_Cain_. And must I be Like them?
_Lucifer_. Let He[116] who made thee answer that.
I show thee what thy predecessors are, And what they _were_ thou feelest, in degree 90 Inferior as thy petty feelings and Thy pettier portion of the immortal part Of high intelligence and earthly strength.
What ye in common have with what they had Is Life, and what ye _shall_ have--Death: the rest Of your poor attributes is such as suits Reptiles engendered out of the subsiding Slime of a mighty universe, crushed into A scarcely-yet shaped planet, peopled with Things whose enjoyment was to be in blindness-- 100 A Paradise of Ignorance, from which Knowledge was barred as poison. But behold What these superior beings are or were; Or, if it irk thee, turn thee back and till The earth, thy task--I"ll waft thee there in safety.
_Cain_. No: I"ll stay here.
_Lucifer_. How long?
_Cain_. For ever! Since I must one day return here from the earth, I rather would remain; I am sick of all That dust has shown me--let me dwell in shadows.
_Lucifer_. It cannot be: thou now beholdest as 110 A vision that which is reality.
To make thyself fit for this dwelling, thou Must pa.s.s through what the things thou seest have pa.s.sed-- The gates of Death.
_Cain_. By what gate have we entered Even now?
_Lucifer_. By mine! But, plighted to return, My spirit buoys thee up to breathe in regions Where all is breathless save thyself. Gaze on; But do not think to dwell here till thine hour Is come!
_Cain_. And these, too--can they ne"er repa.s.s To earth again?
_Lucifer_. _Their_ earth is gone for ever-- 120 So changed by its convulsion, they would not Be conscious to a single present spot Of its new scarcely hardened surface--"twas-- Oh, what a beautiful world it _was_!
_Cain_. And is!
It is not with the earth, though I must till it, I feel at war--but that I may not profit By what it bears of beautiful, untoiling, Nor gratify my thousand swelling thoughts With knowledge, nor allay my thousand fears Of Death and Life.
_Lucifer_. What thy world is, thou see"st, 130 But canst not comprehend the shadow of That which it was.
_Cain_. And those enormous creatures, Phantoms inferior in intelligence (At least so seeming) to the things we have pa.s.sed, Resembling somewhat the wild habitants Of the deep woods of earth, the hugest which Roar nightly in the forest, but ten-fold In magnitude and terror; taller than The cherub-guarded walls of Eden--with Eyes flashing like the fiery swords which fence them-- 140 And tusks projecting like the trees stripped of Their bark and branches--what were they?
_Lucifer_. That which The Mammoth is in thy world;--but these lie By myriads underneath its surface.
_Cain_. But None on it?
_Lucifer_. No: for thy frail race to war With them would render the curse on it useless-- "Twould be destroyed so early.
_Cain_. But why _war_?
_Lucifer_. You have forgotten the denunciation Which drove your race from Eden--war with all things, And death to all things, and disease to most things, 150 And pangs, and bitterness; these were the fruits Of the forbidden tree.
_Cain_. But animals-- Did they, too, eat of it, that they must die?
_Lucifer_. Your Maker told ye, _they_ were made for you, As you for him.--You would not have their doom Superior to your own? Had Adam not Fallen, all had stood.
_Cain_. Alas! the hopeless wretches!
They too must share my sire"s fate, like his sons; Like them, too, without having shared the apple; Like them, too, without the so dear-bought _knowledge_! 160 It was a lying tree--for we _know_ nothing.
At least it _promised knowledge_ at the _price_ Of death--but _knowledge_ still: but what _knows_ man?
_Lucifer_. It may be death leads to the _highest_ knowledge; And being of all things the sole thing certain,[ch]
At least leads to the _surest_ science: therefore The Tree was true, though deadly.
_Cain_. These dim realms!
I see them, but I know them not.
_Lucifer_. Because Thy hour is yet afar, and matter cannot Comprehend spirit wholly--but "tis something 170 To know there are such realms.
_Cain_. We knew already That there was Death.
_Lucifer_. But not what was beyond it.
_Cain_. Nor know I now.
_Lucifer_. Thou knowest that there is A state, and many states beyond thine own-- And this thou knewest not this morn.
_Cain_. But all Seems dim and shadowy.
_Lucifer_. Be content; it will Seem clearer to thine immortality.
_Cain_. And yon immeasurable liquid s.p.a.ce Of glorious azure which floats on beyond us, Which looks like water, and which I should deem[ci] 180 The river which flows out of Paradise Past my own dwelling, but that it is bankless And boundless, and of an ethereal hue-- What is it?
_Lucifer_. There is still some such on earth, Although inferior, and thy children shall Dwell near it--"tis the phantasm of an Ocean.
_Cain_. "Tis like another world; a liquid sun-- And those inordinate creatures sporting o"er Its shining surface?
_Lucifer_. Are its inhabitants, The past Leviathans.
_Cain_. And yon immense 190 Serpent, which rears his dripping mane and vasty Head, ten times higher than the haughtiest cedar, Forth from the abyss, looking as he could coil Himself around the orbs we lately looked on-- Is he not of the kind which basked beneath The Tree in Eden?
_Lucifer_. Eve, thy mother, best Can tell what shape of serpent tempted her.
_Cain_. This seems too terrible. No doubt the other Had more of beauty.
_Lucifer_. Hast thou ne"er beheld him?
_Cain_. Many of the same kind (at least so called) 200 But never that precisely, which persuaded The fatal fruit, nor even of the same aspect.
_Lucifer_. Your father saw him not?
_Cain_. No: "twas my mother Who tempted him--she tempted by the serpent.
_Lucifer_. Good man! whene"er thy wife, or thy sons" wives, Tempt thee or them to aught that"s new or strange, Be sure thou seest first who hath tempted _them_!
_Cain_. Thy precept comes too late: there is no more For serpents to tempt woman to.
_Lucifer_. But there Are some things still which woman may tempt man to, 210 And man tempt woman:--let thy sons look to it!
My counsel is a kind one; for "tis even Given chiefly at my own expense; "tis true, "Twill not be followed, so there"s little lost.[117]
_Cain_. I understand not this.
_Lucifer_. The happier thou!-- Thy world and thou are still too young! Thou thinkest Thyself most wicked and unhappy--is it Not so?