Japh. (solus). Peace! I have sought it where it should be found, In love with love, too, which perhaps deserved it; A weakness of the spirit-listless days, Have come upon me. Peace! what peace? the calm Of desolation, and the stillness of The untrodden forest, only broken by The sweeping tempest through its groaning boughs; Of my mind overworn. The earth's grown wicked, And still would I redeem thee- -see thee live Lord of the shoreless sea and watery world, Shem. To the tents of the father of the sisters? Noah. No; to the cavern of the Caucasus. [Exeunt NOAH and SHEM. SCENE III. The mountains.— A cavern, and the rocks of Caucasus. Japh. (solus). Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou cave, Which seem'st unfathomable; and ye mountains, Here, in your rugged majesty of rocks And toppling trees that twine their roots with stone In perpendicular places, where the foot Of man would tremble, could he reach them —yes, Ye look eternal! Yet, in a few days, Perhaps even hours, ye will be changed, rent, hurl'd Before the mass of waters; and yon cave, Which seems to lead into a lower world, Shall have its depths search'd by the sweeping wave, Save I? Who shall be left to weep? My kinsmen, That I must live beyond ye? Where shall be [Exit JAPHET. Enter NOAH and SHEM. Noah. Where is thy brother Japhet? Noah. What doth he there? It is an evil spot And that the hour approacheth, should indulge I will seek Japhet. Noah. Go not forward, father; All evil things are powerless on the man Do not fear for me: By my sire to Jehovah's bidding? May He preserve them, and I not have the power Upon thy coming doom without a feeling A rushing sound from the cavern is heard, and shouts Of the Most High, what art thou? Spirit (laughs). In the name Ha ha ha! Japh. By all that earth holds holiest, speak! Spirit (laughs). Ha! ha! Japh. By the approaching deluge! by the earth Which will be strangled by the ocean! by The deep which will lay open all her fountains! The heaven which will convert her clouds to seas, And the Omnipotent who makes and crushes! Thou unknown, terrible, and indistinct, Yet awful Thing of Shadows, speak to me! Why dost thou laugh that horrid laugh? Spirit. Why weep'st thou ? Japh. For earth and all her children. Spirit. 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! How the earth sleeps! and all that in it is Sleep too upon the very eve of death! Why should they wake to meet it? What is here, Which look like death in life, and speak like things Born ere this dying world? They come like clouds ! [Various Spirits pass from the cavern. Rejoice! Spirit. The abhorred race Which could not keep in Eden their high place, But listen'd to the voice Of knowledge without power, Are nigh the hour Of death! Not slow, not single, not by sword, nor sorrow, Nor years, nor heart-break, nor time's sapping motion, Shall they drop off. Behold their last to-morrow! Save of the winds, be on the unbounded wave! Shall lift its point to save, Or show the place where strong Despair hath died, For the expected ebb which cometh not: Another element shall be the lord Of life, and the abhorr'd Children of dust be quench'd; and of each hue Shall nought remain Unchanged, or of the level plain; Cedar and pine shall lift their tops in vain : All merged within the universal fountain, Man, earth, and fire, shall die, And sea and sky Look vast and lifeless in the eternal eye. Who shall erect a home? Japh. (coming forward). My sire! Only the evil shall be put away Avaunt! ye exulting demons of the waste! Who howl your hideous joy When God destroys whom you dare not destroy; Back to your inner caves! As of a different order in the sphere, There is not one who hath not left a throne A life like thine to other wretches-live! Chorus of Spirits issuing from the cavern. No more the human voice Shall vex our joys in middle air No more Shall they adore ; And we, who ne'er for ages have adored To whom the omission of a sacrifice We, we shall view the deep's salt sources pour'd Of all in chaos; until they, The creatures proud of their poor clay, Shall perish, and their 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 striped 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 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, Where man no more can fall as once he fell, And even the very demons shall do well! Spirits. And when shall take effect this wondrous spell? Japh. When the Redeemer cometh; first in pain, And then in glory. Spirit. Meantime still struggle in the mortal chain, Till earth wax hoary; War with yourselves, and hell, and heaven, in vain, With the blood reeking from each battle plain; still, The same old tears, old crimes, and oldest ill, Shall oversweep the future, as the waves Chorus of Spirits. Brethren, rejoice! Mortal, farewell! Hark! hark! already we can hear the voice The winds, too, plume their piercing wings; View, unacknowledged, each tremendous token 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, "And there were giants in the earth in those days, and after; mighty men, which were of old, men of renown.". Genesis. 2 "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep 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- Beings even in death so fair. All die! And to the universal human cry We fell ! They fall! So perish all These petty foes of Heaven who shrink from hell! My father's ark of safety hath announced it; No sign yet hangs its banner in the air; The clouds are few, and of their wonted texture, God said unto him, "Shine!" and he broke forth Which in the open firmament of heaven broken up; and the windows of heaven were opened.". Ibid. 3 The book of Enoch, preserved by the Ethiopians, is said by them to be anterior to the flood. 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, I cannot trace their features; but their forms, Of the grey mountain, scattering its mist! 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, While all his race are slumbering? Japh. Angel! what Dost thou on earth when thou shouldst be on high? Japh. But all good angels have forsaken earth, Anah. Japhet, I cannot answer thee; yet, yet Japh. May the Heaven, which soon no more Sam. Son of the patriarch, who hath ever been Japh. Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs; but thou Yes, for thee: Aza. Fearest thou, my Anah ? I would resign the greater remnant of Japh. I grieve not for myself, nor fear; I am safe, not for my own deserts, but those And dost thou think that we, 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, 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 stern Cainites, save in beauty, For all of them are fairest in their favourAho. (interrupting him). And wouldst thou have her like our father's foe In mind, in soul? If I partook thy thought, But He slew not Seth: and what hast thou to do him, and I had not named his deed, but that thyself Didst seem to glory in him, nor to shrink 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 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 pastThy 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 : I abhor death, because that thou must die. But man, and was not made to judge mankind, Has deign'd to commune with me, and reveal Aza. If that thou wouldst avoid their doom, forget Japh. Let me die with this, and them! 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! |