Scene III

(Magnificent landscape outside of Eden. A little rude log hut. Adam driving posts for a fence. Eve erecting a bower. Lucifer.)

ADAM.
This is all mine ; instead of the great world,
This spot will be my home. It is my own :
I guard it from the wild, devouring beasts,
Compelling it in turn, to nourish me.

EVE.
A bower I make, just like that other one ;
Thus now before us, I can conjure up
The Eden lost.

LUCIFER.
Ah ! what great words ye speak !
Possessions, family; twofold incentive
Of the world, the source of all its joys
And griefs, for these ideas great will grow
And grow unceasingly, until from them
Great industries and nations will arise.
Begetters too, they'll be of all things great
And noble, though devourers of their offspring —

ADAM.
Thou speak'st in riddles; but 'twas knowledge thorn
Did'st promise me. I sacrificed my bliss,
That e'en in striving, still I might be great.
And what is my reward?

LUCIFER.
Thou feel'st it not?

ADAM.
I feel that as God has abandoned me
With empty hands into the desert casting,
So him have I abandoned. To myself
A god I'll be, and that for which I strive
Will be my own. This gives me strength and pride.

LUCIFER (Aside).
Vain wight! thou blowest bubbles to the skies;
We'll test thy heart, when thunders mutter deep.

EVE.
I too, feel naught but pride within me, for
'Tis I who'll be the mother of the race.

LUCIFER (Aside).
Ideal worthy of the woman's heart!
Perpetuating sin and misery.

ADAM.
Why should I grateful be to Him? For living?
If life indeed outweigh its sordid cares,
'Tis of my own endeavors but the fruit.
The ecstacy a cooling draught doth give,
With pangs of burning thirst must first be earned ;
The price of honeyed kisses too, is pain
Of longing, then satiety ; but now
I'm free from all these ties of gratitude,
My own fate to build up and to destroy,
Manipulating that which I have planned, —
Perhaps for this I did not need thine aid,
For my own strength and will had well sufficed.
Thou'st not unloosed me from the pond'rous gyves
Which to the earth my body still enchain.
I feel — I know not what — so subtle 't is ;
It may be but a hair — more is the shame —
Which holds my soul in doubt, and in suspense;
Behold, I fain would soar, my body fails ;
Both eye and ear the service high reject
If mysteries of space I would espy :
And when in fancy's flight I'm borne aloft,
From hunger, cow'ringly I sink again,
Unto vile matter which my essence is.

LUCIFER.
These chains are even stronger than myself.

ADAM.
Then thou'rt a feeble spirit if this web
Invisible, this null, of which the millions
Have no consciousness, but with a sense
Of liberty, therein they revel,
Defy thee, though it is not dreamed of, save
By some superior, enlightened souls.

LUCIFER.
And it is this alone which can defy me;
For it is spirit, like myself. Thou think'st
Because a power works noiseless and concealed
It hath not force? Not so, in shadow lies
That power, which shatters or creates a world;
For sight of it would cause the brain to reel.
'Tis but the work of man, which roars and glitters,
Whose limit in this human life is reached.

ADAM.
Ob! let me contemplate these workings great
One moment only — strength my bosom fills, —
That power which moveth, and by which I am
Enthralled, although a perfect whole am I.

LUCIFER.
" Am ! " Senseless word ! Thou wast ; thou wilt be ;
For life is either crescent, of in decay.
But look about thee! View with spirit eyes!
(As the last words are spoken, all becomes visible.)

ADAM.
What flood is this which bursts here on my sight,
So madly pressing onward to the height?
Parting in twain, like to the storm wind fleet
It rushes to the distant poles.

LUCIFER.
'Tis heat,
Which to the icy regions giveth life.

ADAM.
And these two streams of flame, with horrors rife.
Which at my side are whirling swiftly by?
They wellnigh crush me, yet methinks that I
Can feel their touch; how it doth vivify!
Ah! what is this, that so doth terrify?

LUCIFER.
It is the magnet

ADAM.
'Neath me sways the ground;
All that erstwhile was formless, firm and bound.
Now seething matter hath become, and strife
Arises now for form and breathing life ;
As crystal glistening and shining here,
As blossom yonder to burst forth. In fear
I ask, Oh! 'mid this chaos, where will be
My pent-up individuality?
What of this earthly shell, in which, O fool,
I placed my faith, as in a potent tool?
Wherewith my aspirations once I thought
To realize. — Deluded child, to naught
Thou'lt shrink, who for me joys and woes dost reap,
And some time be reduced to a mean heap
Of dust, then into other forms resolve :
Perchance a vapor to a cloud dissolved,
Evaporating when its course is run.
Each word of mine, each thought my brain has spun,
Consuming, part by part, this form of mine ;
And this devouring fire, the fell design ,
Of some mysterious spirit dark, that fans
The flame, as gleeful he my ashes scans.
Away with this dread sight, away ! I feel
That e'en my reason now doth wane and reel.
While crushed with loneliness, amid this strife
Of all these elements, that teem with life.
How terrible! Why did I cast away,
That Providence, to which in wild dismay
I turn ; which instinct felt, though could not prize
My wisdom yearns again to realize.

