Think how your essence
differeth
from theirs
In all but suffering!
In all but suffering!
Byron
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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ It is for _him_, then! for the Seraph thou
Hast left me! That is nothing, if thou hast not
Left thy God 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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!
_Aho. _ But
He slew not Seth: and what hast thou to do
With other deeds between his God and him?
_Japh. _ Thou speakest well: his God 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----
_Japh. _ They are numbered.
_Aho. _ Be it so! but while yet their hours endure,
I glory in my brethren and our fathers.
_Japh. _ My sire and race but glory in their God,
Anah! and thou? ----
_Anah_. Whate'er our God decrees,
The God 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?
_Japh. _ He whose one word produced them.
_Aho. _ Who _heard_ that word?
_Japh. _ 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 God!
_Aho. _ I have ever hailed our Maker, Samiasa,
As thine, and mine: a God of Love, not Sorrow. 460
_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.
_Aho. _ 'Tis said so.
_Japh. _ It is even so.
_Enter_ NOAH _and_ SHEM.
_Noah_. Japhet! What
Dost thou here with these children of the wicked?
Dread'st thou not to partake their coming doom?
_Japh. _ 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 God, 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 God made a barrier between Earth
And Heaven, and limited each, kind to kind?
_Sam. _ Was not man made in high Jehovah's image?
Did God 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 God; but as our God
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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ 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 God,
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 passions, 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 God,
Dear, dearest in themselves, and scarce less dear--
That which I came to do[155]: till now we trod
Together the eternal space; 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 God, 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 pass 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?
Even had their days been left to toil their path
Through time to dust, unshortened by God's wrath,
Still they are Evil's prey, and Sorrow's spoil.
_Aho. _
Let them fly! 610
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,
While from below
The deep shall rise to meet Heaven's overflow--
Few shall be spared,
It seems; and, of that few, the race of Cain
Must lift their eyes to Adam's God in vain.
Sister! since it is so, 620
And the eternal Lord
In vain would be implored
For the remission of one hour of woe,
Let us resign even what we have adored,
And meet the wave, as we would meet the sword,
If not unmoved, yet undismayed,
And wailing less for us than those who shall
Survive in mortal or immortal thrall,
And, when the fatal waters are allayed,
Weep for the myriads who can weep no more. 630
Fly, Seraphs! to your own eternal shore,
Where winds nor howl, nor waters roar.
Our portion is to die,
And yours to live for ever:
But which is best, a dead Eternity,
Or living, is but known to the great Giver.
Obey him, as we shall obey;
I would not keep this life of mine in clay
An hour beyond his will;
Nor see ye lose a portion of his grace, 640
For all the mercy which Seth's race
Find still.
Fly!
And as your pinions bear ye back to Heaven,
Think that my love still mounts with thee on high,
Samiasa!
And if I look up with a tearless eye,
'Tis that an angel's bride disdains to weep,--
Farewell! Now rise, inexorable deep!
_Anah_.
And must we die? 650
And must I lose thee too,
Azaziel?
Oh, my heart! my heart!
Thy prophecies were true!
And yet thou wert so happy too!
The blow, though not unlocked for, falls as new:
But yet depart!
Ah! why?
Yet let me not retain thee--fly!
My pangs can be but brief; but thine would be 660
Eternal, if repulsed from Heaven for me.
Too much already hast thou deigned
To one of Adam's race!
Our doom is sorrow: not to us alone,
But to the Spirits who have not disdained
To love us, cometh anguish with disgrace.
The first who taught us knowledge hath been hurled
From his once archangelic throne
Into some unknown world:
And thou, Azaziel! No-- 670
Thou shall not suffer woe
For me. Away! nor weep!
Thou canst not weep; but yet
May'st suffer more, not weeping: then forget
Her, whom the surges of the all-strangling deep
Can bring no pang like this. Fly! fly!
Being gone, 'twill be less difficult to die.
_Japh. _
Oh say not so!
