12 
Ye multiplying masses of increased 
And still increasing lights ! What are ye? 
What 
Is this blue wilderness of interminable 
Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen 
The leaves along the limpid streams of 
Eden ? 
Is your course measured for you—or do ye 
Sweep on in your unbounded revelry 
Thro’ an aérial universe of endless 
Expansion, at which my soul aches to think, 
Intoxicated with eternity ? 
Oh God! OhGods! or whatsoe’er ye are ! 
How beautiful ye are! How beautiful 
Your works, or accidents, or whatsoe’er 
They may be.—Let me die, as atoms die, 
(If that they die) or know ye in your might 
And knowledge. My thoughts are not in 
this hour 
Unworthy what I see, tho’ my dust is ; 
Spirit ! let me expire, or see them nearer. 
After this display of the infinitude of 
Being, Cain desires to be initiated into 
the mysteries of death. 
Lucifer. What, if I shew to thee things 
which have died, 
As I have shewn thee much which cannot 
die. 
Cain. Do so. 
Lucifer. Away, then! on our mighty 
wings. 
Cain. Oh! how we cleave the blue! 
In the succeeding scene, we are car- 
ried into the shadows of Hades : 
Interminable gloomy realms 
Of swimming shadows and enormous 
shapes, 
Some fully shewn, some indistinct, and all 
Mighty and melancholy. 
These are the phantoms of the pre-ex- 
istent inhabitants of the elder world, 
who had, in their season, been, 
Living, high, 
Intelligent, good, great and glorious things. 
Besides these ghosts of a higher na- 
ture, there are some departed spirits 
which we should hardly have looked 
for, amongst which are gigantic appari- 
tions of mammoths, with tusks like 
trees ; the sou! of a sea-snake, with head 
“ten times higher than the haughtiest 
cedar,’ apparently the progenitor of 
that which has lately infested the At- 
lantic ; and, above all, “ the phantasm 
of an ocean”’ itself, which, Cain saga- 
ciously remarks, “ looks like water’??— 
in which the ‘ past Leviathans” are 
disporting themselves. This exhibition 
seems well calculated to answer Luci- 
fer’s purpose in confounding Cain’s un- 
derstanding; and, accordingly, when 
he thinks the mystification has been 
carried far enough, he returns, as it 
were, to business, and touches the right 
string. 
News from Parnassus...No. XIV. 
|Feb. 1, 
Lucifer. And thy brother— 
Sits he not near thy heart ? 
Cain. Why should he not? 
Lucifer. Thy father loves him well-—so 
does thy God. 
Cain. Andso do I, 
Lucifer. "Tis well and meekly done. 
Cain. Meekly ! 
Lucifer. He is the second-born of flesh, 
And is his mother’s favourite. 
Cain. Let him keep 
Her fayour, since the Serpent was the first 
To win it. 
Lucifer. And his father’s. 
Cain. What is that 
Tome? Should [ not love that which al? 
love? 
Lucifer. And the Jehovah—the indut- 
gent Lord, 
And bounteous planter of lost Paradise— 
He, too, looks smilingly on Abel. 
Cain. I 
Ne’er sawhim, and I knownot if He smiles. 
Lucifer. But you have seen his angels. 
Cain. Rarely. 
Lucifer. But 
Sufficiently to see they love your brother ; 
His sacrifices are acceptable. 
Cain. So be they. Wherefore speak to 
me of this? 
Lucifer. Because thou hast thought of 
this ere now. 
Cain. And if 
Ihave thought, why recall a thought [He 
pauses, as agitated.| Spirit! 
Here we are in thy world; speak not of 
mine ! 
Pursuing his object, Cain would pe- 
netrate to the very origin of things—the 
great double Mysteries—the two Prin- 
ciples—at the risk of instant destruc- 
tion, but is told by Lucifer that Death 
only can open the gates to this know- 
ledge; on which Cain is somewhat re- 
conciled to that agent, but complains 
that, after all, he is not much enlight- 
ened by his journey, and high words 
follow. The pride of the King of Hell 
is finely displayed. 
Cain. Haughty Spirit ! 
Thou speak’st it proudly, but thyself, tho” 
proud, 
Hast a superior ! 
Lucifer. No! by heaven, which He 
Holds, and the abyss, and the immensity 
Of worlds and life, which I hold with him, 
—No! 
Ihave a victor—true ; but no superior :— 
Homage he has from all, but none from me. 
I battle it against him, as I battled 
In highest heaven. Through all Eternity, 
In the unfathomable gulphs of Hades, 
And in the interminable realms of space, 
And the infinity of endless ages, 
All, all, will I dispute! And world by 
world, 
And 
