From whom we had our being? Look upon Our race; behold their stature and their beauty, Their courage, strength, and length of daysJaph. They are number'd. Aho. Be it so! but while yet their hours enI glory in my brethren and our fathers. [dure, 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, And will endeavour patiently to obey. But could I dare to pray in his dread hour Of universal vengeance (if such should be), It would not be to live, alone exempt Of all my house. My sister! oh, my sister! What were the world, or other worlds, or all The brightest future, without the sweet pastThy love-my father's-all the life, and all The things which sprang up with me, like the Making my dim existence radiant with [stars, Soft 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 father's ark,

!

his

The bugbear he hath built to scare the world,
Shaken my sister? Are we not the loved
Of seraphs? and if we were not, must we
Cling to a son of Noah for our lives?
Rather than thus-But the enthusiast dreams
The worst of dreams, the fantasies engender'd
By hopeless love and heated vigils. Who
Shall shake these solid mountains, this firm earth,
And bid those clouds and waters take a shape
Distinct from that which we and all our sires
Have seen them wear on their eternal way?
Who shall do this?

Japh.

He whose one word produced them. Aho. Who heard that word? Japh. The universe, which leap'd To life before it. Ah! smilest thou still in scorn? Turn to thy seraphs: if they attest it not, They are none.

Sam. Aho. I have ever hail'd our Maker, Samiasa, As thine, and mine: a God of love, not sorrow. Japh. Alas! what else is love but sorrow? Even

Aholibamah, own thy God!

He who made earth in love had soon to grieve Above its first and best inhabitants.

Noah. Woe, woe, woe to such communion! Has not God made a barrier between earth And heaven, and limited each, kind to kind? Sam. Was not man made in high Jehovah's image?

I am

Did God not love what he had made? And what
Do we but imitate and emulate
His love unto created love?
Noah.
But man, and was not made to judge mankind,
Far less the sons of God; but as our God
Has deign'd to commune with me, and reveal
His judgments, I reply, that the descent
Of seraphs from their everlasting seat
Unto a perishable and perishing,
Even on the very eve of perishing, world,
Cannot be good.

Aza.
What! though it were to save?
Noah. Not ye in all your glory can redeem
What he who made you glorious hath con-
demn'd.

Were your immortal mission safety, 'twould
Be general, not for two, though beautiful;
And beautiful they are, but not the less
Condemn'd.
Japh.
Noah.

Oh, father! say it not.

Son! son! If that thou wouldst avoid their doom, forget That 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
Who can, redeems thee.
[shalt not; he
Sam.
And why him and thee,
More than what he, thy son, prefers to both?
Noah. Ask him who made thee greater than
myself

And mine, but not less subject to his own
Almightiness. And lo! his mildest and
Least to be tempted messenger appears!
Enter RAPHAEL the Archangel.
Spirits!

Raph

Whose seat is near the throne,
What do ye here?

Is thus a seraph's duty to be shown,
Now that the hour is near
When earth must be alone?

Return!

Adore and burn,

Noah. Dost 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 seek To save an earth-born being; and behold, These are not of the sinful, since they have The fellowship of angels. Noah. These are they, then, Who leave the throne of God, to take them wives From out the race of Cain; the sons of heaven,

Sam.

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 saw

Jehovah's footsteps not disdain her sod!
The world he loved, and made
For love; and oft have we obey'd

His frequent mission with delighted pinions:
Adoring him in his least works display'd;
Watching 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?
Raph. Had Samiasa and Azaziel been
In their true place, with the angelic choir,
Written in fire

They would have seen Jehovah's late decree,

And not inquired their Maker's breath of me:

But ignorance must ever be
A part of sin;

The angels, from his further snares exempt:
But man hath listen'd to his voice,
And ye to woman's-beautiful she is,
The serpent's voice less subtle than her kiss.
The snake but vanquish'd dust : but she will draw
A second host from heaven, to break heaven's law.
Yet, yet, oh fly!

Ye cannot die;
But they

Shall pass away,

As they wax proud within;

For Blindness is the first-born of Excess.

When all good angels left the world, ye stay'd, Stung with strange passions, and debased By mortal feelings for a mortal maid : But ye are pardon'd thus far, and replaced With your pure equals. Hence! away! away! Or stay,

And lose eternity by that delay! Aza. And thou! if earth be thus forbidden In the decree

To us until this moment hidden,

Dost thou not err as we

In being here?

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 trod Together the eternal space; together [die! Let us still walk the stars. True, earth must Her race, return'd into her womb, must wither, And much which she inherits: but oh! why Cannot this earth be made, or be destroy'd, Without involving ever some vast void In the immortal ranks? immortal still In their immeasurable forfeiture. Our brother Satan fell; his burning will Rather than longer worship dared endure ! But ye who still are pure!