EVE.
Like to thine own, are the feelings of my heart,
Whether I see thee struggling with wild beasts,
Or wearily I tend our little garden,
I look around me, o'er the wide, wide world;
On dearth, in heaven, no kindred near I see ;
Not e'en one friend, to guard and cheer us now.
Ah! in that fairer time, it was not so.

LUCIFER (scornfully).
If then ye are such childish, trivial souls,
Chilling, without some warm, protecting hand;
If of dependence ye have such sore need ;
I will call forth for you a god, whom ye
Will find more smiling than your rigid sire:
The Spirit of the Earth. I knew him there,
The modest youth, in the celestial choir.
Earth Spirit, I command
Come! thou can'st not withstand
The soul that e'er denies,
Thee dares, and thee defies.

(Flames leap out of the earth. Heavy black clouds and a rainbow appear. Terrific peals of thunder.)

LUCIFER.
Who art thou, spectre? Thee did I not call.
The guardian of the earth is tender, frail.

EARTH SPIRIT.
He who in the celestial choir seemed frail,
Is infinite and strong in his own sphere.
But at command of spirit I appear,
For that I must obey, I dare not fail.
Mark well ! no other acts can'st thou inspire.
Could'st thou see my face, thy fate were dire,
And these two worms would perish in their fear.

LUCIFER.
How can man thy proud presence reach, if he
Resolved that henceforth thou his god shalt be?

EARTH SPIRIT.
In clouds, in groves and in the seas,
All that to him brings bliss and ease.
(Disappears.)
(The valley is populated with dancing nymphs.)

EVE.
Ah! see, these kindred faces here
See! See! how smiling they appear!
No more abandoned, no more alone,
And happiness, before unknown,
They bring, for they can sympathize,
And in our doubts, give counsel wise.

LUCIFER.
And ye could ask no better than these elves
So dear, who e'er advise what ye yourselves
Desire, in questioning betrayed; they seem
All smiling unto guileless hearts, but teem
With terror to the lost. In many a form,
In myriad guise, about you they will swarm ;
Unto the savant bring the longed for goal,
And its ideal to the youthful soul.

ADAM.
But what avails this vain and glittering show
I here behold? for nothing do I know.
One more enigma now doth bother me,
Delay not, Lucifer, but hear my plea !

LUCIFER (aside).
This knowledge will bring bitterness one day ;
And thou wilt long for thy lost ignorance.

(Aloud.)

Have patience, for thou know'st, each moment's bliss,
With struggles thou must ever earn ; so thou
Through many schools must pass and errors too,
Before thou knowest all.

ADAM.
How easy 'tis
To speak of patience, with eternity
Spread out before thee? but I did not eat
Of the tree of life, therefore this little span
Of human life doth warn me to make haste.

LUCIFER.
To all that lives, the span is but the same.
The hoary trees, th' unseen ephemera ;
They live, rejoice, they love, and pass away,
Till run their course, their instincts satisfied.
Time ceaseth not : we change ; a century —
A day; — the end is but the same. Fear not:
Thou'lt reach the goal, but think not that this clay
Shuts in man's individuality.
Look at the ant, the swarming bees, with all
The senseless chaos of their myriad works ;
How blind they strive and roam, to sink at last
In death ; but as a solid mass, they live,
Together live and strive, with but one soul,
Accomplishing their being's destiny,
Till comes the end, when all shall cease at once.
So shall thy dust be scattered far, but thou
In a hundred forms shalt live again, and naught
Need'st thou begin anew. For all thy sins
The son must penance do ; to him, thy gout
Dost thou transmit, thy life's experience,
All thy sensations and thy learning, all,
For aeons, shall thine own possession be.

ADAM.
Unto the aged, leave this retrospection.
With other aims my youthful breast doth burn!
Vouchsafe a glimpse into my future ; show
Wherefore I suffer, and wherefore I must strive.

EVE.
And let me see, if in this changing life,
My charms shall ever perish or decay.

LUCIFER.
So be it! Let magic enfold
You twain, so that ye may behold,
In the fleeting scenes of a dream
Your fate, that with struggles doth teem,
And trivial aims. That despair,
May never possess you, a fair
And tenuous, shimmering ray
Shall shine o'er the toilsome way ;
And this faint light — now to ope
The road delusive, is — hope !

(Leads Adam and Eve into the hut, where he causes them to fall asleep.)