_j.a.ph._ My sire and race but glory in their G.o.d, Anah! and thou?----
_Anah_. Whate"er our G.o.d decrees, The G.o.d of Seth as Cain, I must obey, And will endeavour patiently to obey.
But could I dare to pray in his dread hour 430 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 sprang 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--seek it, find it: 440 I abhor Death, because that thou must die.
_Aho._ 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 engendered By hopeless love and heated vigils. Who Shall shake these solid mountains, this firm earth, 450 And bid those clouds and waters take a shape Distinct from that which we and all our sires Have seen them wear on their eternal way?
Who shall do this?
_j.a.ph._ He whose one word produced them.
_Aho._ Who _heard_ that word?
_j.a.ph._ The universe, which leaped To life before it. Ah! smilest thou still in scorn?
Turn to thy Seraphs: if they attest it not, They are none.
_Sam._ Aholibamah, own thy G.o.d!
_Aho._ I have ever hailed our Maker, Samiasa, As thine, and mine: a G.o.d of Love, not Sorrow. 460
_j.a.ph._ Alas! what else is Love but Sorrow? Even He who made earth in love had soon to grieve Above its first and best inhabitants.
_Aho._ "Tis said so.
_j.a.ph._ It is even so.
_Enter_ NOAH _and_ SHEM.
_Noah_. j.a.phet! What Dost thou here with these children of the wicked?
Dread"st thou not to partake their coming doom?
_j.a.ph._ 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, 470 Who leave the throne of G.o.d, to take them wives From out the race of Cain; the sons of Heaven, Who seek Earth"s daughters for their beauty?
_Aza._ Patriarch!
Thou hast said it.
_Noah_. Woe, woe, woe to such communion!
Has not G.o.d made a barrier between Earth And Heaven, and limited each, kind to kind?
_Sam._ Was not man made in high Jehovah"s image?
Did G.o.d not love what he had made? And what Do we but imitate and emulate His love unto created love?
_Noah_. I am 480 But man, and was not made to judge mankind, Far less the sons of G.o.d; but as our G.o.d Has deigned to commune with me, and reveal _His_ judgments, I reply, that the descent Of Seraphs from their everlasting seat Unto a perishable and perishing, Even on the very _eve_ of _perishing_[153]?--world, Cannot be good.
_Aza._ What! though it were to save?
_Noah_. Not ye in all your glory can redeem What he who made you glorious hath condemned. 490 Were your immortal mission safety, "twould Be general, not for two, though beautiful; And beautiful they are, but not the less Condemned.
_j.a.ph._ Oh, father! say it not.
_Noah_. Son! son!
If that thou wouldst avoid their doom, forget That they exist: they soon shall cease to be, While thou shalt be the sire of a new world, And better.
_j.a.ph._ Let me die with _this_, and _them_!
_Noah_. Thou _shouldst_ for such a thought, but shalt not: he Who _can_, redeems thee.
_Sam._ And why him and thee, 500 More than what he, thy son, prefers to both?
_Noah_. Ask him who made thee greater than myself And mine, but not less subject to his own Almightiness. And lo! his mildest and Least to be tempted messenger appears!
_Enter_ RAPHAEL[154] _the Archangel_.
_Raph._ Spirits!
Whose seat is near the throne, What do ye here?
Is thus a Seraph"s duty to be shown, Now that the hour is near 510 When Earth must be alone?
Return!
Adore and burn, In glorious homage with the elected "Seven."
Your place is Heaven.
_Sam._ Raphael!
The first and fairest of the sons of G.o.d, How long hath this been law, That Earth by angels must be left untrod?
Earth! which oft saw 520 Jehovah"s footsteps not disdain her sod!
The world he loved, and made For love; and oft have we obeyed His frequent mission with delighted pinions: Adoring him in his least works displayed; 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? 530
_Raph._ 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 enquired 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; 540 For Blindness is the first-born of Excess.
When all good angels left the world, ye stayed, Stung with strange pa.s.sions, and debased By mortal feelings for a mortal maid: But ye are pardoned thus far, and replaced With your pure equals. Hence! away! away!
Or stay, And lose Eternity by that delay!
_Aza._ And thou! if Earth be thus forbidden In the decree 550 To us until this moment hidden, Dost thou not err as we In being here?
_Raph._ I came to call ye back to your fit sphere, In the great name and at the word of G.o.d, Dear, dearest in themselves, and scarce less dear-- That which I came to do[155]: till now we trod Together the eternal s.p.a.ce; together Let us still walk the stars[156]. True, Earth must die!
Her race, returned into her womb, must wither, 560 And much which she inherits: but oh! why Cannot this Earth be made, or be destroyed, 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! 570 And think if tempting man can compensate For Heaven desired too late?
Long have I warred, Long must I war With him who deemed it hard To be created, and to acknowledge him Who midst the cherubim Made him as suns to a dependent star, Leaving the archangels at his right hand dim.
I loved him--beautiful he was: oh, Heaven! 580 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 undestroyed, be warned! Eternity With him, or with his G.o.d, is in your choice: He hath not tempted you; he cannot tempt The angels, from his further snares exempt: But man hath listened to his voice, And ye to woman"s--beautiful she is, 590 The serpent"s voice less subtle than her kiss.
The snake but vanquished dust; but she will draw A second host from heaven, to break Heaven"s law.
Yet, yet, oh fly!
Ye cannot die; But they Shall pa.s.s away, While ye shall fill with shrieks the upper sky For perishable clay, Whose memory in your immortality 600 Shall long outlast the Sun which gave them day.
Think how your essence differeth from theirs In all but suffering! why partake The agony to which they must be heirs-- Born to be ploughed with years, and sown with cares, And reaped by Death, lord of the human soil?