Father! and thou, archangel, thou!
Surely celestial mercy lurks below 680
That pure severe serenity of brow:
Let them not meet this sea without a shore,
Save in our ark, or let me be no more!
_Noah_.
Peace, child of passion, peace!
If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongue
Do God no wrong!
Live as he wills it--die, when he ordains,
A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's.
Cease, or be sorrowful in silence; cease
To weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish plaint. 690
Wouldst thou have God commit a sin for thee?
Such would it be
To alter his intent
For a mere mortal sorrow. Be a man!
And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can.
_Japh. _
Aye, father! but when they are gone,
And we are all alone,
Floating upon the azure desert, and
The depth beneath us hides our own dear land,
And dearer, silent friends and brethren, all 700
Buried in its immeasurable breast,
Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then command?
Can we in Desolation's peace have rest?
Oh God! be thou a God, and spare
Yet while 'tis time!
Renew not Adam's fall:
Mankind were then but twain,
But they are numerous now as are the waves
And the tremendous rain,
Whose drops shall be less thick than would their graves, 710
Were graves permitted to the seed of Cain.
_Noah_. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine's a crime.
Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair.
_Raph. _ Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye!
Who are, or should be, passionless and pure,
May now return with me.
_Sam. _ It may not be:
We have chosen, and will endure.
_Raph. _ Say'st thou?
_Aza. _ He hath said it, and I say, Amen!
_Raph. _
Again!
Then from this hour, 720
Shorn as ye are of all celestial power,
And aliens from your God,
Farewell!
_Japh. _ Alas! where shall they dwell?
Hark, hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still,
Are howling from the mountain's bosom:
There's not a breath of wind upon the hill,
Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each blossom:
Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.
_Noah_. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry! 730
In clouds they overspread the lurid sky,
And hover round the mountain, where before
Never a white wing, wetted by the wave,
Yet dared to soar,
Even when the waters waxed too fierce to brave.
Soon it shall be their only shore,
And then, no more!
_Japh. _ The sun! the sun[157]!
He riseth, but his better light is gone;
And a black circle, bound 740
His glaring disk around,
Proclaims Earth's last of summer days hath shone!
The clouds return into the hues of night,
Save where their brazen-coloured edges streak
The verge where brighter morns were wont to break.
_Noah_. And lo! yon flash of light,
The distant thunder's harbinger, appears!
It cometh! hence, away!
Leave to the elements their evil prey!
Hence to where our all-hallowed ark uprears 750
Its safe and wreckless sides!
_Japh. _ Oh, father, stay!
Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides!
_Noah_. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone!
_Japh. _ Not I.
_Noah_. Then die
With them!
How darest thou look on that prophetic sky,
And seek to save what all things now condemn,
In overwhelming unison 760
With just Jehovah's wrath!
_Japh. _ Can rage and justice join in the same path?
_Noah_. Blasphemer! darest thou murmur even now!
_Raph. _ Patriarch, be still a father! smooth thy brow:
Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink:
He knows not what he says, yet shall not drink
With sobs the salt foam of the swelling waters;
But be, when passion passeth, good as thou,
Nor perish like Heaven's children with man's daughters.
_Aho. _ The tempest cometh; heaven and earth unite 770
For the annihilation of all life.
Unequal is the strife
Between our strength and the Eternal Might!
_Sam. _ But ours is with thee; we will bear ye far
To some untroubled star,
Where thou, and Anah, shalt partake our lot:
And if thou dost not weep for thy lost earth,
Our forfeit Heaven shall also be forgot.
_Anah_. Oh! my dear father's tents, my place of birth,
And mountains, land, and woods! when ye are not, 780
Who shall dry up my tears?
_Aza. _ Thy spirit-lord.
Fear not; though we are shut from Heaven,
Yet much is ours, whence we can not be driven.
_Raph. _ Rebel! thy words are wicked, as thy deeds
Shall henceforth be but weak: the flaming sword,
Which chased the first-born out of Paradise,
Still flashes in the angelic hands.
