For now with trembling hand he shed the blood,
And placed the slaughter'd victim on the wood;
Then kneeling, as the sun went down, he laid
His hand upon the hallow'd pyre, and pray'd:-
"Maker of heaven and earth! supreme o'er all
That live, and move, and breathe, on Thee we call:
Our father sinn'd and suffer'd;-we, who bear
Our father's image, his transgression share;
Humbled for his offences, and our own,
Thou, who art holy, wise, and just alone,
Accept, with free confession of our guilt,
This victim slain, this blood devoutly spilt,
While through the veil of sacrifice we see
Thy mercy smiling, and look up to Thee;

O grant forgiveness; power and grace are thine;
God of salvation! cause thy face to shine;
Hear us in Heaven! fulfil our soul's desire,
God of our father! answer now with fire."

He rose; no light from Heaven around him shone, No fire descended from the eternal throne; Cold on the pile the offer'd victim lay, Amidst the stillness of expiring day: The eyes of all that watch'd in vain to view The wonted sign, distractedly withdrew; Fear clipt their breath, their doubling pulses raised, And each by stealth upon his neighbor gazed; From heart to heart a strange contagion ran, A shuddering instinct crowded man to man; Even Seth with secret consternation shook, And cast on Enoch an imploring look. Enoch, in whose sublime, unearthly mien, No change of hue, no cloud of care, was seen, Full on the mute assembly turn'd his face, Clear as the sun prepared to run his race. He spoke; his words, with awful warning fraught, Rallied and fix'd the scatter'd powers of thought: "Men, brethren, fathers! wherefore do ye fear? Hath God departed from us?-God is here; Present in every heart, with sovereign power, He tries, he proves his people in this hour; Naked as light to his all-searching eye,

The thoughts that wrong, the doubts that tempt Him

lie;

Yet slow to anger, merciful as just,

He knows our frame, remembers we are dust,
And spares our weakness:-In this truth believe,
Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive.
What, though no flame on Adam's altar burn,
No signal of acceptance yet return?
God is not man, who to our father sware,
All times, in every place, to answer prayer.
He cannot change; though heaven and earth decay,
The word of God shall never pass away.

"But mark the season-from the rising sun, Westward, the race of Cain the world o'errun; Their monarch, mightiest of the sons of men, Hath sworn destruction to the Patriarchs' glen; Hither he hastens; carnage strews his path: -Who will await the giant in his wrath? Or who will take the wings of silent night, And seek deliverance from his sword by flight? Thus saith the Lord:-Ye weak of faith and heart! Who dare not trust the living God, depart; The Angel of his presence leads your way, Your lives are safe, and given you as a prey:

But ye who, unappall'd at earthly harm,
Lean on the strength of his Almighty arm,
Prepared for life or death, with firm accord,
-Stand still, and see the glory of the Lord."

A pause, a dreary pause, ensued>-then cried
The holy man," On either hand divide;
The feeble fly; with me the valiant stay:
Choose now your portion; whom will ye obey,
God, or your fears? His counsel, or your own?”
"The LORD, the LORD, for He is GOD ALONE!"
Exclaim'd at once, with consentaneous choice,
The whole assembly, heart, and soul, and voice.
Then light from Heaven with sudden beauty came
Pure on the altar blazed the unkindled flame,
And upwards to their glorious source return'd
The sacred fires in which the victim burn'd:
While through the evening gloom, to distant eyes,
Morn o'er the Patriarchs' mountain seem'd to rise.

Awe-struck, the congregation kneel'd around, And worshipp'd with their faces to the ground; The peace of God, beyond expression sweet, Fill'd every spirit humbled at his feet, And love, joy, wonder, deeply mingling there, Drew from the heart unutterable prayer.

They rose-as if his soul had pass'd away.
Prostrate before the altar Enoch lay,
Entranced so deeply, all believed him dead:

At length he breathed, he moved, he raised his head,
To Heaven in ecstacy he turn'd his eyes;
-With such a look the dead in Christ shall rise,
When the last trumpet calls them from the dust,
To join the resurrection of the just:
Yea, and from earthly grossness so refined,
(As if the soul had left the flesh behind,
Yet wore a mortal semblance), upright stood
The great Evangelist before the Flood;
On him the vision of the Almighty broke,
And future times were present while he spoke.'

"The Saints shall suffer; righteousness shall fail, O'er all the world iniquity prevail;

Giants, in fierce contempt of man and God,
Shall rule the nations with an iron rod;

On every mountain idol-groves shall rise,
And darken Heaven with human sacrifice.
But God the Avenger comes,-a judgment-day,
A flood shall sweep his enemies away.

How few, whose eyes shall then have seen the sun,
-One righteous family, and only one,-
Saved from that wreck of Nature, shall behold
The new Creation rising from the old!

"O, that the world of wickedness, destroy'd, Might lie for ever without form and void! Or, that the earth, to innocence restored, Might flourish as the garden of the Lord! It will not be among the sons of men, The Giant-Spirit shall go forth again, From clime to clime shall kindle murderous rage, And spread the plagues of sin from age to age; Yet shall the God of mercy, from above, Extend the golden sceptre of his love,

1 Numbers, xxiv, v. 4.

CANTO VI.

