Nothing! for, without life, what are the hours? A void: without man, time, as made for man, I cannot trace their features; but their forms, Of the gray mountain, scattering its mist! Their impious hymn of triumph, they shall be Enter SAMIASA, AZAZIEL, ANAH, and AHOLIBAMAH. Anah. Sam. A son of Adam: Aza. Japhet! Lo! Angel! what What doth the earthborn here, Japh. But all good angels have forsaken earth, Anah. Japhet, I cannot answer thee; yet, yet Japh. May the Heaven, which soon no more Will pardon, do so! for thou art greatly tempted. Aho. Back to thy tents, insulting son of Noah! We know thee not. Japh. The hour may come when thou May'st know me better; and thy sister know Me still the same which I have ever been. Sam. Son of the patriarch, who hath ever been Upright before his God, whate'er thy gifts, And thy words seem of sorrow, mix'd with wrath, How have Azaziel, or myself, brought on thee Wrong? Japh. Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs; but thou To save this beautiful-these beautiful I would resign the greater remnant of Japh. It is for him, then! for the seraph thou Anah. In Paradise, would mingle with Seth's children? Japh. I did not speak to thee, Aholibamah! In mind, in soul? If I partook thy thought, But He slew not Seth; and what hast thou to do him, and I had not named his deed, but that thyself Aho. They are number'd. Aho. Be it so! but while yet their hours endure, I 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, And will endeavour patiently to obey. But could I dare to pray in this 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 past-Thy love-my father's-all the life, and all The things which sprang up with me, like the stars Making my dim existence radiant with 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. And why him and thee, Aho. What! hath this dreamer, with his father's ark, More than what he, thy son, prefers to both? The bugbear he hath built to scare the world, 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, Is thus a seraph's duty to be shown, Adore and burn The universe, which leap'd In glorious homage with the elected " To life before it. Ah! smilest thou still in scoru? Turn to thy seraphs; if they attest it not, Sam. A bolibamah, own thy God! Sam. Your place is heaven. Raphael! seven. The first and fairest of the sons of God, Adoring him in his least works display'd; In their true place, with the angelic choir, They would have seen And not inquired their Maker's breath of me: But ignorance must ever be A part of sin; Patriarch! And even the spirits' knowledge shall grow less Thou hast said it. His love unto created love? For Blindness is the first-born of Excess. By mortal feelings for a mortal maid; And lose eternity by that delay! That which I came to do: till now we trod T'ogether the eternal space; together Let us still walk the stars. True, earth must die! Her race, return'd into her womb, must wither, And much which she inherits; but oh! why In their immeasurable forfeiture. Seraphs! less mighty than that mightiest one, And think if tempting man can compensate Long have I warr'd, Long must I war With him who deem'd it hard To be created, and to acknowledge him Made him as suns to a dependent star, In which he fell could ever be forgiven! With him, or with his God, is in your choice: While ye shall fill with shrieks the upper sky Whose memory in your immortality Shall long outlast the sun which gave them day. Think how your essence differeth from theirs In all but suffering! why partake The agony to which they must be heirs Born to be plough'd with years, and sown with cares, I hear the voice which says that all must die The dead shall rise to meet heaven's overflow. Few shall be spared, It seems; and, of that few, the race of Cain 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 wo, 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, Mankind were then but twain, But they are numerous now as are the waves And 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. Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair. pure, And mountains, land, and woods! when ye are not, Still flashes in the angelic hands. Raph. Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye! Which chased the first-born out of Paradise, Who are, or should be, passionless and May now return with me. Sam. It may not be ; We have chosen, and will endure. Raph. Say'st thou ? Aza. Raph. He hath said it, and I say, Amen! Again! Then from this hour, Shorn as ye are of all celestial power, Japh. Alas! where shall they dwell? Noah. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry! 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, Proclaims earth's last of summer days hath shone! Leave to the elements their evil prey! Hence to where our all-hallow'd ark uprears Its safe and reckless sides. Japh. Oh, father, stay! Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides! Noah. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone! Japh. Noah. Not I. With them! Then die How darest thou look on that prophetic sky, With just Jehovah's wrath! Japh. Can rage and justice join in the same path? Nor perish like heaven's children with man's daugnters. the strife Aza. It cannot slay us: threaten dust with death, Raph. The moment cometh to approve thy strength How vain to war with what thy God commands: Enter Mortals, flying for refuge. The heavens and earth are mingling-God! oh God! Hark! even the forest beasts howl forth their pray'r! To herd, in terror, innocent with men; Raph. Farewell, thou earth! ye wretched sons of clay I cannot, must not, aid you. 'Tis decreed! [Exit RAPHAEL. Japh. Some clouds sweep on as vultures for their prey, While others, fix'd as rocks, await the word At which their wrathful vials shall be pour'd. No azure more shall robe the firmament, Nor spangled stars be glorious: Death hath risen. Aza. Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prisʊn. To which the elements again repair, To turn it into what it was: beneath The shelter of these wings thou shalt be safe, As was the eagle's nestling once within Its mother's.-Let the coming chaos chafe A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe These darken'd clouds are not the only skies. [AZAZIEL and SAMIASA fly off, and disappear with ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH. Japh. They are gone! They have disappear'd amid the roar Of the forsaken world; and never more, Chorus of Mortals. Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind! A Mother, (offering her infant to JAPHET.) Oh let this child embark ! I brought him forth in wo, But thought it joy To see him to my bosom clinging so. What hath he done- To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn? My boy, |