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,
In play, till he ran roaring from my gripe.
I cannot compass: 'tis denounced against us,
Both them who sinn'd and sinn'd not, as an ill--
What ill?
Lucifer. To be resolved into the earth.
Cain. But shall I know it?
Lucifer.
That were no evil: would I ne'er had been
Aught else but dust!
Lucifer.
That is a grovelling wish, Less than thy father's, for he wish'd to know. Cain. But not to live, or wherefore pluck'd he The life-tree?
Deadly error !
Not to snatch first that fruit :--but ere he pluck'd
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.
Lucifer. And I, who know all things, fear
nothing: see
What is true knowledge.
Cain.
Wilt thou teach me all?
Lucifer. Ay, upon one condition.
Cain.
Lucifer.
Thou dost fall down and worship me-thy Lord. Cain. Thou art not the Lord my father wor
[with him! Lucifer. No: I have nought in common
Lucifer. It has no shape, but will absorb all Nor would; I would be aught above--beneath
That bear the form of earth-born being. Cain.
I thought it was a being: who could do Such evil things to being save a being? Lucifer. Ask the Destroyer.
Cain.
Lucifer.
The Maker-call Him
Which name thou wilt; He makes but to destroy.
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 look'd out
In the vast desolate night in search of him ;
And when I saw gigantic shadows in
The umbrage of the walls of Eden, chequer'd
By the far-flashing of the cherubs' swords,
I watch'd for what I thought his coming; for
With fear rose longing in my heart to know
What 'twas which shook us all-but nothing
Lucifer. Why dost thou hesitate?
Cain.
She is my sister,
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.
Lucifer.
Cain. I will.
Lucifer. More than thy mother, and thy sire?
Adah. I do. Is that a sin, too?
Lucifer.
It one day will be in your children.
Adah.
Must not my daughter love her brother Enoch?
Lucifer. Not as thou lovest Cain.
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,
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
My brother, I have come for thee; Them?-And as I love thee, my Cain! go not
It is our hour of rest and joy-and we
Have less without thee. Thou hast labour'd not
This morn; but I have done thy task: the fruits
Are ripe, and glowing as the light which ripens:
Come away.
I see an angel:
We have seen many will he share our hour
Of rest?-he is welcome.
Cain.
The angels we have seen.
Adah.
Forth with this spirit; he is not of ours.
Lucifer. The sin I speak of is not of my mak-
And cannot be a sin in you-whate'er [ing,
It seems in those who will replace ye in
Mortality.
Adah. What is the sin which is not
Sin in itself? Can circumstance make sin
Or virtue?-if it doth, we are the slaves
Of-
[higher
Lucifer. Higher things than ye are slaves: and
Than them or ye would be so, did they not
Prefer an independency of torture
But he is welcome, as they were: they deign'dTo the smooth agonies of adulation,
To be our guests-will he?
Cain [to LUCIFER]. Wilt thou?
Lucifer.
In hymns and harpings, and self-seeking prayers,
To that which is omnipotent, because
I ask It is omnipotent, and not from love,
But terror and self-hope.
Adah. Fiend! tempt me not with beauty;
Than was the serpent, and as false.
Lucifer.
As true.
Ask Eve, your mother: bears she not the know-
Of good and evil?
[ledge
Adah.
Oh, my mother! thou
Hast pluck'd a fruit more fatal to thine offspring
Than to thyself; thou at the least hast pass'd
Thy youth in Paradise, in innocent
And happy intercourse with happy spirits:
But we, thy children, ignorant of Eden,
Art girt about by demons, who assume
The words of God, and tempt us with our own
Dissatisfied and curious thoughts-as thou
Wert work'd on by the snake, in thy most flush'd
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
There is a fastening attraction which
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!
[spirit.
Cain. What dreads my Adah? This is no ill
Adah. He is not God-nor God's: I have
beheld
The cherubs and the seraphs; he looks not
Like them.
But there are spirits loftier still-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 may
Judge from what I have heard.
Lucifer.
Lucifer. And still loftier than the archangels.
Adah. Ay-but not blessed.
Lucifer.
Consists in slavery-no.
Adah.
If the blessedness
I have heard it said,
The scraphs love most-cherubim know most-
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 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
Alone, thou say'st, be happy?
Adah.
Alone! Oh, my God!
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.
Lucifer. Yet thy God is alone; and is He
Lonely, and good?
Adah.
He is not so; He hath
The angels and the mortals to make happy,
And thus becomes so in diffusing joy.
What else can joy be, but the spreading joy?
Lucifer. Ask of your sire, the exile fresh from
Eden;
No other choice: your sire hath chosen already;
His worship is but fear.
Adah.
Oh, Cain choose love. Or of his first-born son: ask your own heart;
Cain. For thee, my Adah, I choose not-it It is not tranquil.
Born with me-but I love nought else. [was
Alas! no! and you--
Adah.
Our parents?
Cain. Did they love us when they snatch'd
from the tree
That which hath driven us all from Paradise?
Adah. We were not born then-and if we had
been,
Should we not love them and our children, Cain?
Cain. My little Enoch! and his lisping sister?
