THE SERPENT. Things wear out by practice: they do not grow by it. Your hair streams in the wind as if it were trying to stretch itself further and further. But it does not grow longer for all its practice in streaming, because you have not willed it so. When Lilith told me what she had imagined in our silent language (for there were no words then) I bade her desire it and will it; and then, to our great wonder, the thing she had desired and willed created itself in her under the urging of her will. Then I too willed to renew myself as two instead of one; and after many days the miracle happened, and I burst from my skin another snake interlaced with me; and now there are two imaginations, two desires, two wills to create with. EVE. To desire, to imagine, to will, to create. That is too long a story. Find me one word for it all: you, who are so clever at words. THE SERPENT. In one word, to conceive. That is the word that means both the beginning in imagination and the end in creation. EVE. Find me a word for the story Lilith imagined and told you in your silent language: the story that was too wonderful to be true, and yet came true. THE SERPENT. A poem. EVE. Find me another word for what Lilith was to me. THE SERPENT. She was your mother. EVE. And Adam's mother? THE SERPENT. Yes. EVE [_about to rise_] I will go and tell Adam to conceive. THE SERPENT [_laughs_]!!! EVE [_jarred and startled_] What a hateful noise! What is the matter with you? No one has ever uttered such a sound before. THE SERPENT. Adam cannot conceive. EVE. Why? THE SERPENT. Lilith did not imagine him so. He can imagine: he can will: he can desire: he can gather his life together for a great spring towards creation: he can create all things except one; and that one is his own kind. EVE. Why did Lilith keep this from him? THE SERPENT. Because if he could do that he could do without Eve. EVE. That is true. It is I who must conceive. THE SERPENT. Yes. By that he is tied to you. EVE. And I to him! THE SERPENT. Yes, until you create another Adam. EVE. I had not thought of that. You are very subtle. But if I create another Eve he may turn to her and do without me. I will not create any Eves, only Adams. THE SERPENT. They cannot renew themselves without Eves. Sooner or later you will die like the fawn; and the new Adams will be unable to create without new Eves. You can imagine such an end; but you cannot desire it, therefore cannot will it, therefore cannot create Adams only. EVE. If I am to die like the fawn, why should not the rest die too? What do I care? THE SERPENT. Life must not cease. That comes before everything. It is silly to say you do not care. You do care. It is that care that will prompt your imagination; inflame your desires; make your will irresistible; and create out of nothing. EVE [_thoughtfully_] There can be no such thing as nothing. The garden is full, not empty.