Dispute with him

Who made all empires, empire; or recalling

Some wandering star, which shoots through the abyss,

Whose tenants dying, while their world is falling,

Share the dim destiny of clay in this;

Or joining with the inferior cherubim, 90
Thou deignest to partake their hymn
Samiasa!

I call thee, I await thee, and I love thee. Many may worship thee, that will I not;

If that thy spirit down to mine may move thee,

Descend and share my lot!
Though I be form'd of clay,

And thou of beams

More bright than those of day
On Eden's streams,

100

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 sweep-
ing wave,

And dolphins gambol in the lion's den!
And man-
Oh, men! my fellow-beings!
Who

Shall weep above your universal grave, 280 Save I? Who shall be left to weep? My kinsmen,

Alas! what am I better than ye are, That I must live beyond ye? Where shall be

The pleasant places where I thought of Anah

While I had hope? or the more savage haunts,

Scarce less beloved, where I despair'd for

Breath will be still'd at once! All 'beauteous world!

So young, so mark'd out for destruction, I With a cleft heart look on thee day by day, And night by night, thy number'd days and nights.

I cannot save thee, cannot save even her Whose love had made me love thee more; but as

A portion of thy dust, I cannot think
Upon thy coming doom without a feeling
Such as
Oh God! and canst thou -
[He pauses.

A rushing sound from the cavern is heard, and shouts of laughter-afterwards a Spirit passes.

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? 330
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
are 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.