Cain's Envy.

that the passions can rage with such tremendous violence in the bosom of the sinner, and extinguish every spark of virtue and affection! Wretch that I am! What dark forebodings terrify my soul, when I look forward and contemplate the miseries of my descendants! O sin! sin! what dreadful ravages thou committest in the human soul!" Thus spoke Adam, and in pensive melancholy left the bower, and repaired to the field of his first-born. Cain perceiving him approaching, desisted from his labor, and thus addressed him:

Why that sternness in my father's looks? It was not with such a counténance thou embracedst my brother. I read reproaches in thine eyes."

Adam, in accents of mingled sorrow and tenderness, replied: "Be saluted my firstborn! The consciousness of having deserved reproach causes thee to discover displeasure in my eyes. Yes, Cain, thou deservest reproaches. The grief, the anguish, thou hast implanted in thy father's breast bring me

Conversation between Adam and Cain.

"Not affection," answered Cain, "that belongs only to Abel."

"Yes, Cain, affection," replied Adam; "heaven is my witness that it was likewise affection. These tears, this grief, this incessant anxiety which torments me, and her, who with pain gave thee birth, these melancholy days and restless nights-what are they but the effect of the most tender love? O Cain! Cain! if thou lovedst us, it would be the object of thy dutiful solicitude to dry the tears of anguish from our cheeks, to dispel the gloomy melancholy which embitters our lives. O if yet thy heart retains any reverence for that Being who sees into the inmost recesses of thy soul, if a spark of filial love yet glows in thy bosom, by that love I implore thee to restore to us our lost tranquility, our extinguished joys. Cherish no longer in thy soul this obduracy, this gloomy resentment, against him whose affectionate heart is earnestly desirous to eradicate this noxious weed from thy' bosom. O! Cain, is it possible that our tears of joy, that the rapture which the exalted

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Conversation between Adam and Cain.

rity of his piety and his virtue excite within us, should have filled thy soul with rage and indignation? The angels who hover around us behold with ecstacy every virtuous action; the Amighty himself looks down from his throne upon them with gracious approbation. Wouldst thou change the nature of beauty and virtue? It is not in our power, or if it were, could we resolve, O Cain! to resist those soft, those rapturous emotions, and those sublime pleasures with which they fill the soul. The rolling thunder, or the horrors of the midnight tempest, call forth no smile upon the cheek; nor can the violence and the tumult of ungovernable passions produce pleasure in the human breast."

Cain answered, "Am I then doomed to hear nothing but these bitter reproaches? If I cannot dress my face in smiles, nor bid the tears of tenderness to overflow my eyes, shall my more manly firmness be branded with the most odious vices? Bolder enterprises and severer toils have ever been my choice; that

Adam expostulates with Cain.

brow I cannot convert into soft smiles and

tears. Can the eagle coo like the harmless dove?"

Adam, with majestic gravity, replied: "Wilt thou deceive thyself? Wilt thou carefully conceal from thy observation those baleful passions, which thou oughtest to subdue ? O Cain! it is not manly firmness that is imprinted on thy brow; thy countenance and thy whole deportment bespeak envy and discontent: these have spread around thee dreary obscurity. Hence this murmuring at thy labor, this unkind behaviour to us all, and this inquietude. Could we, O! could we banish the melancholy gloom, could we inspire thee with happiness serene as the vernal morn, then would our most ardent wish be gratified. But, Cain, what cause hast thou for uneasiness? Are not all the sources of felicity open to thee? Doth not Nature offer thee all her charms Is not every happiness, every pleasure, which nature, reason, and virtue bestow on us, likewise presented to thee? But thou leavest those blessings untasted,

Adam expostulates with Cain.

unenjoyed, and complainest of misery. Or, art thou dissatisfied with that portion of happiness, which it has pleased the eternal Goodness to confer on fallen sinners? Dost thou envy the lot of angels? Know that discontent could enter even the bosoms of an gels; they aspired to become gods, and forfeited heaven. Dost thou arraign the decrees of the Creator, who with infinite wisdom presides over the destiny of his sinful creatures? While all created beings join in his praise, shall a mortal, a worm, raise his head from the dust, and presume to murmur against Him, whose nod governs the heavens; whose almighty goodness is attested by universal nature; whose all-seeing eye penetrates into the dark bosom of futurity, and who can cause evil to be productive of good? O my son, my first-born, let discontent no longer overcloud every cheerful prospect, and conceal from thy view every source of happiness!"

"What avail these admonitions?" cried Cain, angrily. "I know that if I could be