University of Virginia Library

I write what ye do know. My words are truth,
Whereof, O fathers, witnesses are ye.
Adam, our Father, gave me in command
To gather, as the youngest of them all,
The patriarchs together, that they might
Be present at the death of the First Man,
To whom the Spirit had his end foretold.
Ye came, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel,
And Jared; and, with me, and with my son,
Methuselah, around the couch of age,
In grave solicitude, and silent awe,
His words attended, while he thus began.

‘Our God is good, Jehovah—God of gods—
Our dwelling-place before the mountains were,
Heaven's canopy was spread, or ocean flowed.
In his own likeness, God created Man,
And placed him in a happy Paradise,
And wedded him to Woman. On the law
Of God we meditated with delight;
To covet not, even knowledge, though divine.
His law was love, obedience loving him;
Love strong in hope, and fortified by faith:
And doubt was not until was tempted Eve,
To effort vain, of knowledge without power.
Then was revealed the Love we dared suspect.
—Evening came on: On the refreshing breeze
Walked great Jehovah's Voice—the Merciful—
And question done, and judgement passed, resumed
Such condescension, that I hailed aloud
Eve, Mother of all Living; so decreed,
To manifest the perfect Man divine.
—‘Why doubtedst thou Our love, who gave thee life?
Why fearedst that They from thee should knowledge hide,
Who made thee in their image, nor in this
Dissimilar? We would that thou shouldst know
Thy strength, but he thy weakness who seduced.
Election made, necessity begins.
Go—win by labour what free grace had given:
Aim to be gods; and be such but in aim:
So lose the end in the endeavour, till
Toil be the whole, and nothing the reward.
Earth shall ask sweat enough, and nature veil
Herself to much enquiry . . oft to all.
Such is the curse. Yet shall salvation be
Wrought, though with trembling, out. A race shall rise,
The kings, and priests of men, who shall uphold
Faith, or for good, or evil, and attain
Knowledge, or power; and human fears, and hopes
Shall hang on mortal wills: and these shall mount
Exalted to celestial seats, and earth
Adore them—heroes, demigods, and gods:
Till One shall come, who from their hands shall wrest
Their sceptres, shall dethrone them from their skies.
Meantime must God, and Man be twain, till He
Shall reunite:—In sign whereof, observe
What now I do, and oft the rite perform.’
—Thus saying; straight he of earth an altar piled,
And on it laid an holocaust, and slew
The anointed beasts, as I do now, and said,
‘Lo, Adam, this is Death.’ We saw—were thrilled—
‘Fear not, for this shall your last refuge be
From sorrow . . here behold the gate of Heaven.
And now the Fire of heaven that ye will need,
Thus willingly I render to your use—
The life that ye have shed, Heaven shall accept
And reunite unto its fount above—
And thus ye are atoned. In proof whereof,
Be clothed ye with these sacrificial skins,
Cover from shame, and armour for defence
'Gainst elemental nature, waked to strife
By your transgression. Thus by wisdom live—
And art and patience, faith and fortitude,
Obstruction shall subdue, or if not, death.’
—The while he spake, the flame descended there,
And quaffed the blood; and o'er our limbs he spread
The skins from off the holocaust; as now,
The flame descends upon our sacrifice,
And ‘I invest thee, Seth, with this same skin,
And consecrate thee Patriarch, and Priest.’