Scene VIII.
THE PARADISE OF HEILEL.
CAIN .
My vision clears as we approach this world
Of marvel and of beauty. Lo, yon peaks
Shot upward from abysses fathomless,
In the serene that teems with flying life:
The tints shed over them imbue the sense
With their own hues; the finer shapes of forms
Grow on the eye; the trees, or are they such?
Have voices of their own; and low and deep
The fall of waters lull us to repose;
A paradise to which Eden was barren.
LUCIFER .
Even as were this, couldst thou on mightier gaze
CAIN .
What is she standing by yon stream? a form
Of life, or shaped from air? She is alone,
Like yonder watching star, as if her spirit
Drank life while gazing there; as if one dwelt
Within, resembling her
LUCIFER .
It is thine earth
She deems the abode of beings like thyself.
CAIN .
Serenity dwells on her face; she looks
Born for idolatry, as if with her
Life would be felt immortal
LUCIFER .
Thou speakest
To thine own nature. She is of a type
Higher than thou hast gazed on.
CAIN .
Does she walk
With her own kind, or commune with her God?
LUCIFER .
Her thoughts are thine, her words revealing them;
Fulfil the end.
HEILEL .
And art thou come at last?
Oh, I have seen thee thus in dreams, and felt
Drawn toward thee still with awe, yet hope, and knelt
Imploring thee to stay, and thou the while
Didst beckon me to follow where I could not
What art thou, holding power o'er me thus?
If Angel, let me pray!
CAIN .
Creature of light! and dost thou kneel to me?
And shrink within thyself like one in fear?
Look thou on me with eyes that give me life.
HEILEL .
Oh, thou art come as one expected long;
It seems as if I ever saw thee thus;
That we have been as one, though still apart.
How could such life as ours be separate?
Love, like its source, exists not for itself,
But for the life around; even thus I loved;
My happiness shed upon things beautiful
Its self-reflection. Then, thy vision came;
Repose fled from me while my bosom thrilled,
With pain yet kin to joy. By the stream's bank
I sate, and plucked the flowers, and watched them float
Along the waters, vague as my own thoughts.
Even now I look on thee less as a life
Than shade to pass away.
CAIN .
It is my joy
That unreal seems; thine ever dwells in thee,
Who, living before God, dost image him.
HEILEL
Did he not thee create? —
CAIN .
He has made all.
HEILEL .
And thus revealed his image?
CAIN .
In his works
We see himself.
HEILEL .
Dwell'st thou in yonder star,
The immortal home of beings like thyself?
Or art thou formed of loftier nature? Yet
Thou art less bright than I; upon thy brow
The shadow rests that trees in twilight cast,
And thy voice sounds like the low airs when sighing
Through their boughs waved in starlight: yet it draws
My heart towards thee more, as if joy were
Akin to grief. Is aught that lives, unblest?
For what is life but the beatitude
Of God reflecting visibly himself?
Is he not too thy maker? can he make
Unlike himself? without him, what were life?
CAIN .
That which it is in yonder star, and were
Here, in his love withdrawn
HEILEL .
How may that cease
Which is?
CAIN .
Remember'st thou a former state?
HEILEL .
I am as all I look on, now as ever.
CAIN .
Doth not Life round thee change; yea, cease to be?
HEILEL .
Oh, God! can aught that has been cease to be?
Would He who gave life take away the gift?
Like those bright lights that shine o'er us like flowers,
Or laughing eyes, that close, reopening still,
So forms change here, so draw me to their beauty,
Fading until renewed. I mourned them once;
I felt forsaken when I saw them leave me;
But now I grieve not, knowing them the same,
Though taking other shapes.
CAIN .
Why should I now
Trifle with happiness, or raise mistrust?
She nearer is to God; his rays direct
Imbue her with the angel's purity.
What makes her thus? even He who breathed in her
The life of faith; He whose sole name is love:
She has the height of knowledge; yea, is proof
Of Him, as is the ray of the far sun
From which it grew. We were created thus,
But of inferior elements.
HEILEL .
Thou speak'st,
Yet answerest not, and shadows on thy brow
Deepen. Oh, let me share thy thought, for I
Would know what sorrow is.
CAIN .
I mused on Him
Who moulds each being to His will, and gives
Inherent happiness, or its desire,
Which is forgetfulness of ills, that press
On our inferior life. Am I like thee?
Thy heart doth tell thee so in thy pure faith.
His image is not stamped on us, as thou,
A shadowless reflection, but retained
By effort; we would know him.
