LUCIFER.

And who and what doth not? Who covets evil For its own bitter sake?-None-nothing! 't is The leaven of all life and lifelessness.

CAIN.

Within those glorious orbs which we behold,
Distant and dazzling, and innumerable,
Fre we came down into this phantom realm,
Ill cannot come; they are too beautiful.

LUCIFER.

Thou hast seen them from afar.

CAIN.

And what of that?

Distance can but diminish glory-they When nearer must be more ineffable.

LUCIFER.

Approach the things of earth most beautiful,

And judge their beauty near.

CAIN.

This question of my
Because this evil only was the path

father; and he said,

To good. Strange good, that must arise from out
Its deadly opposite. I lately saw

A lamb stung by a reptile: the poor suckling
Lay foaming on the earth, beneath the vain
And piteous bleating of its restless dam :

My father pluck'd some herbs, and laid them to
The wound; and by degrees the helpless wretch
Resumed its careless life, and rose to drain
The mother's milk, who o'er it tremulous
Stood licking its reviving limbs with joy.
Behold, my son! said Adam, how from evil
Springs good!

I have done this

A better portion for the animal

The loveliest thing I know is loveliest nearest.

LUCIFER.

Then there must be delusion.-What is that,
Which being nearest to thine eyes is still
More beautiful than beauteous things remote?

CAIN.

My sister Adah.-All the stars of heaven,
The deep blue noon of night, lit by an orb
Which looks a spirit, or a spirit's world-
The hues of twilight-the sun's gorgeous coming-
His setting indescribable, which fills
My eyes with pleasant tears as I behold

Him sink, and feel my heart float softly with him
Along that western paradise of clouds-

The forest shade-the green bough-the bird's voice

| The vesper bird's, which seems to sing of love,

| And mingles with the song of cherubim,

As the day closes over Eden's walls;

All these are nothing to my eyes and heart,
Like Adali's face: I turn from earth and heaven
To gaze on it.

LUCIFER.

"T is frail as fair mortality,

In the first dawn and bloom of young creation
And earliest embraces of earth's parents,
Can make its offspring; still it is delusion.

CAIN.

You think so, being not her brother.

LUCIFER.

Mortal!

My brotherhood's with those who have no children.

CAIN.

Then thou canst have no fellowship with us.

LUCIFER.

It may be that thine own shall be for me.

But if thou dost possess a beautiful
Being beyond all beauty in thine eyes,
Why art thou wretched?

CAIN.

Why do I exist?

Why art thou wretched? why are all things so?
Even He who made us must be as the maker
Of things unhappy! To produce destruction
Can surely never be the task of joy,

And yet my sire says He 's omnipotent:
Then why is evil-He being good? I ask'd

-(he pauses,

I have thought, why recala thought that--( 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 wreek; thou hast pointed out
Myriads of starry worlds, of which our own

Is the dim and remote companion, in

Infinity of life: thou hast shown me shadows

Of that existence with the dreaded name

Which my sire brought us-death; thou hast shown me much

But not all show me where Jehovah dwells,
In his especial Paradise-or thine:
Where is it?

CAIN.

What is that

To me? should I not love that which all love?

LUCIFER.

And the Jehovah-the indulgent Lord,
And bounteous planter of barr'd Paradise-
He, too, looks smilingly on Abel.

CAIN.

I

Ne'er saw Him, and I know not if He smiles.

LUCIFER.

But you have seen his angels.

CAIN.

Rarely.

LUCIFER.

But

And so we shall remain; but were it not so,
Is spirit like to flesh? can it fall out?
Infinity with immortality?

Jarring and turning space to misery—
For what?

Sufficiently to see they love your brother;

His sacrifices are acceptable.

CAIN.

So be they! wherefore speak to me of this?

LUCIFER.

Because thou hast thought of this ere now.

CAIN.

Of worlds and life, which I hold with him-No! I have a victor-true; but no superior.

Homage He has froin all-but none from me:

I battle it against him, as I battled

In highest heaven. Through all eternity,

And the unfathomable gulfs of Hades,
And the interminable realms of space,
And the infinity of endless ages,

All, all, will I dispute! And world by world,
And star by star, and universe by universe
Shall trenable in the balance, till the great
Conflict shall cease, if ever it shall cease,
Which it ne'er shall, till he or I be quench'd!
And what can quench our immortality,

Or mutual and irrevocable hate?

He as a conqueror will call the conquer'd
Evil; but what will be the good He gives?

Were I the victor, his works would be deem'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.

ye

LUCIFER.

Back

With me, then, to thine earth, and try the rest
Of his celestial boons to ye and yours.
Evil and good are things in their own essence,
And not made good or evil by the giver;
But if He gives you good-so call him; if
Evil springs from Him, do not name it mine,
Till know better its true fount; and judge
Not by words, though of spirits, but the fruits
Of your existence, such as it must be.
One good gift has the fatal apple given-
Your reason:-let it not be over-sway'd
By tyrannous threats to force you into faith
'Gainst all external sense and inward feeling:
Think and endure,-and form an inner world
In your own bosom-where the outward fails:
So shall you nearer be the spiritual
Nature, and war triumphant with your own.
[They disappear.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

LUCIFER.

Didst thou not require

Knowledge? And have I not, in what I show'd,

Taught thee to know thyself?

The Earth near Eden, as in Act I.

Enter CAIN and ADAH.

Shut out the sun like night, and therefore seem'd Fitting to shadow slumber.

CAIN.

Ay, the last

And longest; but no matter-lead me to him.

How lovely he appears! his little cheeks, In their pure incarnation, vying with The rose leaves strewn beneath them.

ADAH.

And his lips, too,

How beautifully parted! No, you shall not
Kiss him, at least not now: he will awake soon-
His hour of mid-day rest is nearly over,
But it were pity to disturb him till

'T is closed.

CAIN.

You have said well; I will contain

My heart till then. He smiles, and sleeps!-Sleep on
And smile, thou little, young inheritor

Of a world scarce less young: sleep on, and smile!
Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering
And innocent! thou hast not pluck'd the fruit-
Thou know'st not thou art naked! Must the time
Come thou shalt be amerced for sins unknown,
Which were not thine nor mine? But now sleep on!
His cheeks are reddening into deeper smiles,
And shining lids are trembling o'er his long
Lashes, dark as the cypress which waves o'er them;
Half open, from beneath them the clear blue
Laughs out, although in slumber.

Of what ? Of Paradise!-Ay! dream of it,
My disinherited boy! "T is but a dream;
For never more thyself, thy sons, nor fathers,
Shall walk in that forbidden place of joy!

Thou know'st

CAIN.
What is that

To us? they sinn'd, then let them die!

ADAH.

Thou hast not spoken well, nor is that thought Thy own, but of the spirit who was with thee. Would I could die for them, so they might live!

CAIN.

Why, so say I-provided that one victim

Might satiate the insatiable of life,

And that our little rosy sleeper there

Might never taste of death nor human sorrow, Nor hand it down to those who spring from him.

ADAH.

How know we that some such atonement one day May not redeem our race?

CAIN.

By sacrificing

The harmless for the guilty? what atonement
Were there? why, we are innocent: what have we
Done, that we must be victims for a deed
Before our birth, or need have victims to
Atone for this mysterious, nameless sin-
If it be such a sin to seck for knowledge?

ADAH.

Alas! thou sinnest now my Cain; thy words Sound impious in mine ears.

CAIN.

Then leave me!

ADAH.

Never,

CAIN.

So soon? ADAH.

Two hours since ye departed: two long hours

Say, what have we here!