_Aza. _ It cannot slay us: threaten dust with death,
And talk of weapons unto that which bleeds.
What are thy swords in our immortal eyes? 790
_Raph. _ The moment cometh to approve thy strength;
And learn at length
How vain to war with what thy God commands:
Thy former force was in thy faith.
_Enter Mortals, flying for refuge_.
_Chorus of Mortals_.
The heavens and earth are mingling--God! oh God!
What have we done? Yet spare!
Hark! even the forest beasts howl forth their prayer!
The dragon crawls from out his den,
To herd, in terror, innocent with men;
And the birds scream their agony through air. 800
Yet, yet, Jehovah! yet withdraw thy rod
Of wrath, and pity thine own world's despair!
Hear not man only but all nature plead!
_Raph. _ Farewell, thou earth! ye wretched sons of clay,
I cannot, must not, aid you. 'Tis decreed!
[_Exit_ RAPHAEL.
_Japh. _ Some clouds sweep on as vultures for their prey,
While others, fixed as rocks, await the word
At which their wrathful vials shall be poured.
No azure more shall robe the firmament,
Nor spangled stars be glorious: Death hath risen: 810
In the Sun's place a pale and ghastly glare
Hath wound itself around the dying air.
_Aza. _ Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prison,
To which the elements again repair,
To turn it into what it was: beneath
The shelter of these wings thou shall be safe,
As was the eagle's nestling once within
Its mother's. --Let the coming chaos chafe
With all its elements! Heed not their din!
A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe 820
Ethereal life, will we explore:
These darkened clouds are not the only skies.
[AZAZIEL _and_ SAMIASA _fly off, and disappear
with_ ANAH _and_ AHOLIBAMAH.
_Japh. _ They are gone! They have disappeared amidst the roar
Of the forsaken world; and never more,
Whether they live, or die with all Earth's life,
Now near its last, can aught restore
Anah unto these eyes.
_Chorus of Mortals_.
Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind!
What! wilt thou leave us all--all--_all_ behind?
While safe amidst the elemental strife, 830
Thou sitt'st within thy guarded ark?
_A Mother_ (_offering her infant to_ JAPHET).
Oh, let this child embark!
I brought him forth in woe,
But thought it joy
To see him to my bosom clinging so.
Why was he born?
What hath he done--
My unweaned son--
To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn?
What is there in this milk of mine, that Death 840
Should stir all Heaven and Earth up to destroy
My boy,
And roll the waters o'er his placid breath?
Save him, thou seed of Seth!
Or cursed be--with him who made
Thee and thy race, for which we are betrayed!
_Japh. _ Peace! 'tis no hour for curses, but for prayer!
_Chorus of Mortals_.
For prayer! ! !
And where
Shall prayer ascend, 850
When the swoln clouds unto the mountains bend
And burst,
And gushing oceans every barrier rend,
Until the very deserts know no thirst?
Accursed
Be he who made thee and thy sire!
We deem our curses vain; we must expire;
But as we know the worst,
Why should our hymns be raised, our knees be bent
Before the implacable Omnipotent, 860
Since we must fall the same?
If he hath made Earth, let it be his shame,
To make a world for torture. --Lo! they come,
The loathsome waters, in their rage!
And with their roar make wholesome nature dumb!
The forest's trees (coeval with the hour
When Paradise upsprung,
Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower,
Or Adam his first hymn of slavery sung),
So massy, vast, yet green in their old age, 870
Are overtopped,
Their summer blossoms by the surges lopped,
Which rise, and rise, and rise.
Vainly we look up to the lowering skies--
They meet the seas,
And shut out God from our beseeching eyes.
Fly, son of Noah, fly! and take thine ease,
In thine allotted ocean-tent;
And view, all floating o'er the element,
The corpses of the world of thy young days: 880
Then to Jehovah raise
Thy song of praise!