HEILEL .
How may aught
Created know its Maker, and what fruit
Would yield such knowledge?
CAIN .
That thou hast attained,
Even in the love that makes thee what thou art,
His emanation. Oh, couldst thou infuse
Within my spirit thy unruffled image,
Filling me with the heaven reflected there!
HEILEL .
Dwell here, and share my being till made thine,
Kneeling to Him, for then we shall be one,
And He will make us one in spirit, while I
Shall look to thee, fount of my happiness.
What cloud obscured the face of Him once seen?
Desire to know, though vain, could not bring grief,
And who could cease to love the Life-giver?
Hast thou left aught behind that mourns thee? dwells
In yon far earth one that has watched for thee,
Even as I?
CAIN .
Seek not beyond thyself,
Oh, let forgetfulness be folded o'er
Yon light star like a cloud; be life one present,
One being, only here, the past a dream
Which ask me not to tell.
Be life absorbed
In consciousness of waking happiness;
We are alone, our world is in ourselves.
Look thou on me as one borne from the brink
Of his far earth to blend his life with thine;
O make me like thyself! I kneel to thee
As one from whom my breath of life is drawn.
HEILEL .
Heilel! thy vision is fulfilled; thou art
All thou wouldst be; thy dream is realized.
CAIN .
Lo, how I clasp thy gentle hand in mine!
While here I swear, by thine own self, to dwell,
Until thy faith and hope are felt in me;
Till, in a world undimmed by memories,
My life become reflection of thine own.
Yea, smile on us, ye everlasting stars!
Conscious, it may be, others thus have knelt
And pledged ye vows as burning and as vain!
They have not been as mine; none lived like me,
As none shall die.
Confide thou thus in me,
While I look in the depths of those full eyes,
And see my blessedness reflected there.
HEILEL .
Thou shalt see where these eyes awoke to light;
Each height and depth, the course of each fair stream,
And vale and fount be shown thee.
CAIN .
Thy abode
Is like thyself; the odorous flowers and hues
Shed over all, confuse a sense unproved.
All is unlike that I have seen, thee most,
Heilel! for so I name thee, thou that art
The " morning star" of this bright solitude;
Rest thou on me; each inmost thought confessed,
While thus we wander through thy paradise.
THE PARADISE OF HEILEL.
CAIN .
My vision clears as we approach this world
Of marvel and of beauty. Lo, yon peaks
Shot upward from abysses fathomless,
In the serene that teems with flying life:
The tints shed over them imbue the sense
With their own hues; the finer shapes of forms
Grow on the eye; the trees, or are they such?
Have voices of their own; and low and deep
The fall of waters lull us to repose;
A paradise to which Eden was barren.
LUCIFER .
Even as were this, couldst thou on mightier gaze
CAIN .
What is she standing by yon stream? a form
Of life, or shaped from air? She is alone,
Like yonder watching star, as if her spirit
Drank life while gazing there; as if one dwelt
Within, resembling her
LUCIFER .
It is thine earth
She deems the abode of beings like thyself.
CAIN .
Serenity dwells on her face; she looks
Born for idolatry, as if with her
Life would be felt immortal
LUCIFER .
Thou speakest
To thine own nature. She is of a type
Higher than thou hast gazed on.
CAIN .
Does she walk
With her own kind, or commune with her God?
LUCIFER .
Her thoughts are thine, her words revealing them;
Fulfil the end.
HEILEL .
And art thou come at last?
Oh, I have seen thee thus in dreams, and felt
Drawn toward thee still with awe, yet hope, and knelt
Imploring thee to stay, and thou the while
Didst beckon me to follow where I could not
What art thou, holding power o'er me thus?
If Angel, let me pray!
CAIN .
Creature of light! and dost thou kneel to me?
And shrink within thyself like one in fear?
Look thou on me with eyes that give me life.
HEILEL .
Oh, thou art come as one expected long;
It seems as if I ever saw thee thus;
That we have been as one, though still apart.
How could such life as ours be separate?
Love, like its source, exists not for itself,
But for the life around; even thus I loved;
My happiness shed upon things beautiful
Its self-reflection. Then, thy vision came;
Repose fled from me while my bosom thrilled,
With pain yet kin to joy. By the stream's bank
I sate, and plucked the flowers, and watched them float
Along the waters, vague as my own thoughts.
Even now I look on thee less as a life
Than shade to pass away.
CAIN .
It is my joy
That unreal seems; thine ever dwells in thee,
Who, living before God, dost image him.
