Heaven and Earth

PART I.

SCENE I.--A woody and mountainous district near MountArarat.--Time, midnight.

Enter ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH.

Anah. OUR father sleeps: it is the hour when they5Who love us are accustomed to descendThrough the deep clouds o'er rocky Ararat:--How my heart beats!

Aho. Let us proceed uponOur invocation.10

Anah. But the stars are hidden.I tremble.

Aho. So do I, but not with fearOf aught save their delay.

Anah. My sister, though15I love Azaziel more than----oh, too much!What was I going to say? my heart grows impious.

Aho. And where is the impiety of lovingCelestial natures?

Anah. But, Aholibamah,20I love our God less since his angel loved me:This cannot be of good; and though I know notThat I do wrong, I feel a thousand fearsWhich are not ominous of right.

Aho. Then wed thee25Unto some son of clay, and toil and spin!There's Japhet loves thee well, hath loved thee long:Marry, and bring forth dust!

Anah. I should have lovedAzaziel not less were he mortal; yet30I am glad he is not. I cannot outlive him.And when I think that his immortal wingsWill one day hover o'er the sepulchreOf the poor child of clay which so adored him,As he adores the Highest, death becomes35Less terrible; but yet I pity him:His grief will be of ages, or at leastMine would be such for him, were I the Seraph,And he the perishable.

Aho. Rather say,40That he will single forth some other daughterOf earth, and love her as he once loved Anah.

Anah. And if it should be so, and she loved him,Better thus than that he should weep for me.

Aho. If I thought thus of Samiasa's love,45All Seraph as he is, I'd spurn him from me.But to our invocation!--'Tis the hour.

Anah.Seraph!From thy sphere!50Whatever star contain thy glory;In the eternal depths of heavenAlbeit thou watchest with "the seven,"Though through space infinite and hoaryBefore thy bright wings worlds be driven,55Yet hear!Oh! think of her who holds thee dear!And though she nothing is to thee,Yet think that thou art all to her.Thou canst not tell,--and never be60Such pangs decreed to aught save me,--The bitterness of tears.Eternity is in thine years,Unborn, undying beauty in thine eyes;With me thou canst not sympathise,65Except in love, and there thou mustAcknowledge that more loving dustNe'er wept beneath the skies.Thou walk'st thy many worlds, thou see'stThe face of him who made thee great,70As he hath made me of the leastOf those cast out from Eden's gate:Yet, Seraph dear!Oh hear!For thou hast loved me, and I would not die75Until I know what I must die in knowing,That thou forget'st in thine eternityHer whose heart Death could not keep from o'er-flowingFor thee, immortal essence as thou art!Great is their love who love in sin and fear;80And such, I feel, are waging in my heartA war unworthy: to an AdamiteForgive, my Seraph! that such thoughts appear,For sorrow is our element;Delight85An Eden kept afar from sight,Though sometimes with our visions blent.The hour is nearWhich tells me we are not abandoned quite.--Appear! Appear!90Seraph!My own Azaziel! be but here,And leave the stars to their own light!

Aho.Samiasa!95Wheresoe'erThou rulest in the upper air--Or warring with the spirits who may dareDispute with himWho made all empires, empire; or recalling100Some wandering star, which shoots through the abyss,Whose tenants dying, while their world is falling,Share the dim destiny of clay in this;Or joining with the inferior cherubim,Thou deignest to partake their hymn--105Samiasa!I call thee, I await thee, and I love thee.Many may worship thee, that will I not:If that thy spirit down to mine may move thee,Descend and share my lot!110Though I be formed of clay,And thou of beamsMore bright than those of dayOn Eden's streams,Thine immortality can not repay115With love more warm than mineMy love. There is a rayIn me, which, though forbidden yet to shine,I feel was lighted at thy God's and thine.It may be hidden long: death and decay120Our mother Eve bequeathed us--but my heartDefies it: though this life must pass away,Is that a cause for thee and me to part?Thou art immortal--so am I: I feel--I feel my immortality o'ersweep125All pains, all tears, all fears, and peal,Like the eternal thunders of the deep,Into my ears this truth--"Thou liv'st for ever!"But if it be in joyI know not, nor would know;130That secret rests with the Almighty giver,Who folds in clouds the fonts of bliss and woe.But thee and me he never can destroy;Change us he may, but not o'erwhelm; we areOf as eternal essence, and must war135With him if he will war with us; with theeI can share all things, even immortal sorrow;For thou hast ventured to share life with me,And shall I shrink from thine eternity?No! though the serpent's sting should pierce me thorough,140And thou thyself wert like the serpent, coilAround me still! and I will smile,And curse thee not; but holdThee in as warm a foldAs----but descend, and prove145A mortal's loveFor an immortal. If the skies containMore joy than thou canst give and take, remain!

Anah. Sister! sister! I view them wingingTheir bright way through the parted night.150

Aho. The clouds from off their pinions flinging,As though they bore to-morrow's light.

Anah. But if our father see the sight!

Aho. He would but deem it was the moonRising unto some sorcerer's tune155An hour too soon.

Anah. They come! he comes!--Azaziel!

Aho. HasteTo meet them! Oh! for wings to bearMy spirit, while they hover there,160To Samiasa's breast!

Anah. Lo! they have kindled all the west,Like a returning sunset;--lo!On Ararat's late secret crestA mild and many-coloured bow,165The remnant of their flashing path,Now shines! and now, behold! it hathReturned to night, as rippling foam,Which the Leviathan hath lashedFrom his unfathomable home,170When sporting on the face of the calm deep,Subsides soon after he again hath dashedDown, down, to where the Ocean's fountains sleep.

