And loudly lift each superhuman voice-- All die, 250 Save the slight remnant of Seth"s seed-- The seed of Seth, Exempt for future sorrow"s sake from death.
But of the sons of Cain None shall remain; And all his goodly daughters Must lie beneath the desolating waters; Or, floating upward, with their long hair laid Along the wave, the cruel heaven upbraid, Which would not spare 260 Beings even in death so fair.
It is decreed, All die!
And to the universal human cry The universal silence shall succeed!
Fly, brethren, fly!
But still rejoice!
We fell!
They fall!
So perish all 270 These petty foes of Heaven who shrink from h.e.l.l!
[_The Spirits disappear, soaring upwards_.
_j.a.ph._ (_solus_).
G.o.d hath proclaimed the destiny of earth; My father"s ark of safety hath announced it; The very demons shriek it from their caves; The scroll[151] 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 listened not, nor listen; but Walk darkling to their doom: which, though so nigh, Shakes them no more in their dim disbelief, 280 Than their last cries shall shake the Almighty purpose, Or deaf obedient Ocean, which fulfils it.
No sign yet hangs its banner in the air; The clouds are few, and of their wonted texture; The Sun will rise upon the Earth"s last day As on the fourth day of creation, when G.o.d said unto him, "Shine!" and he broke forth Into the dawn, which lighted not the yet Unformed forefather of mankind--but roused Before the human orison the earlier 290 Made and far sweeter voices of the birds, 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,-- Aye, day will rise; but upon what?--a chaos, 300 Which was ere day; and which, renewed, 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 swallowed in that deep Which has no fountain; as his race will be Devoured by that which drowns his infant world.-- What have we here? Shapes of both earth and air? 310 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 grey mountain, scattering its mist!
And after the swart savage spirits, whose Infernal immortality poured 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, For which I have so often prayed.--They come! 320 Anah! oh, G.o.d! and with her----
_Enter_ SAMIASA, AZAZIEL, ANAH, _and_ AHOLIBAMAH.
_Anah_. j.a.phet!
_Sam._ Lo!
A son of Adam!
_Aza._ What doth the earth-born here, While all his race are slumbering?
_j.a.ph._ Angel! what Dost thou on earth when thou should"st be on high?
_Aza._ Know"st thou not, or forget"st thou, that a part Of our great function is to guard thine earth?
_j.a.ph._ But all good angels have forsaken earth, Which is condemned; nay, even the evil fly The approaching chaos. Anah! Anah! my In vain, and long, and still to be, beloved! 330 Why walk"st thou with this Spirit, in those hours When no good Spirit longer lights below?
_Anah_. j.a.phet, I cannot answer thee; yet, yet Forgive me----
_j.a.ph._ May the Heaven, which soon no more Will pardon, do so! for thou art greatly tempted.
_Aho._ Back to thy tents, insulting son of Noah!
We know thee not.
_j.a.ph._ The hour may come when thou May"st know me better; and thy sister know Me still the same which I have ever been.
_Sam._ Son of the patriarch, who hath ever been 340 Upright before his G.o.d, whate"er thy gifts, And thy words seem of sorrow, mixed with wrath, How have Azaziel, or myself, brought on thee Wrong?
_j.a.ph._ Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs! but, thou Say"st well, though she be dust--I did not, could not, Deserve her. Farewell, Anah! I have said That word so often! but now say it, ne"er To be repeated. Angel! or whate"er Thou art, or must be soon, hast thou the power To save this beautiful--_these_ beautiful 350 Children of Cain?
_Aza._ From what?
_j.a.ph._ 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.
_Sam._ Sorrow! I ne"er thought till now To hear an Adamite speak riddles to me.
_j.a.ph._ And hath not the Most High expounded them?
Then ye are lost as they are lost.
_Aho._ So be it!
If they love as they are loved, they will not shrink More to be mortal, than I would to dare 360 An immortality of agonies With Samiasa!
_Anah_. Sister! sister! speak not Thus.
_Aza._ Fearest thou, my Anah?
_Anah_. Yes, for thee: I would resign the greater remnant of This little life of mine, before one hour Of thine eternity should know a pang.
_j.a.ph._ It is for _him_, then! for the Seraph thou Hast left me! That is nothing, if thou hast not Left thy G.o.d too! for unions like to these, Between a mortal and an immortal, cannot 370 Be happy or be hallowed. We are sent Upon the earth to toil and die; and they Are made to minister on high unto The Highest: but if he can _save_ thee, soon The hour will come in which celestial aid Alone can do so.
_Anah_. Ah! he speaks of Death.
_Sam._ Of death to _us_! and those who are with us!
But that the man seems full of sorrow, I Could smile.
_j.a.ph._ I grieve not for myself, nor fear.
I am safe, not for my own deserts, but those 380 Of a well-doing sire, who hath been found Righteous enough to save his children. Would His power was greater of redemption! or That by exchanging my own life for hers, Who could alone have made mine happy, she, The last and loveliest of Cain"s race, could share The ark which shall receive a remnant of The seed of Seth!
_Aho._ 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 390 In Paradise[152],--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.
_j.a.ph._ I did not speak to thee, Aholibamah!
Too much of the forefather whom thou vauntest 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, 400 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 stem Cainites, save in beauty, For all of them are fairest in their favour----
_Aho._ (_interrupting him_).
And would"st thou have her like our father"s foe In mind, in soul? If _I_ partook thy thought, And dreamed that aught of _Abel_ was in _her_!-- 410 Get thee hence, son of Noah; thou makest strife.
_j.a.ph._ Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!
_Aho._ But He slew not Seth: and what hast thou to do With other deeds between his G.o.d and him?
_j.a.ph._ Thou speakest well: his G.o.d 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.
_Aho._ He was our father"s father; The eldest born of man, the strongest, bravest, And most enduring:--Shall I blush for him 420 From whom we had our being? Look upon Our race; behold their stature and their beauty, Their courage, strength, and length of days----
_j.a.ph._ They are numbered.
_Aho._ Be it so! but while yet their hours endure, I glory in my brethren and our fathers.