Irad.

Canst thou

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

She loves another.

Juph.

Irad.

Me! why?

Japh.

For being happy, Deprived 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 shekels Than all our father's herd would bring if weigh'd Against the metal of the sons of CainThe yellow dust they try to barter with us, As if such useless and discolour'd trash, The refuse of the earth, could be received For milk, and wool, and flesh, and fruits, and all Our flocks and wilderness afford.-Go, Japhet, Sigh to the stars, as wolves howl to the moon,I must back to my rest. Japh.

If I could rest.

Irad.

And so would I,

Thou wilt not to our tents then? Japh. No, Irad; I will to the cavern, whose Mouth, they say, opens from the internal world, To let the inner spirits of the earth Forth when they walk its surface. Irad.

What wouldst thou there?

Japh.

With gloom as sad: And I am hopeless.

Irad. Strange sounds and

terrors.

I must go with thee. Japh.

Wherefore so!

Soothe further my sad spirit it is a hopeless spot,

But 'tis dangerous; sights have peopled it with

Irad, no: believe me

Anali?

And many signs and portents have proclaim'd A change at hand, and an o'erwhelming doom

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!
Earth 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 grave

Shall lift its point to save,

Or show the place where strong Despair hath died, After long looking o'er the ocean wide

For the expected ebb which cometh not:

All shall be void, Destroy'd!

Another element shall be the lord

Of life, and the abhorr'd

Children of dust be quench'd; and of each hue Of earth nought left but the unbroken blue; And of the variegated mountain

Shall nought remain

Unchanged, or of the level plain;

Cedar and pine shall lift their tops in vain : All merged within the universal fountain, Man, earth, and fire, shall die,

And sea and sky

Look vast and lifeless in the eternal eye.
Upon the foam

Who shall erect a home?

Japh. [coming forward]. My sire!

Earth's seed shall not expire!
Only the evil shall be put away
From day.

Avaunt! ye exulting demons of the waste!
Who howl your hideous joy

When God destroys whom you dare not destroy;
Hence! haste!

Back to your inner caves!

Until the waves

Shall search you in your secret place,

And drive your sullen race

Forth, to be roll'd upon the tossing winds
In restless wretchedness along all space!
Spirit. Son of the saved!

When thou and thine have braved

The wide and warring element; When the great barrier of the deep is rent, Shall thou and thine be good or happy? No; Thy new world and new race shall be of woeLess goodly in their aspect, in their years Less than the glorious giants, who Yet walk the world in pride,

The Sons of Heaven by many a mortal bride. Thine shall be nothing of the past, save tears,

We, we shall view the deep's salt sources poured, Until one element shall do the work

Of all in chaos; until they,

The creatures proud of their poor clay,
Shall perish, and their bleached bones shall lurk
In caves, in dens, in clefts of mountains, where
The deep shall follow to their latest lair;
Where even the brutes, in their despair,
Shall cease to prey on man and on each other,
And the striped tiger shall lie down to die
Beside the lamb, as though he were his brother;
Till all things shall be as they were,
Silent and uncreated, save the sky;
While a brief truce

Is made with Death, who shall forbear
The little remnant of the past creation,
To generate new nations for his use:
This remnant, floating o'er the undulation
Of the subsiding deluge, from its slime,
When the hot sun hath baked the reeking soil
Into a world, shall give again to Time
New beings, years, diseases, sorrow, crime,
With all companionship of hate and toil,
Until-

Japh. [interrupting them]. The Eternal Will
Shall deign to expound this dream

Of good and evil; and redeem

Unto Himself all times, all things;
And, gather'd under His almighty wings,
Abolish hell!

Brethren, rejoice!
Mortal, farewell!
Hark, hark! already we can hear the voice
Of growing ocean's gloomy swell;

The winds, too, plume their piercing wings;
The clouds have nearly filled their springs;
The fountains of the great deep shall be broken,
And heaven set wide her windows; 2 while
mankind

View, unacknowledged, each tremendous token-
Still, as they were from the beginning, blind.
We hear the sound they cannot hear,
The mustering thunders of the threatening
sphere;

Yet a few hours their coming is delayed;
Their flashing banners, folded still on high,
Yet undisplay'd,

Save to the Spirit's all-pervading eye.
Howl, howl, O Earth!

Thy death is nearer than thy recent birth:
Tremble, ye mountains, soon to shrink below
The ocean's overflow!

