Scene VI.

A WORLD IN WARFARE

CAIN .

I behold
Masses of warring forms ant-like, opposed,
In perturbed movement, rushing to and fro,
Fleeing or felled, pursuing or pursued.
But they the stricken, rise no more, nor kneel,
Nor raise their hands beseechingly in vain.
Earth's face is streaked with rivulets of blood;
A rising mist, breath of the panting hosts,
Reeks up to heaven. One sitteth crowned apart;
He points his arm toward them — is't to spare?

LUCIFER .

To destroy utterly; he is their king,
The delegate of God, he saith. Thus man
O'errules his fellow men by fear or faith.
Seest thou not how they slay babes, helpless women?
Hate and revenge are deaf and blind, and make
Man the original brute. Fires blaze above
That human sacrifice, the shouts and shrieks
Of agony unanswered.

CAIN .

what great crime
Was theirs, forsaken thus?

LUCIFER .

They worship gods
That are not his, therefore he slays all life
Polluted by their crime; he doth fulfil
His mission upon earth in sparing nought.

CAIN .

Why smites not the great King of kings the man
Who dares usurp his attributes, and is
Without his mercy? Would that in this hand
Were lightnings to transfix him where he sits,
A blackened corpse, to mortal kings a warning
The mightiest reigns above them! Oh, that you sun
Would stand still while t'were done!

LUCIFER .

So hath he prayed;
He would have stayed earth's course, lest time were lacked
For immolation both of man and beast
Cease thy vain wrath; war leaves a solitude;
Brutes lair where once men slept; the trophies heaped
Awhile from earth, return to it again;
Victors and vanquished met in peace at last.

CAIN .

Let us depart, for I dare look no more.

LUCIFER .

Thou hast beheld the persecuted; now
Thou shalt behold a loftier spectacle,
Man raised above it.

CAIN .

Whither goest thou?

LUCIFER .

To yonder orb in thunderous vapours swathed,
That heaves on like some mighty thing of life,
Clad in wild robes of flame and stormy hair
Thou hear'st the inward perturbation.

CAIN .

Clouds
Reek o'er it, even as from an altar-place.
Is it so?

LUCIFER .

To destruction — look within!