Aho. They have touched earth! Samiasa!

Anah. My Azaziel!175[Exeunt.

SCENE II.--Enter IRAD and JAPHET.

Irad. Despond not: wherefore wilt thou wander thusTo add thy silence to the silent night,And lift thy tearful eye unto the stars?180They cannot aid thee.

Japh. But they soothe me--nowPerhaps she looks upon them as I look.Methinks a being that is beautifulBecometh more so as it looks on beauty,185The eternal beauty of undying things.Oh, Anah!

Irad. But she loves thee not.

Japh. Alas!

Irad. And proud Aholibamah spurns me also.190

Japh. I feel for thee too.

Irad. Let her keep her pride,Mine hath enabled me to bear her scorn:It may be, time too will avenge it.

Japh. Canst thou195Find joy in such a thought?

Irad. Nor joy nor sorrow.I loved her well; I would have loved her better,Had love been met with love: as 'tis, I leave herTo brighter destinies, if so she deems them.200

Japh. What destinies?

Irad. I have some cause to thinkShe loves another.

Japh. Anah!

Irad. No; her sister.205

Japh. What other?

Irad. That I know not; but her air,If not her words, tells me she loves another.

Japh. Aye, but not Anah: she but loves her God.

Irad. Whate'er she loveth, so she loves thee not,210What can it profit thee?

Japh. True, nothing; butI love.

Irad. And so did I.

Japh. And now thou lov'st not,215Or think'st thou lov'st not, art thou happier?

Irad. Yes.

Japh. I pity thee.

Irad. Me! why?

Japh. For being happy,220Deprived of that which makes my misery.

Irad. I take thy taunt as part of thy distemper,And would not feel as thou dost for more shekelsThan all our father's herds would bring, if weighedAgainst the metal of the sons of Cain--225The yellow dust they try to barter with us,As if such useless and discoloured trash,The refuse of the earth, could be receivedFor milk, and wool, and flesh, and fruits, and allOur flocks and wilderness afford.--Go, Japhet,230Sigh to the stars, as wolves howl to the moon--I must back to my rest.

Japh. And so would IIf I could rest.

Irad. Thou wilt not to our tents then?235

Japh. No, Irad; I will to the cavern, whoseMouth they say opens from the internal world,To let the inner spirits of the earthForth when they walk its surface.

Irad. Wherefore so?240What wouldst thou there?

Japh. Soothe further my sad spiritWith gloom as sad: it is a hopeless spot,And I am hopeless.

Irad. But 'tis dangerous;245Strange sounds and sights have peopled it with terrors.I must go with thee.

Japh. Irad, no; believe meI feel no evil thought, and fear no evil.

Irad. But evil things will be thy foe the more250As not being of them: turn thy steps aside,Or let mine be with thine.

Japh. No, neither, Irad;I must proceed alone.

Irad. Then peace be with thee!255[Exit IRAD.

Japh. (solus).Peace! I have sought it where it should be found,In love--with love, too, which perhaps deserved it;And, in its stead, a heaviness of heart,260A weakness of the spirit, listless days,And nights inexorable to sweet sleepHave come upon me. Peace! what peace? the calmOf desolation, and the stillness ofThe untrodden forest, only broken by265The sweeping tempest through its groaning boughs;Such is the sullen or the fitful stateOf my mind overworn. The Earth's grown wicked,And many signs and portents have proclaimedA change at hand, and an o'erwhelming doom270To perishable beings. Oh, my Anah!When the dread hour denounced shall open wideThe fountains of the deep, how mightest thouHave lain within this bosom, folded fromThe elements; this bosom, which in vain275Hath beat for thee, and then will beat more vainly,While thine--Oh, God! at least remit to herThy wrath! for she is pure amidst the failingAs a star in the clouds, which cannot quench,Although they obscure it for an hour. My Anah!280How would I have adored thee, but thou wouldst not;And still would I redeem thee--see thee liveWhen Ocean is earth's grave, and, unopposedBy rock or shallow, the Leviathan,Lord of the shoreless sea and watery world,285Shall wonder at his boundlessness of realm. [Exit JAPHET.

Enter NOAH and SHEM.

Noah. Where is thy brother Japhet?

Shem. He went forth,According to his wont, to meet with Irad,290He said; but, as I fear, to bend his stepsTowards Anah's tents, round which he hovers nightly,Like a dove round and round its pillaged nest;Or else he walks the wild up to the cavernWhich opens to the heart of Ararat.295

Noah. What doth he there? It is an evil spotUpon an earth all evil; for things worseThan even wicked men resort there: heStill loves this daughter of a fated race,Although he could not wed her if she loved him,300And that she doth not. Oh, the unhappy heartsOf men! that one of my blood, knowing wellThe destiny and evil of these days,And that the hour approacheth, should indulgeIn such forbidden yearnings! Lead the way;305He must be sought for!

Shem. Go not forward, father:I will seek Japhet.

Noah. Do not fear for me:All evil things are powerless on the man310Selected by Jehovah.--Let us on.

Shem. To the tents of the father of the sisters?

Noah. No; to the cavern of the Caucasus.[Exeunt NOAH and SHEM.

SCENE III.--The mountains.--A cavern, and the rocks315of Caucasus.

