;And me? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Belovéd Adah! </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. Let me go with thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No, she must not. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Who Art thou that steppest between heart and heart? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. He is a God. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;How know'st thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;He speaks like A God. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. So did the Serpent, and it lied.410[226] </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Thou errest, Adah!—was not the Tree that Of Knowledge? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Aye—to our eternal sorrow. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And yet that grief is knowledge—so he lied not: And if he did betray you, 'twas with Truth; And Truth in its own essence cannot be But good. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;But all we know of it has gathered Evil on ill; expulsion from our home, And dread, and toil, and sweat, and heaviness; Remorse of that which was—and hope of that360 Which cometh not. Cain! walk not with this Spirit. Bear with what we have borne, and love me—I Love thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;More than thy mother, and thy sire? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. I do. Is that a sin, too? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;No, not yet; It one day will be in your children. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;What! Must not my daughter love her brother Enoch? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Not as thou lovest Cain. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Oh, my God! 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,370 Born of the same sole womb, in the same hour With me? did we not love each other? and In multiplying our being multiply Things which will love each other as we love Them?—And as I love thee, my Cain! go not Forth with this spirit; he is not of ours. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. The sin I speak of is not of my making, And cannot be a sin in you—whate'er It seem in those who will replace ye in[227] Mortality. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;What is the sin which is not380 Sin in itself? Can circumstance make sin Or virtue?—if it doth, we are the slaves Of—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Higher things than ye are slaves: and higher Than them or ye would be so, did they not Prefer an independency of torture To the smooth agonies of adulation, In hymns and harpings, and self-seeking prayers, To that which is omnipotent, because It is omnipotent, and not from love, But terror and self-hope. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Omnipotence390 Must be all goodness. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Was it so in Eden? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. Fiend! tempt me not with beauty; thou art fairer Than was the Serpent, and as false. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;As true. Ask Eve, your mother: bears she not the knowledge Of good and evil? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Oh, my mother! thou Hast plucked a fruit more fatal to thine offspring Than to thyself; thou at the least hast passed Thy youth in Paradise, in innocent And happy intercourse with happy spirits: But we, thy children, ignorant of Eden,400 Are girt about by demons, who assume The words of God, and tempt us with our own Dissatisfied and curious thoughts—as thou Wert worked on by the snake, in thy most flushed And heedless, harmless wantonness of bliss. I cannot answer this immortal thing Which stands before me; I cannot abhor him; I look upon him with a pleasing fear, And yet I fly not from him: in his eye There is a fastening attraction which410[228] Fixes my fluttering eyes on his; my heart Beats quick; he awes me, and yet draws me near, Nearer and nearer:—Cain—Cain—save me from him! </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. What dreads my Adah? This is no ill spirit. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. He is not God—nor God's: I have beheld The Cherubs and the Seraphs; he looks not Like them. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;But there are spirits loftier still— The archangels. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And still loftier than the archangels. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. Aye—but not blesséd. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;If the blessedness Consists in slavery—no. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;I have heard it said,420 The Seraphs love most—Cherubim know most— And this should be a Cherub—since he loves not. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. And if the higher knowledge quenches love, What must he be you cannot love when known? Since the all-knowing Cherubim love least, The Seraphs' love can be but ignorance: That they are not compatible, the doom Of thy fond parents, for their daring, proves. Choose betwixt Love and Knowledge—since there is No other choice: your sire hath chosen already:430 His worship is but fear. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Oh, Cain! choose Love. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. For thee, my Adah, I choose not—It was Born with me—but I love nought else. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Our parents? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Did they love us when they snatched from the Tree That which hath driven us all from Paradise? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. We were not born then—and if we had been, Should we not love them—and our children, Cain?[229] </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. My little Enoch! and his lisping sister! Could I but deem them happy, I would half Forget——but it can never be forgotten440 Through thrice a thousand generations! never Shall men love the remembrance of the man Who sowed the seed of evil and mankind In the same hour! They plucked the tree of science And sin—and, not content with their own sorrow, Begot me—thee—and all the few that are, And all the unnumbered and innumerable Multitudes, millions, myriads, which may be, To inherit agonies accumulated By ages!