And reap'd by Death, lord of the human soil? I hear the voice which says that all must die 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, 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: 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, To alter his intent For a mere mortal sorrow. Be a man! 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 com mand? 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 then 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 bravo Soon it shall be their only shore, And then, no more! He riseth, but his better light is gone; His glaring disk around, Proclaims earth's last of summer days hath shone! Leave to the elements their evil prey! Hence to where our all-hallow'd ark uprears Japh. Oh, father, stay! Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides! Chorus of Mortals. The heavens and earth are mingling-God' oh God! Hark! even the forest beasts howl forth their pray'r And the birds scream their agony through air. 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, Noah. Must we not leave all life to such! Be- While others fix'd as rocks, await the word gone! Japh. Not I. Then die With them! How darest thou look on that prophetic sky, With just Jehovah's wrath! Taph. Can rage and justice join in the same path? now? At which their wrathful vials shall be pour'd. Aza. Come, Anah! quit this chaos-founded prison. The shelter of these wings thou shalt be safe. As was the eagle's nestling once within 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 A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe These darken'd clouds are not the only skies. [AZAZIEL and SAMIASA fly off and disappear with ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH. Japh. They are gone! They have disappear'd amid Of the forsaken world; and never more, Anah unto these eyes. Chorus of Mortals. Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind! What! wilt thou leave us all-all-all behind? 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, A mother, (offering her infant to JAPHET.) Oh let this child embark! I brought him forth in wo, But thought it joy To see him to my bosom clinging so. What hath he done- To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn? And roll the waters o'er his placid breath? Raph. The moment cometh to approve thy Or cursed be-with him who made 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- And shut our God from our beseeching eyes And view, all floating o'er the element, Thy song of praise! A Mortal. Blessed are the dead Who die in the Lord! And though the waters be o'er earth outspread, Yet, as his word, Be the decree adored! He gave me life-he taketh but The breath which is his own: And though these eyes should be for ever shut, Not longer this weak voice before his throne Be heard in supplicating tone, Still blessed be the Lord 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 Surpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”—Genselu, ch. II. van 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 fainiliar. Since I was twenty I of the kind, but merely to the Serpent in his serhave never read Milton; bit I had read him so pentine capacity. frequently before, that this may make little differ- Note. The reader will perceive that the author has partly adopted in this poem the notion of Cuvier, that the world had been destroyed several times before the creation of man. This speculation, derived from the different strata and the bones of enormous and unknown animals found in them, is not contrary to the Mosaic account, but rather ronfirms it; as no human bones have yet been discovered in those strata, although those of many known animals are found near the remains of the unknown. The assertion of Lucifer, that the preadamite world was also peopled by rational beings much more intelligent than man, and proportionably powerful to the mammoth, &c., &c., is, of course, a poetical fiction to help him to make out his case. The Land without Paradise.-Time, Sunrise. ADAM, EVE, CAIN, ABEL, ADAH, ZILLAH, offering a Sacrifice. Adam. GOD, the Eternal! Infinite! all-wise!Who out of darkness on the deep didst make Light on the waters with a word-all hail! Jehovah, with returning light, all hail! Eve. God! who didst name the day, and separate Morning from night, till then divided neverWho didst divide the wave from wave, and call Part of thy work the firmament-all hail! Abel. God who didst call the elements into Earth-ocean-air-and fire, and with the day And night, and worlds which these illuminate Or shadow, madest beings to enjoy them, And love both them and thee-all hail! all hail! Adah. God, the Eternal! Parent of all things! Who didst create these best and beauteous beings, To be beloved, more than all, save thee Let me love thee and them:-All hail! all hail! Zillah. Oh, God! who loving, making, blessing ali, Zet didst permit the serpent to creep in, Blaspheme not: these are serpent's words. Why not ' Eve. My boy! thou speakest as I spoke in sin. Before thy birth: let me not see renew'd My misery in thine. I have repented. Let me not see my offspring fall into The snares beyond the walls of Paradise, Which e'en in Paradise destroy'd his parents. Content thee with what is. Had we been so, Thou now hadst been contented.-Oh, my son. Adam. Our orisons completed, let us hence, Each to his task of toil-not heavy, though Needful: the earth is young, and yields us kindly Her fruits with little labor. Eve. Cain, my son, Behold thy father cheerful and resigned, And do as he doth. Zillah. [Exeunt ADAM and EVE Wilt thou not, my brother? Abel. Why wilt thou wear this gloom upon thy |