Space. In the distance is seen a segment of the Earth, diminishing in size until it only appears as a star, and mingles with the others. The scene begins in semi-darkness which slowly changes to complete darkness. ADAM as an aged man with LUCIFER flying.

ADAM
Far speed we on wild wings. Whither our flight?

LUCIFER
Didst thou not yearn to free thee from the the dross
And soar to higher spheres, whence, thou didst say,
The voice of spirits kindred came to thee?

ADAM
Thou speakest truth, but never deemed I then
The way would be so long and desolate.
So empty stretches space, so cold and still,
As though ’twere sacrilege to enter there.
Within my heart two warring feelings strive,
I feel the littleness of Earth, that bound
My soul in fetters; yea, from thence I flee -
Yet do I yearn for that which I have left.
Ah, Lucifer, look back upon our Earth;
First did the flowers vanish from our sight,
And then the swaying branches of the woods;
The well-known landscape, with its pleasant haunts
Merged fast into a flat plain, featureless,
And every landmark faded and grew dim.
Then dwindled mighty rocks to clods of earth,
The cloud that lightning veils and thunder’s roar -
The voice of God to them which dwell below -
We saw as vapour driven by the wind.
The boundless ocean’s ever surging waves,
Where are they now? A shadow on the globe
That turns and mingles with a thousand stars.
And yet that Earth was all the world for us.
O Lucifer, and she, and she is there!
Must she abide upon it, far from us?

LUCIFER
So high are we now risen; from the sight
First fades the beautiful, and then the great
And mighty, till at length nought else remains
To us than mathematics, cold, remote.

ADAM
Now fade the stars behind us as we fly,
I see no end, I feel no obstacle;
Without love, without conflict, what is life?
Here all is cold and terror, Lucifer.

LUCIFER
It thus far only hast thou heart to go,
Then turn we back and play amid the dust.

ADAM
Who speakest of return? On, ever on!
Pain but endureth till the final bond
Be broken that yet binds us to the Earth.
What meaneth this? I cannot freely breathe,
My senses grow confused, strength faileth me.
Was more than myth Anteus who alone
Might live when on the earth his feet were set?

THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH
Yea, more than myth this tale of ancient years.
Now knowest thou the Spirit of the Earth!
I only am the breath within thy mouth;
Here lies the bound; so far my realm doth reach.
Return and live; press on and be destroyed,
Like to a tiny threadworm that doth swim
Within a drop of water; yea, for thee
This tiny drop of water is the Earth.

ADAM
I thee defy; thou threatenest in vain.
My body may be thine, my soul is mine!
The thought, the truth are infinite, and were
Before thy world of matter came to be.

THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH
Vain man, make trial! Dread shall be thy fall!
Breathed yet a fragrance ere the roses blew?
Came form ere body, ray before the sun?
If thou couldst see thy soul left desolate,
Circling through cold, immeasurable space,
Seeking in vain for meaning and for form
Which might express it in an alien world;
Feeling nought there, and comprehending nought,
Thou wouldest feel the terror. Knowest thou,
All thought, all feeling that within thee dwell,
Are but the radiance of that salf - some mass
Of matter thou art wont to name the Earth.
If it were else, it could no more exist,
And thau couldst, with the Earth, exist no more.
Thy fair and foul, thy heaven and thy hell
Thou dost but from my spirit take to thee;
That spirit breathing in thy little sphere.
Ah, what is here an everlasting truth
May be undreamt of in another world;
The here impossible, be natural there;
Weight not exist, life rest immovable.
What here is air may there, perchance, be thought;
What here is light, there peradventure, sound;
What here be growing, be a crystal there.

ADAM
Thou shalt not daunt me; on doth press my soul!

THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH
Adam, Adam, the final moment nears!
Return; great, on the Earth, thou mayest be,
While if thou pass beyond the Universe,
God will not suffer thine approach to Him
And thou shalt be defeated and laid low.

ADAM
Shall death not come anon to lay me low?

THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH
This vain word of the ancient lie speak not;
Speak not this word here in the spirit world.
All nature would in horror shrink thereat.
A secret ’tis whereof the seal doth guard
The Lord Himself: the Apple of the Tree
Of Knowledge could itself not break that seal!

ADAM
Yet will I break the seal.
They continue their flight. ADAM utters a cry and becomes rigid.
This is my end!

LUCIFER laughing
So, th’ancient lie prevailed!
As he thrusts ADAM away from him.
Now may this puppet deity revolve
In space, like to a planet new, whereon
Life may arise perchance once more for me.

THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH
Too soon thine exultation, Lucifer!
He did but touch in flight this alien world;
’Tis not so easy from my realm to pass!
Thy home doth call thee! Son of Earth, revive!

ADAM recovering consciousness
I live once more. I feel it by my pain.
But yet the suffering is sweet to me.
To perish, to be nothing, doth appal.
Lucifer, lead me to my Earth again,
Where I have fought so many fights in vain,
That I may fight anew and happy be.

LUCIFER
So many trials, and thou thinkest yet
Thy conflict new shall not prove profitless;
And thou shalt reach the goal? In very truth
Such childish folly could be man’s alone.

ADAM
Such idle dreams allure me now no more.
The goal, I know I shall not reach, although
A hundred times to gain it I should strive.
It matters nothing. And what is the goal?
It is the ceasing of a worthy fight,
The goal is death, the battle is the life.
The fight itself the goal the man doth seek.

LUCIFER
In very truth, brave comfort dost thou take;
If but the cause thou foughtest for were high;
But that for which thou bearest arms to-day,
To-morrow thou despisest, and dost find
Thy heart was kindled by a childish whim.
Didst thou not shed at Chaeronea once
Thy blood, a vanquished freedom to defend?
And didst thou later, not with Constantine
Fight, too, this world-wide empire to create?
Didst thou not perish in a martyr’s death,
And afterward then not oppose the faith,
And fight with weapons science lent to thee?

ADAM
True is it, yet the issue was the same.
Though foolish my intent, it fired my heart,
My soul uplifted: thus it grew to be
A cause most high and holy. Though the cause
Were Cross or Science, Liberty or Might,
It matters not in what form worked the cause,
It yet advanced the progress of mankind.
Oh, lead me back to Earth to fight anew.

LUCIFER
Already hast thou then forgot the words
That spake the Scientist when he foretold
Four thousand years should pass, and this thy world
Should freeze, ice-bound, and conflict be no more?

ADAM
If that our science not our fate defy.
But I feel, I know, that it will defy.

LUCIFER
And then - shall there be conflict, greatness, strength
Within that ordered world that Reason forms
Of science and of theory, that world
That thou didst gaze upon a while ago?

ADAM
Let it but save our Earth - it too will pass,
As all things that their office have fulfilled,
And then the thought creative shall once more
Breathe into it the flaming breath of life.
Lead thou me back, for I now burn to see
Upon this Earth redeemed in what new cause
My heart shall be enkindled.

LUCIFER
      Then return!