Be meant for thee, for all things, save for us, Such as-Oh God! and canst thou-[He pauses.(1) Of the Most High, what art thou? In the name Ha! ha! ha! Japh. For earth and all her children. Ha! ha! ha! [Spirit vanishes. Japh. 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! Spirit. And eat, and driuk, 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 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 gra 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, ensues between Japhet and one of them, and a chort sung by a body of them, part of which is truly na Campbell.-L. E. Is vice; We, we shall view the deep's 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 th ir 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 str ped 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 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-sorrow—crime— With all companionship of hate and toil, Until Japh. (interrupting them.) The Eternal will Of good and evil; and redeem Unto himself all times, all things; And, gather'd under his almighty wings, And to the expiated Earth Her Eden in an endless paradise, Spirits. And when shall take effect this wondrous spell? Japh. 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 battle-plain; New times, new climes, new arts, new men; but still, Shall oversweep the future, as the waves Mortal, farewell! Hark! hark! already we can hear the voice The winds, too, plume their piercing wings; View, unacknowledged, each tremendous token- We hear the sound they cannot hear, [sphere; Save to the Spirit's all-pervading eye. Thy death is nearer than thy recent birth; The wave shall break upon your cliffs; and shells, Where could he rest them, while the whole space brings Nought to his eye beyond the deep, his grave? Brethren, rejoice! And loudly lift each superhuman voice All die, Save the slight remnant of Seth's seed- Exempt for future sorrow's sake from death. (2) "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." --Ibid. Ja. (solus.) God hath proclaim'd the destiny of earth; The clouds are few, and of their wonted texture; Which in the open firmament of heaven Have wings like angels, and like them salute Heaven first each day before the Adamites: Of our great function is to guard thine earth? Japh. Japh. Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs; but thou Their matins now draw nigh-the east is kindling-Deserve her. Farewell, Anah! I have said And they will sing! and day will break! Both near, So near! the awful close. For these must drop A void: without man, time, as made for man, I cannot trace their features; but their forms, Their impious hymn of triumph, they shall be Enter SAMIASA, AZAZIEL, ANAH, and AHOLIBAMAH. A son of Adam! Aza. Japhet! Lo! What doth the earth-born here, Angel! what (I) The Book of Enoch, preserved by the Ethiopians, is said by them to be anterior to the flood. (2) "The spirits disappear soaring upwards, and Japhet has again recourse to a very fine soliloquy. He is now joined by Anah and Aholibamah, who are accompanied by the two angels, Samiasa and Azaziel. The angels seem somewhat sulky, and are extremely laconic; they look like 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 Aza. From what? And is it so, That ye too know not? Angels! angels! ye Sam. Sorrow! I ne'er thought till now To hear an Adamite speak riddles to me. Aho. So be it! I would resign the greater remnant of Alone can do so. Anah. Ah! he speaks of death. The brightest future, without the sweet past— Thy love-my father's--all the life, and all Sam. Of death to us! and those who are with us! The things which sprang up with me, like the stars, But that the man seems full of sorrow, I Could smile. Japh. I grieve not for myself, nor fear; Aho. Japh. I did not speak to thee, Aholibamah! In mind, in soul? If I partook thy thought, Making my dim existence radiant with Soft lights which were not mine? Aholibamah! I abhor death, because that thou must die. Japh. He whose one word produced them. Aho. Who heard that word? The universe, which leap'd Aholibamah, own thy God! Aho. I have ever hail'd our Maker, Samiasa, As thine, and mine: a God of love, not sorrow. Japh. Alas! what else is love but sorrow? Even He who made earth in love had soon to grieve Above its first and best inhabitants. Dost thou here with these children of the wicked? He slew not Seth: and what hast thou to do I had not named his deed, but that thyself Aho. Japh. My sire and race but glory in their God, Anah! and thou? Noah. These are they, then, Who leave the throne of God, to take them wives From out the race of Cain; the sons of heaven, Who seek earth's daughters for their beauty? Aza. Thou hast said it. Noah. Patriarch! Woe, woe, woe to such communion! His love unto created love? I am Were your immortal mission safety, 't would Oh, father! say it not. 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. Japh. Let me die with this, and them! Noah. Thou shouldst for such a thought, but shalt Who can redeems thee. [not; he Sam. And why him and thee, 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! In glorious homage with the elected "seven." Sam. Jehovah's footsteps not disdain her sod! For love; and oft have we obey'd Adoring him in his least works display'd; And, as the latest birth of his great word, Why is thy brow severe ? And wherefore speak'st thou of destruction near? They would have seen Jehovah's late decree, And not inquired their Maker's breath of me; And even the spirits' knowledge shall grow less For Blindness is the first-born of Excess. By mortal feelings for a mortal maid: And lose eternity by that delay! (1) In the original MS. "Michael." "I return you," says Lord Byron to Mr. M., "the revise. I have softened the part to which Gifford objected, and changed the name of Michael Raph. I came to call ye back to your fit sphere, In the great name and at the word of God. Dear, dearest in themselves, and scarce less dear That which I came to do: till now we trod Together the eternal space; together Let us still walk the stars. True, earth must die Her race, return'd into her womb, must wither, And much which she inherits: but oh! why Cannot this earth be made, or be destroy'd, 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, And think if tempting man can compensate Long have I warr'd, Long must I war With him who deem'd it hard To be created, and to acknowledge Him Made him as sun to a dependent star, 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 1 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: He hath not tempted you; he cannot tempt The angels, from his further snares exempt: But man hath listen'd to his voice, And ye to woman's-beautiful she is, The serpent's voice less subtle than her kiss. The snake but vanquish'd 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 pass away, While ye shall fill with shrieks the upper sky For perishable clay, Whose memory in your immortality 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 heirsBorn to be plough'd with tears, and sown with cares, And reap'd by Death, lord of the human soil? Even had their days been left to toil their path Through time to dust, unshorten'd by God's wrath, Still they are Evil's prey and Sorrow's spoil. Let them fly! Aho. I hear the voice which says that all must die Sooner than our white-bearded patriarchs died; And that on high An ocean is prepared, to Raphael, who was an angel of gentler sympathies *B. Letters, July 6, 1822.-L. E. |