Our race; behold their stature and their | Dost thou here with these children of the beauty, Their courage, strength, and length of days I glory in my brethren and our fathers! Anah! and thou? Anah. Whate'er our God decrees, Making my dim existence radiant with Oh! if there should be mercy seek it, find it: The bugbear he hath built to scare the Shaken my sister? Are we not the loved And bid those clouds and waters take a shape Japhet. He, whose one word produced them. Turn to thy Seraphs; if they attest it not, Samiasa. Aholibamah, own thy God! As thine, and mine: a God of love, not sorrow. Japhet. Alas! what else is Love but Sorrow? Even wicked? Dreadst thou not to partake their coming doom? Japhet. Father, it cannot be a sin to seek To save an earth-born being; and behold, These are not of the sinful, since they have The fellowship of angels. Noah. These are they, then, Who leave the throne of God, to take them From out the race of Cain; the sons of Who seek Earth's daughters for their beauty? Thou hast said it. Noah. Woe, woe, woe to such communion! Has not God made a barrier between Earth And Heaven, and limited each, kind to kind? Samiasa. Was not man made in high Jehovah's image? Did God not love what he had made? And Do we but imitate and emulate But man,and was not made to judge mankind, Azaziel. What! though it were to save? Were your immortal mission safety, 'twould Japhet. Oh father! say it not. Noah. Son! son! If that thou wouldst avoid their doom, forget Japhet. Let me die with this, and them! Samiasa. And why him and thee, And mine, but not less subject to his own He who made earth in love, had soon to Almightiness. And lo! his mildest and grieve Above its first and best inhabitants. Aholibamah. 'Tis said so. Japhet. It is even so. Enter NOAH and SEM. Noah. Japhet! What Least to be tempted Messenger appears! Enter RAPHAEL the Archangel. Whose seat is near the throne, Is thus a Seraph's duty to be shown Now that the hour is near When earth must be alone? Return! Adore and burn In their immeasurable forfeiture. Our brother Satan fell, his burning will Rather than longer worship dared endure! But ye who still are pure! In glorious homage with the elected "seven." Seraphs! less mighty than that mightiest one, Your place is Heaven, Samiasa. Raphael! The first and fairest of the sons of God, That earth by angels must be left untrod? The world He loved, and made And as the latest birth of His great word, Eager to keep it worthy of our Lord. Why is thy brow severe? And wherefore speakst thou of destruction | near? Raphael. 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; And even the spirits' knowledge shall grow less As they wax proud within; For Blindness is the first-born of Excess. When all good angels left the world, ye stay'd, Stung with strange passions, and debased By mortal feelings for a mortal maid; But ye are pardon'd thus far, and replaced With your pure equals: Hence! away! away! Or stay, And lose eternity by that delay! Azaziel. And Thou! if earth be thus forbidden Think how he was undone ! And think if tempting man can compensate Long must I war With him who deem'd it hard To be created, and to acknowledge him Made him as suns to a dependant star, Was ever like to Satan's! Would the hour choice: Her race, return'd into her womb, must The And that on high While from below 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 Find still. Fly! And as your pinions bear ye back toHeaven, And if I look up with a tearless eye, And must I lose thee too, Father! and thou, archangel, thou! Surely celestial Mercy lurks below That pure severe serenity of brow: Let them not meet this sea without a shore, Save in our ark, or let me be no more! Noah. Peace, child of passion, peace! If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongue Do God no wrong! Live as he wills it-die, when he ordains, A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's. Cease, or be sorrowful in silence; cease To weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish plaint. Wouldst thou have God commit a sin for thee? Such would it be To alter his intent For a mere mortal sorrow. Be a man! And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can. Japhet. 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? Renew not Adam's fall: 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 Noah. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine's a crime! Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair. Raphael. Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye, Who are, or should be, passionless and pure, May now return with me. Samiasa. It may not be: We have chosen, and will endure. Azaziel. He hath said it, and I say, Amen! Then from this hour, Shorn as ye are of all celestial power, Farewell! Japhet. Alas! where shall they dwell? Hark! hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still, Are howling from the mountain's bosom: There's not a breath of wind upon the hill, Yet'quivers every leaf, and drops cach blossom? Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load. Noah. Hark! hark! the sea-birds cry! In clouds they overspread the lurid sky And hover round the mountain, where before Never a white wing, wetted by the wave, | Fear not, though we are shut from Heaven, Yet dared to soar, Even when the waters wax'd too fierce to brave. Soon it shall be their only shore, Japhet. The sun! the sun! He riseth, but his better light is gone; His glaring disk around, Proclaims earth's last of summer-days hath shone! The clouds return into the hues of night, Save where their brazen-colour'd edges streak The verge where brighter morns were wont to break. Noah. And lo! yon flash of light, The distant thunder's harbinger, appears! It cometh! hence, away, Leave to the elements their evil prey! Hence to where our all-hallow'd ark uprears Its safe and wreckless sides. Japhet. Oh, father, stay! Yet much is ours, whence we can notbedriven. Raphael. Rebel! thy words are wicked, as thy deeds Shall henceforth be but weak: the flaming sword, Which chased the first-born out of Paradise, Still flashes in the angelic hands. Azaziel. It cannot slay us: threaten dust with death, How vain to war with what thy God commands: Thy former force was in thy faith. Enter Mortals, flying for refuge. The heavens and earth are mingling-God! oh God! What have we done? Yet spare! Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides! | Hark! even the forest-beasts howl forth Noah. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone! Japhet. Not I. Noah. Then die With them! How dar'st thou look on that prophetic sky, And seek to save what all things now condemn, In overwhelming unison With just Jehovah's wrath? Japhet. Can rage and justice join in the same path? Noah. Blasphemer! dar'st thou murmur even now? Raphael. Patriarch, be still a father! smoothe thy brow: Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink; He knows not what he says, yet shall not drink With sobs the salt foam of the swelling waters; But be, when Passion passeth, good as thou, Nor perish like Heaven's children with Man's daughters. Aholibamah. The Tempest cometh; Heaven and Earth unite For the annihilation of all life. Between our strength and the Eternal Might! Samiasa. But ours is with thee: we will bear ye far To some untroubled star, Where thou and Anah shall partake our lot: And if thou dost not weep for thy lost earth, Our forfeit Heaven shall also be forgot. Anah. Oh! my dear father's tents, my place of birth! And mountains, land, and woods, when ye are not, Who shall dry up my tears? their prayer! The dragon crawls from out his den, To herd in terror innocent with men; And the birds scream their agony throughair. Yet, yet, Jehovah! yet withdraw thy rod Of wrath, and pity thine own world's despair! Hear not Man only but all Nature plead! Raphael. Farewell, thou earth! ye wretched sons of clay, I cannot, must not aid you. "Tis decreed! [Exit Raphael. Japhet. Some clouds sweep on, as vul tures 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: In the Sun's place a pale and ghastly glare Hath wound itself around the dying air. Azaziel. Come, Anah! quit this chaosfounded prison, To which the elements again repair, 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. Japhet. They are gone! They have disappear'd amidst the roar Of the forsaken world; and never more, Whether they live,or die with all earth's life, Now near its last, can aught restore Anah unto these eyes. Chorus of Mortals. Then to Jehovah raise Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind! What, wilt thou leave us all-all-all behind? While safe amidst the elemental strife, A Mortal (offering her infant to Japhet). Oh let this child embark! I brought him forth in woe, 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, And roll the waters o'er his placid breath? Or cursed be-with Him who made Before the implacable Omnipotent, If He hath made earth, let it be His shame, To make a world for torture:-Lo! they come, The loathsome waters in their rage! And with their roar make wholesome Nature dumb! The forest's trees (coeval with the hour When Paradise upsprung, Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower, Or Adam his first hymn of slavery sung), Their summer-blossomsby the surges lopp'd, And shut out God from our beseeching eyes. : Time-space-eternity-life-deathThe vast known and immeasurable unknown. He made, and can unmake; And shall I, for a little gasp of breath, Blaspheme and groan? No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith, Nor quiver, though the universe may quake! Chorus of Mortals. Where shall we fly? Not to the mountains high; For now their torrents rush with double roar, Enter a Woman. My father and my father's tent, My brethren and my brethren's herds, The little rivulet which freshen'd all No more are to be seen. When to the mountain-cliff I climb'd this morn, I turn'd to bless the spot, And not a leaf appear'd about to fall;— Japhet. To die! in youth to die; Than to behold the universal tomb Am thus condemn'd to weep above in vain: Why, when all perish, why must I remain? [The Waters rise: Men fly in every direc tion; many are overtaken by the waves; the Chorus of Mortals disperses in search of safety up the Mountains; Japhet remains upon a rock, while the Ark floats towards him in the distance. |