The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 60

_Adah_. He is not G.o.d--nor G.o.d's: I have beheld The Cherubs and the Seraphs; he looks not Like them.

_Cain_. But there are spirits loftier still-- The archangels.

_Lucifer_. And still loftier than the archangels.

_Adah_. Aye--but not blessed.

_Lucifer_. If the blessedness Consists in slavery--no.

_Adah_. I have heard it said, 420 The Seraphs _love most_--Cherubim _know most_[107]-- 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?[ca]

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 wors.h.i.+p is but fear.

_Adah_. Oh, Cain! choose Love.

_Cain_. For thee, my Adah, I choose not--It was Born with me--but I love nought else.

_Adah_. Our parents?

_Cain_. Did they love us when they s.n.a.t.c.hed 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 440 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 Mult.i.tudes, millions, myriads, which may be, To inherit agonies acc.u.mulated 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[cb]. 460 What do they know?--that they are miserable.

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 470 Judge from what I have heard.

_Lucifer_. And thou couldst not _Alone_, thou say'st, be happy?

_Adah_. Alone! Oh, my G.o.d!

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 G.o.d 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. 480 What else can joy be, but the spreading joy?[cc]

_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, 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.

_Adah_. It is a beautiful star; I love it for Its beauty.

_Lucifer_. And why not adore?

_Adah_. Our father Adores the Invisible only.

_Lucifer_. But the symbols Of the Invisible are the loveliest 500 Of what is visible; and yon bright star Is leader of the host of Heaven.

_Adah_. Our father Saith that he has beheld the G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 510 Like an ethereal night[108], 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.

_Lucifer_. Alas! those tears!

Couldst thou but know what oceans will be shed---- 520

_Adah_. By me?

_Lucifer_. By all.

_Adah_. What all?

_Lucifer_. The million millions-- The myriad myriads--the all-peopled earth-- The unpeopled earth--and the o'er-peopled h.e.l.l, Of which thy bosom is the germ.

_Adah_. O Cain!

This spirit curseth us.

_Cain_. Let him say on; Him will I follow.

_Adah_. Whither?

_Lucifer_. 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? 530 And cannot I, who aided in this work, Show in an hour what he hath made in many, Or hath destroyed in few?

_Cain_. Lead on.

_Adah_. Will he, In sooth, return within an hour?