_Lucifer_. Yes, from their earth, as thou wilt fade from thine. _Cain_. But was _mine_ theirs? _Lucifer_. It was. _Cain_. But not as now. It is too little and too lowly to Sustain such creatures. _Lucifer_. True, it was more glorious. _Cain_. And wherefore did it fall? _Lucifer_. Ask him who fells.[115] _Cain_. But how? _Lucifer_. By a most crushing and inexorable 80 Destruction and disorder of the elements, Which struck a world to chaos, as a chaos Subsiding has struck out a world: such things, Though rare in time, are frequent in eternity.-- Pass on, and gaze upon the past. _Cain_. 'Tis awful! _Lucifer_. And true. Behold these phantoms! they were once Material as thou art. _Cain_. And must I be Like them? _Lucifer_. Let He[116] who made thee answer that. I show thee what thy predecessors are, And what they _were_ thou feelest, in degree 90 Inferior as thy petty feelings and Thy pettier portion of the immortal part Of high intelligence and earthly strength. What ye in common have with what they had Is Life, and what ye _shall_ have--Death: the rest Of your poor attributes is such as suits Reptiles engendered out of the subsiding Slime of a mighty universe, crushed into A scarcely-yet shaped planet, peopled with Things whose enjoyment was to be in blindness-- 100 A Paradise of Ignorance, from which Knowledge was barred as poison. But behold What these superior beings are or were; Or, if it irk thee, turn thee back and till The earth, thy task--I'll waft thee there in safety. _Cain_. No: I'll stay here. _Lucifer_. How long? _Cain_. For ever! Since I must one day return here from the earth, I rather would remain; I am sick of all That dust has shown me--let me dwell in shadows. _Lucifer_. It cannot be: thou now beholdest as 110 A vision that which is reality. To make thyself fit for this dwelling, thou Must pass through what the things thou seest have passed-- The gates of Death. _Cain_. By what gate have we entered Even now? _Lucifer_. By mine! But, plighted to return, My spirit buoys thee up to breathe in regions Where all is breathless save thyself. Gaze on; But do not think to dwell here till thine hour Is come! _Cain_. And these, too--can they ne'er repass To earth again?