ess 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?

_Cain_. But the thing had a demon?

_Lucifer_. He but woke one
In those he spake to with his forky tongue. 230
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 rolled 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 240
Fond parents listened 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
Space----but I speak to thee of what thou know'st not,
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
To know.

_Lucifer_. And heart to look on?

_Cain_. Be it proved.

_Lucifer_. Darest thou look on Death?

_Cain_. He has not yet 250
Been seen.

_Lucifer_. But must be undergone.

_Cain_. My father
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_. And thou?

_Cain_. 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, 260
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_. Ah!
I thought it was a being: who could do
Such evil things to