No More Learning

_Lucifer_. Thou knowest that there is
A state, and many states beyond thine own--
And this thou knewest not this morn.

_Cain_. But all
Seems dim and shadowy.

_Lucifer_. Be content; it will
Seem clearer to thine immortality.

_Cain_. And yon immeasurable liquid space
Of glorious azure which floats on beyond us,
Which looks like water, and which I should deem[ci] 180
The river which flows out of Paradise
Past my own dwelling, but that it is bankless
And boundless, and of an ethereal hue--
What is it?

_Lucifer_. There is still some such on earth,
Although inferior, and thy children shall
Dwell near it--'tis the phantasm of an Ocean.

_Cain_. 'Tis like another world; a liquid sun--
And those inordinate creatures sporting o'er
Its shining surface?

_Lucifer_. Are its inhabitants,
The past Leviathans.

_Cain_.
And yon immense 190
Serpent, which rears his dripping mane and vasty
Head, ten times higher than the haughtiest cedar,
Forth from the abyss, looking as he could coil
Himself around the orbs we lately looked on--
Is he not of the kind which basked beneath
The Tree in Eden?

_Lucifer_. Eve, thy mother, best
Can tell what shape of serpent tempted her.

_Cain_. This seems too terrible. No doubt the other
Had more of beauty.

_Lucifer_. Hast thou ne'er beheld him?

_Cain_. Many of the same kind (at least so called) 200
But never that precisely, which persuaded
The fatal fruit, nor even of the same aspect.

_Lucifer_. Your father saw him not?

_Cain_. No: 'twas my mother
Who tempted him--she tempted by the serpent.

_Lucifer_. Good man!