Seraphs less mighty than that mightiest one,
Think how he was undone !

And think if tempting man can compensate
For heaven desired too late?

Long have I warr'd,

Long must I war

With him who deem'd it hard

To be created, and to acknowledge him
Who midst the cherubim

Made him as surs 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 power Was ever like to Satan's! Would the hour

In which he fell could ever be forgiven!
The wish is impious: but, oh ye!
Yet undestroy'd, be warn'd! Eternity

With him, or with his God, is in your choice: He hath not tempted you; he cannot tempt

The agony to which they must be heirsBorn to be plough'd with years, and sown with cares,

And reap'd by Death, lord of the human so? Even had their days been left to toil, their path. Through time to dust, unshorten'd 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,
Sooner than our white-bearded patriarchs died;
And that on high

An ocean is prepared,

While from below

The deep shall rise to meet heaven's overflow. Few shall be spared,

It seems; and, of that few, the race of Can Must lift their eyes to Adam's God in vain. Sister! since it is so,

And the eternal Lord

In vain would be implored

For 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 undismay'd, And wailing less for us than those who shall Survive in mortal or immortal thrall,

And, when the fatal waters are allay'd. Weep for the myriads who can weep no more. Fly, seraphs! to your own eternal shore, Where 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.
Obey him, as we shall obey;

I would not keep this life of mine in clay
An hour beyond his will;
Nor see ye lose a portion of his grace,
For all the mercy which Seth's race
Find still.
Fly!

And as your pinions bear ye back to heaven,
Think that my love still mounts with thee on
Samiasa!
[high

And if I look up with a tearless eye, 'Tis that an angel's bride disdains to weep, — Farewell! Now rise, inexorable deep!

Ah! why?

Yet let me not retain thee-fly!

My pangs can be but brief; but thine would be
Eternal, if repulsed from heaven for me.

Too much already hast thou deign'd
To one of Adam's race!

Our doom is sorrow: not to us alone,
But to the spirits who have not disdain'd
To love us, cometh anguish with disgrace.
The first who taught us knowledge hath been
From his once archangelic throne
Into some unknown world:
And thou, Azaziel! No-
Thou shalt not suffer woe

For me. Away! nor weep!
Thou canst not weep; but yet

[hurl'd

May'st suffer more, not weeping; then forget Her, whom the surges of the all-strangling deep Can 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! Surely celestial mercy lurks below

That 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. Peace, child of passion, peace!
If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongue
Do God no wrong!

Live as he wills it-die, when he ordains,
A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's.
Cease, or be sorrowful in silence; cease
To weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish plaint.
Wouldst thou have God commit a sin for thee?
Such would it be

To alter his intent

For a mere mortal sorrow. Be a man!
And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can.
Japh. Ay, father! but when they are gone,
And we are all alone,

Floating upon the azure desert, and
The depth beneath us hides our own dear land,
And dearer, silent friends and brethren all
Buried in its immeasurable breast, [mand?
Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then com-
Can we in desolation's peace have rest?
Oh God! be thou a God, and spare
Yet while 'tis time!

Renew not Adam's fall:

Mankind were then but twain,

Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair.

Raph. Seraphs! these mortals speak in pas

Who are, or should be, passionless and pure, May now return with me.

Sam.

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

Raph. Say'st thou ?

Japh. Hark, hark!

Farewell!

Alas! where shall they dwell? 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.

Noah. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry! In clouds they overspread the lurid sky, And hover round the mountain, where before Never a white wing, wetted by the wave, Yet dared to soar,

Even when the waters wax'd too fierce to brave. Soon it shall be their only shore,

He riseth, but his better light is gone; And a black circle, bound

His glaring disk around,

[shone!

Proclaims earth's last of summer days hath
The clouds return into the hues of night,
Save where their brazen-colour'd edges streak
The verge where brighter morns were wont to
Noah. And lo! yon flash of light, [break.
The distant thunder's harbinger, appears '
It cometh! hence away!

Leave to the elements their evil prey!
Hence to where our all-hallow'd ark uprears
Its 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?
Japh.
Not I.
[Begone!
Noah.
Then die

With them!

How darest thou look on that prophetic sky, And seek to save what all things now condemn, In overwhelming unison

With just Jehovah's wrath! [path? Japh. Can rage and justice join in the same Noah. Blasphemer ! darest thou murmur even now!

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

Aho. The tempest cometh; heaven and earth For the annihilation of all life. [unite