Japh. (solus). Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou cave,Which seem'st unfathomable; and ye mountains,So varied and so terrible in beauty;Here, in your rugged majesty of rocks320And toppling trees that twine their roots with stoneIn perpendicular places, where the footOf man would tremble, could he reach them--yes,Ye look eternal! Yet, in a few days,Perhaps even hours, ye will be changed, rent, hurled325Before the mass of waters; and yon cave,Which seems to lead into a lower world,Shall have its depths searched by the sweeping wave,And dolphins gambol in the lion's den!And man----Oh, men! my fellow-beings! Who330Shall weep above your universal grave,Save I? Who shall be left to weep? My kinsmen,Alas! what am I better than ye are,That I must live beyond ye? Where shall beThe pleasant places where I thought of Anah335While I had hope? or the more savage haunts,Scarce less beloved, where I despaired for her?And can it be!--Shall yon exulting peak,Whose glittering top is like a distant star,Lie low beneath the boiling of the deep?340No more to have the morning sun break forth,And scatter back the mists in floating foldsFrom its tremendous brow? no more to haveDay's broad orb drop behind its head at even,Leaving it with a crown of many hues?345No more to be the beacon of the world,For angels to alight on, as the spotNearest the stars? And can those words "no more"Be meant for thee, for all things, save for us,And the predestined creeping things reserved350By my sire to Jehovah's bidding? MayHe preserve them, and I not have the powerTo snatch the loveliest of earth's daughters fromA doom which even some serpent, with his mate,Shall 'scape to save his kind to be prolonged,355To hiss and sting through some emerging world,Reeking and dank from out the slime, whose oozeShall slumber o'er the wreck of this, untilThe salt morass subside into a sphereBeneath the sun, and be the monument,360The sole and undistinguished sepulchre,Of yet quick myriads of all life? How muchBreath will be stilled at once! All beauteous world!So young, so marked out for destruction, IWith a cleft heart look on thee day by day,365And night by night, thy numbered days and nights.I cannot save thee, cannot save even herWhose love had made me love thee more; but asA portion of thy dust, I cannot thinkUpon thy coming doom without a feeling370Such as--Oh God! and canst thou-- [He pauses.

[A rushing sound from the cavern is heard, and shoutsof laughter--afterwards a Spirit passes.

Japh. In the nameOf the Most High, what art thou?375

Spirit (laughs). Ha! ha! ha!

Japh. By all that earth holds holiest, speak!

Spirit (laughs). Ha! ha!

Japh. By the approaching deluge! by the earthWhich will be strangled by the ocean! by380The deep which will lay open all her fountains!The heaven which will convert her clouds to seas,And the Omnipotent who makes and crushes!Thou unknown, terrible, and indistinct,Yet awful Thing of Shadows, speak to me!385Why dost thou laugh that horrid laugh?

Spirit. Why weep'st thou?

Japh. For earth and all her children.

Spirit. Ha! ha! ha![Spirit vanishes.390

Japh. How the fiend mocks the tortures of a world,The coming desolation of an orb,On which the sun shall rise and warm no life!How the earth sleeps! and all that in it isSleep too upon the very eve of death!395Why should they wake to meet it? What are here,Which look like death in life, and speak like thingsBorn ere this dying world? They come like clouds![Various Spirits pass from the cavern.

Spirit.400Rejoice!The abhorréd raceWhich could not keep in Eden their high place,But listened to the voiceOf knowledge without power,405Are nigh the hour,Of Death!Not slow, not single, not by sword, nor sorrow,Nor years, nor heart-break, nor Time's sapping motion,Shall they drop off. Behold their last to-morrow!410Earth shall be Ocean!And no breath,Save of the winds, be on the unbounded wave!Angels shall tire their wings, but find no spot:Not even a rock from out the liquid grave415Shall lift its point to save,Or show the place where strong Despair hath died,After long looking o'er the ocean wideFor the expected ebb which cometh not:All shall be void,420Destroyed!Another element shall be the lordOf life, and the abhorredChildren of dust be quenched; and of each hueOf earth nought left but the unbroken blue;425And of the variegated mountainShall nought remainUnchanged, or of the level plain;Cedar and pine shall lift their tops in vain:All merged within the universal fountain,430Man, earth, and fire, shall die,And sea and skyLook vast and lifeless in the eternal eye.Upon the foamWho shall erect a home?435

Japh. (coming forward).My sire!Earth's seed shall not expire;Only the evil shall be put awayFrom day.440Avaunt! ye exulting demons of the waste!Who howl your hideous joyWhen God destroys whom you dare not destroy:Hence! haste!Back to your inner caves!445Until the wavesShall search you in your secret place,And drive your sullen raceForth, to be rolled upon the tossing winds,In restless wretchedness along all space!450

Spirit.Son of the saved!When thou and thine have bravedThe wide and warring element;When the great barrier of the deep is rent,455Shall thou and thine be good or happy?--No!Thy new world and new race shall be of woe--Less goodly in their aspect, in their yearsLess than the glorious giants, whoYet walk the world in pride,460The Sons of Heaven by many a mortal bride.Thine shall be nothing of the past, save tears!And art thou not ashamedThus to survive,And eat, and drink, and wive?465With a base heart so far subdued and tamed,As even to hear this wide destruction named,Without such grief and courage, as should ratherBid thee await the world-dissolving wave,Than seek a shelter with thy favoured father,470And build thy city o'er the drowned earth's grave?Who would outlive their kind,Except the base and blind?MineHateth thine475As of a different order in the sphere,But not our own.There is not one who hath not left a throneVacant in heaven to dwell in darkness here,Rather than see his mates endure alone.480Go, wretch! and giveA life like thine to other wretches--live!And when the annihilating waters roarAbove what they have done,Envy the giant patriarchs then no more,485And scorn thy sire as the surviving one!Thyself for being his son!

Chorus of Spirits issuing from the cavern.

