Cain. What immortal part? This has not been reveal'd: the tree of life But live to die and, living, see nothing To make death hateful, save an innate clinging, Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I Despise myself, yet cannot overcome And so I live. Would I had never lived! [not Lucifer. Thou livest, and must live for ever: think The earth, which is thine outward cov'ring, is No less than thou art now. Lucifer. Cain. How should I be so? Look on me! And thou pretendest to be wretched! Thou! -and thou, with all thy might, what Cain. I am: Poor clay ! Lucifer. One who aspired to be what made thee, and Would not have made thee what thou art. Cain. Thou look'st almost a god; and Lucifer. Ah! I am none: And having fail'd to be one, would be nought Lucifer. Thy sire's Maker, and the earth's. And all that in them is. So I have heard His seraphs sing; and so my father saith. Of being that which I am-and thou art- Cain. And what is that? Lucifer. Souls who dare use their immortality-(') As he saith-which I know not, nor believe— We are immortal!—nay, he'd have us so, (1) [In this long dialogue, the tempter tells Cain (who is thus far supposed to be ignorant of the fact) that the soul is immortal, and that" souls who dare use their immortality" are condemned by God to be wretched everlastingly. This sentiment, which is the pervading moral (if we may call it so) of the play, is developed in the lines which follow. — HEBER.] 1 * "There is nothing against the immortality of the soul in Cain' that I recollect. I hold no such opinions; - but, in a drama, the first rebel and the first murderer must be made to talk according to their characters." B. Letters. But, in his greatness, is no happier than We in our conflict! Goodness would not make Evil; Creating worlds, to make eternity Less burthensome to his immense existence And unparticipated solitude; Let him crowd orb on orb: he is alone Indefinite, indissoluble tyrant; (') Could he but crush himself, 't were the best boon He ever granted: but let him reign on, And multiply himself in misery! Spirits and Men, at least we sympathise By the unbounded sympathy of all With all! But He! so wretched in his height, Cain. Thou speak'st to me of things which long have swum In visions through my thought: I never could (1) [The poet rises to the sublime in making Lucifer first inspire Cain with the knowledge of his immortality—a portion of truth which hath the efficacy of falsehood upon the victim; for Cain, feeling himself already unhappy, knowing that his being cannot be abridged, has the less scruple to desire to be as Lucifer," mighty." The whole of this speech is truly satanic; a daring and dreadful description given by everlasting despair of the Deity. GALT.] (2) [In MS." Create, and re-create- perhaps he'll make One day a Son unto himself- as he My father and my mother talk to me Of serpents, and of fruits and trees: I see Which shut them out, and me: I feel the weight A watching shepherd boy, who offers up For such companionship, I would not now I tempt none, (1) [MS. —" Have stood before thee as I am; but chosen The serpent's charming symbol, as before."] Save with the truth: was not the tree, the tree The reach of beings innocent, and curious By their own innocence? (2) I would have made ye Gods; and even He who thrust ye forth, so thrust ye Because " ye should not eat the fruits of life, "And become gods as we." Were those his words? Cain. They were, as I have heard from those who heard them, In thunder. Lucifer. Then who was the demon? He (1) [The tree of life was doubtless a material tree, producing material fruit, proper as such for the nourishment of the body; but was it not also set apart to be partaken of as a symbol or sacrament of that celestial principle which nourishes the soul to immortality?— BISHOP HORNE.] (2) [The Eclectic reviewer, we believe the late Robert Hall, says,— "A more deadly sentiment, a more insidious falsehood, than is conveyed in these words, could not be injected into the youthful mind by the Author of Evil. Innocence is not the cause of curiosity, but has, in every stage of society, been its victim. Curiosity has ruined greater numbers than any other passion, and as, in its incipient actings, it is the most dangerous foe of innocence, so, when it becomes a passion, it is only fed by guilt. Innocence, indeed, is gone, when desire has conceived the sin. Cain, in this drama, is made, like the Faust of Goethe, to be the victim of curiosity; and a fine moral might have been deduced from it." - Dr. Johnson, on the contrary, says, "A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than by an eminent degree of curiosity. This passion is, perhaps, regularly heightened in proportion as the powers of the mind are elevated and enlarged. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, how. ever otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched.” — E.] |