The salt morass subside into a sphere Beneath the sun, and be the monument, The sole and undistinguish'd sepulchre, 310 Of yet quick myriads of all life? How

much

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. In the name 320

Japh.

Ha ha ha!

Of the Most High, what art thou?
Spirit (laughs).
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!

Tremble, ye mountains, soon to shrink below The ocean's overflow !

The wave shall break upon your cliffs; and shells,

The little shells of ocean's least things be Deposed where now the eagle's offspring dwells

How shall he shriek o'er the remorseless sea!

And call his nestlings up with fruitless yell, Unanswer'd save by the enroaching swell; While man shall long in vain for his broad wings,

510

The wings which could not save: Where could he rest them, while the whole space brings

Nought to his eye beyond the deep, his grave?

Brethren, rejoice!

And loudly lift each superhuman voice
All die,
Save the slight remnant of Seth's seed
The seed of Seth,
Exempt for future sorrow's sake from
death.

Say'st well, though she be dust, I did not, could not,

Wrong?

Japh. Wrong! the greatest of all wrongs; but thou

610

Deserve her. Farewell, Anah! I have said
That word so often, but now say it ne'er
To be repeated. Angel! or whate'er
Thou art, or must be soon, hast thou the
power

To save this beautiful - these beautiful
Children of Cain?

Aza.

From what?

And is it so,

Japh. That ye too know not? Angels ! angels! ye Have shared man's sin, and, it may be, now must 619

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