Rejoice!No more the human voice490Shall vex our joys in middle airWith prayer;No moreShall they adore;And we, who ne'er for ages have adored495The prayer-exacting Lord,To whom the omission of a sacrificeIs vice;We, we shall view the deep's salt sources pouredUntil one element shall do the work500Of all in chaos; until they,The creatures proud of their poor clay,Shall perish, and their bleached bones shall lurkIn caves, in dens, in clefts of mountains, whereThe deep shall follow to their latest lair;505Where even the brutes, in their despair,Shall cease to prey on man and on each other,And the striped tiger shall lie down to dieBeside the lamb, as though he were his brother;Till all things shall be as they were,510Silent and uncreated, save the sky:While a brief truceIs made with Death, who shall forbearThe little remnant of the past creation,To generate new nations for his use;515This remnant, floating o'er the undulationOf the subsiding deluge, from its slime,When the hot sun hath baked the reeking soilInto a world, shall give again to TimeNew beings--years, diseases, sorrow, crime--520With all companionship of hate and toil,Until----

Japh. (Interrupting them).The eternal WillShall deign to expound this dream525Of good and evil; and redeemUnto himself all times, all things;And, gathered under his almighty wings,Abolish Hell!And to the expiated Earth530Restore the beauty of her birth,Her Eden in an endless paradise,Where man no more can fall as once he fell,And even the very demons shall do well!

Spirits. And when shall take effect this wondrous spell?535

Japh. When the Redeemer cometh; first in pain,And then in glory.

Spirit. Meantime still struggle in the mortal chain,Till Earth wax hoary;War with yourselves, and Hell, and Heaven, in vain,540Until the clouds look goryWith the blood reeking from each battle-plain;New times, new climes, new arts, new men; but still,The same old tears, old crimes, and oldest ill,Shall be amongst your race in different forms;545But the same moral stormsShall oversweep the future, as the wavesIn a few hours the glorious giants' graves.

Chorus of Spirits.

Brethren, rejoice!550Mortal, farewell!Hark! hark! already we can hear the voiceOf growing Ocean's gloomy swell;The winds, too, plume their piercing wings;The clouds have nearly filled their springs;555The fountains of the great deep shall be broken,And heaven set wide her windows; while mankindView, unacknowledged, each tremendous token--Still, as they were from the beginning, blind.We hear the sound they cannot hear,560The mustering thunders of the threatening sphere;Yet a few hours their coming is delayed;Their flashing banners, folded still on high,Yet undisplayed,Save to the Spirit's all-pervading eye.565Howl! howl! oh Earth!Thy death is nearer than thy recent birth;Tremble, ye mountains, soon to shrink belowThe Ocean's overflow!The wave shall break upon your cliffs; and shells,570The little shells, of ocean's least things beDeposed where now the eagle's offspring dwells--How shall he shriek o'er the remorseless sea!And call his nestlings up with fruitless yell,Unanswered, save by the encroaching swell;--575While man shall long in vain for his broad wings,The wings which could not save:--Where could he rest them, while the whole space bringsNought to his eye beyond the deep, his grave?Brethren, rejoice!580And loudly lift each superhuman voice--All die,Save the slight remnant of Seth's seed--The seed of Seth,Exempt for future sorrow's sake from death.585But of the sons of CainNone shall remain;And all his goodly daughtersMust lie beneath the desolating waters;Or, floating upward, with their long hair laid590Along the wave, the cruel heaven upbraid,Which would not spareBeings even in death so fair.It is decreed,All die!595And to the universal human cryThe universal silence shall succeed!Fly, brethren, fly!But still rejoice!We fell!600They fall!So perish allThese petty foes of Heaven who shrink from Hell![The Spirits disappear, soaring upwards.

Japh. (solus).605God hath proclaimed the destiny of earth;My father's ark of safety hath announced it;The very demons shriek it from their caves;The scroll of Enoch prophesied it longIn silent books, which, in their silence, say610More to the mind than thunder to the ear:And yet men listened not, nor listen; butWalk darkling to their doom: which, though so nigh,Shakes them no more in their dim disbelief,Than their last cries shall shake the Almighty purpose,615Or deaf obedient Ocean, which fulfils it.No sign yet hangs its banner in the air;The clouds are few, and of their wonted texture;The Sun will rise upon the Earth's last dayAs on the fourth day of creation, when620God said unto him, "Shine!" and he broke forthInto the dawn, which lighted not the yetUnformed forefather of mankind--but rousedBefore the human orison the earlierMade and far sweeter voices of the birds,625Which in the open firmament of heavenHave wings like angels, and like them saluteHeaven first each day before the Adamites:Their matins now draw nigh--the east is kindling--And they will sing! and day will break! Both near,630So near the awful close! For these must dropTheir outworn pinions on the deep; and day,After the bright course of a few brief morrows,--Aye, day will rise; but upon what?--a chaos,Which was ere day; and which, renewed, makes Time635Nothing! for, without life, what are the hours?No more to dust than is EternityUnto Jehovah, who created both.Without him, even Eternity would beA void: without man, Time, as made for man,640Dies with man, and is swallowed in that deepWhich has no fountain; as his race will beDevoured by that which drowns his infant world.--What have we here? Shapes of both earth and air?No--all of heaven, they are so beautiful.645I cannot trace their features; but their forms,How lovelily they move along the sideOf the grey mountain, scattering its mist!And after the swart savage spirits, whoseInfernal immortality poured forth650Their impious hymn of triumph, they shall beWelcome as Eden. It may be they comeTo tell me the reprieve of our young world,For which I have so often prayed.--They come!Anah! oh, God! and with her----655

Enter SAMIASA, AZAZIEL, ANAH, and AHOLIBAMAH.

Anah. Japhet!

Sam. Lo!A son of Adam!

