who offers up
The firstlings of the flock to him who bids
The earth yield nothing to us without sweat;[by]
My sister Zillah sings an earlier hymn
Than the birds' matins; and my Adah--my
Own and beloved--she, too, understands not
The mind which overwhelms me: never till
Now met I aught to sympathise with me. 190
'Tis well--I rather would consort with spirits.

_Lucifer_. And hadst thou not been fit by thine own soul
For such companionship, I would not now
Have stood before thee as I am: a serpent
Had been enough to charm ye, as before.[bz]

_Cain_. Ah! didst _thou_ tempt my mother?

_Lucifer_. I tempt none,
Save with the truth: was not the Tree, the Tree
Of Knowledge? and was not the Tree of Life
Still fruitful? Did _I_ bid her pluck them not?
Did I plant things prohibited within 200
The reach of beings innocent, and curious
By their own innocence? 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
Who would not let ye live, or he who would
Have made ye live for ever, in the joy
And power of Knowledge?

_Cain_. Would they had snatched both 210
The fruits, or neither!

_Lucifer_. One is yours already,
The other may be still.

_Cain_. How so?

_Lucifer_. By being
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_. Who
Saith that? It is not written so on high:
The proud One will not so far falsify, 220
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;[102] and yet not l