No More Learning

_Gabriel. _ Dost thou know
Aught of their future?

_Lucifer. _ Only as much as this:
That evil will increase and multiply
Without a benediction.

_Gabriel. _ Nothing more?

_Lucifer. _ Why so the angels taunt! What should be more?

_Gabriel. _ God is more.

_Lucifer. _ Proving what?

_Gabriel. _ That he is God,
And capable of saving.
Lucifer,
I charge thee by the solitude he kept
Ere he created,--leave the earth to God!

_Lucifer. _ My foot is on the earth, firm as my sin.

_Gabriel. _ I charge thee by the memory of heaven
Ere any sin was done,--leave earth to God!

_Lucifer. _ My sin is on the earth, to reign thereon.

_Gabriel. _ I charge thee by the choral song we sang,
When up against the white shore of our feet
The depths of the creation swelled and brake,--
And the new worlds, the beaded foam and flower
Of all that coil, roared outward into space
On thunder-edges,--leave the earth to God!

_Lucifer. _ My woe is on the earth, to curse thereby.

_Gabriel. _ I charge thee by that mournful Morning Star
Which trembles . . .

_Lucifer.