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

-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

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.

Rather say,

Aho.
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.

From thy sphere !

Whatever star contain thy glory;

In the eternal depths of heaven

Albeit thou watchest with "the seven,"
"12

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.]

Though through space infinite and hoary
Before thy bright wings worlds be driven,
Yet hear!

Oh! think of her who holds thee dear!

And though she nothing is to thee, Yet think that thou art all to her.

Thou canst not tell,—and never be

Such pangs decreed to aught save me,—
The bitterness of tears.
Eternity is in thine years,

Unborn, undying beauty in thine eyes;
With me thou canst not sympathise,
Except in love, and there thou must
Acknowledge that more loving dust

Ne'er wept beneath the skies.

Thou walk'st thy many worlds, thou see'st
The face of him who made thee great,

As he hath made me of the least

Of those cast out from Eden's gate:
Yet, Seraph dear!

Oh hear !

For thou hast loved me, and I would not die

Until I know what I must die in knowing,

That thou forget'st in thine eternity

50

60

Her whose heart Death could not keep from o'erflowing

For thee, immortal essence as thou art!

Great is their love who love in sin and fear;

And such, I feel, are waging in my heart

A war unworthy: to an Adamite

Forgive, my Seraph! that such thoughts appear, 70

For sorrow is our element;

Delight

An Eden kept afar from sight,

Though sometimes with our visions blent.
The hour is near

Which tells me we are not abandoned quite.-
Appear! Appear!
Seraph!

My own Azaziel! be but here,

And leave the stars to their own light!

80

Thou rulest in the upper air

Or warring with the spirits who may dare
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,
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 formed of clay,

And thou of beams

More bright than those of day

On Eden's streams,

Thine immortality can not repay

With love more warm than mine

My love. There is a ray

In me, which, though forbidden yet to shine,
I feel was lighted at thy God's and thine.
It may be hidden long: death and decay
Our mother Eve bequeathed us-but my heart
Defies it though this life must pass away,

Is that a cause for thee and me to part?
Thou art immortal-so am I: I feel-

I feel my immortality o'ersweep

All pains, all tears, all fears, and peal,
Like the eternal thunders of the deep,

Into my ears this truth—“ Thou liv'st for ever!”
But if it be in joy

I know not, nor would know;

That secret rests with the Almighty giver,

Who folds in clouds the fonts of bliss and woe.
But thee and me he never can destroy;

90

100

IIO

Change us he may, but not o'erwhelm; we are 120
Of as eternal essence, and must war

With him if he will war with us; with thee

I can share all things, even immortal sorrow;
For thou hast ventured to share life with me,
And shall I shrink from thine eternity?

No! though the serpent's sting should pierce me thorough,

And thou thyself wert like the serpent, coil

Around me still! and I will smile,

And curse thee not; but hold

Thee in as warm a fold

For an immortal. If the skies contain

More joy than thou canst give and take, remain !
Anah. Sister! sister! I view them winging

Their bright way through the parted night.

Aho. The clouds from off their pinions flinging, As though they bore to-morrow's light.

Anah. But if our father see the sight!

130

Aho. He would but deem it was the moon Rising unto some sorcerer's tune

140

An hour too soon.1

Anah. They come ! he comes !—Azaziel !
Aho.

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-coloured bow,

150

1. ["The adepts of Incantation . enter the realms of air, and by their spells they scatter the clouds, they gather the clouds, they still the storm. .. We may adduce Ovid (Amor., bk. ii., El., i. 23), who says, 'Charmers draw down the horns of the blood-red moon,' Here it is to be observed that in the opinion of simple-minded persons, the moon could be actually drawn down from heaven. So Aristophanes says (Clouds, lines 739, 740), If I should purchase a Thessalian witch, and draw down the moon by night; and Claudian (In Ruffin., bk. i. 145), 'I know by what spell the Thessalian sorceress snatches away the lunar beam." "Magic Incantations, by Christianus Pazig (circ. 1700), edited by Edmund Goldsmid, F.R.H.S., F.S.A. (Scot.), 1886, pp. 30, 31. See, too, Virgil, Eclogues, viii. 69, "Carmina vel cœlo possunt de ducere Lunam."]

VOL. V.

U