HEILEL
Did he not thee create? —
CAIN .
He has made all.
HEILEL .
And thus revealed his image?
CAIN .
In his works
We see himself.
HEILEL .
Dwell'st thou in yonder star,
The immortal home of beings like thyself?
Or art thou formed of loftier nature? Yet
Thou art less bright than I; upon thy brow
The shadow rests that trees in twilight cast,
And thy voice sounds like the low airs when sighing
Through their boughs waved in starlight: yet it draws
My heart towards thee more, as if joy were
Akin to grief. Is aught that lives, unblest?
For what is life but the beatitude
Of God reflecting visibly himself?
Is he not too thy maker? can he make
Unlike himself? without him, what were life?
CAIN .
That which it is in yonder star, and were
Here, in his love withdrawn
HEILEL .
How may that cease
Which is?
CAIN .
Remember'st thou a former state?
HEILEL .
I am as all I look on, now as ever.
CAIN .
Doth not Life round thee change; yea, cease to be?
HEILEL .
Oh, God! can aught that has been cease to be?
Would He who gave life take away the gift?
Like those bright lights that shine o'er us like flowers,
Or laughing eyes, that close, reopening still,
So forms change here, so draw me to their beauty,
Fading until renewed. I mourned them once;
I felt forsaken when I saw them leave me;
But now I grieve not, knowing them the same,
Though taking other shapes.
CAIN .
Why should I now
Trifle with happiness, or raise mistrust?
She nearer is to God; his rays direct
Imbue her with the angel's purity.
What makes her thus? even He who breathed in her
The life of faith; He whose sole name is love:
She has the height of knowledge; yea, is proof
Of Him, as is the ray of the far sun
From which it grew. We were created thus,
But of inferior elements.
HEILEL .
Thou speak'st,
Yet answerest not, and shadows on thy brow
Deepen. Oh, let me share thy thought, for I
Would know what sorrow is.
CAIN .
I mused on Him
Who moulds each being to His will, and gives
Inherent happiness, or its desire,
Which is forgetfulness of ills, that press
On our inferior life. Am I like thee?
Thy heart doth tell thee so in thy pure faith.
His image is not stamped on us, as thou,
A shadowless reflection, but retained
By effort; we would know him.
HEILEL .
How may aught
Created know its Maker, and what fruit
Would yield such knowledge?
CAIN .
That thou hast attained,
Even in the love that makes thee what thou art,
His emanation. Oh, couldst thou infuse
Within my spirit thy unruffled image,
Filling me with the heaven reflected there!
HEILEL .
Dwell here, and share my being till made thine,
Kneeling to Him, for then we shall be one,
And He will make us one in spirit, while I
Shall look to thee, fount of my happiness.
What cloud obscured the face of Him once seen?
Desire to know, though vain, could not bring grief,
And who could cease to love the Life-giver?
Hast thou left aught behind that mourns thee? dwells
In yon far earth one that has watched for thee,
Even as I?
CAIN .
Seek not beyond thyself,
Oh, let forgetfulness be folded o'er
Yon light star like a cloud; be life one present,
One being, only here, the past a dream
Which ask me not to tell.
Be life absorbed
In consciousness of waking happiness;
We are alone, our world is in ourselves.
Look thou on me as one borne from the brink
Of his far earth to blend his life with thine;
O make me like thyself! I kneel to thee
As one from whom my breath of life is drawn.
HEILEL .
Heilel! thy vision is fulfilled; thou art
All thou wouldst be; thy dream is realized.
CAIN .
Lo, how I clasp thy gentle hand in mine!
While here I swear, by thine own self, to dwell,
Until thy faith and hope are felt in me;
Till, in a world undimmed by memories,
My life become reflection of thine own.
Yea, smile on us, ye everlasting stars!
Conscious, it may be, others thus have knelt
And pledged ye vows as burning and as vain!
They have not been as mine; none lived like me,
As none shall die.
Confide thou thus in me,
While I look in the depths of those full eyes,
And see my blessedness reflected there.
HEILEL .
Thou shalt see where these eyes awoke to light;
Each height and depth, the course of each fair stream,
And vale and fount be shown thee.
CAIN .
Thy abode
Is like thyself; the odorous flowers and hues
Shed over all, confuse a sense unproved.
All is unlike that I have seen, thee most,
Heilel! for so I name thee, thou that art
The " morning star" of this bright solitude;
Rest thou on me; each inmost thought confessed,
While thus we wander through thy paradise.