_A Mortal_.
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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ It is for _him_, then! for the Seraph thou
Hast left me! That is nothing, if thou hast not
Left thy God 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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!
_Aho. _ But
He slew not Seth: and what hast thou to do
With other deeds between his God and him?
_Japh. _ Thou speakest well: his God 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----
_Japh. _ They are numbered.
_Aho. _ Be it so! but while yet their hours endure,
I glory in my brethren and our fathers.
_Japh. _ My sire and race but glory in their God,
Anah! and thou? ----
_Anah_. Whate'er our God decrees,
The God 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?
_Japh. _ He whose one word produced them.
_Aho. _ Who _heard_ that word?
_Japh. _ 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 God!
_Aho. _ I have ever hailed our Maker, Samiasa,
As thine, and mine: a God of Love, not Sorrow. 460
_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.
_Aho. _ 'Tis said so.
_Japh. _ It is even so.
_Enter_ NOAH _and_ SHEM.
_Noah_. Japhet! What
Dost thou here with these children of the wicked?
Dread'st thou not to partake their coming doom?
_Japh. _ 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 God, 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 God made a barrier between Earth
And Heaven, and limited each, kind to kind?
_Sam. _ Was not man made in high Jehovah's image?
Did God 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 God; but as our God
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.
_Japh. _ 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.
_Japh. _ 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 God,
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 passions, 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 God,
Dear, dearest in themselves, and scarce less dear--
That which I came to do[155]: till now we trod
Together the eternal space; 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 God, 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 pass 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?
Even had their days been left to toil their path
Through time to dust, unshortened by God's wrath,
Still they are Evil's prey, and Sorrow's spoil.
_Aho. _
Let them fly! 610
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,
While from below
The deep shall rise to meet Heaven's overflow--
Few shall be spared,
It seems; and, of that few, the race of Cain
Must lift their eyes to Adam's God in vain.
Sister! since it is so, 620
And the eternal Lord
In vain would be implored
For the remission of one hour of woe,
Let us resign even what we have adored,
And meet the wave, as we would meet the sword,
If not unmoved, yet undismayed,
And wailing less for us than those who shall
Survive in mortal or immortal thrall,
And, when the fatal waters are allayed,
Weep for the myriads who can weep no more. 630
Fly, Seraphs! to your own eternal shore,
Where winds nor howl, nor waters roar.
Our portion is to die,
And yours to live for ever:
But which is best, a dead Eternity,
Or living, is but known to the great Giver.
Obey him, as we shall obey;
I would not keep this life of mine in clay
An hour beyond his will;
Nor see ye lose a portion of his grace, 640
For all the mercy which Seth's race
Find still.
Fly!
And as your pinions bear ye back to Heaven,
Think that my love still mounts with thee on high,
Samiasa!
And if I look up with a tearless eye,
'Tis that an angel's bride disdains to weep,--
Farewell! Now rise, inexorable deep!
_Anah_.
And must we die? 650
And must I lose thee too,
Azaziel?
Oh, my heart! my heart!
Thy prophecies were true!
And yet thou wert so happy too!
The blow, though not unlocked for, falls as new:
But yet depart!
Ah! why?
Yet let me not retain thee--fly!
My pangs can be but brief; but thine would be 660
Eternal, if repulsed from Heaven for me.
Too much already hast thou deigned
To one of Adam's race!
Our doom is sorrow: not to us alone,
But to the Spirits who have not disdained
To love us, cometh anguish with disgrace.
The first who taught us knowledge hath been hurled
From his once archangelic throne
Into some unknown world:
And thou, Azaziel! No-- 670
Thou shall not suffer woe
For me. Away! nor weep!
Thou canst not weep; but yet
May'st suffer more, not weeping: then forget
Her, whom the surges of the all-strangling deep
Can bring no pang like this. Fly! fly!
Being gone, 'twill be less difficult to die.
_Japh. _
Oh say not so!
