_Shem_. To the tents of the father of the sisters?
_Noah_. No; to the cavern of the Caucasus.
[_Exeunt_ NOAH _and_ SHEM.
SCENE III.--_The mountains.--A cavern,[144] and the rocks of Caucasus_.
_j.a.ph._ (_solus_). Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou cave, Which seem"st 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[145]
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 ma.s.s of waters; and yon cave, 10 Which seems to lead into a lower world, Shall have its depths searched 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, 20 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, 30 For angels to alight on, as the spot Nearest the stars? And can those words "_no more_"
Be meant for thee, for all things, save for us, And the predestined creeping things reserved By my sire to Jehovah"s bidding? May _He_ preserve _them_, and I _not_ have the power To s.n.a.t.c.h the loveliest of earth"s daughters from A doom which even some serpent, with his mate, Shall "scape to save his kind to be prolonged, To hiss and sting through some emerging world, 40 Reeking and dank from out the slime, whose ooze Shall slumber o"er the wreck of this, until The salt mora.s.s subside into a sphere Beneath the sun, and be the monument, The sole and undistinguished sepulchre, Of yet quick myriads of all life? How much Breath will be stilled at once! All beauteous world!
So young, so marked out for destruction, I With a cleft heart look on thee day by day, And night by night, thy numbered days and nights. 50 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 G.o.d! and canst thou-- [_He pauses_.
[_A rushing sound from the cavern is heard, and shouts of laughter--afterwards a Spirit pa.s.ses_.
_j.a.ph._ In the name Of the Most High, what art thou?
_Spirit_ (_laughs_). Ha! ha! ha![146]
_j.a.ph._ By all that earth holds holiest, speak!
_Spirit_ (_laughs_). Ha! ha!
_j.a.ph._ By the approaching deluge! by the earth Which will be strangled by the ocean! by The deep which will lay open all her fountains! 60 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 weep"st thou?
_j.a.ph._ For earth and all her children.
_Spirit_. Ha! ha! ha!
[_Spirit vanishes_.
_j.a.ph._ How the fiend mocks the tortures of a world, The coming desolation of an orb, On which the sun shall rise and warm no life!
How the earth sleeps! and all that in it is 70 Sleep too upon the very eve of death!
Why should they wake to meet it? What are here, Which look like death in life, and speak like things Born ere this dying world? They come like clouds!
[_Various Spirits pa.s.s from the cavern_.
_Spirit_.
Rejoice!
The abhorred race Which could not keep in Eden their high place, But listened to the voice Of knowledge without power, Are nigh the hour, 80 Of Death!
Not slow, not single, not by sword, nor sorrow, 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, 90 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, Destroyed![147]
Another element shall be the lord Of life, and the abhorred Children of dust be quenched; and of each hue Of earth nought left but the unbroken blue; And of the variegated mountain 100 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, And sea and sky Look vast and lifeless in the eternal eye.
Upon the foam Who shall erect a home?
_j.a.ph._ (_coming forward_).
My sire! 110 Earth"s seed shall not expire; Only the evil shall be put away From day.
Avaunt! ye exulting demons of the waste!
Who howl your hideous joy When G.o.d destroys whom you dare not destroy: Hence! haste!
Back to your inner caves!
Until the waves Shall search you in your secret place, 120 And drive your sullen race Forth, to be rolled upon the tossing winds, In restless wretchedness along all s.p.a.ce!
_Spirit_.
Son of the saved!
When thou and thine have braved The wide and warring element; When the great barrier of the deep is rent, Shall thou and thine be good or happy?--No!
Thy new world and new race shall be of woe-- Less goodly in their aspect, in their years 130 Less than the glorious giants, who Yet walk the world in pride, The Sons of Heaven by many a mortal bride.
Thine shall be nothing of the past, save tears!
And art thou not ashamed Thus to survive, And eat, and drink, and wive?
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 140 Bid thee await the world-dissolving wave, Than seek a shelter with thy favoured father, And build thy city o"er the drowned 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 150 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! 160 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"s salt sources poured 170 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; 180 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 190 New beings--years, diseases, sorrow, crime-- With all companionship of hate and toil, Until----
_j.a.ph._ (_Interrupting them_).
The eternal Will Shall deign to expound this dream Of good and evil; and redeem Unto himself all times, all things; And, gathered under his almighty wings, Abolish h.e.l.l!
And to the expiated Earth Restore the beauty of her birth, 200 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?
_j.a.ph._ When the Redeemer cometh; first in pain, And then in glory.
_Spirit_. Meantime still struggle in the mortal chain, Till Earth wax h.o.a.ry; War with yourselves, and h.e.l.l, and Heaven, in vain, Until the clouds look gory 210 With the blood reeking from each battle-plain; 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[148].
_Chorus of Spirits_.
Brethren, rejoice!
Mortal, farewell!
Hark! hark! already we can hear the voice 220 Of growing Ocean"s gloomy swell; The winds, too, plume their piercing wings; The clouds have nearly filled their springs; The fountains of the great deep shall be broken, And heaven set wide her windows[149]; while mankind View, unacknowledged, each tremendous token-- Still, as they were from the beginning, blind.
We hear the sound they cannot hear, The mustering thunders of the threatening sphere; Yet a few hours their coming is delayed; 230 Their flashing banners, folded still on high, Yet undisplayed, Save to the Spirit"s all-pervading eye.
Howl! howl! oh Earth!
Thy death is nearer than thy recent birth; Tremble, ye mountains, soon to shrink below The Ocean"s overflow!
The wave shall break upon your cliffs; and sh.e.l.ls, The little sh.e.l.ls, of ocean"s least things be Deposed where now the eagle"s offspring dwells[150]-- 240 How shall he shriek o"er the remorseless sea!
And call his nestlings up with fruitless yell, Unanswered, save by the encroaching swell;-- While man shall long in vain for his broad wings, The wings which could not save:-- Where could he rest them, while the whole s.p.a.ce brings Nought to his eye beyond the deep, his grave?
Brethren, rejoice!