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.

Japh.

But they sooth 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.

Japh.

But she loves thee not.

Alas!

Irad. And proud Aholibamah spurns me also.

Japh. 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.

Japh.

Find joy in such a thought?

Irad.

Canst thou

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.

If not her words, tells me she loves another.

Japh. Ay, but not Anah: she but loves her God.

That I know not; but her air,

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

Yes.

Or think'st thou lov'st not, art thou happier?

For being happy,

Deprived of that which makes my misery.

Irad. 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.

Japh. And so would I

If I could rest.

Irad.

Thou wilt not to our tents, then? Japh. 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.

What wouldst thou there?

Japh.

Wherefore so?

Sooth further my sad spirit

With gloom as sad: it is a hopeless spot,
And I am hopeless.

Irad.
Strange sounds and

I must go with thee.

Japh.

But 'tis dangerous;

sights have peopled it with terrors.

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.

Japh. (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 SHEM.

Noah. Where is thy brother Japhet?

Shem.
According to his wont, to meet with Irad,
He said; but, as I fear, to bend his steps

He went forth,

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!

Shem.

I will seek Japhet.

Noah.

Go not forward, father:

Do not fear for me:

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

Shem. To the tents of the father of the sisters?
Noah. No; to the cavern of the Caucasus.

[Exeunt NOAH and SHEM.

SCENE III.

The mountains.—A cavern, and the rocks of Caucasus. Japh. (solus) Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou Which seem'st unfathomable; and ye mountains, [cave, 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 Auah
While I had hope? or the more savage haunts,
Scarce less beloved, where I despair'd 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,

VOL. VI.-M