Father! and thou, archangel, thou!
Surely celestial mercy lurks below 680
That pure severe serenity of brow:
Let them not meet this sea without a shore,
Save in our ark, or let me be no more!
_Noah_.
Peace, child of passion, peace!
If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongue
Do God no wrong!
Live as he wills it--die, when he ordains,
A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's.
Cease, or be sorrowful in silence; cease
To weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish plaint. 690
Wouldst thou have God commit a sin for thee?
Such would it be
To alter his intent
For a mere mortal sorrow. Be a man!
And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can.
_Japh. _
Aye, father! but when they are gone,
And we are all alone,
Floating upon the azure desert, and
The depth beneath us hides our own dear land,
And dearer, silent friends and brethren, all 700
Buried in its immeasurable breast,
Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then command?
Can we in Desolation's peace have rest?
Oh God! be thou a God, and spare
Yet while 'tis time!
Renew not Adam's fall:
Mankind were then but twain,
But they are numerous now as are the waves
And the tremendous rain,
Whose drops shall be less thick than would their graves, 710
Were graves permitted to the seed of Cain.
_Noah_. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine's a crime.
Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair.
_Raph. _ Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye!
Who are, or should be, passionless and pure,
May now return with me.
_Sam. _ It may not be:
We have chosen, and will endure.
_Raph. _ Say'st thou?
_Aza. _ He hath said it, and I say, Amen!
_Raph. _
Again!
Then from this hour, 720
Shorn as ye are of all celestial power,
And aliens from your God,
Farewell!
_Japh. _ Alas! where shall they dwell?
Hark, hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still,
Are howling from the mountain's bosom:
There's not a breath of wind upon the hill,
Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each blossom:
Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.
_Noah_. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry! 730
In clouds they overspread the lurid sky,
And hover round the mountain, where before
Never a white wing, wetted by the wave,
Yet dared to soar,
Even when the waters waxed too fierce to brave.
Soon it shall be their only shore,
And then, no more!
_Japh. _ The sun! the sun[157]!
He riseth, but his better light is gone;
And a black circle, bound 740
His glaring disk around,
Proclaims Earth's last of summer days hath shone!
The clouds return into the hues of night,
Save where their brazen-coloured edges streak
The verge where brighter morns were wont to break.
_Noah_. And lo! yon flash of light,
The distant thunder's harbinger, appears!
It cometh! hence, away!
Leave to the elements their evil prey!
Hence to where our all-hallowed ark uprears 750
Its safe and wreckless sides!
_Japh. _ Oh, father, stay!
Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides!
_Noah_. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone!
_Japh. _ Not I.
_Noah_. Then die
With them!
How darest thou look on that prophetic sky,
And seek to save what all things now condemn,
In overwhelming unison 760
With just Jehovah's wrath!
_Japh. _ Can rage and justice join in the same path?
_Noah_. Blasphemer! darest thou murmur even now!
_Raph. _ Patriarch, be still a father! smooth thy brow:
Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink:
He knows not what he says, yet shall not drink
With sobs the salt foam of the swelling waters;
But be, when passion passeth, good as thou,
Nor perish like Heaven's children with man's daughters.
_Aho. _ The tempest cometh; heaven and earth unite 770
For the annihilation of all life.
Unequal is the strife
Between our strength and the Eternal Might!
_Sam. _ But ours is with thee; we will bear ye far
To some untroubled star,
Where thou, and Anah, shalt partake our lot:
And if thou dost not weep for thy lost earth,
Our forfeit Heaven shall also be forgot.
_Anah_. Oh! my dear father's tents, my place of birth,
And mountains, land, and woods! when ye are not, 780
Who shall dry up my tears?
_Aza. _ Thy spirit-lord.
Fear not; though we are shut from Heaven,
Yet much is ours, whence we can not be driven.
_Raph. _ Rebel! thy words are wicked, as thy deeds
Shall henceforth be but weak: the flaming sword,
Which chased the first-born out of Paradise,
Still flashes in the angelic hands.
