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for them with such faces. I have watched those faces and willed; and then I have made a woman-child that has grown up quite like them. And others think of numbers without having to count on their fingers, and watch the sky at night, and give names to the stars, and can foretell when the sun will be covered with a black saucepan lid. And there is Tubal, who made this wheel for me which has saved me so much labor. And there is Enoch, who walks on the hills, and hears the Voice continually, and has given up his will to do the will of the Voice, and has some of the Voice’s greatness. When they come, there is always some new wonder, or some new hope: something to live for. They never want to die, because they are always learning and always creating either things or wisdom, or at least dreaming of them. And then you, Cain, come to me with your stupid fighting and destroying, and your foolish boasting; and you want me to tell you that it is all splendid, and that you are heroic, and that nothing but death or the dread of death makes life worth living. Away with you, naughty child; and do you, Adam, go on with your work and not waste your time listening to him. Cain I am not, perhaps, very clever; but⁠— Eve Interrupting him. Perhaps not; but do not begin to boast of that. It is no credit to you. Cain For all that, mother, I have an instinct which tells me that death plays its part in life. Tell me this: who invented death? Adam springs to his feet. Eve drops her distaff. Both show the greatest consternation. Cain What is the matter with you both? Adam Boy: you have asked us a terrible question. Eve You invented murder. Let that be enough for you. Cain Murder is not death. You know what I mean. Those whom I slay would die if I spared them. If I am not slain, yet I shall die. Who put this upon me? I say, who invented death? Adam Be reasonable, boy. Could you bear to live forever? You think you could, because you know that you will never have to make your thought good. But I have known what it is to sit and brood under the terror of eternity, of immortality. Think of it, man: to have no escape! to be Adam, Adam, Adam through more days than there are grains of sand by the two rivers, and then be as far from the end as ever! I, who have so much in me that I hate and long to cast off! Be thankful to your parents, who enabled you to hand on your burden to new and better men, and won for you an eternal rest; for it was we who invented death. Cain Rising. You did well: I, too, do not want to live forever. But if you invented death, why do you blame me, who am a minister of death? Adam I do not blame you. Go in peace. Leave me to my digging, and your mother to her spinning. Cain Well, I will leave you to it, though I have shown you a better way. He picks up his shield and spear. I will go back to my brave warrior friends and their splendid women. He strides to the thorn brake. When Adam delved and Eve span, where was then the gentleman? He goes away roaring with laughter, which ceases as he cries from the distance. Goodbye, mother. Adam Grumbling. He might have put the hurdle back, lazy hound! He replaces the hurdle across the passage. Eve Through him and his like, death is gaining on life. Already most of our grandchildren die before they have sense enough to know how to live. Adam No matter. He spits on his hands, and takes up the spade again. Life is still long enough to learn to dig, short as they are making it. Eve Musing. Yes, to dig. And to fight. But is it long enough for the other things, the great things? Will they live long enough to eat manna? Adam What is manna? Eve Food drawn down from heaven, made out of the air, not dug dirtily from the earth. Will they learn all the ways of all the stars in their little time? It took Enoch two hundred years to learn to interpret the will of the Voice. When he was a mere child of eighty, his babyish attempts to understand the Voice were more dangerous than the wrath of Cain. If they shorten their lives, they will dig and fight and kill and die; and their baby Enochs will tell them that it is the will of the Voice that they should dig and fight and kill and die forever. Adam If they are lazy and have a will towards death I cannot help it. I will live my thousand years: if they will not, let them die and be damned. Eve Damned? What is that? Adam The state of them that love death more than life. Go on with your spinning; and do not sit there idle while I am straining my muscles for you. Eve Slowly taking up her distaff. If you were not a fool you would find something better for both of us to live by than this spinning and digging. Adam Go on with your work, I tell you; or you shall go without bread. Eve Man need not always live by bread alone. There is something else. We do not yet know what it is; but some day we shall find out; and then we will live on that alone; and there shall be no more digging nor spinning, nor fighting nor killing. She spins resignedly; he digs impatiently.

Part II

The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas

Present Day

In the first years after the war an impressive-looking gentleman of