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!

Your place is Heaven,

Samiasa. Raphael!

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 domi-
nions:

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
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:

And that on high
An ocean is prepared,

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,
Think that my love still mounts with thee
on high,
Samiasa!

And if I look up with a tearless eye,
'Tis that an angel's bride disdains to weep.
Farewell! Now rise, inexorable Deep!
Anah. And must we die?

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?
Oh God! be thou a God, and spare
Yet while 'tis time!

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
Cain.

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.
Raphael. Sayst thou?

Azaziel. He hath said it, and I say, Amen!
Raphael. Again!

Then from this hour,

Shorn as ye are of all celestial power,
And aliens from your God,

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

Yet dared to soar,

Even when the waters wax'd too fierce

to brave.

Soon it shall be their only shore,
And then, no more!

Japhet. The sun! the sun!

He riseth, but his better light is gone;
And a black circle, bound

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.
Chorus of Mortals.

The heavens and earth are mingling-God! oh God!

What have we done? Yet spare!

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.
Unequal is the strife

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?
Azuziel. Thy Spirit-lord.

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,
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. 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,
Thou sit'st within thy guarded ark?

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.
Why was he born?

What hath he done-
My unwean'd son—

To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn?
What is there in this milk of mine, that Death
Should stir all Heaven andEarth up to destroy

My boy,

And roll the waters o'er his placid breath?
Save him, thou seed of Seth!

Or cursed be-with Him who made
Thee and thy race, for which we are betray'd!
Japhet. Peace! 'tis no hour for curses,
but for prayer!

Before the implacable Omnipotent,
Since we must fall the same?

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),
So massy, vast, yet green in their old age,
Are overtopp'd,

Their summer-blossomsby the surges lopp'd,
Which rise, and rise, and rise.
Vainly we look up to the lowering skies-
They meet the seas,

And shut out God from our beseeching eyes.
Fly, son of Noah, fly, and take thine ease
In thine allotted Ocean-tent;
And view, all floating o'er the Element,
The corpses of the world of thy young days

:

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,
To meet the ocean, which, advancing still,
Already grasps each drowning hill,
Nor leaves an unsearch'd cave.

Enter a Woman.
Woman. Oh, save me, save!
Our valley is no more:

My father and my father's tent,

My brethren and my brethren's herds,
The pleasant trees that o'er our noonday bent
And sent forth evening-songs from sweetest
birds,

The little rivulet which freshen'd all
Our pastures green,

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;—
And now they are not!-
Why was I born?

Japhet. To die! in youth to die;
And happier in that doom,

Than to behold the universal tomb
Which I

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.