The wave shall break upon your cliffs; and shells,
The little shells, of ocean's least things be
Deposed where now the eagle's offspring dwells-

How shall he shriek o'er the remorseless sea! And call his nestlings up with fruitless yell, Unanswer'd, save by the encroaching swell; While man shall long in vain for his broad wings, The wings which could not save :—

Where could he rest them, while the whole space brings

Nought to his eye beyond the deep, his grave? Brethren, rejoice!

And 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.

(1) "And there were giants in the earth in those days, and after; mighty men which were of old, men of renown."GENESIS.

(2) "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep

purpose,

Or 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 day
As on the fourth day of creation, when
God said unto him "Shine!" and he broke forth
Into the dawn, which lighted not the yet
Unform'd forefather of mankind, but roused
Before the human orison the earlier
Made and far sweeter voices of the birds,
Which in the open firmament of heaven
Have wings like angels, and like them salute
Heaven 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,

So near, the awful close! For these must drop
Their outworn pinions on the deep; and day,
After the bright course of a few brief morrows-
Ay, day will rise-but upon what? a chaos,
Which was ere day; and which, renew'd, makes
time

Nothing for, without life, what are the hours?
No more to dust than is eternity
Unto Jehovah, who created both.
Without Him, even eternity would be

A void: without man, time, as made for man,
Dies with man, and is swallow'd in that deep
Which has no fountain; as his race will be
Devour'd by that which drowns his infant world.

broken up; and the windows of heaven were opened."

Ibid.

(3) The book of Enoch, preserved by the Ethiopians, is said by them to be anterior to the flood.

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

Angel, what

Dost thou on earth, when thou shouldst be on high? Aza. Know'st thou not, or forgett'st thou, that a part

Of our great function is to guard thine earth?

Japh. But all good angels have forsaken earth, Which is condemn'd; nay, even the evil fly The approaching chaos. Anal! Anah! my In vain, and long, and still to be beloved! Why walk'st thou with this spirit, in those hours When no good spirit longer lights below?

Anah. Japhet, I cannot answer thee; yet, yet Forgive me

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 griefsAnd thy words seem of sorrow mix'd with wrathHow have Azaziel or myself brought on thee Wrong?

Japh. Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs; but

thou

With Samiasa! Anah.

Thus.

Sister! sister! speak not

Aza. Fearest thou, my Anah ? Anah.

Yes, for thee

I would resign the greater remnant of This little life of mine, before one hour Of thine eternity should know a pang.

Japh. It is for him, then! for the Seraph thou Hast left me! That is nothing, if thou hast not Left thy God too; for unions like to these, Between a mortal and an immortal, cannot Upon the earth to toil and die; and they Be happy or be hallow'd. We are sent Are made to minister on high unto The Highest; but if he can save thee, soon The hour will come in which celestial aid Alone can do so.

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, I Could smile. Japh.

I grieve not for myself, nor fear;

I am safe, not for my own deserts, but those
Of a well-doing sire, who hath been found
Righteous enough to save his children. Would
His power was greater of redemption! or
That by exchanging my own life for hers,
Who could alone have made mine happy, she,
The last and loveliest of Cain's race, could share
The ark which shall receive a remnant of
The seed of Seth!
Aho.
And dost thou think that we,
With Cain's, the eldest-born of Adam's, blood
Warm in our veins-strong Cain! who was begotten
In 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!
Our race hath always dwelt apart from thine
From the beginuing and shall do so ever.

Japh. I did not speak to thee, Aholibamah!
Too much of the forefather whom thou vauntest
Has come down in that haughty blood which springs
From 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 cannot
Part with, although I must from thee. My Anal!
Thou who dost rather make me dream that Abel
Had left a daughter, whose pure pious race
Survived in thee, so much unlike thou art
The rest of the stern Cainites, save in beauty,
For all of them are fairest in their favour-

Aho. [interrupting him]. And wouldst thou have her like our father's foe

In mind, in soul? If I partook thy thought,
And dream'd that aught of Abel was in her!-
Get thee hence, son of Noah; thou makest strife.
Japh. Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!
Aho.

But

He slew not Seth; and what hast thou to do
With other deeds between his God and him?
Japh. Thou speakest well: his God hath judged
him, and

I had not named his deed, but that thyself
Didst seem to glory in him, nor to shrink
From what he had done.