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

But night was glorious. In that orient clime,
Heaven kissed the earth, so nigh to her embrace;
And broad as bright the stars, and the round moon
Was larger than the sun to other lands,
And like to moons the planets, worlds indeed.
Seemed to the upward gazer, as he lay
Supine, that with the people of those orbs
He might converse; that voices might be pealed
From sphere to sphere, communicant of mind.
Day hath no pomp like this: so splendid nought,
And nought so shadowy soft—so like a dream,
And yet so real—all so hushed, and deep;
Holily breathless, awfully serene.
With look intense up to the sacred Night,
(That there displayed to him the Universe,
The choral echo, image multiform
Of that divinest Word, which, filially,
Affirming the great Being, and his own,
Pronounced Beginning in Eternity,
And spake the heavens, and earths to wonderous birth;)
Ham there reclined adoring, silently:
His steady soul collected in that act
Of worship pure. Slow, then, to thought restored,
Utterance scarce conscious murmured, like a gush
Of waters from a fountain in a vale,
In sweetest undertones, yet not unheard
In whispers by the children of the hills;
Or like the mellowed sounds of ocean's roar,
That comes in sighs to far, and lofty cliff,
Whereon the traveller, looking o'er the main,
Stretches his length, else dizzy with the height.
—Thus deep his soul; thus distant from the sense,
The emotions lowly syllabled by Ham—

‘Far hyaline of light; dwells not in thee
The Eternal? Stars, how high are ye; how high

That height above you; far above that height,
The throne of the All-Holy. Say, can He
Look, from that elevation, through blue sky,
Or darkened cloud—(for sometimes even thy smooth,
O Sea of Glass, storms wrinkle, and obscure
Mirrour so placid now)—and from the heaven,
Whose circuit he inhabits, stoop to judge?
So sinners deem yon deep expanse a veil
That hides them from his eyes, and him from theirs.
Yet with good things their houses who hath filled,
If not the bounteous Maker? Who but he
Shall their foundations with the Flood destroy?
Make then to him thy prayer; and he shall raise
The humble, and restore the meek of heart.
Pride was not made for man; and what may boast
In presence of the Eternal? Lo—behold,
Radiant the stars; though lofty, yet be they
Not pure in the Eyes of Him who made them so.
Not pure, all sin, though all sin not alike;
And sorrow waits on sin, just punishment.
Hence, righteously, the righteous are condemned
To months of pain, and nights of weariness.
Thus God is justified; and, in the end,
Will doubtless vengeance take for the oppressed;
Though ill it man beseems to call to him
For justice on his fellow, who himself
Is yet imperfect, and deserving wrath.
—Attend we then in patience, and in faith,
That equitable state, which saint, and sage
Shall recompense; unanxious of what doom
May crush the worser sinner—rather hope
In mercy his redemption, that to us,
Coming to all, compassion may be sent.
For, from the gulf that separates too oft
Success from human merit, soars a voice,
Announcing difference in man, and beast,

Whose aims aye prosper to their destined end.
Difference in kind, no less than in degree;
Ay, and a contradiction in ourselves,
Creation elsewhere knows not; Mind, and Will
Diverse in law, and choice; and what the sense
Affects too mean to satisfy the soul:
Whence an enigma all the world without;
Fortune, and circumstance; whereof the word,
That may the riddle solve, is then pronounced
Whene'er the human feels itself divine;
Set free from sense, and free from accident,
Immortal; giving Nature's transiency
Permanent attributes, like to its own;
Beauty, and Order; Harmony, and Law;
Motive, and deep Significance sublime;
Yea, and Existence—testifying thus
To its own being—its eternity—
And oracling a promise of a state
Continuous; and adapted to content,
And to employ each organ, pre-assured,
Anticipant, prophetic of its use,
In region suited to its highest aim;
Whereof credential Enoch gave to man,
Who walked with God in groves of Paradise.
—With Him, the Woman's Seed, the One foredoomed
To sway the kingdom of the skies, the Hour
Abides, that shall reveal the treasures hid,
And kings, and warriours from their couches raise,
The teeth of sinners break, and from their thrones
The mighty hurl. The Light of Nations he;
The Rock whereon the holy shall depend;
The Hope of troubled hearts. Before the world,
He was; and, in the presence of our God,
The portion of the righteous has preserved;
Himself their lot, and life. When he appears,
None shall be saved by silver, or by gold;

Nor by escape, or flight; nor shall there be
Iron for war, or mail-coat for the breast.
But blessèd they who trust in the Elect;
For them the light of everlasting life
Is as the sun, and a perpetual day;
For darkness shall be scattered, and destroyed,
And they shall magnify the name of God,
For his long-suffering to a guilty world,
And for the glory for the good prepared.’

Thus counselled Ham; and Lamech thus replied:
‘I know the Eternal my Redeemer is—
Surviving all things, and transcending dust.
With frame renewed, and in immortal flesh,
God shall I see; mine eye shall see him then,
Estranged no more—my Advocate, my Judge.
My heart consumes within me at the thought:
I pant to stand before him. Then will I
His mercy implore, my sins acknowledging;
This chiefly; that with murmuring discontent,
On stubborn earth my brow's sweat I bestowed,
Regarding not herein creating Love,
That willed all pleasures, or of body, or mind,
Should be by labour earned; suspending thus
Fatal indulgence, and obliging man
To wake sublimer faculties, to war
Successfully with nature, by the might
Of ghostly power. The families of men
Had reared them habitations on the earth;
Founding their cities on the rocky steeps,
Or in vale-hollows, sacred to their sons,
Named by their names, or honoured with their own—
Nay—even won them from the fearful wilds.

Hence I, the eighth from Adam, had to seek
Remoter dwelling, for a later race,
In soil yet virgin of the plough, or spade.
—Herein, aright considered, mercy was,
That Life in me might be developed full;
Moral, and intellectual. Spirit acts,
Nor can be idle; or if idle, dies.
Hence speculation evermore suggests
Inquiry, and new knowledge; to erect
System on fact; then only edified
Secure, when theory is built on truth.
Hence Reason (by like spiritual act
As Nature is subdued, ere for the frame
Of outward life provision may be made,)
Must hold like war with Nature, on a stage
Of nobler conflict; in her strongest holds
Of low propensity, or feeling high;
Ere right intelligence may rule; and Will,
Admonished in the members, to a Will
Superiour yield, and it in act express,
In practice, as in precept, still supreme.
—Oh, as in seasons past that I were now;
Then God was with me—then my children were.
He breaketh down that none can build again;
He shutteth; none can open: he withholds
The waters; they dry up: he sends them out;
And they the earth o'erturn. Speed, God of doom—
Make ready, as a king prepared for war.
Shake, from the oppressor's vine, the grape unripe;
And, as the olive, cast his flower away:
Let not the dew lie on the wicked branch,
Let it not come to verdure. Rise—arise—
Blood of the righteous; from the earth ascend,
And cry in heaven before him. Yet, oh spare
The innocent—so that thy work, great God,
Perish not utterly from off the earth.

Perish therefrom who have offended thee;
But be the upright stablished, as a plant,
To flourish, and bear seed, for evermore.’

Thus ended Lamech: and all had relapsed
Into like silence, utter and intense,
As the deep stillness that was broken then,
When grief found words which else had madness found;
But here Elihu interposed, with speech
Of wonderous wisdom, though the youngest there;
And whereof, in the end, more wonder grew:
Such great event, and high result ensued.

The foregoing remarkable passages are also from the Ethiopian Book of Enoch.

The text is here again indebted to some majestic verses in the Ethiopian Book of Enoch