_Aza. _ It cannot slay us: threaten dust with death,
And talk of weapons unto that which bleeds.
What are thy swords in our immortal eyes? 790
_Raph. _ The moment cometh to approve thy strength;
And learn at length
How vain to war with what thy God commands:
Thy former force was in thy faith.
_Enter Mortals, flying for refuge_.
_Chorus of Mortals_.
The heavens and earth are mingling--God! oh God!
What have we done? Yet spare!
Hark! even the forest beasts howl forth their prayer!
The dragon crawls from out his den,
To herd, in terror, innocent with men;
And the birds scream their agony through air. 800
Yet, yet, Jehovah! yet withdraw thy rod
Of wrath, and pity thine own world's despair!
Hear not man only but all nature plead!
_Raph. _ Farewell, thou earth! ye wretched sons of clay,
I cannot, must not, aid you. 'Tis decreed!
[_Exit_ RAPHAEL.
_Japh. _ Some clouds sweep on as vultures for their prey,
While others, fixed as rocks, await the word
At which their wrathful vials shall be poured.
No azure more shall robe the firmament,
Nor spangled stars be glorious: Death hath risen: 810
In the Sun's place a pale and ghastly glare
Hath wound itself around the dying air.
_Aza. _ Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prison,
To which the elements again repair,
To turn it into what it was: beneath
The shelter of these wings thou shall be safe,
As was the eagle's nestling once within
Its mother's. --Let the coming chaos chafe
With all its elements! Heed not their din!
A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe 820
Ethereal life, will we explore:
These darkened clouds are not the only skies.
[AZAZIEL _and_ SAMIASA _fly off, and disappear
with_ ANAH _and_ AHOLIBAMAH.
_Japh. _ They are gone! They have disappeared amidst the roar
Of the forsaken world; and never more,
Whether they live, or die with all Earth's life,
Now near its last, can aught restore
Anah unto these eyes.
_Chorus of Mortals_.
Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind!
What! wilt thou leave us all--all--_all_ behind?
While safe amidst the elemental strife, 830
Thou sitt'st within thy guarded ark?
_A Mother_ (_offering her infant to_ JAPHET).
Oh, let this child embark!
I brought him forth in woe,
But thought it joy
To see him to my bosom clinging so.
Why was he born?
What hath he done--
My unweaned son--
To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn?
What is there in this milk of mine, that Death 840
Should stir all Heaven and Earth up to destroy
My boy,
And roll the waters o'er his placid breath?
Save him, thou seed of Seth!
Or cursed be--with him who made
Thee and thy race, for which we are betrayed!
_Japh. _ Peace! 'tis no hour for curses, but for prayer!
_Chorus of Mortals_.
For prayer! ! !
And where
Shall prayer ascend, 850
When the swoln clouds unto the mountains bend
And burst,
And gushing oceans every barrier rend,
Until the very deserts know no thirst?
Accursed
Be he who made thee and thy sire!
We deem our curses vain; we must expire;
But as we know the worst,
Why should our hymns be raised, our knees be bent
Before the implacable Omnipotent, 860
Since we must fall the same?
If he hath made Earth, let it be his shame,
To make a world for torture. --Lo! they come,
The loathsome waters, in their rage!
And with their roar make wholesome nature dumb!
The forest's trees (coeval with the hour
When Paradise upsprung,
Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower,
Or Adam his first hymn of slavery sung),
So massy, vast, yet green in their old age, 870
Are overtopped,
Their summer blossoms by the surges lopped,
Which rise, and rise, and rise.
Vainly we look up to the lowering skies--
They meet the seas,
And shut out God from our beseeching eyes.
Fly, son of Noah, fly! and take thine ease,
In thine allotted ocean-tent;
And view, all floating o'er the element,
The corpses of the world of thy young days: 880
Then to Jehovah raise
Thy song of praise!
_A Mortal_.
