Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 5.djvu/256

228 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,

The Seraphs love most—Cherubim know most— 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? 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: 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?