e alone a little while.
Abel, I'm sick at heart; but it will pass;
Precede me, brother--I will follow shortly.
And you, too, sisters, tarry not behind; 60
Your gentleness must not be harshly met:
I'll follow you anon.

_Adah_. If not, I will
Return to seek you here.

_Abel_. The peace of God
Be on your spirit, brother!
[_Exeunt_ ABEL, ZILLAH, _and_ ADAH.

_Cain_ (_solus_). And this is
Life?--Toil! and wherefore should I toil?--because
My father could not keep his place in Eden?
What had _I_ done in this?--I was unborn:
I sought not to be born; nor love the state
To which that birth has brought me. Why did he
Yield to the Serpent and the woman? or 70
Yielding--why suffer? What was there in this?
The tree was planted, and why not for him?
If not, why place him near it, where it grew
The fairest in the centre? They have but
One answer to all questions, "'Twas _his_ will,
And _he_ is good." How know I that? Because
He is all-powerful, must all-good, too, follow?
I judge but by the fruits--and they are bitter--
Which I must feed on for a fault not mine.
Whom have we here?--A shape like to the angels 80
Yet of a sterner and a sadder aspect
Of spiritual essence: why do I quake?
Why should I fear him more than other spirits,
Whom I see daily wave their fiery swords
Before the gates round which I linger oft,
In Twilight's hour, to catch a glimpse of those
Gardens which are my just inheritance,
Ere the night closes o'er the inhibited walls
And the immortal trees which overtop
The Cherubim-defended battlements? 90
If I shrink not from these, the fire-armed angels,
Why should I quail from him who now approaches?
Yet--he seems mightier far than them, nor less
Beauteous, and yet not all as beautiful
As he hath been, and might be: sorrow seems
Half of his immortality.[97] And is it
So? and can aught grieve save Humanity?
He cometh.

_Enter_ LUCIFER.

_Lucifer_. Mortal!

_Cain_. Spirit, who art thou?

_Lucifer_. Master of spirits.

_Cain_. And being so, canst thou
Leave th