Of desolation, and the stillness of
The untrodden forest, only broken by
The sweeping tempest through its groaning
boughs;

Such is the sullen or the fitful state
Of my mind overworn. The earth's grown
wicked,

And many signs and portents have proclaim'd

A change at hand, and an o'erwhelming doom To perishable beings. Oh, my Anah! When the dread hour denounced shall open wide

The fountains of the deep,how mightest thou Have lain within this bosom, folded from The elements; this bosom, which in vain Hath beat for thee, and then will beat more vainly,

While thine-Oh, God! at least remit to her Thy wrath! for she is pure amidst the failing, As a star in the clouds, which cannot quench, Although they obscure it for an hour. My Anah!

How would I have adored thee, but thou wouldst not;

And still would I redeem thee-see thee live
When Ocean is Earth's grave,and, unopposed
By rock or shallow, the Leviathan,
Lord of the shoreless sea and watery world,
Shall wonder at his boundlessness of realm.
[Exit Japhet.

Enter NoАH and SEM.

Noah. Where is thy brother Japhet? Sem. He went forth, According to his wont, to meet with Irad, He said; but, as I fear, to bend his steps Towards Anah's tents, round which he hovers nightly,

Like a dove round and round its pillaged nest;

Or else he walks the wild up to the cavern Which opens to the heart of Ararat.

Noah. What doth he there? It is an evil spot

Upon an earth all evil; for things worse Than even wicked men resort there: he Still loves this daughter of a fated race, Although he could not wed her if she loved him,

And that she doth not. Oh, the unhappy hearts

Of men! that one of my blood, knowing well
The destiny and evil of these days,
And that the hour approacheth, should
indulge

In such forbidden yearnings! Lead the way;
He must be sought for!

Sem. Go not forward, father:

I will seek Japhet.

Noah. Do not fear for me:

All evil things are powerless on the man Selected by Jehovah-let us on.

Sem. To the tents of the father of the sisters?

Noah. No; to the cavern of the Caucasus. [Exeunt Noah and Sem.

SCENE III-The mountains.—A cavern, and the rocks of Caucasus.

Japhet (solus). Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou cave,

Which seemst unfathomable; and ye mountains,

So varied and so terrible in beauty;
Here, in your rugged majesty of rocks
And toppling trees that twine their roots
with stone

In perpendicular places, where the foot
Of man would tremble, could he reach
them-yes,

Ye look eternal! Yet, in a few days, Perhaps even hours, ye will be changed, rent, hurled

Before the mass of waters; and yon cave, Which seems to lead into a lower world, Shall have its depths search'd by the sweeping wave,

And dolphins gambol in the lion's den!
And man--Oh,men! my fellow-beings! Who
Shall weep above your universal grave,
Save I, who shall be left to weep? My
kinsmen,

Alas! what am I better than ye are,
That I must live beyond ye? Where shall be
The pleasant places where I thought of Anah
While I had hope? or the more savage

haunts,

Scarce less beloved, where I despaired for her?

And can it be!-Shall yon exulting peak, Whose glittering top is like a distant star, Lie low beneath the boiling of the deep? No more to have the morning-sun break forth, And scatter back the mists in floating folds From its tremendous brow? no more to have Day's broad orb drop behind its head at even, Leaving it with a crown of many hues? No more to be the beacon of the world, For angels to alight on, as the spot Nearest the stars? And can those words

Shall slumber o'er the wreck of this until
The salt morass subside into a sphere
Beneath the sun, and be the monument,
The sole and undistinguish'd sepulchre,
Of yet quick myriads of all life? How much
Breath will be still'd at once! All-beauteous
world!

So young, so mark'd out for destruction, I
With a cleft heart look on thee day by day,
And night by night, thy number'd days and
nights.

I cannot save thee, cannot save even her Whose love had made me love thee more;

but as

A portion of thy dust, I cannot think Upon thy coming doom without a feeling Such as-Oh God! and canst thou

[He pauses. A rushing sound from the cavern, is heard and shouts of laughter—afterwards a Spirit passes.

Japhet. In the name

Of the Most High, what art thou?
Spirit (laughs). Ha! Ha! Ha!
Japhet. By all that earth holds holiest,
speak!

Spirit (laughs). Ha! Ha!

Japhet. By the approaching deluge! by the earth

Which will be strangled by the ocean! by The deep which will lay open all her fountains!

