An hour too soon.

Anah. They come! he comes!- Azaziel!
Ahol. Haste

To meet them! Oh! for wings to bear
My spirit, while they hover there,
To Samiasa's breast!

Anah. Lo! they have kindled all the west,
Like a returning sunset;-lo!
On Ararat's late secret crest

A mild and many-colour'd bow,
The remnant of their flashing path,
Now shines! and now, behold! it hath
Returu'd to night, as rippling foam,

Which the Leviathan hath lash'd
From his unfathomable home,
When sporting on the face of the calm deep,
Subsides soon after he again hath dash'd
Down, down, to where the ocean's fountains
sleep.

Ahol. They have touch'd earth! Samiasa! Anah. My Azaziel! [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Enter IRAD and Japhet.

Irad. Despond not: wherefore wilt thou wander thus

To add thy silence to the silent night, And lift thy tearful eye unto the stars? They cannot aid thee.

Japhet. But they soothe me-now Perhaps she looks upon them as I look. Methinks a being that is beautiful Becometh more so as it looks on beauty, The eternal beauty of undying things. Oh, Anah!

Irad. But she loves thee not.

Japhet. Alas!

Irad. That I know not; but her air, If not her words,tells me she loves another. Japhet. Ay, but not Anah: she but loves her God.

Irad. Whate'er she loveth, so she loves thee not,

What can it profit thee?
Japhet. True, nothing; but
I love.

Irad. And so did I.

Japhet. And now thou lov'st not,

Or thinkst thou lov'st not, art thou happier? Irad. Yes.

Japhet. I pity thee.

Irad. Me! why?

Japhet. For being happy,

Deprived of that which makes my misery. İrad. I take thy taunt as part of thy distemper,

And would not feel as thou dost, for more shekels

Than all our father's herds would bring if weigh'd

Against the metal of the sons of Cain— The yellow dust they try to barter with us, As if such useless and discolour'd trash, The refuse of the earth, could be received For milk, and wool, and flesh, and fruits,

and all

Our flocks and wilderness afford. - Go, Japhet,

Sigh to the stars as wolves howl to the moon___ I must back to my rest.

Japhet. And so would I If I could rest.

Irad. Thou wilt not to our tents then? Japhet. No,Irad; I will to the cavern, whose Mouth they say opens from the internal world

To let the inner spirits of the earth
Forth when they walk its surface.

Irad. Wherefore so?

What wouldst thou there?

Japhet. Soothe further my sad spirit With gloom as sad: it is a hopeless spot,

also.

Japhet. I feel for thee too.

Irad. Let her keep her pride,

Mine hath enabled me to bear her scorn;
It may be, time too will avenge it.
Japhet. Canst thou

Find joy in such a thought?

Irad. Nor joy, nor sorrow.

I loved her well; I would have loved her better,

Had love been met with love: as 'tis, I leave her

To brighter destinies, if so she deems them. Japhet. What destinies?

Irad. I have some cause to think

She loves another.

Irad. But 'tis dangerous;

Strange sounds and sights have peopled it with terrors.

I must go with thee.

Japhet. Irad, no; believe me

I feel no evil thought, and fear no evil. Irad. But evil things will be thy foe the more

As not being of them: turn thy steps aside, Or let mine be with thine.

Japhet. No; neither, Irad;

I must proceed alone.

Irad. Then peace be with thee!

[Exit Irad. Japhet (solus). Peace! I have sought it where it should be found,

In love

with love too, which perhaps deserved it;

And, in its stead, a heaviness of heart

A weakness of the spirit-listless days,
And nights inexorable to sweet sleep-
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;

Such is the sullen or the fitful state

Of my mind overworn. The earth's grown wicked,

And many signs and portents have proclaim'd

A change at hand, and an o'erwhelming doom To perishable beings. Oh, my Anah! When the dread hour denounced shall open wide

The fountains of the deep,how mightest thou Have lain within this bosom, folded from The elements; this bosom, which in vain Hath beat for thee, and then will beat more vainly,

While thine-Oh, God! at least remit to her Thy wrath! for she is pure amidst the failing, As a star in the clouds, which cannot quench, Although they obscure it for an hour. My Anah!

