Requital for its good or evil thoughts-
Is its own origin of ill and end--

And its own place and time-its innate sense,
When stripp'd of this mortality, derives
No colour from the fleeting things without;
But is absorb'd in sufferance or in joy,

Born from the knowledge of its own desert.

Thou didst not tempt me, and thou couldst not tempt me;
I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey-
But was my own destroyer, and will be
My own hereafter.-Back, ye baffled fiends!
The hand of death is on me-but not yours!

[The Demons disappear.

Abbot. Alas! how pale thou art-thy lips are white;
And thy breast heaves-and in thy gasping throat
The accents rattle-Give thy pravers to Heaven-
Pray-albeit but in thought-but die not thus.

Man. 'Tis over-my dull eyes can fix thee not;
But all things swim around me, and the earth
Heaves as it were beneath me. Fare thee well-
Give me thy hand.

Abbot.
Cold-cold-even to the heart-
But yet one prayer-Alas! how fares it with thee?
Man. Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die.

[MANFRED expires. Abbot. He's gone-his soul hath ta'en his earthless flightWhither? I dread to think-but he is gone.

HEAVEN AND EARTH:

A MYSTERY,

FOUNDED ON THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE IN GENESIS, CHAP. VI.

"And it came to pass

that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."

"And woman wailing for her demon lover."-COLERIDGE.

Dramatis Personae.

ANGELS.

SAMIASA.

AZAZIEL.

RAPHAEL, the Archangel

MEN.

NOAH and his SONS

IRAD.

JAPHET.

WOMEN.

ANAH.

AHOLIBAMAH.

Chorus of Spirits of the Earth.-Chorus of Mortals.

HEAVEN AND EARTH.

PART L

SCENE L

A woody and mountainous district near Mount Ararat.— Time, Midnight.

Enter ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH.

Anah. OUR father sleeps: it is the hour when they Who love us are accustom'd to descend

Through the deep clouds o'er rocky Ararat :

How my heart beats!

Aho.

Our invocation.

Anah.

I tremble.

Aho.

Let us proceed upon

But the stars are hidden.

So do I, but not with fear

My sister, though

Of aught save their delay.

Anah.

I love Azaziel more than-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

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 can not outlive him.
And when I think that his immortal wings
Will one day hover o'er the sepulchre

Of the poor child of clay 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,

Rather say,

And he the perishable.
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.

Anah.

Seraph!

From thy sphere!
Whatever star contain thy glory;
In the eternal depths of heaven
Albeit thou watchest with "the seven,'
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 seest
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 forgett'st in thine eternity

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,
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 abandon'd quite

Appear! appear!
Seraph!

*The archangels, said to be seven in number, and to occupy the eighth rank in the celestial hierarchy.