Aza. What doth the earth-born here,660While all his race are slumbering?

Japh. Angel! whatDost thou on earth when thou should'st be on high?

Aza. Know'st thou not, or forget'st thou, that a partOf our great function is to guard thine earth?665

Japh. But all good angels have forsaken earth,Which is condemned; nay, even the evil flyThe approaching chaos. Anah! Anah! myIn vain, and long, and still to be, beloved!Why walk'st thou with this Spirit, in those hours670When no good Spirit longer lights below?

Anah. Japhet, I cannot answer thee; yet, yetForgive me----

Japh. May the Heaven, which soon no moreWill pardon, do so! for thou art greatly tempted.675

Aho. Back to thy tents, insulting son of Noah!We know thee not.

Japh. The hour may come when thouMay'st know me better; and thy sister knowMe still the same which I have ever been.680

Sam. Son of the patriarch, who hath ever beenUpright before his God, whate'er thy gifts,And thy words seem of sorrow, mixed with wrath,How have Azaziel, or myself, brought on theeWrong?685

Japh. Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs! but, thouSay'st well, though she be dust--I did not, could not,Deserve her. Farewell, Anah! I have saidThat word so often! but now say it, ne'erTo be repeated. Angel! or whate'er690Thou art, or must be soon, hast thou the powerTo save this beautiful--these beautifulChildren of Cain?

Aza. From what?

Japh. And is it so,695That ye too know not? Angels! angels! yeHave shared man's sin, and, it may be, now mustPartake his punishment; or, at the least,My sorrow.

Sam. Sorrow! I ne'er thought till now700To hear an Adamite speak riddles to me.

Japh. And hath not the Most High expounded them?Then ye are lost as they are lost.

Aho. So be it!If they love as they are loved, they will not shrink705More to be mortal, than I would to dareAn immortality of agoniesWith Samiasa!

Anah. Sister! sister! speak notThus.710

Aza. Fearest thou, my Anah?

Anah. Yes, for thee:I would resign the greater remnant ofThis little life of mine, before one hourOf thine eternity should know a pang.715

Japh. It is for him, then! for the Seraph thouHast left me! That is nothing, if thou hast notLeft thy God too! for unions like to these,Between a mortal and an immortal, cannotBe happy or be hallowed. We are sent720Upon the earth to toil and die; and theyAre made to minister on high untoThe Highest: but if he can save thee, soonThe hour will come in which celestial aidAlone can do so.725

Anah. Ah! he speaks of Death.

Sam. Of death to us! and those who are with us!But that the man seems full of sorrow, ICould smile.

Japh. I grieve not for myself, nor fear.730I am safe, not for my own deserts, but thoseOf a well-doing sire, who hath been foundRighteous enough to save his children. WouldHis power was greater of redemption! orThat by exchanging my own life for hers,735Who could alone have made mine happy, she,The last and loveliest of Cain's race, could shareThe ark which shall receive a remnant ofThe seed of Seth!

Aho. And dost thou think that we,740With Cain's, the eldest born of Adam's, bloodWarm in our veins,--strong Cain! who was begottenIn Paradise,--would mingle with Seth's children?Seth, the last offspring of old Adam's dotage?No, not to save all Earth, were Earth in peril!745Our race hath always dwelt apart from thineFrom the beginning, and shall do so ever.

Japh. I did not speak to thee, Aholibamah!Too much of the forefather whom thou vauntestHas come down in that haughty blood which springs750From him who shed the first, and that a brother's!But thou, my Anah! let me call thee mine,Albeit thou art not; 'tis a word I cannotPart with, although I must from thee. My Anah!Thou who dost rather make me dream that Abel755Had left a daughter, whose pure pious raceSurvived in thee, so much unlike thou artThe rest of the stem Cainites, save in beauty,For all of them are fairest in their favour----

Aho. (interrupting him).760And would'st thou have her like our father's foeIn mind, in soul? If I partook thy thought,And dreamed that aught of Abel was in her!--Get thee hence, son of Noah; thou makest strife.

Japh. Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!765

Aho. ButHe slew not Seth: and what hast thou to doWith other deeds between his God and him?

Japh. Thou speakest well: his God hath judged him, andI had not named his deed, but that thyself770Didst seem to glory in him, nor to shrinkFrom what he had done.

Aho. He was our father's father;The eldest born of man, the strongest, bravest,And most enduring:--Shall I blush for him775From whom we had our being? Look uponOur race; behold their stature and their beauty,Their courage, strength, and length of days----

Japh. They are numbered.

Aho. Be it so! but while yet their hours endure,780I glory in my brethren and our fathers.

Japh. My sire and race but glory in their God,Anah! and thou?----

Anah. Whate'er our God decrees,The God of Seth as Cain, I must obey,785And will endeavour patiently to obey.But could I dare to pray in his dread hourOf universal vengeance (if such should be),It would not be to live, alone exemptOf all my house. My sister! oh, my sister!790What were the world, or other worlds, or allThe brightest future, without the sweet past--Thy love, my father's, all the life, and allThe things which sprang up with me, like the stars,Making my dim existence radiant with795Soft lights which were not mine? Aholibamah!Oh! if there should be mercy--seek it, find it:I abhor Death, because that thou must die.

Aho. What, hath this dreamer, with his father's ark,The bugbear he hath built to scare the world,800Shaken my sister? Are we not the lovedOf Seraphs? and if we were not, must weCling to a son of Noah for our lives?Rather than thus----But the enthusiast dreamsThe worst of dreams, the fantasies engendered805By hopeless love and heated vigils. WhoShall shake these solid mountains, this firm earth,And bid those clouds and waters take a shapeDistinct from that which we and all our siresHave seen them wear on their eternal way?810Who shall do this?

