English

VI.

Not in the public walks of men
Can we possess our full desires;
Behold! to some sequster'd glen
Defeated Enterprize retires.
There Solitude, and quiet rest,
Shall drive Ambition from his breast;
Would it could drive remembrance too?
But all the wrongs of base mankind,
Engraven on the feeling mind,
Shall o'er his foul dissuse Misanthropy's sad hue.

VII.

Yon cottage fee. The mantling vine
O'er the white wall redundant strays:
Content! this residence is thine;

I.

A ND thus doth Jury's sapient King,
Who full felicity enjoy'd,
The dirge of disappointment sing,
And deeply mourn the total void?
With festal roses see him crown'd;
The nymphs of Sion, gather'd round,
Expect delight, and love the theme.

SCENE XI.

HEIGHTS OF MOUNT HERMON.

I SRAPHIL , A ZOARA , O RAZIEL , A STARTE , A NK .

ISRAPHIL .

Our power is gone from us; to tempt it more
Were but to perish; we await our doom,
The justice or the mercy of the Lord.

AZOARA .

Farewell my hope that was not hope! I felt
A consciousness that we were bound to earth.
Here we remain, the mark of elements,
Until insensible to suffering.

SCENE X.

MOUNTAINOUS SOLITUDES OF HERMON.

I SRAPHIL , A ZOARA , O RAZIEL , A STARTE .

ASTARTE .

Is this our doom decreed, to perish thus?
To confront death, and feel the stroke ere dealt,
Hopeless in God as in ourselves? I heard
The threat, but deemed it was a sound; I felt
His mercy infinite as is his love.

ORAZIEL .

And doth Astarte in her fears forget
Her Angel's presence?

ASTARTE .

SCENE . IX

THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT HERMON.

Time — Daybreak

IRAD .

Morn breaks on earth, not joyously as wont,
But seraph-like with her fringed eyes o'ercast,
Their azure light seen dimly through her tears.
The world beneath is slumbering — how still!
Unnatural rest, or rather listening fear,
Waiting with pulse and respiration hushed
For the great thing to come.
My voice appals
As if I were the only living thing.

SCENE VIII.

I SRAPHIL , A ZOARA , O RAZIEL , A STARTE , I RAD

ISRAPHIL .

Oraziel!
The portent is revealed.

AZOARA .

Unfold it.

ISRAPHIL .

I
Gazed from the heights of Hermon; on the verge
Of angels' ken, I saw the fiery plague,
The star of wrath recoiling its fierce way
To wreak its vials here.

ASTARTE .

God! may this be?

SCENE VII

I RAD , O RAZIEL , A STARTE .

IRAD .

Astarte,
Reposing on an angel's bosom?

ASTARTE .

Irad!
Nay, hide me from his gaze. Let me depart.

IRAD .

Astarte! it is I will leave thee. Stay;
Thou little knowest of this heart to deem
I could reproach thee now, its hope extinct.
Nor passion nor resistance has despair;
Resigned beneath calamity, it seems

SCENE VI.

WOODS OF MOUNT HERMON.

O RAZIEL , A STARTE

ORAZIEL .

Here let me feel the life I draw from thine.
The hours lie before us, the bright hours,
Prophets of joy unproved, are all our own.
Thou art my life of immortality;
I live in thee, or rather I forget
Existence in thy presence; what is time,
Or life, beside? Visions absorbed in thee.

ASTARTE .

If Irad come.

ORAZIEL .

SCENE V.

N OAH , H AMMON , I RAD .

NOAH .

My son! why loiterest thou, wasting here
Our Sabbath-rest devoted to the Lord?
The day is spent, our offerings unpiled;
Art thou infected with the sloth that dooms
This generation's punishment?

HAMMON .

My father!
I am thine own; the speech of Irad dwelt
Upon earth's changes, and the sin —

NOAH .

My son!

SCENE IV.

IRAD; HAMMON .

HAMMON .

Brother! I sought thee. Turnest thou away
To commune with the airs that answer not?
Thy grief is vain.

IRAD .

Therefore I cling to it.

HAMMON .

In sharing ills the bosom is relieved

IRAD .

When in confession the heart feels relief;
I have outlived hope till I cease to feel
The weight of life.