Javan's second Interview with Zillah. He visits the various Dwellings scattered throughout the Glen,

and in the Evening sings to his Harp, amidst the assembled inhabitants :-Address to Twilight; Jubal's Song of the Creation: the Power of Music exemplified.

SPENT with the toils of that eventful day, All night in dreamless slumber Javan lay; But early springing from his bed of leaves, Waked by the songs of swallows on the eaves, From Enoch's cottage, in the cool grey hour, He wander'd forth to Zillah's woodland bower; There, in his former covert, on the ground, The frame of his forsaken harp he found; He smote the boss; the convex orb unstrung, Instant with sweet reverberation rung: The minstrel smiled, at that sonorous stroke, To find the spell of harmony unbroke; Trickling with dew, he bore it to the cell;

Guilty, yet faithful still, to thee I fly,
Receive me, love me, Zillah! or 1 die."

Thus Javan's lips, so long in silence seal'd,
With sudden vehemence his soul reveal'd;
Zillah meanwhile recover'd power to speak,
While deadly paleness overcast her cheek:

Say not, I love thee!'-Witness every tree Could Javan love me through the world, yet leave Around this bower, thy cruel scorn of me! Her whom he loved, for hopeless years, to grieve? Returning, could he find her here alone, Yet pass her by, unknowing, as unknown? All day was she forsaken, or forgot? Did Javan seek her at her father's cot? That cot of old so much his soul's delight, His mother's seem'd not fairer in his sight: No! Javan mocks me; none could love so well, So long, so painfully, and never tell."

He thought of Zillah, and resolved too late
To plead his constancy, and know his fate.

She, from the hour, when, in a pilgrim's guise,
Javan return'd,-a stranger to her eyes,
Not to her heart,-from anguish knew no rest,
Love, pride, resentment, struggling in her breast.
All day she strove to hide her misery,
In vain ;-a mother's eye is quick to see,
Slow to rebuke, a daughter's bashful fears,
And Zillah's mother only chid with tears:
Night came, but Javan came not with the night;
Light vanish'd, Hope departed with the light;
Her lonely couch conceal'd her sleepless woes,
But with the morning star the maiden rose.
The soft refreshing breeze, the orient beams,
The dew, the mist unrolling from the streams,
The light, the joy, the music of the hour,
Stole on her spirit with resistless power,
With healing sweetness soothed her fever'd brain,
And woke the pulse of tenderness again.
Thus while she wander'd, with unconscious feet,
Absent in thought, she reach'd her sylvan seat:
The youth descried her not amidst the wood,
Till, like a vision, at his side she stood.
Their eyes encounter'd; both at once exclaim'd,
"Javan!" and "Zillah!"-each the other named;
Those sounds were life or death to either heart:
He rose; she turn'd in terror to depart;
He caught her hand "O do not, do not flee!"
-It was a moment of eternity,

And now or never must he plight his vow,
Win or abandon her for ever now.

"Stay-hear me, Zillah!-every power above,
Heaven, earth, thyself, bear witness to my love!
Thee have I loved from earliest infancy,
Loved with supreme affection only thee.
Long in these shades my timid passion grew,
Through every change, in every trial true;
I loved thee through the world in dumb despair,
Loved thee, that I might love no other fair;

-Still had my trembling passion been conceal'd
Still but in parables by stealth reveal'd,
Had not thine instantaneous presence wrung,
By swift surprise, the secret from my tongue.
Yet hath Affection language of her own,
And mine in every thing but words was shown;
In childhood, as the bird of nature free,
My song was gladness, when I sung to thee:
In youth, whene'er I mourn'd a bosom flame,
And praised a maiden whom I durst not name,
Couldst thou not then my hidden thought divine?
Didst thou not feel that I was wholly thine?
When for vain-glory I forsook thee here,
Dear as thou wert, unutterably dear,
From virtue, truth, and innocence estranged,
To thee, thee only, was my heart unchanged;
And as I loved without a hope before,
Without a hope I loved thee yet the more.
At length, when, weary of the ways of men,
Refuge I sought in this maternal glen,
Thy sweet remembrance drew me from afar,
And Zillah's beauty was my leading star.
Here when I found thee, fear itself grew bold,
Methought my tale of love already told;
But soon thine eyes the dream of folly broke,
And I from bliss, as they from slumber, woke;
My heart, my tongue, were chill'd to instant stone.
I durst not speak thy name, nor give my own.
When thou wert vanish'd, horror and affright
Seized me, my sins uprose before my sight;
Like fiends they rush'd upon me; but Despair
Wrung from expiring Faith a broken prayer;
Strength came; the path to Enoch's bower I trod;
He saw me, met me, led me back to God.
O Zillah! while I sought my Maker's grace,
And flesh and spirit fail'd before His face,
Thy tempting image from my breast I drove,
It was no season then for earthly love."-

"For earthly love it is no season now," Exclaim'd the maiden with reproachful brow,

Haunted by phantoms, he had fled his home,
With savage beasts in solitude to roam;
Wild as the waves, and wandering as the wind,
No art could tame him, and no chains could bind:
Already seven disastrous years had shed
Mildew and blast on his unshelter'd head;
His brain was smitten by the sun at noon,
His heart was wither'd by the cold night moon.

