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 .

Lo, Nature answers thee!
Look on yon hills, their far heads steeped in heaven;
The insuperable woods that fold their sides,
Rising o'er each like cloud o'er settling cloud.
Listen! thou hear'st no sound of living thing;
There is no motion save the flowing stream;
The changes of the shadow and the light,
The sedate march of you majestic heaven.
Angel of this lone spot thou art! Repose
Beside this tree that sheds its blossom o'er thee,
Bright as thy waving hair.

ASTARTE .

Would that the rest
Of nature were within my heart.

ORAZIEL .

Erewhile
Oraziel's love absorbed; thy bosom now
Is the receptacle of thoughts not hidden,
Thy brow reveals them.

ASTARTE .

Thou art changed.

ORAZIEL .

Astarte!

ASTARTE .

Oh, from the hour a shade o'ercasts the face
Where the eye looked out open as the day,
A chill is thrown on love that hides its pang,
And thus is taught concealment. If I asked
The secrets of thy heaven, I erred not,
For I remembered I should rest in earth,
Thy revelation buried there. Oraziel!
I will adore thee still as some bright star
Where I may never dwell.

ORZIEL .

And thinkest thou
Oraziel hides his thought? those downcast eyes
Distrust me?

ASTARTE .

Never! Didst thou wing thy flight
Even now to heaven, I would not call thee back.
The hour must come of parting, all too soon.
I will confess. Oraziel, thou art changed.
When first we met, thine eyes turned not from mine;
The past and future were as one; we were
Each other's life. Then, imperceptible
To all eyes save quick love's, a change came o'er thee.
Thy face looked tenderness, but changed as day
To twilight. While thy voice stole on mine ear
I watched thee gazing on the starry sky,
As if thou mournedst something from thee fled
For ever. And when first we met, our paths
Were among flowers, holy as our loves.
Now, as it were unconsciously, we seek
Grey crags, or solemn woods, that speak to us
Of desolation past, perchance to come;
As if there were a kindredship between,
Soon to be manifest. I turned from them,
To gaze on that serene yet saddened face,
Till sorrow's self became a softened joy.
Oraziel! I have poured forth all my heart,
And thou look'st on me still. I ask no more

ORAZIEL .

In vain we war on the necessity
We make, o'erruling as immutable.
Yea, never more could we be as we were,
A thought between us hidden. Hear the truth.
This earth held mightier inhabitants;
The Watchers, walking the starred realms of space,
Beheld it in its first eternal spring.
The law of duty they forgot, that guides,
Angels as worlds alike in their bright paths.
Yielding to impulses of unreined will,
They disobeyed the One, descending there;
But still the light shone on them of eclipse,
Until inherent ill grew manifest.
Their origin from Him forgot, their faith
Grew in their self-existence; not till then
Their change was felt; their vision dimmed saw not
The gates of immortality were closed.
The intelligible voice of God no more
They understood; no longer did they hear,
Borne from the stars, the sound of distant hymns,
The choirs of their immortal populations
Yet moanings of the trees, and sighing winds,
And twilight's hues, spake eloquently well,
And remorse woke in vain. They had forgot.
The solemn mission of their destiny;
The memory and the orient light extinct,
They felt the shadow darkening on their souls;
They folded heavily their powerless wings,
And looked to heaven no more.

ASTARTE .

Alas, for them!
My heart mourns for those fallen Angels

ORAZIEL .

Then,
Their latest warning given, man was made;
Lower creation, image of the One,
His spirit breathed from Him; what else the breath
Of life in him but God indwelling there?
In his decadence typed, they saw how weak
The soul that trusted self-existent strength.
The mightier turned to their allegiance,
And walked on earth no more.

ASTARTE .

Thy visage changes!
Thou hid'st some dreadful truth.

ORAZIEL .

Two spirits stayed!
They lingered in the haunts they could not leave,
Though lost their heaven for ever.

ASTARTE .

Oh, forgive
A mortal nature yielding to his fear!
Oraziel! leave me here to die alone.
I feel the pangs of my remorse awaked;
It is the voice of God that speaks to me.
Thou hast left heaven, and to have known thee there
Had been my earthly happiness; awhile
I should have slept in peace nor known the truth.
Would I had never been! then hadst thou dwelt
Apart, nor known Astarte.

ORAZIEL .

Speaks thy heart?
Thou drewest me not here, but my great will.
If thou beheld'st me thoughtful, memory dwelt
Of what I was and am; that I have gained
In my changed nature, which resembles thine,
Yet thou, Astarte! would'st withhold thy state
From him who may not raise thee to his own.

ASTARTE .

I cannot answer thee; if I have erred,
My heart is guiltless, even when most elate;
I felt its imperfections, yet I dared not
Confess them. I am ever thine!