—and I must be sire of such things!450 Thy beauty and thy love—my love and joy, The rapturous moment and the placid hour, All we love in our children and each other, But lead them and ourselves through many years Of sin and pain—or few, but still of sorrow, Interchecked with an instant of brief pleasure, To Death—the unknown! Methinks the Tree of Knowledge Hath not fulfilled its promise:—if they sinned, At least they ought to have known all things that are Of knowledge—and the mystery of Death.460 What do they know?—that they are miserable. What need of snakes and fruits to teach us that? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. I am not wretched, Cain, and if thou Wert happy—— </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Be thou happy, then, alone— I will have nought to do with happiness, Which humbles me and mine. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Alone I could not, Nor would be happy; but with those around us I think I could be so, despite of Death, Which, as I know it not, I dread not, though It seems an awful shadow—if I may470 Judge from what I have heard. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And thou couldst not Alone, thou say'st, be happy? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Alone! Oh, my God![230] Who could be happy and alone, or good? To me my solitude seems sin; unless When I think how soon I shall see my brother, His brother, and our children, and our parents. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Yet thy God is alone; and is he happy? Lonely, and good? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;He is not so; he hath The angels and the mortals to make happy, And thus becomes so in diffusing joy.480 What else can joy be, but the spreading joy? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Ask of your sire, the exile fresh from Eden; Or of his first-born son: ask your own heart; It is not tranquil. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Alas! no! and you— Are you of Heaven? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;If I am not, enquire The cause of this all-spreading happiness (Which you proclaim) of the all-great and good Maker of life and living things; it is His secret, and he keeps it. We must bear, And some of us resist—and both in vain,490 His Seraphs say: but it is worth the trial, Since better may not be without: there is A wisdom in the spirit, which directs To right, as in the dim blue air the eye Of you, young mortals, lights at once upon The star which watches, welcoming the morn. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. It is a beautiful star; I love it for Its beauty. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;And why not adore? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Our father Adores the Invisible only. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But the symbols Of the Invisible are the loveliest500 Of what is visible; and yon bright star Is leader of the host of Heaven. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Our father Saith that he has beheld the God himself Who made him and our mother. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Hast thou seen him?[231] </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. Yes—in his works. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;But in his being? </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;No— Save in my father, who is God's own image; Or in his angels, who are like to thee— And brighter, yet less beautiful and powerful In seeming: as the silent sunny noon, All light, they look upon us; but thou seem'st510 Like an ethereal night, where long white clouds Streak the deep purple, and unnumbered stars Spangle the wonderful mysterious vault With things that look as if they would be suns; So beautiful, unnumbered, and endearing, Not dazzling, and yet drawing us to them, They fill my eyes with tears, and so dost thou. Thou seem'st unhappy: do not make us so, And I will weep for thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Alas! those tears! Couldst thou but know what oceans will be shed——520 </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. By me? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;By all. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;What all? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;The million millions— The myriad myriads—the all-peopled earth— The unpeopled earth—and the o'er-peopled Hell, Of which thy bosom is the germ. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;O Cain! This spirit curseth us. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Let him say on; Him will I follow. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Whither? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;To a place Whence he shall come back to thee in an hour; But in that hour see things of many days. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. How can that be? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Did not your Maker make Out of old worlds this new one in few days?530 And cannot I, who aided in this work,[232] Show in an hour what he hath made in many, Or hath destroyed in few? </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain.&zwj;Lead on. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Will he, In sooth, return within an hour? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;He shall. With us acts are exempt from time, and we Can crowd eternity into an hour, Or stretch an hour into eternity: We breathe not by a mortal measurement— But that's a mystery. Cain, come on with me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah. Will he return? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;Aye, woman! he alone540 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 As populous as this: at present there Are few inhabitants. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;Where dwellest thou? </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer. Throughout all space. Where should I dwell? Where are Thy God or Gods—there am I: all things are Divided with me: Life and Death—and Time— Eternity—and heaven and earth—and that Which is not heaven nor earth, but peopled with550 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah.&zwj;So they were when the fair Serpent Spoke with our mother first. </div> <div class="stanza"> Lucifer.&zwj;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 good560[233] The Conqueror has left thee. Follow me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Cain. Spirit, I have said it.  [Exeunt Lucifer and Cain. </div> <div class="stanza"> Adah (follows exclaiming).  Cain! my brother! Cain! </div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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