Japh. He whose one word produced them.

Aho. Who heard that word?

Japh. The universe, which leapedTo life before it. Ah! smilest thou still in scorn?815Turn to thy Seraphs: if they attest it not,They are none.

Sam. Aholibamah, own thy God!

Aho. I have ever hailed our Maker, Samiasa,As thine, and mine: a God of Love, not Sorrow.820

Japh. Alas! what else is Love but Sorrow? EvenHe who made earth in love had soon to grieveAbove its first and best inhabitants.

Aho. 'Tis said so.

Japh. It is even so.825

Enter NOAH and SHEM.

Noah. Japhet! WhatDost thou here with these children of the wicked?Dread'st thou not to partake their coming doom?

Japh. Father, it cannot be a sin to seek830To save an earth-born being; and behold,These are not of the sinful, since they haveThe fellowship of angels.

Noah. These are they, then,Who leave the throne of God, to take them wives835From out the race of Cain; the sons of Heaven,Who seek Earth's daughters for their beauty?

Aza. Patriarch!Thou hast said it.

Noah. Woe, woe, woe to such communion!840Has not God made a barrier between EarthAnd Heaven, and limited each, kind to kind?

Sam. Was not man made in high Jehovah's image?Did God not love what he had made? And whatDo we but imitate and emulate845His love unto created love?

Noah. I amBut man, and was not made to judge mankind,Far less the sons of God; but as our GodHas deigned to commune with me, and reveal850His judgments, I reply, that the descentOf Seraphs from their everlasting seatUnto a perishable and perishing,Even on the very eve of perishing?--world,Cannot be good.855

Aza. What! though it were to save?

Noah. Not ye in all your glory can redeemWhat he who made you glorious hath condemned.Were your immortal mission safety, 'twouldBe general, not for two, though beautiful;860And beautiful they are, but not the lessCondemned.

Japh. Oh, father! say it not.

Noah. Son! son!If that thou wouldst avoid their doom, forget865That they exist: they soon shall cease to be,While thou shalt be the sire of a new world,And better.

Japh. Let me die with this, and them!

Noah. Thou shouldst for such a thought, but shalt not: he870Who can, redeems thee.

Sam. And why him and thee,More than what he, thy son, prefers to both?

Noah. Ask him who made thee greater than myselfAnd mine, but not less subject to his own875Almightiness. And lo! his mildest andLeast to be tempted messenger appears!

Enter RAPHAEL the Archangel.

Raph.Spirits!880Whose seat is near the throne,What do ye here?Is thus a Seraph's duty to be shown,Now that the hour is nearWhen Earth must be alone?885Return!Adore and burn,In glorious homage with the elected "Seven."Your place is Heaven.

Sam.890Raphael!The first and fairest of the sons of God,How long hath this been law,That Earth by angels must be left untrod?Earth! which oft saw895Jehovah's footsteps not disdain her sod!The world he loved, and madeFor love; and oft have we obeyedHis frequent mission with delighted pinions:Adoring him in his least works displayed;900Watching this youngest star of his dominions;And, as the latest birth of his great word,Eager to keep it worthy of our Lord.Why is thy brow severe?And wherefore speak'st thou of destruction near?905

Raph.Had Samiasa and Azaziel beenIn their true place, with the angelic choir,Written in fireThey would have seen910Jehovah's late decree,And not enquired their Maker's breath of me:But ignorance must ever beA part of sin;And even the Spirits' knowledge shall grow less915As they wax proud within;For Blindness is the first-born of Excess.When all good angels left the world, ye stayed,Stung with strange passions, and debasedBy mortal feelings for a mortal maid:920But ye are pardoned thus far, and replacedWith your pure equals. Hence! away! away!Or stay,And lose Eternity by that delay!

Aza.925And thou! if Earth be thus forbiddenIn the decreeTo us until this moment hidden,Dost thou not err as weIn being here?930

Raph.I came to call ye back to your fit sphere,In the great name and at the word of God,Dear, dearest in themselves, and scarce less dear--That which I came to do: till now we trod935Together the eternal space; togetherLet us still walk the stars. True, Earth must die!Her race, returned into her womb, must wither,And much which she inherits: but oh! whyCannot this Earth be made, or be destroyed,940Without involving ever some vast voidIn the immortal ranks? immortal stillIn their immeasurable forfeiture.Our brother Satan fell; his burning willRather than longer worship dared endure!945But ye who still are pure!Seraphs! less mighty than that mightiest one,--Think how he was undone!And think if tempting man can compensateFor Heaven desired too late?950Long have I warred,Long must I warWith him who deemed it hardTo be created, and to acknowledge himWho midst the cherubim955Made him as suns to a dependent star,Leaving the archangels at his right hand dim.I loved him--beautiful he was: oh, Heaven!Save his who made, what beauty and what powerWas ever like to Satan's! Would the hour960In which he fell could ever be forgiven!The wish is impious: but, oh ye!Yet undestroyed, be warned! EternityWith him, or with his God, is in your choice:He hath not tempted you; he cannot tempt965The angels, from his further snares exempt:But man hath listened to his voice,And ye to woman's--beautiful she is,The serpent's voice less subtle than her kiss.The snake but vanquished dust; but she will draw970A second host from heaven, to break Heaven's law.Yet, yet, oh fly!Ye cannot die;But theyShall pass away,975While ye shall fill with shrieks the upper skyFor perishable clay,Whose memory in your immortalityShall long outlast the Sun which gave them day.Think how your essence differeth from theirs980In all but suffering! why partakeThe agony to which they must be heirs--Born to be ploughed with years, and sown with cares,And reaped by Death, lord of the human soil?Even had their days been left to toil their path985Through time to dust, unshortened by God's wrath,Still they are Evil's prey, and Sorrow's spoil.

