_Lucifer_. The happier thou!-- Thy world and thou are still too young! Thou thinkest Thyself most wicked and unhappy--is it Not so? _Cain_. For crime, I know not; but for pain, I have felt much. _Lucifer_. First-born of the first man! Thy present state of sin--and thou art evil, 220 Of sorrow--and thou sufferest, are both Eden In all its innocence compared to what _Thou_ shortly may'st be; and that state again, In its redoubled wretchedness, a Paradise To what thy sons' sons' sons, accumulating In generations like to dust (which they In fact but add to), shall endure and do.-- Now let us back to earth! _Cain_. And wherefore didst thou Lead me here only to inform me this? _Lucifer_. Was not thy quest for knowledge? _Cain_. Yes--as being 230 The road to happiness! _Lucifer_. If truth be so, Thou hast it. _Cain_. Then my father's God did well When he prohibited the fatal Tree. _Lucifer_. But had done better in not planting it. But ignorance of evil doth not save From evil; it must still roll on the same, A part of all things. _Cain_. Not of all things. No-- I'll not believe it--for I thirst for good. _Lucifer_. And who and what doth not? _Who_ covets evil For its own bitter sake?--_None_--nothing! 'tis 240 The leaven of all life, and lifelessness. _Cain_. Within those glorious orbs which we behold, Distant, and dazzling, and innumerable, Ere we came down into this phantom realm, Ill cannot come: they are too beautiful. _Lucifer_. Thou hast seen them from afar. _Cain_. And what of that? Distance can but diminish glory--they, When nearer, must be more ineffable. _Lucifer_. Approach the things of earth most beautiful, And judge their beauty near. _Cain_. I have done this-- 250 The loveliest thing I know is loveliest nearest. _Lucifer_. Then there must be delusion.--What is that Which being nearest to thine eyes is still More beautiful than beauteous things remote?