'Gainst all external sense and inward feeling : Think and endure,-and form an inner world In your own bosom-where the outward fails; So shall you nearer be the spiritual Nature, and war triumphant with your own. [They disappear. Our little Enoch sleeps upon yon bed Of leaves, beneath the cypress. CAIN. Cypress! 'tis A gloomy tree, which looks as if it mourn'd O'er what it shadows; wherefore didst thou choose it For our child's canopy? ADAH. Because its branches Shut out the sun like night, and therefore seem'd Fitting to shadow slumber. CAIN. Ay, the last And longest; but no matter-lead me to him. [They go up to the child. How lovely he appears! his little cheeks, The rose leaves strewn beneath them. ADAH.. And his lips, too, How beautifully parted! No; you shall not Kiss him, at least not now: he will awake soon— His hour of mid-day rest is nearly over; But it were pity to disturb him till 'Tis closed. CAIN. You have said well; I will contain My heart till then. He smiles, and sleeps!-Sleep on And smile, thou little, young inheritor Of a world scarce less young: sleep on, and smile! Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering And innocent! thou hast not pluck'd the fruit— Thou know'st not thou art naked! Must the time Come thou shalt be amerced for sins unknown, Which were not thine nor mine? But now sleep on! cypress which waves o'er them; Half open, from beneath them the clear blue Laughs out, although in slumber. He must dream Of what? Of Paradise!-Ay! dream of it, My disinherited boy! 'Tis but a dream; For never more thyself, thy sons, nor fathers, ADAH. Dear Cain! Nay, do not whisper o'er our son CAIN. Where? ADAH. Here, or Where'er thou wilt: where'er thou art, I feel not The want of this so much regretted Eden. To whom we owe so much besides our birth? CAIN. Yes-death, too, is amongst the debts we owe her. ADAH. Cain! that proud spirit, who withdrew thee hence, Thy guide hath done thee evil: still I thank him, Hath given thee back to us. And yet I have approach'd that sun, and seen Worlds which he once shone on, and never more Shall light; and worlds he never lit: methought Years had roll'd o'er my absence. ADAH. Hardly hours. |