What! though it were to save? Japh. 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! But ignorance must ever be A part of sin; And even the spirits' knowledge shall grow less For Blindness is the first-born of Excess. And lose eternity by that delay! Aza. And thou! if earth be thus forbidden To us until this moment hidden, 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: 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, Noah. Thou shouldst for such a thought, but shalt Without involving ever some vast void The first and fairest of the sons of God, That earth by angels must be left untrod? Jehovah's footsteps not disdain her sod! For love; and oft have we obey'd And wherefore speak'st thou of.destruction near? In their true place, with the angelic choir, They would have seen And not inquired their Maker's breath of me: In the immortal ranks? immortal still Rather than long worship dared endure ! Seraphs! less mighty than that mightiest one, And think if tempting man can compensate For heaven desired too late! 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 suns to a dependent star, With him, or with his God, is in your choice. And the eternal Lord In vain would be implored For the remission of one hour of wo, And wailing less for us than those who shall And, when the fatal waters are allay'd, And yours to live for ever: But which is best, a dead eternity, Or living, is but known to the great Giver. I would not keep this life of mine in clay Nor see ye lose a portion of his grace, Yet let me not retain thee-fly! My pangs can be but brief; but thine would be Too much already hast thou deign'd Our doom is sorrow; not to us alone, The first who taught us knowledge hath been hurl'd Into some unknown world: And thou, Azaziel! No Thou shalt not suffer wo For me. Away! nor weep! May'st suffer more not weeping: then forget Her, whom the surges of the all-strangling deep Father! and thou, archangel, thou! Let them not meet this sea without a shore, Noah. Peace, child of passion, peace! Live as he wills it-die, when he ordains, And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can. Floating upon the azure desert, and The depth beneath us hides our own dear land, Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then command? Can we in desolation's peace have rest? 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 Then from this hour, Shorn as ye are of all celestial power, 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! 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 wax'd too fierce to brave. Soon it shall be their only shore, And then, no more! Proclaims earth's last of summer days hath shone! Leave to the elements their evil prey! Japh. Oh, father, stay! Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides! Noah. Must we not leave all life to such! gone! Chorus of Mortals. The heavens and earth are mingling-God! oh God! Hark! even the forest beasts howl forth their pray'r Raph. Farewell, thou earth! ye wretched sons of I cannot, must not, aid you. 'Tis decreed! [Exit RAPHAEL. Japh. Some clouds sweep on as vultures for their prey, Be-While others fix'd as rocks, await the word Japh. Can rage and justice join in the same path? now? Aza. Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prison, The shelter of these wings thou shalt be safe, Raph. Patriarch, be still a father! smooth thy with all its elements! Heed not their din! brow: Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink; Nor perish like heaven's children with man's Aho. The tempest cometh; heaven and earth For the annihilation of all life. Between our strength and the Eternal Might! Sam. But ours is with thee; we will bear ye Where thou and Anah shalt partake our lot; Our forfeit heaven shall also be forgot. far Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind! Anah. Oh! my dear father's tents, my place of Thou sitt'st within thy guarded ark? birth, And mountains, land, and woods! when ye are not, Who shall dry up my tears? Aza. Raph. Rebel! thy words are wicked, as thy deeds Aza. It cannot slay us: threaten dust with death, Raph. The moment cometh to approve thy Or cursed be—with him who made 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. Thee and thy race, for which we are betray'd! prayer! Chorus of Mortals. For prayer!!! And where Shall prayer ascend, For what is past, When the swoln clouds unto the mountains bend And burst, And gushing oceans every barrier rend, 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 hymn be raised, our knees be bent Before the implacable Omnipotent, 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, And with their roar make wholesome nature dumb! Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower, So massy, vast, yet green in their old age, Their summer blossoms by the surges lopt, Vainly we look up to the lowering skies For that which is: For all are his, From first to last Time-space-eternity-life-death The vast known and immeasurable unknown, He made, and can unmake; And shall I, for a little gasp of breath No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith, Not to the mountains high; For now their torrents rush, with double roar, CAIN; A MYSTERY. "Now the Serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”—Genesis, ch. iii. ver. L. ΤΟ SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART. THIS MYSTERY OF CAIN IS INSCRIBED, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. ence. Gesner's "Death of Abel" I have never read since I was eight years of age, at Aberdeen. THE following scenes are entitled "a Mystery," The general impression of my recollection is delight; in conformity with the ancient title annexed to but of the contents I remember only that Cain's dramas upon similar subjects, which were styled wife was called Mahala, and Abel's Thirza: in the "Mysteries, or Moralities." The author has by no following pages I have called them "Adah” and means taken the same liberties with his subject "Zillah," the earliest female names which occur in which were common formerly, as may be seen by Genesis; they were those of Lamech's wives; those any reader curious enough to refer to those very of Cain and Abel are not called by their names. profane productions, whether in English, French, Whether, then, a coincidence of subject may have Italian, or Spanish. The author has endeavored to caused the same in expression, I know nothing, preserve the language adapted to his characters; and care as little. and where it is (and this is but rarely) taken from The reader will please to bear in mind (what few actual Scripture, he has made as little alteration, choose to recollect) that there is no allusion to a even of words, as the rhythm would permit. The future state in any of the books of Moses, nor reader will recollect that the book of Genesis does indeed in the Old Testament. For a reason for not state that Eve was tempted by a demon, but by this extraordinary omission he may consult "War"the Serpent;" and that only because he was "the burton's Divine Legation; " whether satisfactory or most subtile of all the beasts of the field." What- not, no better has yet been assigned. I have thereever interpretation the Rabbins and the Fathers fore supposed it new to Cain, without, I hope, any may have put upon this, I must take the words as I perversion of Holy Writ. find them, and reply with Bishop Watson upon With regard to the language of Lucifer, it was similar occasions, when the Fathers were quoted to difficult for me to make him talk like a clergyman him, as Moderator in the schools of Cambridge, upon the same subjects; but I have done what I "Behold the Book!"-holding up the Scripture. could to restrain him within the bounds of spiritual It is to be recollected that my present subject has politeness. nothing to do with the New Testament, to which If he disclaims having tempted Eve in the shape no reference can be here made without anachron- of the Serpent, it is only because the book of Genism. With the poems upon similar topics I have esis has not the most distant allusion to any thing not been recently familiar. Since I was twenty I of the kind, but merely to the Serpent in his ser have never read Milton; but I had read him so pentine capacity. frequently before, that this may make little differ- Note. The reader will perceive that the author |