Could I but deem them happy, I would half
Forget but it can never be forgotten
Through thrice a thousand generations! Never
Shall men love the remembrance of the man
Who sow'd the seed of evil and mankind
In the same hour! They pluck'd the tree of
science
[sorrow,
And sin-and, not content with their own
Begot me-thee-and all the few that are,
And all the unnumber'd and innumerable
Multitudes, millions, myriads, which may be,
To inherit agonies accumulated
By ages!-and / must be sire of such things!
Thy beauty and thy love-my love and joy,
The rapturous moment and the placid hour,
All we love ir our children and each other,
But lead them and ourselves through many years
Of sin and pain-or few, but still of sorrow,
Intercheck'd with an instant of brief pleasure,
Adah.
Are you of heaven?
Lucifer.
If I am not, inquire
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,
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.
Adah. It is a beautiful star; I love it for its
Lucifer. And why not adore? [beauty.
Adah.
Adores the Invisible only.
Lucifer.
Of the Invisible are the loveliest
Of what is visible; and yon bright star
Is leader of the host of heaven.
Saith that he has beheld the God Himself
Who made him and our mother.
Adah. Yes-in His works.
Lucifer.
No-His, and possess a kingdom which is not
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 st
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,
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.
Lucifer.
Alas! those tears!
Couldst thou but know what oceans will be
Adah. By me?
The million millions-
The myriad myriads-the all-peopled earth-
The unpeopled earth-and the o'er-peopled
Of which thy bosom is the germ.
[Hell,
O Cain!
To a place
Whence he shall come back to thee in an hour:
But in that hour see things of many days.
Adah. How can that be?
Lucifer.
Did not your Maker make
Out of old worlds this new one in few days?
And cannot I, who aided in this work,
Show in an hour what He hath made in
Or hath destroyed in few?
In sooth, return within an hour?
Lucifer.
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.
Camn! 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!
SCENE I.-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! doubt-and
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
[deem
Worship the word which strikes their ear, and
Evil or good what is proclaim'd to them
In their abasement. I will have none such :
Worship or worship not, thou shalt behold
many,The worlds beyond thy little world, nor be
Amerced for doubts beyond thy little life,
With torture of my dooming. There will come
Will he, An hour, when, toss'd upon some water-drops,
A man shall say to a man, Believe in me,
He shall. And walk the waters; and the man shall walk
The billows and be safe. I will not say,
Believe in me, as a conditional creed
To save thee; but fly with me o'er the gulf
Of space an equal flight, and I will show
What thou dar'st not deny--the history
Of past, and present, and of future worlds.
Cain. Oh, god, or demon, or whate'er thou
Is yon our earth?
[art,
Lucifer.
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.
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
Thy God or Gods-there am I all things are
Point me out the site
Divided with me; life and death-and time- Of Paradise.
Eternity-and heaven and earth--and that
Cain. How should I? As we move
Which is not heaven nor earth, but peopled with Like sunbeams onward, it grows small and
Those who once peopled or shall people both-And as it waxes little, and then less, [smaller,
These are my realms! So that I do divide Gathers a halo round it, like the light
Which shone the roundest of the stars, when I Wouldst be immortal?
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.
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, Though multiplied to animated atoms,
All living, and all doom'd to death, and wretched, What wouldst thou think?
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But if that high thought were Link'd to a servile mass of matter, and, Knowing such things, aspiring to such things, And science still beyond them, were chain'd down
To the most gross and petty paltry wants,
All foul and fulsome, and the very best
Of thine enjoyments a sweet degradation,
A most enervating and filthy cheat
To lure thee on to the renewal of
Fresh souls and bodies, all foredoom'd to be
As frail, and few so happy-
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
No less than life; a heritage not happy,
If I may judge, till now. But, spirit! if
It be as thou hast said (and I within
Feel the prophetic torture of its truth),
Here let me die: for to give birth to those
Who can but suffer many years, and die,
Methinks is merely propagating death,
And multiplying murder.
All die-there is what must survive. Cain.
Spake not of this unto my father, when
He shut him forth from Paradise, with death
Written upon his forehead. But at least
Let what is mortal of me perish, that
I may be in the rest as angels are.
Lucifer. I am angelic: wouldst thou be as I
am?
[power, Cain. I know not what thou art: I see thy And see thou show'st me things beyond my power,
Beyond all power of my born faculties,
Although inferior still to my desires
And my conceptions.
Cain. Thou hast said, I must be Immortal in despite of me. I knew not This until lately-but since it must be, Let me, or happy or unhappy, learn To anticipate my immortality.
Lucifer. Thou didst before I came upon thee. Cain.
How? Cain. And must torture be immortal? Lucifer. We and thy sons will try. But now, Is it not glorious? [behold! Cain.
Oh, thou beautiful
And unimaginable ether! and
Ye multiplying masses of increased
And still increasing lights! what are ye? what
Is this blue wilderness of interminable
Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen
The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden?
Is your course measured for ye? Or do ye
Sweep on in your unbounded revelry
Through an aërial universe of endless
Expansion-at which my soul aches to think-
Intoxicated with eternity?
O God! O Gods! or whatsoe'er ye are !
How beautiful ye are! how beautiful
Your works, or accidents, or whatsoe'er
They may be! Let me die, as atoms die
(If that they die), or know ye in your might
And knowledge! My thoughts are not in this
What are they which dwell Must both be guided.
So humbly in their pride, as to sojourn With worms in clay?
And what art thou who dwellest So haughtily in spirit, and canst range Nature and immortality-and yet Seem'st sorrowful?
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