No More Learning

What dreads my Adah? This is no ill spirit.

_Adah_. He is not God--nor God's: I have beheld
The Cherubs and the Seraphs; he looks not
Like them.

_Cain_. But there are spirits loftier still--
The archangels.

_Lucifer_. And still loftier than the archangels.

_Adah_. Aye--but not blessed.

_Lucifer_. If the blessedness
Consists in slavery--no.

_Adah_. I have heard it said, 420
The Seraphs _love most_--Cherubim _know most_[107]--
And this should be a Cherub--since he loves not.

_Lucifer_.
And if the higher knowledge quenches love,
What must _he be_ you cannot love when known? [ca]
Since the all-knowing Cherubim love least,
The Seraphs' love can be but ignorance:
That they are not compatible, the doom
Of thy fond parents, for their daring, proves.
Choose betwixt Love and Knowledge--since there is
No other choice: your sire hath chosen already: 430
His worship is but fear.

_Adah_. Oh, Cain! choose Love.

_Cain_. For thee, my Adah, I choose not--It was
Born with me--but I love nought else.

_Adah_. Our parents?

_Cain_. Did they love us when they snatched from the Tree
That which hath driven us all from Paradise?

_Adah_. We were not born then--and if we had been,
Should we not love them--and our children, Cain?

_Cain_. My little Enoch!