No More Learning

He gave me life--he taketh but
The breath which is his own:
And though these eyes should be for ever shut, 890
Nor longer this weak voice before his throne
Be heard in supplicating tone,
Still blessed be the Lord,
For what is past,
For that which is:
For all are his,
From first to last--
Time--Space--Eternity--Life--Death--
The vast known and immeasurable unknown.
He made, and can unmake; 900
And shall I, for a little gasp of breath,
Blaspheme and groan?
No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith,
Nor quiver, though the Universe may quake!

_Chorus of Mortals_.

Where shall we fly?
Not to the mountains high;
For now their torrents rush, with double roar,
To meet the Ocean, which, advancing still,
Already grasps each drowning hill,
Nor leaves an unsearched cave. 910

_Enter a Woman_.

_Woman_.
Oh, save me, save!
Our valley is no more:
My father and my father's tent,
My brethren and my brethren's herds,
The pleasant trees that o'er our noonday bent,
And sent forth evening songs from sweetest birds,
The little rivulet which freshened all
Our pastures green,
No more are to be seen.
When to the mountain cliff I climbed this morn, 920
I turned to bless the spot,
And not a leaf appeared about to fall;--
And now they are not! --
Why was I born?

_Japh. _
To die! in youth to die!
And happier in that doom,
Than to behold the universal tomb,
Which I
Am thus condemned to weep above in vain.
Why, when all perish, why must I remain?

[_The waters rise; Men fly in every direction; many
are overtaken by the waves: the Chorus of
Mortals disperses in search of safety up the
mountains:_ JAPHET _remains upon a rock, while
the Ark floats towards him in the distance_. [158]

FOOTNOTES:

[138] {285}[Aholibamah ("tent of the highest") was daughter of Anah (a
Hivite clan-name), the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife, Gen. xxxvi. 14.
Irad was the son of Enoch, and grandson of Cain, Gen. iv. 18. ]

[139] {286}[Compare _Manfred_, act i. sc. I, line 131, _Poetical Works_,
1901, iv. 89, and note i. ]

[140] The archangels, said to be seven in number, and to occupy the
eighth rank in the celestial hierarchy.

[Compare _Tobit_ xii. 15, "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels
which present the prayers of the saints.