Scene V.
VOID OF SPACE.
CAIN .
We tread on air as on substantial ground,
Yet I fall not
LUCIFER .
Thou treadest on thy faith,
Behold thy earth.
CAIN
Is't yon enormous mass
Of shadow deepening in the starlight, shining
Faintly, still gathering light as we recede?
LUCIFER .
Life round thee is appearance; thou but seest
Similitudes of the reality,
The outward semblance of worlds veiled beneath
Their robes of light. For proof thy world afar
Was of inferior grade, look round thee now.
CAIN .
O what a host of thick and living lights!
Thou bright and star dewed wilderness of ether!
Thou black and vaulted infinite around me,
Lit up with waving fires! — Point ye the paths
To the Almighty's presence, step by step,
In limitless ascension? or are ye
Gods in yourselves, with choral hymn fulfilling
The mandates of the Ineffable? or worlds
As beautiful and fading as wreathed flowers,
For ye seem scattered thus in profuse love,
To wither there? — Oh, no! ye look immortal;
Ye were not made to perish, to shine thus
And pass away, making Him mourn who made ye!
And none could look upon ye and destroy.
LUCIFER .
Thou shalt behold if blossomings that crown
Those trees of life bear healthier fruits than thine.
CAIN .
Oh, that I were the Maker of them all!
That I, too, were a god, unknowing time,
Or life, or grief, or change! — that I might sit
Throned, mid the infinite of starry worlds,
Of all their wonders, angels, gods, or men,
Magnificent Creator! — making all
Happy, yea, worshipped from their happiness.
What less should emanate from Godhead? Oh,
That I could comprehend you! this heart aches
With its unsatisfied yearnings. Mightiest Spirit!
Here let me die. I cannot wreak in words
The vastness of my great conceptions. Take me
While, raised above this earthlier life, I am
Worthier of immortality, thus rising
To feel it; take, and make me what thou wilt,
Ere I sink back, and know my nothingness!
LUCIFER .
Thou life of dust! thou shouldst be like ourselves;
Thy aspirations tend beyond the strength
Of thy frail faculties. Wouldst thou die now,
Ere seeing all thou hast desired? Thy sire
Was greater: he risked life for knowledge gained
With threatened death; thou shrinkest from heights reached,
Open on truth, and with a promised life.
CAIN .
Wherefore return to earth, again to yield
Submission to decrees ordained?
LUCIFER
Thou art
A life apart that must rejoin the whole;
So little knowest thou thyself, and less
Of that thou might'st be. Thou shalt yearn to earth,
As did thy sire for fruits, because withheld.
CAIN .
Shall I seek paths I trod in agony,
Red with forewritten guilt and vain remorse?
Or see the averted eyes of Eve, of him
My sire and hear their curses? of my Ada, —
But she would not reproach me; such was not
In her fine nature; she would look at me
No, this frail dust may there be borne, but I
In consciousness no more.
LUCIFER .
Thou art deceived
By an apparent strength thou hast not, grafted
Upon a weaker nature. Hast thou power
VOID OF SPACE.
CAIN .
We tread on air as on substantial ground,
Yet I fall not
LUCIFER .
Thou treadest on thy faith,
Behold thy earth.
CAIN
Is't yon enormous mass
Of shadow deepening in the starlight, shining
Faintly, still gathering light as we recede?
LUCIFER .
Life round thee is appearance; thou but seest
Similitudes of the reality,
The outward semblance of worlds veiled beneath
Their robes of light. For proof thy world afar
Was of inferior grade, look round thee now.
CAIN .
O what a host of thick and living lights!
Thou bright and star dewed wilderness of ether!
Thou black and vaulted infinite around me,
Lit up with waving fires! — Point ye the paths
To the Almighty's presence, step by step,
In limitless ascension? or are ye
Gods in yourselves, with choral hymn fulfilling
The mandates of the Ineffable? or worlds
As beautiful and fading as wreathed flowers,
For ye seem scattered thus in profuse love,
To wither there? — Oh, no! ye look immortal;
Ye were not made to perish, to shine thus
And pass away, making Him mourn who made ye!
And none could look upon ye and destroy.
LUCIFER .
Thou shalt behold if blossomings that crown
Those trees of life bear healthier fruits than thine.
CAIN .
Oh, that I were the Maker of them all!
That I, too, were a god, unknowing time,
Or life, or grief, or change! — that I might sit
Throned, mid the infinite of starry worlds,
Of all their wonders, angels, gods, or men,
Magnificent Creator! — making all
Happy, yea, worshipped from their happiness.
What less should emanate from Godhead? Oh,
That I could comprehend you! this heart aches
With its unsatisfied yearnings. Mightiest Spirit!
Here let me die. I cannot wreak in words
The vastness of my great conceptions. Take me
While, raised above this earthlier life, I am
Worthier of immortality, thus rising
To feel it; take, and make me what thou wilt,
Ere I sink back, and know my nothingness!
LUCIFER .
Thou life of dust! thou shouldst be like ourselves;
Thy aspirations tend beyond the strength
Of thy frail faculties. Wouldst thou die now,
Ere seeing all thou hast desired? Thy sire
Was greater: he risked life for knowledge gained
With threatened death; thou shrinkest from heights reached,
Open on truth, and with a promised life.
CAIN .
Wherefore return to earth, again to yield
Submission to decrees ordained?
LUCIFER
Thou art
A life apart that must rejoin the whole;
So little knowest thou thyself, and less
Of that thou might'st be. Thou shalt yearn to earth,
As did thy sire for fruits, because withheld.
CAIN .
Shall I seek paths I trod in agony,
Red with forewritten guilt and vain remorse?
Or see the averted eyes of Eve, of him
My sire and hear their curses? of my Ada, —
But she would not reproach me; such was not
In her fine nature; she would look at me
No, this frail dust may there be borne, but I
In consciousness no more.
LUCIFER .
Thou art deceived
By an apparent strength thou hast not, grafted
Upon a weaker nature. Hast thou power
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