The Heaven which will convert her clouds to seas!

And the Omnipotent who makes and crushes! Thou unknown, terrible, and indistinct, Yet awful Thing of Shadows, speak to me! Why dost thou laugh that horrid laugh? Spirit. Why weepst thou?

Japhet. For earth and all her children. Spirit. Ha! Ha! Ha! [Spirit vanishes. Japhet. How the fiend mocks the tortures

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,

With a base heart so far subdued and tamed, As even to hear this wide destruction named, Without such grief and courage, as should

rather

Bid thee await the world-dissolving wave, Than seek a shelter with thy favour'd father, And build thy city o'er the drown'd Earth's grave?

Who would outlive their kind,
Except the base and blind?
Mine

Hateth thine

As of a different order in the sphere,

But not our own.

There is not one who hath not left a throne Vacant in Heaven to dwell in darkness here, Rather than see his mates endure alone.

Go, wretch! and give

A life like thine to other wretches-live!
And when the annihilating waters roar
Above what they have done,
Envy the Giant-Patriarchs then no more,
And scorn thy sire as the surviving one!
Thyself for being his son!

Chorus of Spirits issuing from the cavern.
Rejoice!

No more the human voice

Shall vex our joys in middle air
With prayer;

No more

Shall they adore;

And we, who ne'er for ages have adored The prayer-exacting Lord,

To whom the omission of a sacrifice

Is vice;

We, we shall view the deep salt sources

pour'd

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

crime

sorrow

With all companionship of hate and toil, Until

Japhet (interrupting them). The eternal will

Shall deign to expound this dream
Of good and evil; and redeem

Unto Himself all times, all things; And,gath er'd under his almighty wings, Abolish hell!

And to the expiated Earth

Restore the beauty of her birth, Her Eden in an endless paradise, Where man no more can fall as once he fell, And even the very demons shall do well! Spirits. And when shall take effect this wondrous spell?

Japhet. When the Redeemer cometh; first in pain,

And then in glory.

Spirits. Meantime still struggle in the mortal chain,

Till earth wax hoary; ́

War with yourselves, and Hell, and Heaven, in vain,

Until the clouds look gory

With the blood reeking from each battleplain;

New times, new climes, new arts, new men; but still

The same old tears, old crimes, and oldest ill, Shall be amongst your race in different forms;

But the same moral storms

Shall oversweep the future, as the waves In a few hours the glorious Giants' graves.

But still rejoice!

We fell!

They fall!

So perish all

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.—

What have we here? Shapes of both earth and air?

No-all of Heaven, they are so beautiful.
I cannot trace their features; but their forms,
How lovelily they move along the side
Of the gray mountain, scattering its mist!
And after the swart savage spirits, whose
Infernal Immortality pour'd forth
Their impious hymn of triumph, they shall be
Welcome as Eden. It may be they come
To tell me the reprieve of our young world,

come!

upwards.

Japhet (solus). God hath proclaim'd the

destiny of Earth;

My father's ark of safety hath announced it;
The very demons shriek it from their caves;
The scroll of Enoch prophesied it long
In silent books, which, in their silence, say
More to the mind than thunder to the ear:
And yet men listen'd not, nor listen; but
Walk darkling to their doom; which,
though so nigh,

Shakes them no more in their dim disbelief,
Than their last cries shall shake the

To save this beautiful-these beautiful
Children of Cain?

Azaziel. From what?
Japhet. And is it so,

That ye too know not? Angels! angels! ye Have shared man's sin, and, it may be, now must

Partake his punishment; or at the least
My sorrow.

Samiasa. Sorrow! I ne'er thought till now
To hear an Adamite speak riddles to me.
Japhet. And hath not the Most High
expounded them?
Then ye are lost, as they are lost.

Aholibamah. So be it!

If they love as they are loved, they will not shrink

More to be mortal, than I would to dare An immortality of agonies

With Samiasa!

The Ark which shall receive a remnant of The seed of Seth!

Aholibamah. 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 beginning, and shall do so ever.

Japhet. I did not speak to thee,Aholibamah! Too much of the forefather, whom thou vauntest,

1

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 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 favourAholibamah (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.

Japhet. Offspring of Cain,thy father did so! Aholibamah. But

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.

Aholibamah. He was our fathers' father; The eldest-born of man, the strongest,

bravest,

And most enduring:-Shall I blush forhim, From whom we had our being? Look upon