Yourselves, in your resistance. Nothing can
Quench the mind, if the mind will be itself
And centre of surrounding things-'tis made
To sway.

Cain. But didst thou tempt my parents?
Lucifer.

I?

Poor clay what should I tempt them for, or how?
Cain. They say the serpent was a spirit.
Lucifer.
Saith that? It is not written so on high:

Who

The proud One will not so far falsify,
Though man's vast fears and little vanity
Would make him cast upon the spiritual nature
His own low failing. The snake was the snake—
No more; and yet not less than those he tempted,
In nature being earth also—more in wisdom,
Since he could overcome them, and foreknew
The knowledge fatal to their narrow joys.
Think'st thou I'd take the shape of things that die?

(1) [Cain is described as imagining, that once eating of the tree of life would have conferred immortality: "Would," he exclaims, "they had snatched both the fruits, or neither!" There is not the slightest ground for such a supposition: the tree of life was among the trees of which Adam" might eat freely," and of which he had most probably frequently eaten. This privilege was denied as a consequence of sin; as known vice is made an objection to being admitted to the sacraments, or as concealed vice renders them ineffectual, if not destructive, to the communicant. HARNESS, See antè, Vol. I. pp. 70. 177.]

Cain. But the thing had a demon?

He but woke one

Lucifer.
In those he spake to with his forky tongue.

I tell thee that the serpent was no more
Than a mere serpent: ask the cherubim

Who guard the tempting tree. When thousand ages
Have roll'd o'er your dead ashes, and

your seed's, The seed of the then world may thus array Their earliest fault in fable, and attribute

To me a shape I scorn, as I scorn all

That bows to him, who made things but to bend
Before his sullen, sole eternity;

But we, who see the truth, must speak it. Thy
Fond parents listen'd to a creeping thing,

And fell. For what should spirits tempt them? What
Was there to envy in the narrow bounds

Of Paradise, that spirits who pervade

[not,

Space —but I speak to thee of what thou know'st With all thy tree of knowledge.

Cain.

But thou canst not

Speak aught of knowledge which I would not know, And do not thirst to know, and bear a mind

Says he is something dreadful, and my mother

Weeps when he's named; and Abel lifts his eyes

To heaven, and Zillah casts hers to the earth,
And sighs a prayer; and Adah looks on me,
And speaks not.

Lucifer.

Cain.

And thou?

Thoughts unspeakable

Crowd in my breast to burning, when I hear
Of this almighty Death, who is, it seems,
Inevitable. Could I wrestle with him?
I wrestled with the lion, when a boy,
In play, till he ran roaring from my gripe.

Lucifer. It has no shape; but will absorb all things That bear the form of earth-born being.

Cain.

I thought it was a being: who could do
Such evil things to beings save a being?
Lucifer. Ask the Destroyer.

Cain.

Lucifer.

Ah!

Who?

The Maker-call him

Which name thou wilt: he makes but to destroy.

Cain. I knew not that, yet thought it, since I heard

Of death: although I know not what it is,

Yet it seems horrible. I have look'd out

In the vast desolate night in search of him;
And when I saw gigantic shadows in

The umbrage of the walls of Eden, chequer'd
By the far-flashing of the cherubs' swords,
I watch'd for what I thought his coming;(1) for

(1) [It may appear a very prosaic, but it is certainly a very obvious criticism on these passages, that the young family of mankind had, long ere this, been quite familiar with the death of animals — some of whom Abel was in the habit of offering up as sacrifices; so that it is not quite conceivable that they should be so much at a loss to conjecture what Death was. JEFFREY.]

With fear rose longing in my heart to know
What 'twas which shook us all—but nothing came.
And then I turn'd my weary eyes from off
Our native and forbidden Paradise,
Up to the lights above us, in the azure,
Which are so beautiful: shall they, too, die?
Lucifer. Perhaps - but long outlive both thine

and thee.

[die

Cain. I'm glad of that: I would not have them They are so lovely. What is death? I fear, I feel, it is a dreadful thing; but what, I cannot compass: 'tis denounced against us, Both them who sinn'd and sinn'd not, as an illWhat ill?

Lucifer. To be resolved into the earth.

Cain. But shall I know it?

Lucifer.

I cannot answer.

Cain.

As I know not death,

Were I quiet earth

That were no evil: would I ne'er had been

Aught else but dust!

Lucifer.

That is a groveling wish,

Less than thy father's, for he wish'd to know.

Cain. But not to live, or wherefore pluck'd he not

The life-tree?

Lucifer.

Cain.

He was hinder'd.

Deadly error!

Not to snatch first that fruit:—but ere he pluck'd

The knowledge, he was ignorant of death.

Alas! I scarcely now know what it is,

And yet I fear it-fear I know not what!

Lucifer. And I, who know all things, fear nothing:

Thou dost fall down and worship me-thy Lord. Cain. Thou art not the Lord my father worships. Lucifer.

Cain. His equal?

No.

Lucifer. No;-I have nought in common with him! Nor would: I would be aught above-beneath Aught save a sharer or a servant of

His power. I dwell apart; but I am great :-
Many there are who worship me, and more
Who shall be thou amongst the first.

Cain.
As yet have bow'd unto my father's God,
Although my brother Abel oft implores
That I would join with him in sacrifice:-
Why should I bow to thee?

Lucifer. To him?

I never

Hast thou ne'er bow'd

(1) [Most of Lord Byron's spleen against "My Grandmother's Review, the British," may be traced to its critique on Cain,-e. g. "We have heard it remarked, that a great deal of premeditated mischief is couched under the plausible reasonings put into the mouths of Cain and Lucifer. This may or may not be a just conclusion: we have no right to say that Lord Byron adopts the apologies of Cain, or the dialectics of the Devil: all that can be fairly said on this subject is that it has been a part of the poet's plan to throw as much ingenuity into the arguments, both of Cain and his Mentor, as it was competent to his Lordship to furnish; and that he has left these arguments-without refutation or answerto produce their unrestricted influence on the reader."]