Huge dusky masses; but unlike the worlds
We were approaching, which, begirt with light,
Seemed full of life even when their atmosphere
Of light gave way, and showed them taking shapes
Unequal, of deep valleys and vast mountains;
And some emitting sparks, and some displaying
Enormous liquid plains, and some begirt
With luminous belts, and floating moons, which took,
Like them, the features of fair earth:--instead,
All here seems dark and dreadful.

_Lucifer_. But distinct. 190
Thou seekest to behold Death, and dead things?

_Cain_. I seek it not; but as I know there are
Such, and that my sire's sin makes him and me,
And all that we inherit, liable
To such, I would behold, at once, what I
Must one day see perforce.

_Lucifer_. Behold!

_Cain_. 'Tis darkness!

_Lucifer_. And so it shall be ever--but we will
Unfold its gates!

_Cain_. Enormous vapours roll
Apart--what's this?

_Lucifer_. Enter!

_Cain_. Can I return?

_Lucifer_. Return! be sure: how else should Death be peopled? 200
Its present realm is thin to what it will be,
Through thee and thine.

_Cain_. The clouds still open wide
And wider, and make widening circles round us!

_Lucifer_. Advance!

_Cain_. And thou!

_Lucifer_. Fear not--without me thou
Couldst not have gone beyond thy world. On! on!
[_They disappear through the clouds_.

SCENE II.--_Hades_.

_Enter_ LUCIFER _and_ CAIN.

_Cain_. How silent and how vast are these dim worlds!
For they seem more than one, and yet more peopled
Than the huge brilliant luminous orbs which swung
So thickly in the upper air, that I
Had deemed them rather the bright populace
Of some all unimaginable Heaven,
Than things to be inhabited themselves,[cg]
But that on drawing near them I beheld
Their swelling into palpable immensity
Of matter, which seemed made for life to dwell on, 10
Rather than life itself. But here, all is
So shadowy, and so full of twilight, that
It speaks of a day past.

_Lucifer_. It is the realm