The Judgement of the Flood :: :: University of Virginia Library

And were the Wicked warned? Hither, oft came
The Prophets from the land of Eden; Shem,
And Ham, and Japhet, and their Sire; to preach
Sincere repentance, that these ills might cease;

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And more, the threatened Flood not drown the Earth.
But they were hardened in increasing sin,
Because of the dread judgements; which were signs
Of Power divine, and Will for punishment.
And, chief, their hatred burned against the line
Of Abel; for whose sake, and by whose arts
Of incantation, evils so extreme,
(Thus they believed, by malice rendered prone
To credit aught against the race they wronged,)
Fell on them: and they sware, in council met,
To wreak dread vengeance on the favoured seed.

But greater grief remains for me to tell,
Whereto my shuddering soul may scarce give voice.

Nature is like a chariot, and needs Movers;
When drawn, it runs; not drawn, it standeth still;
Spirits of Fire, like steeds, are its precursors.
They fly; it follows flying, as they fly,
A glorious equipage, round a circle driven,
Bounded by the Infinity alone.

Beyond the bounds of the Erythræan main,
A Continent dispreads; a region wide,
And unexplored, named of an elder world,
Whereof who dwell therein believe a Wreck
The present was, and wherefrom claim descent.
Hear, then, their Creed.

Long ere Man's story dates:
Upon this planet sudden Judgement fell;
And it was blotted from among the stars,
Made void, and formless. But that Land was saved,
Though still in gloom involved. At length, the Light
Was reapparent; but not whence it came,
The solar orb, or any planet else,
Lunar, or stellar. Gradually, the dense,
And dismal pall of vapoury darkness melts;
Until, behold, the dawning Sun awakes,
Cheers with his beams the mountains, and the vales,

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And shines on seas, and rivers, as of old—
Him saw, and, after him, the Moon, and Stars
Saw those who dwelt on that surviving Land,
Masculine Creatures; whom Paternal Love
Created for his Glory, each one so
Begotten at the Source, not generate
By sexual mixture, and successive births;
Each one, like Adam, called a Son of God,
Immortal Offspring of Eternity.
Both him, and them, saw these; and, when they saw,
Shouted aloud, and hailed their glorious show,
Decking the forehead of the firmament;
A radiant crown, illuminate with globes,
Illustrious as with gems, and spheres of light:
Shouted aloud, with most exultant joy,
On their once-more inhabitable realm,
Encircled with a purgèd atmosphere,
And arched above with azure clear, and pure,
In the swift billows mirroured.

Happy they,
Those Sons of God; for they were sinless, then;
And proved, while so, imperishable too,
Even mid utter ruin. But, alas,
Not sinless they endured: . . by Woman won,
They fell, like Adam's self, and Adam's Sons,
Whose Daughters they beheld; beholding, loved:
And, their superiour natures mixing thus
With human, became Sires of giant men;
Who overran the earth with their renown,
And quelled all opposition by their might;
Making, and ending wars, as if for sport.

Alas, those Fathers of that Titan brood
Had bartered Immortality for Love;
Wedding with mortals, mortal had become,
And, with her Daughters, shared the lot of Eve.
—As Light unto the Sun, is Truth to God.

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Now on that Land, in melancholy groups,
Those Signs, and Wonders, prophesying Doom
They had observed; mutation, and surcease
Of Day, and Night; of Seasons, and of Times;
Mysterious, and premonitory signs:
Not deathless now, defiant of mischance,
As when the perished world, they had survived,
Felt the dread shock that crushed her germens in,
And made her as a grave, or as a womb,
To bury one, and bear another earth.

Great is their fear, expecting Destiny.
As yet, not one amongst them had felt Death,
Alarmed the more by inexperienced pain,
Which yet, by Oracles they might not doubt,
They knew themselves predestined to confront.
Great is their fear; and Terrour, like a god,
Their souls o'ershadoweth with his wings unseen,
Whose distant thunder spake of his approach.