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Lucifer. That

Lucifer. Ne'er the less,

Him makes thee mine the same.
Thou art my worshipper: not worshipping
Cain. And what is that?

Lucifer. Thou'lt know here-and here-
after.

Be taught the mystery of my being.
Cain. Let me but
Lucifer. Follow

Where I will lead thee.

Cain. But I must retire

To till the earth-for I had promised-
Lucifer. What?

Cain. To cull some first fruits.
Lucifer. Why?

Cain. To offer up

With Abel on an altar.

Thou ne'er hadst bent to him who made
thee?
Yes-

Lucifer. Saidst thou not

Cain.

But Abel's earnest prayer has wrought

upon me;

The offering is more his than mine- and
Adah-

Lucifer. Why dost thou hesitate?
Born on the same day,of the same womb; and
Cain. She is my sister,
She
wrung from me, with tears, this pro-
Rather than see her weep, I would, methinks,
mise; and
Bear all and-worship aught.

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-
beneath-

Aught save a sharer or a servant of
His power. I dwell apart; but I am great:-
Many there are who worship me,

more

Who shall be thou amongst the first.
Cain. I never

and

As yet have bow'd 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?

Lucifer. Hast thou ne'er bow'd
To him?

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

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Come away.

Cain. Seest thou not?
Adah. I see an angel;

Of rest?-he is welcome.

We have seen many: will he share our hour

Cain. But he is not like
The angels we have seen.

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?
Lucifer. I ask

Thee to be mine.

Cain. I must away with him.
Adah. And leave us?

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Adah. Who

Adah. Omnipotence

Art thou that steppest between heart and Must be all goodness.

heart?

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Of knowledge?

Adah. Ay-to our eternal sorrow.
Lucifer. And yet that grief is know-
ledge-so he lied not:

And if he did betray you, 'twas with truth;
And truth in its own essence cannot be
But good.

Adah. But all we know of it has gather'd
Evil on ill: expulsion from our home,
And dread,and toil, and sweat, and heaviness;
Remorse of that which was, and hope of that
Which cometh not. Cain! walk not with
this spirit.

Bear with what we have borne,and love me
Love thee.

Lucifer. More than thy mother and thy
sire?

Adah. I do. Is that a sin, too?
Lucifer. No, not yet;

It one day will be in your children.

Adah. What!

Lucifer. Was it so in Eden?

Adah. Fiend! tempt me not with beauty;
thou art fairer

Than was the serpent, and as false.
Lucifer. As true.

Ask Eve, your mother; bears she not the
knowledge

Of good and evil?

Adah. Oh, my mother! thou
Hast pluck'd a fruit more fatal to thine
offspring

Than to thyself; thou at the least hast past
Thy youth in Paradise, in innocent
And happy intercourse with happy spirits;
But we, thy children, ignorant of Eden,
Are 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.
II 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 which
Fixes my fluttering eyes on his; my heart
Beats quick; he awes me, and yet draws

Must not my daughter love her brother
Enoch?

Lucifer. Not as thou lovest Cain!
Adah. 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
Them? And as I love thee, my Cain! go not
Forth with this spirit; he is not of ours.
Lucifer. The sin 1 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
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-

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.

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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

No other choice: your sire hath chosen
already;

His worship is but fear.

Adah. Oh, Cain! choose love.

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And sin—and not content with their own
sorrow,

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 I 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 in 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,
To Death-the unknown! Methinks the tree
of knowledge

Hath not fulfill'd its promise: If they sinn'd,
At least they ought to have known all
things that are

Of knowledge- and the mystery of death.
What do they know?-that they are mi-

serable.

What need of snakes and fruits to teach us that?

Adah. I am not wretched, Cain, and if thou
Wert happy-

Cain. Be thou happy then alone --
I will have nought to do with happiness,
Which humbles me and mine.

Adah. 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 may
Judge from what I have heard.

Lucifer. And thou couldst not
Alone, thou sayst, 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

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Lucifer. Yet thy God is alone; and is he happy?

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;

Or of his first-born son ; ask your own heart;
It is not tranquil.

Adah. Alas! no; and you-
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 beauty.

Lucifer. And why not adore?
Adah. Our father
Adores the Invisible only.

Lufer. But the symbols -
Of the Invisible are the loveliest
Of what is visible; and yon bright star
Is leader of the host of heaven.
Adah. Our father

Saith that he has beheld the God himself
Who made him and our mother.

Lucifer. Hast thou seen him?
Adah. Yes-in his works.
Lucifer. But in his being?
Adah. 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

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,
Not dazzling, and yet drawing us to them,
They fill my eyes with tears, and so dost
thou.

Thou scemst unhappy; do not make us so,
And I will weep for thee.

Lucifer. Alas! those tears!
Couldst thou but know what oceans will
be shed-
Adah. By me?

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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,
Can crowd eternity into an hour.
Or stretch an hour into eternity:

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
As populous as this: at present there
Are few inhabitants.

Adah. Where dwellest thou?
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 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
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 art,

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,
Though multiplied to animated atoms,
All living, and all doom'd to death, and
wretched,

What wouldst thou think?

Cain. I should be proud of thought Which knew such things.

Lucifer. 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

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Cain. How?

Lucifer. By suffering.

Cain. And must torture be immortal?
Lucifer. We and thy sons will try. But
now, behold!
Is it not glorious?

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

Fresh souls and bodies, all foredoom'd to be Sweep on in your unbounded revelry
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.

Lucifer. Thou canst not

All die-there is what must survive.
Cain. The Other

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?

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,
Although inferior still to my desires
And my conceptions.

Lucifer. What are they, which dwell
So humbly in their pride, as to sojourn
With worms in clay?

Cain. And what art thou, who dwellest
So haughtily in spirit, and canst range
Nature and immortality-and yet
Seemst sorrowful?

Lucifer. I seem that which I am;
And therefore do I ask of thee, if thou
Wouldst be immortal?

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.

Through an aerial universe of endless
Expansion, at which my soul aches to think,
Intoxicated with eternity?

Oh God! Oh 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 hour

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