Fixes my fluttering eyes on his; my heart
Beats quick; he awes me, and yet draws me near,
Nearer and nearer:—Cain—Cain—save me from him!
Cain. 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 blesséd.
Lucifer.If the blessedness
Consists in slavery—no.
Adah.I have heard it said, 420
The Seraphs love most—Cherubim know most—[1]
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?[2]
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?
- ↑ ["One of the second order of angels of the Dionysian hierarchy, reputed to excel specially in knowledge (as the seraphim in love). See Bacon's Advancement of Learning, i. 28: 'The first place is given to the Angels of loue, which are tearmed Seraphim, the second to the Angels of light, which are tearmed Cherubim.'"—N. Eng. Dict., art. "Cherub"]
- ↑ i. What can he be who places love in ignorance?—[MS. M.]
