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Chorus of Spirits of the Earth.-Chorus of Mortals.

HEAVEN AND EARTH.

PART I.

SCENE I.-A woody and mountainous district near Mount Ararat.-Time, midnight.

Enter ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH.1

Anah. OUR father sleeps: it is the hour when they Who love us are accustomed to descend

Through the deep clouds o'er rocky Ararat :

How my heart beats!

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Of aught save their delay.
Anah.

I love Azaziel more than

-oh, too much!

What was I going to say? my heart grows impious.
Aho. And where is the impiety of loving
Celestial natures?

Anah.

But, Aholibamah,

I love our God less since his angel loved me :

This cannot be of good; and though I know not
That I do wrong, I feel a thousand fears

ΙΟ

1. [Aholibamah ("tent of the highest ") was daughter of Anah (a Hivite clan-name), the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife, Gen. xxxvi. 14. Irad was the son of Enoch, and grandson of Cain, Gen. iv. 18.]

Which are not ominous of right.

Aho.

Then wed thee

Unto some son of clay, and toil and spin!

There's Japhet loves thee well, hath loved thee long: Marry, and bring forth dust!

Anah.

I should have loved

Azaziel not less were he mortal; yet

I am glad he is not. I cannot outlive him.
And when I think that his immortal wings

Will one day hover o'er the sepulchre

1

Of the poor child of clay 1 which so adored him,
As he adores the Highest, death becomes
Less terrible; but yet I pity him:

His grief will be of ages, or at least

Mine would be such for him, were I the Seraph,
And he the perishable.

Aho.

Rather say,

That he will single forth some other daughter
Of earth, and love her as he once loved Anah.
Anah. And if it should be so, and she loved him,
Better thus than that he should weep for me.

Aho. If I thought thus of Samiasa's love,
All Seraph as he is, I'd spurn him from me.
But to our invocation !-'Tis the hour.

Anah.

Seraph!

From thy sphere !

Whatever star contain thy glory;

In the eternal depths of heaven
Albeit thou watchest with "the seven," 2

20

30

40

1. [Compare Manfred, act i. sc. 1, line 131, Poetical Works, 1901, iv. 89, and note 1.]

2. The archangels, said to be seven in number, and to occupy the eighth rank in the celestial hierarchy.

[Compare Tobit xii. 15, "I am Raphael, one of the seven_holy angels which present the prayers of the saints." The Book of Enoch (ch. xx.) names the other archangels, " Uriel, Rufael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqâêl, and Gabriel, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the cherubin." In the Celestial Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite, a chapter is devoted to archangels, but their names are not recorded, or their number given. On the other hand, "The teaching of the oracles concerning the angels affirms that they are thousand thousands and myriad myriads."-Celestial Hierarchy, etc., translated by the Rev. J. Parker, 1894, cap. xiv. p. 43. It has been supposed that "the seven which are the eyes of the Lord" (Zech. iv. 10) are the seven archangels.]

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