Aho.Let them fly!I hear the voice which says that all must die,990Sooner than our white-bearded patriarchs died;And that on highAn ocean is prepared,While from belowThe deep shall rise to meet Heaven's overflow--995Few shall be spared,It seems; and, of that few, the race of CainMust lift their eyes to Adam's God in vain.Sister! since it is so,And the eternal Lord1000In vain would be imploredFor the remission of one hour of woe,Let us resign even what we have adored,And meet the wave, as we would meet the sword,If not unmoved, yet undismayed,1005And wailing less for us than those who shallSurvive in mortal or immortal thrall,And, when the fatal waters are allayed,Weep for the myriads who can weep no more.Fly, Seraphs! to your own eternal shore,1010Where winds nor howl, nor waters roar.Our portion is to die,And yours to live for ever:But which is best, a dead Eternity,Or living, is but known to the great Giver.1015Obey him, as we shall obey;I would not keep this life of mine in clayAn hour beyond his will;Nor see ye lose a portion of his grace,For all the mercy which Seth's race1020Find still.Fly!And as your pinions bear ye back to Heaven,Think that my love still mounts with thee on high,Samiasa!1025And if I look up with a tearless eye,'Tis that an angel's bride disdains to weep,--Farewell! Now rise, inexorable deep!

Anah.And must we die?1030And must I lose thee too,Azaziel?Oh, my heart! my heart!Thy prophecies were true!And yet thou wert so happy too!1035The blow, though not unlocked for, falls as new:But yet depart!Ah! why?Yet let me not retain thee--fly!My pangs can be but brief; but thine would be1040Eternal, if repulsed from Heaven for me.Too much already hast thou deignedTo one of Adam's race!Our doom is sorrow: not to us alone,But to the Spirits who have not disdained1045To love us, cometh anguish with disgrace.The first who taught us knowledge hath been hurledFrom his once archangelic throneInto some unknown world:And thou, Azaziel! No--1050Thou shall not suffer woeFor me. Away! nor weep!Thou canst not weep; but yetMay'st suffer more, not weeping: then forgetHer, whom the surges of the all-strangling deep1055Can bring no pang like this. Fly! fly!Being gone, 'twill be less difficult to die.

Japh.Oh say not so!Father! and thou, archangel, thou!1060Surely celestial mercy lurks belowThat pure severe serenity of brow:Let them not meet this sea without a shore,Save in our ark, or let me be no more!

Noah.1065Peace, child of passion, peace!If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongueDo God no wrong!Live as he wills it--die, when he ordains,A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's.1070Cease, or be sorrowful in silence; ceaseTo weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish plaint.Wouldst thou have God commit a sin for thee?Such would it beTo alter his intent1075For a mere mortal sorrow. Be a man!And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can.

Japh.Aye, father! but when they are gone,And we are all alone,1080Floating upon the azure desert, andThe depth beneath us hides our own dear land,And dearer, silent friends and brethren, allBuried in its immeasurable breast,Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then command?1085Can we in Desolation's peace have rest?Oh God! be thou a God, and spareYet while 'tis time!Renew not Adam's fall:Mankind were then but twain,1090But they are numerous now as are the wavesAnd the tremendous rain,Whose drops shall be less thick than would their graves,Were graves permitted to the seed of Cain.

Noah. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine's a crime.1095Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair.

Raph. Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye!Who are, or should be, passionless and pure,May now return with me.

Sam. It may not be:1100We have chosen, and will endure.

Raph. Say'st thou?

Aza. He hath said it, and I say, Amen!

Raph.Again!1105Then from this hour,Shorn as ye are of all celestial power,And aliens from your God,Farewell!

Japh. Alas! where shall they dwell?1110Hark, hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still,Are howling from the mountain's bosom:There's not a breath of wind upon the hill,Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each blossom:Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.1115

Noah. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry!In clouds they overspread the lurid sky,And hover round the mountain, where beforeNever a white wing, wetted by the wave,Yet dared to soar,1120Even when the waters waxed too fierce to brave.Soon it shall be their only shore,And then, no more!

Japh. The sun! the sun!He riseth, but his better light is gone;1125And a black circle, boundHis glaring disk around,Proclaims Earth's last of summer days hath shone!The clouds return into the hues of night,Save where their brazen-coloured edges streak1130The verge where brighter morns were wont to break.

Noah. And lo! yon flash of light,The distant thunder's harbinger, appears!It cometh! hence, away!Leave to the elements their evil prey!1135Hence to where our all-hallowed ark uprearsIts safe and wreckless sides!

Japh. Oh, father, stay!Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides!

Noah. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone!1140

Japh. Not I.

Noah. Then dieWith them!How darest thou look on that prophetic sky,And seek to save what all things now condemn,1145In overwhelming unisonWith just Jehovah's wrath!

Japh. Can rage and justice join in the same path?

Noah. Blasphemer! darest thou murmur even now!

Raph. Patriarch, be still a father! smooth thy brow:1150Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink:He knows not what he says, yet shall not drinkWith sobs the salt foam of the swelling waters;But be, when passion passeth, good as thou,Nor perish like Heaven's children with man's daughters.1155

Aho. The tempest cometh; heaven and earth uniteFor the annihilation of all life.Unequal is the strifeBetween our strength and the Eternal Might!

Sam. But ours is with thee; we will bear ye far1160To some untroubled star,Where thou, and Anah, shalt partake our lot:And if thou dost not weep for thy lost earth,Our forfeit Heaven shall also be forgot.

