_Cain_. Oh thou beautiful And unimaginable ether! and Ye multiplying masses of increased 100 And still-increasing lights! what are ye? what Is this blue wilderness of interminable Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden? Is your course measured for ye? Or do ye Sweep on in your unbounded revelry Through an aërial universe of endless Expansion--at which my soul aches to think-- Intoxicated with eternity[113]? Oh God! Oh Gods! or whatsoe'er ye are! 110 How beautiful ye are! how beautiful Your works, or accidents, or whatsoe'er They may be! Let me die, as atoms die, (If that they die), or know ye in your might And knowledge! My thoughts are not in this hour Unworthy what I see, though my dust is; Spirit! let me expire, or see them nearer. _Lucifer_. Art thou not nearer? look back to thine earth! _Cain_. Where is it? I see nothing save a mass Of most innumerable lights. _Lucifer_. Look there! 120 _Cain_. I cannot see it. _Lucifer_. Yet it sparkles still. _Cain_. That!--yonder! _Lucifer_. Yea. _Cain_. And wilt thou tell me so? Why, I have seen the fire-flies and fire-worms Sprinkle the dusky groves and the green banks In the dim twilight, brighter than yon world Which bears them. _Lucifer_. Thou hast seen both worms and worlds, Each bright and sparkling--what dost think of them? _Cain_. That they are beautiful in their own sphere, And that the night, which makes both beautiful, The little shining fire-fly in its flight, 130 And the immortal star in its great course, Must both be guided. _Lucifer_. But by whom or what? _Cain_. Show me. _Lucifer_. Dar'st thou behold? _Cain_. How know I what I _dare_ behold? As yet, thou hast shown nought I dare not gaze on further. _Lucifer_. On, then, with me. Wouldst thou behold things mortal or immortal? _Cain_. Why, what are things? _Lucifer_. _Both_ partly: but what doth Sit next thy heart? _Cain_. The things I see. _Lucifer_. But what _Sate_ nearest it? _Cain_. The things I have not seen, Nor ever shall--the mysteries of Death. 140 _Lucifer_. What, if I show to thee things which have died, As I have shown thee much which cannot die? _Cain_. Do so. _Lucifer_. Away, then! on our mighty wings! _Cain_. Oh! how we cleave the blue! The stars fade from us! The earth! where is my earth? Let me look on it, For I was made of it.