""T was Cain, the sire of nations:-Jubal knew His kindred looks, and tremblingly withdrew; He, darting like the blaze of sudden fire, Leap'd o'er the space between, and grasp'd the lyre: Sooner with life the struggling bard would part, And, ere the fiend could tear it from his heart, He hurl'd his hand, with one tremendous stroke, O'er all the strings; whence in a whirlwind broke Such tones of terror, dissonance, despair, As till that hour had never jarr'd in air. Astonish'd into marble at the shock, Backward stood Cain, unconscious as a rock, Cold, breathless, motionless through all his frame : But soon his visage quicken'd into flame, When Jubal's hand the crashing jargon changed To melting harmony, and nimbly ranged From chord to chord, ascending sweet and clear, Then rolling down in thunder on the ear; With power the pulse of anguish to restrain, And charm the evil spirit from the brain.

"Slowly recovering from that trance profound,
Bewilder'd, touch'd, transported with the sound,
Cain view'd himself, the bard, the earth, the sky,
While wonder flash'd and faded in his eye,
And reason, by alternate frenzy crost,
Now seem'd restored, and now for ever lost.
So shines the moon, by glimpses, through her shrouds,
When windy Darkness rides upon the clouds,
Till through the blue, serene, and silent night,
She reigns in full tranquillity of light.
Jubal, with eager hope, beheld the chase
Of strange emotions hurrying o'er his face,
And waked his noblest numbers to control
The tide and tempest of the maniac's soul;
Through many a maze of melody they flew,
They rose like incense, they distill'd like dew,
Pour'd through the sufferer's breast delicious balm,
And soothed remembrance till remorse grew calm,
Till Cain forsook the solitary wild,

Led by the minstrel like a weaned child.
Oh! had you seen him to his home restored,
How young and old ran forth to meet their lord;
How friends and kindred on his neck did fall,
Weeping aloud, while Cain outwept them all:
But hush!-thenceforward, when recoiling care
Lower'd on his brow, and sadden'd to despair,
The lyre of Jubal, with divinest art,
Repell'd the demon, and revived his heart.

He ceased: the mute assembly rose in tears;
Delight and wonder were chastised with fears;
That heavenly harmony, unheard before,
Awoke the feeling,—“ Who shall hear it more?"
The sun had set in glory on their sight,

For them in vain might morn restore the light;
Though self-devoted, through each mortal frame,
At thought of Death, a cold sick shuddering came,
Nature's infirmity-but faith was given,
The flame that lifts the sacrifice to Heaven:
Through doubt and darkness then beyond the skies
Eternal prospects open'd on their eyes;
Already seem'd the immortal spirit free,
And Death was swallowed up in victory.

CANTO VII.

The Patriarchs and their Families carried away captive by a Detachment from the Army of the Invaders, The tomb of Abel: his Murder by Cain described. The Origin of the Giants: the Infancy and early Adventures of their King: the Leader of their Host encamped in Eden.

THE flocks and herds throughout the glen reposed; No human eyelid there in slumber closed; None, save the infant's on the mother's breast;— With arms of love caressing and carest, She, while her elder offspring round her clung, Each eye intent on hers and mute each tongue, The voice of Death in every murmur heard, And felt his touch in every limb that stirr❜d.

At midnight, down the forest hills, a train
Of eager warriors from the host of Cain,
Burst on the stillness of the scene:-they spread
In bands, to clutch the victims ere they fled;
Of flight unmindful, at their summons, rose
Those victims, meekly yielding to their foes;
Though woman wept to leave her home behind,
The weak were comforted, the strong resign'd,
And ere the moon descending o'er the vale,
Grew, at the bright approach of morning, pale,
Collected thus, the patriarchal clan,

With strengthen'd confidence, their march began,
Since not in ashes were their dwellings laid,
And death, though threaten'd still, was still delay'd.
Struck with their fearless innocence, they saw
Their fierce assailants check'd with sacred awe;
The foe became a phalanx of defence,
And brought them, like a guard of Angels, thence.
A vista-path, that through the forest led

By Javan shunn'd when from the camp he fled),
The pilgrims track'd till on the mountain's height
They met the sun new ris'n, in glorious light;
Empurpled mists along the landscape roll'd,

bind

In chains of harmony the mightiest mind;
Thus Music's empire in the soul began,
The first-born Poet ruled the first-born Man."

While Javan sung, the shadows fell around, The moving glow-worm brighten'd on the ground,

Here, while they halted, on their knees they mice To God the sacrifice of prayer and praise; -Glory to Thee, for every blessing shed, In days of peace, on our protected head; Glory to Thee, for fortitude to bear The wrath of man, rejoicing o'er despair;