Anah. Oh! my dear father's tents, my place of birth,1165And mountains, land, and woods! when ye are not,Who shall dry up my tears?

Aza. Thy spirit-lord.Fear not; though we are shut from Heaven,Yet much is ours, whence we can not be driven.1170

Raph. Rebel! thy words are wicked, as thy deedsShall henceforth be but weak: the flaming sword,Which chased the first-born out of Paradise,Still flashes in the angelic hands.

Aza. It cannot slay us: threaten dust with death,1175And talk of weapons unto that which bleeds.What are thy swords in our immortal eyes?

Raph. The moment cometh to approve thy strength;And learn at lengthHow vain to war with what thy God commands:1180Thy former force was in thy faith.

Enter Mortals, flying for refuge.

Chorus of Mortals.

The heavens and earth are mingling--God! oh God!What have we done? Yet spare!1185Hark! even the forest beasts howl forth their prayer!The dragon crawls from out his den,To herd, in terror, innocent with men;And the birds scream their agony through air.Yet, yet, Jehovah! yet withdraw thy rod1190Of wrath, and pity thine own world's despair!Hear not man only but all nature plead!

Raph. Farewell, thou earth! ye wretched sons of clay,I cannot, must not, aid you. 'Tis decreed![Exit RAPHAEL.1195

Japh. Some clouds sweep on as vultures for their prey,While others, fixed as rocks, await the wordAt which their wrathful vials shall be poured.No azure more shall robe the firmament,Nor spangled stars be glorious: Death hath risen:1200In the Sun's place a pale and ghastly glareHath wound itself around the dying air.

Aza. Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prison,To which the elements again repair,To turn it into what it was: beneath1205The shelter of these wings thou shall be safe,As was the eagle's nestling once withinIts mother's.--Let the coming chaos chafeWith all its elements! Heed not their din!A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe1210Ethereal life, will we explore:These darkened clouds are not the only skies.

[AZAZIEL and SAMIASA fly off, and disappearwith ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH.

Japh. They are gone! They have disappeared amidst the roar1215Of the forsaken world; and never more,Whether they live, or die with all Earth's life,Now near its last, can aught restoreAnah unto these eyes.

Chorus of Mortals.1220

Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind!What! wilt thou leave us all--all--all behind?While safe amidst the elemental strife,Thou sitt'st within thy guarded ark?

A Mother (offering her infant to JAPHET).1225Oh, let this child embark!I brought him forth in woe,But thought it joyTo see him to my bosom clinging so.Why was he born?1230What hath he done--My unweaned son--To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn?What is there in this milk of mine, that DeathShould stir all Heaven and Earth up to destroy1235My boy,And roll the waters o'er his placid breath?Save him, thou seed of Seth!Or curséd be--with him who madeThee and thy race, for which we are betrayed!1240

Japh. Peace! 'tis no hour for curses, but for prayer!

Chorus of Mortals.

For prayer!!!And whereShall prayer ascend,1245When the swoln clouds unto the mountains bendAnd burst,And gushing oceans every barrier rend,Until the very deserts know no thirst?Accursed1250Be he who made thee and thy sire!We deem our curses vain; we must expire;But as we know the worst,Why should our hymns be raised, our knees be bentBefore the implacable Omnipotent,1255Since we must fall the same?If he hath made Earth, let it be his shame,To make a world for torture.--Lo! they come,The loathsome waters, in their rage!And with their roar make wholesome nature dumb!1260The forest's trees (coeval with the hourWhen Paradise upsprung,Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower,Or Adam his first hymn of slavery sung),So massy, vast, yet green in their old age,1265Are overtopped,Their summer blossoms by the surges lopped,Which rise, and rise, and rise.Vainly we look up to the lowering skies--They meet the seas,1270And shut out God from our beseeching eyes.Fly, son of Noah, fly! and take thine ease,In thine allotted ocean-tent;And view, all floating o'er the element,The corpses of the world of thy young days:1275Then to Jehovah raiseThy song of praise!

A Mortal.Blesséd are the deadWho die in the Lord!1280And though the waters be o'er earth outspread,Yet, as his word,Be the decree adored!He gave me life--he taketh butThe breath which is his own:1285And though these eyes should be for ever shut,Nor longer this weak voice before his throneBe heard in supplicating tone,Still blessed be the Lord,For what is past,1290For that which is:For all are his,From first to last--Time--Space--Eternity--Life--Death--The vast known and immeasurable unknown.1295He made, and can unmake;And shall I, for a little gasp of breath,Blaspheme and groan?No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith,Nor quiver, though the Universe may quake!1300

Chorus of Mortals.

Where shall we fly?Not to the mountains high;For now their torrents rush, with double roar,To meet the Ocean, which, advancing still,1305Already grasps each drowning hill,Nor leaves an unsearched cave.

Enter a Woman.

Woman.Oh, save me, save!1310Our valley is no more:My father and my father's tent,My brethren and my brethren's herds,The pleasant trees that o'er our noonday bent,And sent forth evening songs from sweetest birds,1315The little rivulet which freshened allOur pastures green,No more are to be seen.When to the mountain cliff I climbed this morn,I turned to bless the spot,1320And not a leaf appeared about to fall;--And now they are not!--Why was I born?

Japh.To die! in youth to die!1325And happier in that doom,Than to behold the universal tomb,Which IAm thus condemned to weep above in vain.Why, when all perish, why must I remain?1330

[The waters rise; Men fly in every direction; manyare overtaken by the waves: the Chorus ofMortals disperses in search of safety up themountains: JAPHET remains upon a rock, whilethe Ark floats towards him in the distance.1335