How would I have adored thee, but thou wouldst not;

And still would I redeem thee-see thee live
When Ocean is Earth's grave,and, unopposed
By rock or shallow, the Leviathan,
Lord of the shoreless sea and watery world,
Shall wonder at his boundlessness of realm.
[Exit Japhet.

Enter NOAH and SEM.

Noah. Where is thy brother Japhet? Sem. He went forth, According to his wont, to meet with Irad, He said; but, as I fear, to bend his steps Towards Anah's tents, round which he hovers nightly,

Like a dove round and round its pillaged nest;

Or else he walks the wild up to the cavern Which opens to the heart of Ararat.

Noah. What doth he there? It is an evil spot

Upon an earth all evil; for things worse Than even wicked men resort there: he Still loves this daughter of a fated race, Although he could not wed her if she loved him,

And that she doth not. Oh, the unhappy hearts

Of men! that one of my blood, knowing well
The destiny and evil of these days,
And that the hour approacheth, should
indulge

In such forbidden yearnings! Lead the way;
He must be sought for!

Sem. Go not forward, father:

I will seek Japhet.

Noah. Do not fear for me:

All evil things are powerless on the man Selected by Jehovah-let us on.

Sem. To the tents of the father of the sisters?

Noah. No; to the cavern of the Caucasus. [Exeunt Noah and Sem.

SCENE III-The mountains.—A cavern, and the rocks of Caucasus.

Japhet (solus). Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou cave,

Which seemst unfathomable; and ye mountains,

So varied and so terrible in beauty;
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, hurled

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,

And dolphins gambol in the lion's den!
And man--Oh,men! my fellow-beings! Who
Shall weep above your universal grave,
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 despaired for her?

And can it be!-Shall yon exulting peak, Whose glittering top is like a distant star, Lie low beneath the boiling of the deep? No more to have the morning-sun break forth, And scatter back the mists in floating folds From its tremendous brow? no more to have Day's broad orb drop behind its head at even, Leaving it with a crown of many hues? No more to be the beacon of the world, For angels to alight on, as the spot Nearest the stars? And can those words

Shall slumber o'er the wreck of this until
The salt morass subside into a sphere
Beneath the sun, and be the monument,
The sole and undistinguish'd sepulchre,
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;

Japhet. In the name

Of the Most High, what art thou?
Spirit (laughs). Ha! Ha! Ha!
Japhet. By all that earth holds holiest,
speak!

Spirit (laughs). Ha! Ha!

Japhet. 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 weepst thou?

Japhet. For earth and all her children. Spirit. Ha! Ha! Ha! [Spirit vanishes. Japhet. How the fiend mocks the tortures

of a world,

Nor years, nor heart-break, nor Time's sapping motion,

Shall they drop off. Behold their last tomorrow!

Earth shall be ocean!

And no breath,

Save of the winds, be on the unbounded wave!

Angels shall tire their wings, but find no spot:

Not even a rock from out the liquid grave Shall lift its point to save,

Or show the place where strong Despair hath died,

After long looking o'er the ocean wide
For the expected ebb which cometh not:
All shall be void,
Destroy'd!

Another element shall be the lord
Of life, and the abhorr'd
Children of dust be quench'd; and of each hue
Of earth nought left but the unbroken blue;
And of the variegated mountain
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.
Upon the foam

Who shall erect a home?
Japhet (coming forward). My sire!
Earth's seed shall not expire;
Only the evil shall be put away
From day.

Avaunt! ye exulting demons of the
waste!

Who howl your hideous joy

When God destroys whom you dare not destroy;

Hence! haste!

Back to your inner caves!

