No More Learning

Mortal!
My brotherhood's with those who have no children.

_Cain_. Then thou canst have no fellowship with us.

_Lucifer_. It may be that thine own shall be for me.
But if thou dost possess a beautiful
Being beyond all beauty in thine eyes,
Why art thou wretched?

_Cain_. Why do I exist?
Why art _thou_ wretched? why are all things so? 280
Ev'n he who made us must be, as the maker
Of things unhappy! To produce destruction
Can surely never be the task of joy,
And yet my sire says he's omnipotent:
Then why is Evil--he being Good? I asked
This question of my father; and he said,
Because this Evil only was the path
To Good. Strange Good, that must arise from out
Its deadly opposite.
I lately saw
A lamb stung by a reptile: the poor suckling 290
Lay foaming on the earth, beneath the vain
And piteous bleating of its restless dam;
My father plucked some herbs, and laid them to
The wound; and by degrees the helpless wretch
Resumed its careless life, and rose to drain
The mother's milk, who o'er it tremulous
Stood licking its reviving limbs with joy.
Behold, my son! said Adam, how from Evil
Springs Good! [118]

_Lucifer_. What didst thou answer?

_Cain_. Nothing; for
He is my father: but I thought, that 'twere 300
A better portion for the animal
Never to have been _stung at all_, than to
Purchase renewal of its little life
With agonies unutterable, though
Dispelled by antidotes.

_Lucifer_. But as thou saidst
Of all beloved things thou lovest her
Who shared thy mother's milk, and giveth hers
Unto thy children----

_Cain_. Most assuredly:
What should I be without her?

_Lucifer_. What am I?

_Cain_. Dost thou love nothing?

_Lucifer_. What does thy God love?