_Cain_. What immortal part? This has not been revealed: the Tree of Life Was withheld from us by my father's folly, While that of Knowledge, by my mother's haste, Was plucked too soon; and all the fruit is Death! _Lucifer_. They have deceived thee; thou shalt live. _Cain_. I live, But live to die; and, living, see no thing 110 To make death hateful, save an innate clinging, A loathsome, and yet all invincible Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I Despise myself, yet cannot overcome-- And so I live. Would I had never lived! _Lucifer_. Thou livest--and must live for ever. Think not The Earth, which is thine outward cov'ring, is Existence--it will cease--and thou wilt be-- No less than thou art now. _Cain_. No _less_! and why No more? _Lucifer_. It may be thou shalt be as we. 120 _Cain_. And ye? _Lucifer_. Are everlasting. _Cain_. Are ye happy? _Lucifer_. We are mighty. _Cain_. Are ye happy? _Lucifer_. No: art thou? _Cain_. How should I be so? Look on me! _Lucifer_. Poor clay! And thou pretendest to be wretched! Thou! _Cain_. I am:--and thou, with all thy might, what art thou? _Lucifer_. One who aspired to be what made thee, and Would not have made thee what thou art. _Cain_. Ah! Thou look'st almost a god; and---- _Lucifer_. I am none: And having failed to be one, would be nought Save what I am. He conquered; let him reign! 130 _Cain_. Who? _Lucifer_. Thy Sire's maker--and the Earth's. _Cain_. And Heaven's, And all that in them is. So I have heard His Seraphs sing; and so my father saith. _Lucifer_. They say--what they must sing and say, on pain Of being that which I am,--and thou art-- Of spirits and of men. _Cain_. And what is that?