Until the waves

Shall search you in your secret place,

And drive your sullen race

Forth, to be roll'd upon the tossing winds

In restless wretchedness along all space! Spirit. Son of the saved! When thou and thine have braved

The wide and warring element; When the great barrier of the deep is rent, Shall thou and thine be good or happy?No!

Thy new world and new race shall be of

Less goodly in their aspect, in their years Less than the glorious giants, who Yet walk the world in pride, The Sons of Heaven by many a mortal bride. Thine shall be nothing of the past, save tears. And art thou not ashamed

There is not one who hath not left a throne Vacant in Heaven to dwell in darkness here, Rather than see his mates endure alone.

Go, wretch! and give

A life like thine to other wretches-live!
And when the annihilating waters roar
Above what they have done,
Envy the Giant-Patriarchs then no more,
And scorn thy sire as the surviving one!
Thyself for being his son!

Chorus of Spirits issuing from the cavern.
Rejoice!

No more the human voice

Shall vex our joys in middle air
With prayer;

No more

Shall they adore;

And we, who ne'er for ages have adored The prayer-exacting Lord,

To whom the omission of a sacrifice

Is vice;

We, we shall view the deep salt sources

pour'd

Until one element shall do the work

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:

And then in glory.

Spirits. Meantime still struggle in the mortal chain,

Till earth wax hoary ;

War with yourselves, and Hell, and Heaven, in vain,

Until the clouds look gory

With the blood reeking from each battleNew times, new climes, new arts, new plain; men; but still

The same old tears, old crimes, and oldest ill, Shall be amongst your race in different forms;

But the same moral storms

Shall oversweep the future, as the waves In a few hours the glorious Giants' graves.

We hear the sound they cannot hear, The mustering thunders of the threatening sphere;

Yet a few hours their coming is delay'd ; Their flashing banners, folded still on high, Yet undisplay'd,

Save to the Spirits' all-pervading eye.
Howl! howl! oh Earth!
Thy death is nearer than thy recent birth:
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

Ay, day will rise; but upon what? A chaos, Which was ere day; and which, renew'd, 'makes time

Nothing! for, without life, what are the hours?

No more to dust than is eternity

But still rejoice! We fell! They fall! So perish all

These petty foes of Heaven who shrink from Hell!

[The Spirits disappear, soaring upwards.

Japhet (solus). God hath proclaim'd the destiny of Earth;

My father's ark of safety hath announced it;
The very demons shriek it from their caves;
The scroll of Enoch prophesied it long
In silent books, which, in their silence, say
More to the mind than thunder to the ear:
And yet men listen'd not, nor listen; but
Walk darkling to their doom; which,
though so nigh,

Shakes them no more in their dim disbelief,
Than their last cries shall shake the

Without him, even Eternity would be
A void: without man, Time, as made for man,
Dies with man, and is swallow'd in that

Deep

Which has no fountain; as his race will be Devour'd by that which drowns his infantworld.

What have we here? Shapes of both earth and air?

No-all of Heaven, they are so beautiful.
I cannot trace their features; but their forms,
How lovelily they move along the side
Of the gray mountain, scattering its mist!
And after the swart savage spirits, whose
Infernal Immortality pour'd forth

Their impious hymn of triumph,they shall be
Welcome as Eden. It may be they come
To tell me the reprieve of our young world,
For which I have so often pray'd-They

come!

Anah! oh God! and with her

Enter SAMIASA, AZAZIEL, ANAH, and AHOLIBAMAH.

Anah. Japhet! Samiasa. Lo! A son of Adam!

Azaziel. What doth the Earth-born here, While all his race are slumbering? Japhet. Angel! what

Dost thou on earth when thou shouldst be on high?

Azaziel. Knowst thou not, or forgetst

Which is condemn'd; nay, even the evil fly The approaching Chaos. Anah! Anah! my In vain, and long, and still to be beloved! Why walkst thou with this Spirit, in those

hours

When no good spirit longer lights below?
Anah. Japhet, I cannot answer thee;
yet, yet
Forgive me