Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen

The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden?
Is your course measured for ye? Or do ye
Sweep on in your unbounded revelry
Through an aërial universe of endless

Expansion at which my soul aches to think-
Intoxicated with eternity?

Oh God! Oh Gods! or whatsoe'er ye are !
How beautiful ye are ! how beautiful
Your works, or accidents, or whatsoe'er
They may be ! Let me die, as atoms die,
(If that they die) or know ye in your might
And knowledge! My thoughts are not in this hour
Unworthy what I see, though my dust is;

Spirit! let me expire, or see them nearer.

Lucifer. Art thou not nearer? look back to thine

earth!

Cain. Where is it? I see nothing save a mass

Of most innumerable lights.

Lucifer.

Cain. I cannot see it.
Lucifer.

Cain. That!-yonder !

Lucifer.

Cain.

Look there!

Yet it sparkles still.

Yea.

And wilt thou tell me so?

Why, I have see the fire-flies and fire-worms
Sprinkle the dusky groves and the green banks
In the dim twilight, brighter than yon world
Which bears them.

Lucifer. Thou hast seen both worms and worlds, Each bright and sparkling-what dost think of them? Cain. That they are beautiful in their own sphere, And that the night, which makes both beautiful,

The little shining fire-fly in its flight,

And the immortal star in its great course,

Must both be guided.

Lucifer.

But by whom or what?

Cain. Show me.

Lucifer.

Dar'st thou behold?

Cain.

How know I what

I dare behold? As yet, thou hast shown nought
I dare not gaze on further.

Lucifer.

On, then, with me.

CAIN AND ADAH.

(CAIN, Act iii. Scene 1.)

I will; but wherefore?

Adah. HUSH! tread softly, Cain.

Cain.

Adah. Our little Enoch sleeps upon yon bed

Of leaves, beneath the cypress.

Cain.

Cypress ! 'tis

A gloomy tree, which looks as if it mourn'd

O'er what it shadows; wherefore didst thou choose it

For our child's canopy?

Adah.

Because its branches

Shut out the sun like night, and therefore seem'd

Fitting to shadow slumber.

Cain.

Ay, the last

[They go up to the child.

And longest; but no matter-lead me to him.

How lovely he appears! his little cheeks,

In their pure incarnation, vying with

The rose leaves strewn beneath them.

Adah

And his lips, too.

How beautifully parted! No; you shall not

Kiss him, at least not now: he will awake soon-
His hour of mid-day rest is nearly over;

But it were pity to disturb him till

'Tis closed.

Cain.

You have said well; I will contain

My heart till then.

He smiles, and sleeps!-Sleep on

And smile, thou little, young inheritor

Of a world scarce less young: sleep on, and smile!
Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering
And innocent! thou hast not pluck'd the fruit—
Thou know'st not thou art naked! Must the time
Come thou shalt be amerced for sins unknown,
Which were not thine nor mine? But now sleep on !
His cheeks are reddening into deeper smiles,
And shining lids are trembling o'er his long

Lashes, dark as the cypress which waves o'er them;
Half open, from beneath them the clear blue

Laughs out, although in slumber. He must dream-
Of what? Of Paradise !-Ay! dream of it,

My disinherited boy! 'Tis but a dream;
For never more thyself, thy sons, nor fathers,

Shall walk in that forbidden place of joy!

Adah. Dear Cain! Nay, do not whisper o'er our son Such melancholy yearnings o'er the past :

Why wilt thou always mourn for Paradise?

Can we not make another?

Cain.

Where?

Adah.

Here, or

Where'er thou wilt: where'er thou art, I feel not

The want of this so much regretted Eden.
Have I not thee, our boy, our sire, and brother,

And Zillah—our sweet sister, and our Eve,

To whom we owe so much besides our birth?

Cain. Yes-death, too, is amongst the debts we owe

her.

I dare behold? As yet, thou hast shown nought
I dare not gaze on further.

Lucifer.

On, then, with m

DK

mid-day rest is nearly

at least not now: he

ity to disturb him till

on have said well; I will con He smiles, and sleeps!-Sleep

young inheritor

t pluck'd the fruitaked! Must the time

Young: sleep on, and smile! days when both are cheering

or sins unknown,

,

eper smiles,

his long

But now sleep on!

ar blue

4

must dream

CAIN AND ADAP

(CAIN, Act iii. Scen

Adah. HUSH! tread softly, Caves o'er them;

Cain.

Adah. Our little Enoch sleep

Of leaves, beneath the cypress
Cain.

A gloomy tree, which looks

O'er what it shadows; whe

For our child's canopy?

error.

DRAMATIC.

him, at least not now: he will awake soon

of mid-day rest is nearly over ; vere pity to disturb him till

2017

229

Tou have said well; I will contam
He smiles, and sleeps 1– fileep un
, young inheritor

young: sleep on, and smile
days when both are cheering
Do pluck the fruit --

<er then;

thee.

Say, what have we here?

ltars, which our brother Abel made

absence, whereupon to offer

to God on thy return.

And how knew he, that I would be so ready

the burnt offerings, which he daily brings

h a meek brow, whose base humility

>hows more of fear than worship, as a bribe
To the Creator?