_Lucifer_. _Their_ earth is gone for ever-- 120 So changed by its convulsion, they would not Be conscious to a single present spot Of its new scarcely hardened surface--'twas-- Oh, what a beautiful world it _was_! _Cain_. And is! It is not with the earth, though I must till it, I feel at war--but that I may not profit By what it bears of beautiful, untoiling, Nor gratify my thousand swelling thoughts With knowledge, nor allay my thousand fears Of Death and Life. _Lucifer_. What thy world is, thou see'st, 130 But canst not comprehend the shadow of That which it was. _Cain_. And those enormous creatures, Phantoms inferior in intelligence (At least so seeming) to the things we have passed, Resembling somewhat the wild habitants Of the deep woods of earth, the hugest which Roar nightly in the forest, but ten-fold In magnitude and terror; taller than The cherub-guarded walls of Eden--with Eyes flashing like the fiery swords which fence them-- 140 And tusks projecting like the trees stripped of Their bark and branches--what were they? _Lucifer_. That which The Mammoth is in thy world;--but these lie By myriads underneath its surface. _Cain_. But None on it? _Lucifer_. No: for thy frail race to war With them would render the curse on it useless-- 'Twould be destroyed so early. _Cain_. But why _war_? _Lucifer_. You have forgotten the denunciation Which drove your race from Eden--war with all things, And death to all things, and disease to most things, 150 And pangs, and bitterness; these were the fruits Of the forbidden tree. _Cain_. But animals-- Did they, too, eat of it, that they must die? _Lucifer_. Your Maker told ye, _they_ were made for you, As you for him.--You would not have their doom Superior to your own? Had Adam not Fallen, all had stood. _Cain_. Alas! the hopeless wretches! They too must share my sire's fate, like his sons; Like them, too, without having shared the apple; Like them, too, without the so dear-bought _knowledge_! 160 It was a lying tree--for we _know_ nothing. At least it _promised knowledge_ at the _price_ Of death--but _knowledge_ still: but what _knows_ man? _Lucifer_. It may be death leads to the _highest_ knowledge; And being of all things the sole thing certain,[ch] At least leads to the _surest_ science: therefore The Tree was true, though deadly. _Cain_. These dim realms! I see them, but I know them not.