_Adah_. Alone! Oh, my God! Who could be happy and alone, or good? To me my solitude seems sin; unless When I think how soon I shall see my brother, His brother, and our children, and our parents. _Lucifer_. Yet thy God is alone; and is he happy? Lonely, and good? _Adah_. He is not so; he hath The angels and the mortals to make happy, And thus becomes so in diffusing joy. 480 What else can joy be, but the spreading joy?[cc] _Lucifer_. Ask of your sire, the exile fresh from Eden; Or of his first-born son: ask your own heart; It is not tranquil. _Adah_. Alas! no! and you-- Are you of Heaven? _Lucifer_. If I am not, enquire The cause of this all-spreading happiness (Which you proclaim) of the all-great and good Maker of life and living things; it is His secret, and he keeps it. _We_ must bear, And some of us resist--and both in vain, 490 His Seraphs say: but it is worth the trial, Since better may not be without: there is A wisdom in the spirit, which directs To right, as in the dim blue air the eye Of you, young mortals, lights at once upon The star which watches, welcoming the morn. _Adah_. It is a beautiful star; I love it for Its beauty. _Lucifer_. And why not adore? _Adah_. Our father Adores the Invisible only. _Lucifer_. But the symbols Of the Invisible are the loveliest 500 Of what is visible; and yon bright star Is leader of the host of Heaven. _Adah_. Our father Saith that he has beheld the God himself Who made him and our mother. _Lucifer_. Hast _thou_ seen him? _Adah_. Yes--in his works. _Lucifer_. But in his being? _Adah_. No-- Save in my father, who is God's own image; Or in his angels, who are like to thee-- And brighter, yet less beautiful and powerful In seeming: as the silent sunny noon, All light, they look upon us; but thou seem'st 510 Like an ethereal night[108], where long white clouds Streak the deep purple, and unnumbered stars Spangle the wonderful mysterious vault With things that look as if they would be suns; So beautiful, unnumbered, and endearing, Not dazzling, and yet drawing us to them, They fill my eyes with tears, and so dost thou. Thou seem'st unhappy: do not make us so, And I will weep for thee. _Lucifer_. Alas! those tears! Couldst thou but know what oceans will be shed---- 520 _Adah_. By me? _Lucifer_. By all. _Adah_. What all?