No More Learning

Dost thou love nothing?

_Lucifer_. What does thy God love? 310

_Cain_. All things, my father says; but I confess
I see it not in their allotment here.

_Lucifer_. And, therefore, thou canst not see if _I_ love
Or no--except some vast and general purpose,
To which particular things must melt like snows.

_Cain_. Snows! what are they?

_Lucifer_. Be happier in not knowing
What thy remoter offspring must encounter;
But bask beneath the clime which knows no winter.

_Cain_. But dost thou not love something like thyself?

_Lucifer_.
And dost thou love _thyself_?

_Cain_. Yes, but love more 320
What makes my feelings more endurable,
And is more than myself, because I love it!

_Lucifer_. Thou lovest it, because 'tis beautiful,
As was the apple in thy mother's eye;
And when it ceases to be so, thy love
Will cease, like any other appetite. [119]

_Cain_. Cease to be beautiful! how can that be?

_Lucifer_. With time.

_Cain_. But time has passed, and hitherto
Even Adam and my mother both are fair:
Not fair like Adah and the Seraphim-- 330
But very fair.

_Lucifer_. All that must pass away
In them and her.

_Cain_. I'm sorry for it; but
Cannot conceive my love for her the less:
And when her beauty disappears, methinks
He who creates all beauty will lose more
Than me in seeing perish such a work.