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Thy love-my father's-all the life, and all

The things which sprung up with me, like the stars,
Making my dim existence radiant with

Soft lights which were not mine? Aholibamah!
Oh! if there should be mercy-seek it, find it:

I abhor death, because that thou must die.

Aho. What! hath this dreamer, with his father's ark,
The bugbear he hath built to scare the world,
Shaken my sister? Are we not the loved
Of seraphs? and if we were not, must we
Cling to a son of Noah for our lives?

Rather than thus-But the enthusiast dreams
The worst of dreams, the phantasies engender'd
By hopeless love and heated vigils. Who
Shall shake these solid mountains, this firm earth,
And bid those clouds and waters take a shape
Distinct from that which we and all our sires
Have seen them wear on their eternal way?
Who shall do this?

Japh. He, whose one word produced them.
Aho. Who heard that word?

Japh.

The Universe, which leap'd

To life before it. Ab! smil'st thou still in scorn?
Turn to thy seraphs; if they attest it not,

They are none.

Sam.

Aholibamah, own thy God!

Aho. I have ever hailed Our Maker, Samiasa,
As thine, and mine: a God of love, not sorrow.
Japh. Alas! what else is Love but Sorrow? Even
He who made earth in love, had soon to grieve
Above its first and best inhabitants.

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Noah.

Enter NOAH and SHEM.

Japhet! What

Dost thou here with these children of the wicked?
Dread'st thou not to partake their coming doom?

Japh. Father, it cannot be a sin to seek
To save an earth-born being; and behold,
These are not of the sinful, since they have
The fellowship of angels.

Noah.

These are they then, Who leave the throne of God, to take them wives From out the race of Cain; the sons of Heaven, Who seek Earth's daughters for their beauty?

Aza.

Thou hast said it.

Noah.

Patriarch!

Wo, wo, wo to such communion!

Has not God made a barrier between earth

And heaven, and limited each, kind to kind?

Sam. Was not man made in high Jehovah's image? Did God not love what he had made? And what

Do we but imitate and emulate

His love unto created love?

Noah.

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I am

But man, and was not made to judge mankind,
Far less the sons of God; but as our God
Has deign'd to commune with me, and reveal
His judgments, I reply, that the descent
Of seraphs from their everlasting seat
Unto a perishable and perishing,

Even on the very eve of perishing, world,
Cannot be good.

Aza.

What! though it were to save?
Noah. Not ye in all your glory can redeem
What he who made you glorious hath condemn'd.
Were your immortal mission safety, 'twould
Be general, not for two, though beautiful,

And beautiful they are, but not the less

Condemn'd.

Japh.
Noah.

Oh father! say it not.

Son! son! If that thou would'st avoid their doom, forget That they exist; they soon shall cease to be, While thou shalt be the sire of a new world, And better.

Japh.

Let me die with this, and them! Noah. Thou should'st for such a thought, but shalt Who can, redeems thee.

Sam.

[not; he

And why him and thee,

More than what he, thy son, prefers to both?

Noah. Ask him who made thee greater than myself

And mine, but not less subject to his own

Almightiness. And lo! his mildest and
Least to be tempted Messenger appears!

Raph.

Enter RAPHAEL the Archangel.
Spirits!

Whose seat is near the throne,

What do ye bere?

Is thus a seraph's duty to be shown

Now that the hour is near

When earth must be alone?

Return!

Adore and burn

In glorious homage with the elected "seven."
Your place is heaven.

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The first and fairest of the sons of God,

How long hath this been law,

That earth by angels must be left untrod?
Earth! which oft saw

Jehovah's footsteps not disdain her sod!
The world he loved, and made
For love; and oft have we obey'd
His frequent mission with delighted pinions.
Adoring him in his least works display'd ;
Watching this youngest star of his dominions:
And as the latest birth of his great word,
Eager to keep it worthy of our Lord.
Why is thy brow severe?

And wherefore speak'st thou of destruction near?
Raph. Had Samiasa and Azaziel been

In their true place, with the angelic choir,
Written in fire

They would have seen

Jehovah's late decree,

And not inquired their Maker's breath of me:
But ignorance must ever be
A part of sin;

And even the spirit's knowledge shall grow less
As they wax proud within;

For blindness is the first-born of Excess.

When all good angels left the world, ye staid, Stung with strange passions, and debased By mortal feelings for a mortal maid; But ye are pardon'd thus far, and replaced With your pure equals: Hence! away! away! Or stay,

And lose eternity by that delay!

Aza. And Thou! if earth be thus forbidden
In the decree

To us until this moment hidden,

Dost thou not err as we

In being here?

Raph. I came to call ye back to your fit sphere,

In the great name and at the word of God!

Dear, dearest in themselves, and scarce less dear That which I came to do: till now we trod

Together the eternal space, together

Let us still walk the stars. True, earth must die!
Her race, return'd into her womb, must wither,
And much which she inherits; but oh! why
Cannot this earth be made, or be destroy'd,
Without involving ever some vast void
In the immortal ranks? immortal still
In their immeasurable forfeiture.
Our brother Satan fell, bis burning will
Rather than longer worship dared endure!
But ye who still are pure!

Seraphs! less mighty than that mightiest one,
Think how he was undone!

And think if tempting man can compensate
For heaven desired too late?

Long have I warred,

Long must I war

With him who deem'd it hard

To be created, and to acknowledge him
Who midst the cherubim

Made him as suns to a dependent star,
Leaving the archangels at his right hand dim.

I loved him-beautiful he was: oh heaven! Save his who made, what beauty and what power Was ever like to Satan's! Would the hour

In which he fell could ever be forgiven!

The wish is impious: but oh ye!

Yet undestroyed, be warned! Eternity

With him, or with his God, is in your choice:

He hath not tempted you, he cannot tempt
The angels, from his further snares exempt;
But man hath listen'd to his voice,

And ye to woman's-beautiful she i,

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