'Twill not be followed, so there's little lost.[117]

_Cain_. I understand not this.

_Lucifer_. The happier thou!--
Thy world and thou are still too young! Thou thinkest
Thyself most wicked and unhappy--is it
Not so?

_Cain_. For crime, I know not; but for pain,
I have felt much.

_Lucifer_. First-born of the first man!
Thy present state of sin--and thou art evil, 220
Of sorrow--and thou sufferest, are both Eden
In all its innocence compared to what
_Thou_ shortly may'st be; and that state again,
In its redoubled wretchedness, a Paradise
To what thy sons' sons' sons, accumulating
In generations like to dust (which they
In fact but add to), shall endure and do.--
Now let us back to earth!

_Cain_. And wherefore didst thou
Lead me here only to inform me this?

_Lucifer_. Was not thy quest for knowledge?

_Cain_. Yes--as being 230
The road to happiness!

_Lucifer_. If truth be so,
Thou hast it.

_Cain_. Then my father's God did well
When he prohibited the fatal Tree.

_Lucifer_. But had done better in not planting it.
But ignorance of evil doth not save
From evil; it must still roll on the same,
A part of all things.

_Cain_. Not of all things. No--
I'll not believe it--for I thirst for good.

_Lucifer_. And who and what doth not? _Who_ covets evil
For its own bitter sake?--_None_--nothing! 'tis 240
The leaven of all life, and lifelessness.

_Cain_. Within those glorious orbs which we behold,
Distant, and dazzling, and innumerable,
Ere we came down into this phantom realm,
Ill cannot come: they are too beautiful.

_Lucifer_. Thou hast seen them from afar.

_Cain_. And what of that?
Distance can but diminish glory--they,
When nearer, must be more ineffable.

_Lucifer_. Approach the things of earth most beautiful,
And judge their beauty near.

_Cain_. I have done this-- 250
The loveliest thing I know is loveliest nearest.

_Lucifer_. Then there must be delusion.--What is that
Which being nearest to thine eyes is still
More beautiful than beauteous things remote