From him who shed the first, and that a brother's!
But thou, my Anah! let me call thee mine,
Albeit thou art not; 't is a word I cannot
Part with, although I must from thee. My Anah!
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▬▬
AHOLIBAMAH (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 mak'st strife.
Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!
He slew not Seth; and what hast thou to do
With other deeds between his God and him?
JAPHET.
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.
He was our fathers' father: The eldest born of man, the strongest, bravest, And most enduring:-Shall I blush for him, From whom we had our being? Look upon Our race; behold their stature and their beauty, Their courage, strength, and length of days——
Be it so! but while yet their hours endure, I glory in my brethren and our fathers!
My sire and race but glory in their God, Anah! and thou?-
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 past-
Thy love-my father's-all the life, and all
The things which sprung 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-seck it, find it:
I abhor death, because that thou must die.
What? hath this dreamer, with his father's ark,
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,
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?
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;
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
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
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 suns to a dependant 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 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.
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,
And reap'd by Death, lord of the human soil?
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.
AHOLIBAMAH.
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 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 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
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,
Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then command?
Can we in desolation's peace have rest?
Oh, God! be thou a God, and spare
Yet while 't is time!
Renew not Adam's fall:
Mankind were then but twain,
But they are numerous now as are the waves
And the tremendous rain,
Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prison,
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
With all its elements! Heed not their din!
A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe
Ethereal life, will we explore:
These darken'd clouds are not the only skies.
[AZAZIEL and SAMIASA fly off, and disappear with ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH.
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