of Cain and Abel are not called by their names. Whether, then, a coincidence of subject may have caused the same in expression, I know nothing, and care as little.

The reader will please to bear in mind (what few choose to recollect) that there is no allusion to a future state in any of the books of Moses, nor indeed in the Old Testament. For a reason for this extraordinary omission he may consult " Warburton's Divine Legation;" whether satisfactory or not, no better has yet been assigned, I have therefore supposed it new to Cain, without, I hope, any perversion of Holy Writ.

With regard to the language of Lucifer, it was difficult for me to make him talk like a Clergyman upon the same subjects; but I have done what I could to restrain him within the bounds of spiritual politeness.

If he disclaim having tempted Eve in the shape of the Serpent, it is only because the book of Genesis has not the most distant allusion to any thing of the kind, but merely to the Serpent in his serpentine capacity.

Note. The reader will perceive that the author has partly adopted in this poem the notion of Cuvier, that the world had been destroyed several times before the creation of man. This speculation, derived from the different strata and the bones of enormous and unknown animals found in them, is not contrary to the Mosaic account, but rather confirms it; as no human bones have yet been discovered in those strata, although those of many known animals are found near the remains of the unknown. The assertion of Lucifer, that the pre-adamite world was also peopled by rational beings much more intelligent than man, and proportionably powerful to the mammoth, &c. &c. is, of course, a poetical fiction to help him to make out his case.

I ought to add that there is a "Tramelogedie" of Alfieri, called " Abel."-I have never read that nor any other of the posthumous works of the writer, except his Life.

CAIN.

"Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.-Genesis iii. 1.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

MEN

SPIRITS

Adam-Cain-Abel.

....Angel of the Lord-Lucifer.

WOMEN.......Eve-Adah-Zillah.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-The Land without Paradise. Time, Sunrise.

ADAM, EVE, CAIN, ABEL, ADAH, ZILLAH,
offering a Sacrifice.

Adam. God, the Eternal! Infinite! All-Wise!
Who out of darkness on the deep didst make
Light on the waters with a word-all hail!
Jehovah, with returning light, all hail!

Eve. God! who didst name the day, and separate
Morning from night, tili then divided never;
Who didst divide the wave from wave, and call
Part of thy work the firmament-all hail !

Abel. God! who didst call the elements into
Earth-ocean-air-and fire, and with the day
And night, and worlds which these illuminate
Or shadow, madest beings to enjoy them,
And love both them and thee-all hail! all hai!!

Adah. God, the Eternal! Parent of all things!
Who didst create these best and beauteous beings,
To be beloved more than all, save thee-

Let me love thee and them: All hail! all hail!
Zillah. Oh, God! who loving, making, blessing all,
Yet didst permit the serpent to creep in,

And drive my father forth from Paradise,

Keep us from further evil: Hail! all hail!

Adam. Son Cain, my first-born, wherefore art thou silent?

Cain. Why should 1 speak?

Adam.
Cain.

Adam. We have, most fervently.

Abel.

To pray.

Have ye not pray'd?

And loudly:]

Amen!

So will God, I trust.

Adam. But thou, my eldest son, art silent still.
Cain. 'Tis better I should be so.

Wherefore so?

Nor aught to thank for?

No

Adam. Dost thou not live?

Must I not die?

Alas!

Cain.

Cain.

Eve.

The fruit of our forbidden tree begins

To fall.

Adam. And we must gather it again.

Oh, God! why didst thou plant the tree of knowledge? Cain. And wherefore pluck'd ye not the tree of life!

Ye might have then defied him.

Adam.

Oh my son,

Blaspheme not: these are serpents' words.
Cain.

Why not? The snake spoke truth: it was the tree of knowledge: It was the tree of life. knowledge is good,

And life is good; and how can both be evil?

Eve. My boy thou speakest as I spoke in sin, Before thy birth: let me not see renew'd

My misery in thine. I have repented.
Let me not see my offspring fall into
The snares beyond the walls of Paradise,
Which e'en in Paradise destroy'd his parents,
Content thee with what is. Had we been so,
Thou now hadst been contented. Oh, my son!
Adam. Our orisons completed, let us hence,
Each to his task of toil-not heavy, though
Needful the earth is young, and yields us kindly
Her fruits with little labour.

Eve.

Cain, my son,

Behold thy father cheerful and resign'd,

And do as he doth.

Zillah.

[Excunt Adam and Eve. Wilt thou not, my brother?

Abel. Why wilt thou wear this gloom upon thy brow Which can avail thee nothing, save to rouse

The Eternal anger?

Adah.

My beloved Cain,

No, Adah! no;

Wilt thou frown even on me?
Cain.

1 fain would be alone a little while.
Abel, I'm sick at heart; but it will pass:
Precede me, brother-I will follow shortly.
And you, too, sisters, tarry not behind:
Your gentleness must not be harshly met:
I'll follow you anon.

Adah.
If not, I will
Return to seek you here.
Abel.

Be on your spirit, brother!

Cain. [Solus.]

The peace of God

[Exeunt Abel, Zillah, and Adah.

And this is

Life! Toil! and wherefore should I toil? because
My father could not keep his place in Eden.
What had I done in this? I was unborn,

I sought not to be born; nor love the state
To which that birth has brought me. Why did he
Yield to the serpent and the woman? or,
Yielding, why suffer? What was there in this ?
The tree was planted, and why not for him?
If not, why place him near it, where it grew,

The fairest in the centre? They have but
One answer to all questions, "twas his will,
And he is good." How know I that? Because
He is all-powerful must all-good, too, follow?
I judge but by the fruits-and they are bitter-
Which I must feed on for a fault not mine.
Whom have we here? A shape like to the angels,
Yet of a sterner and a sadder aspect

Of spiritual essence: why do I quake?

Why should I fear him more than any other spirits,
Whom I see daily wave their fiery swords.
Before the gates round which I linger oft,
In twilight's hour, to catch a glimpse of those
Gardens which are my just inheritance,
Eer the night closes o'er the inhibited walls
And the immortal trees which overtop
The cherubim-defended battlements ?

If I shrink not from these, the fire-armed angels,
Why should I quail from him who now approaches?
Yet he seems mightier far than they, nor less
Beauteous, and yet not all as beautiful

As he hath been, and might be; sorrow seems
Half of his immortality. And is it

So? And can aught grieve save humanity?
He cometh.

I know the thoughts

Of dust, and feel for it, and with you.
Cain.

You know my thoughts?

Luc.

How!

They are the thoughts of all

Worthy of thought; 'tis your immortal part
Which speaks within you.

Cain.

What immortal part?