_Cain_. My sister Adah.--All the stars of heaven, The deep blue noon of night, lit by an orb Which looks a spirit, or a spirit's world-- The hues of twilight--the Sun's gorgeous coming-- His setting indescribable, which fills My eyes with pleasant tears as I behold 260 Him sink, and feel my heart float softly with him Along that western paradise of clouds-- The forest shade, the green bough, the bird's voice-- The vesper bird's, which seems to sing of love, And mingles with the song of Cherubim, As the day closes over Eden's walls;-- All these are nothing, to my eyes and heart, Like Adah's face: I turn from earth and heaven To gaze on it. _Lucifer_. 'Tis fair as frail mortality, In the first dawn and bloom of young creation, 270 And earliest embraces of earth's parents, Can make its offspring; still it is delusion. _Cain_. You think so, being not her brother. _Lucifer_. Mortal! My brotherhood's with those who have no children. _Cain_. Then thou canst have no fellowship with us. _Lucifer_. It may be that thine own shall be for me. But if thou dost possess a beautiful Being beyond all beauty in thine eyes, Why art thou wretched? _Cain_. Why do I exist? Why art _thou_ wretched? why are all things so? 280 Ev'n he who made us must be, as the maker Of things unhappy! To produce destruction Can surely never be the task of joy, And yet my sire says he's omnipotent: Then why is Evil--he being Good? I asked This question of my father; and he said, Because this Evil only was the path To Good. Strange Good, that must arise from out Its deadly opposite. I lately saw A lamb stung by a reptile: the poor suckling 290 Lay foaming on the earth, beneath the vain And piteous bleating of its restless dam; My father plucked some herbs, and laid them to The wound; and by degrees the helpless wretch Resumed its careless life, and rose to drain The mother's milk, who o'er it tremulous Stood licking its reviving limbs with joy. Behold, my son! said Adam, how from Evil Springs Good![118] _Lucifer_. What didst thou answer? _Cain_. Nothing; for He is my father: but I thought, that 'twere 300 A better portion for the animal Never to have been _stung at all_, than to Purchase renewal of its little life With agonies unutterable, though Dispelled by antidotes. _Lucifer_. But as thou saidst Of all belovéd things thou lovest her Who shared thy mother's milk, and giveth hers Unto thy children---- _Cain_. Most assuredly: What should I be without her? _Lucifer_. What am I?