No More Learning

_Lucifer_. There
The son of her who snatched the apple spake!
But thou wouldst only perish, and not see them; 410
That sight is for the other state.

_Cain_. Of Death?

_Lucifer_. That is the prelude.

_Cain_. Then I dread it less,
Now that I know it leads to something definite.

_Lucifer_. And now I will convey thee to thy world,
Where thou shall multiply the race of Adam,
Eat, drink, toil, tremble, laugh, weep, sleep--and die!

_Cain_. And to what end have I beheld these things
Which thou hast shown me?

_Lucifer_. Didst thou not require
Knowledge?
And have I not, in what I showed,
Taught thee to know thyself?

_Cain_. Alas! I seem 420
Nothing. [122]

_Lucifer_. And this should be the human sum
Of knowledge, to know mortal nature's nothingness;
Bequeath that science to thy children, and
'Twill spare them many tortures.

_Cain_. Haughty spirit!
Thou speak'st it proudly; but thyself, though proud,
Hast a superior.

_Lucifer_. No! By heaven, which he
Holds, and the abyss, and the immensity
Of worlds and life, which I hold with him--No!
I have a Victor--true; but no superior. [123]
Homage he has from all--but none from me: 430
I battle it against him, as I battled
In highest Heaven--through all Eternity,
And the unfathomable gulfs of Hades,
And the interminable realms of space,
And the infinity of endless ages,
All, all, will I dispute! And world by world,
And star by star, and universe by universe,
Shall tremble in the balance, till the great
Conflict shall cease, if ever it shall cease,
Which it ne'er shall, till he or I be quenched! 440
And what can quench our immortality,
Or mutual and irrevocable hate?