University of Virginia Library

I. The City of Enos

Eastward of Eden, lies the Land of Naid;
Where Cain of old the City of Enos built.
Patriarch of Enos, now, was Tubalcain;
Of each expert Artificer in brass,
And iron, whence of keener edge were wrought
Weapons of war, and implements of toil,
Instructor; royal then, and since divine.
And of his state partook his Sister fair,
Naämah, vain, whence told, in after time,
Of Vulcan and of Venus fables lewd:
Zillah their mother, one of Lamech's wives;
—The other Adah, who bare Jubal, sire
Of such as dwelt in tents, and cattle owned,
And Jubal, sire of those who handled harp,
And organ;—Lamech of the line of Cain,
Son of Methusael; who was the son
Of Mehujaël; son of Irad; son
Of Enos, he whose name the City bore.
For when his brother's blood had cried to heaven,
Cain's gracious Judge to him a token gave—
For why should murther murther propagate,
Private, or social? Vengeance is the Lord's;
He will repay. Then, on a swift wild steed,
The first equestrian, Cain with fear escaped
From human tents, and Abel's injured race;
His mother's anguish, and his father's wrath;
And reigned in Naid, sole tyrant, till his death,
Within the capitol that he had built,
And named of his son, Enos; . . who, anon,
Over a race of strong, and mighty men,
Succeeded to his rule. Rooted in earth,
Their labour rigid grew, as grows the oak,
And spread its boughs abroad; . . beneath whose shade
Erelong they dwelt, inventive of new arts,
Laborious arts, though giving grace to life,
And to false woman's beauty treble power
Of fascination, like the subtle snake's;
That charmed the sons of God to union strange.
—Whence men of strength, and science; joining thus
The force of contemplation, with the might
Of quick observance, and experiment:
Empiricism, though gross, yet powerful
Nature to sway, society to form;
But evil in the end, and ruinous,
If true religion guide not, and o'errule.
Then at the organ Jubal took his seat,
While one the harp assumed: and, as their hands
Waked from the chords, else dumb, sciential sound;
Their voices to the mind expressed the sense
Of intricatest harmony; on air,
From the vibrating string, or sounding tube,
In undulations borne: and what stood by
Moved to the music—chief, the human heart,
Taught by the trembling nerves of pleasure near.
—Like harmony, with that which aye subsists
Nature, and Man between; that unison
Which mingles still the human, and divine:
The low, a symbol of the lofty still,
Prophetic type of that whereto it soars.
'Twas as if Life were made to know itself
Through Feeling; erst unknown, unfelt; or but
In such degree, so of that rapture short,
As worthless with that ecstasy compared.
And forthwith, from the purlieus of the court,
Groups of fair damsels flew into the midst;
In wanton measures, threading many a maze
Of motion, kindling amourous desire.