Darkness with horror sullenly wrapt up. While they are thus speaking, the are introduced into the dialogues between the spiritual beings, yet it is not till we are brought to take a part with the creatures of our own nature, that the author puts forth his strength. There is, however, something impressive in the compassion with which the angels speak of the ineffectual prayers and offerings of man. It is wonderful indeed that we should have been encouraged to hope, that the supplications of a creature so ignorant, weak, and vain, could affect the eternal purposes of Almighty Wisdom! The second scene opens with the following hymn by Adam : "O Thou, who, through the infinite abyss O, who shall sing of thy berrignant power, of religion. But in a moment the fit of anger passes, and full of remorse and grief for the woes he has entailed on the world, prophetically deplores the miseries that must ensue when priests, actuated by the sordid motives of ambition and self-aggrandizement, shall forget the solemn essentialities of their office "When the proud man, dilating at the altar, Eve, who throughout the story is adorned with the most beautiful and interesting graces of her sex, breaks in upon the sorrows of Adam, and endeavours to excuse and palliate the offence of their son. "Alas! he has been from the very hour But, though in nature rude, stern and rebellious, Their woes or sorrows from our dire transgression, The green and goodly world in its flush'd youth Abel, profoundly affected by the remorse of his parents, and particularly by the grief of his father, turns to Cain, and with the most simple and pathetic tenderness endeavours to dissuade him from the indulgence of that rash and turbulent humour which is so often the cause of so much distress. "Why wilt thou still, my brother, thus provoke Cain. Give it up: Resign the claim, and all contention ends. Adam. That must not be-the forfeiture incurr'd Incurr'd, my children, by your hapless parents, Cuts off the rights of all inheritance, And Heaven has reassumed the awful gift Which was on man conferr'd.-To Heaven again Let man submit himself, and thence receive New ordination to its holy service." Cain professes his readiness to acquiesce in this proposal; but Eve, under the influence of some solemn and misgiving presentiment, urges him to forego the probation, and to yield the priesthood to the meek and pious Abel, "Whose holy, lowly, and serene demeanour Cain, however, spurns the suggestion, The scene, after the chorus, is again changed, and the angel of Abel, who remains contemplative and serene on the brow of the mountain, is addressed by one of the winged ministers of Heaven, who had been commissioned to the guardian of the world, of whom this spirit gives the following description: "He sits on pillowed flakes of golden light, Midway between the glorious gate of Heaven, VOL. X. 2 S And the dim frontiers of this vapoury world, The vast mysterious circling wheels of time On the angel of Abel inquiring the object of the mandatory spirit's mission, he is informed that a recent general irruption of the fiends from their dark and profound abodes had been observed, and the reader is prepared by the description, for the accomplishment of some tremendous event, the nature and issue of which are still hidden "Behind the shadowy curtain of hereafter," even from the knowledge of the angels. "Th' antagonists of Heaven Their clamorous flight directed to the earth: Red and malignant, reaching from the cave The eye of heaven's great centinel, and sought The ministering spirit then departs; and the angel of Abel, touched with sorrow and commiseration for the evils which are coming upon the children of man, awfully anticipates a total erasure, by fire, of all created things, according to a prediction that had been promulgated by the oracles of heaven. "In the dread hour when that last fire begins, And heaven's artillery, charged with wrath and doom; The attention of the angel of Abel is arrested by a struggle in the skies, between the guardian of Cain and that terrible demon, which had so fearfully alarmed him in the course of the preceding night, and a sublime impression is produced by an incidental allusion to the state of unconscious danger in which Cain appears, while the dreadful conflict for his soul is maintained between the fiend and the seraph. Before the struggle is however terminated, the angel of Abel is drawn from his station on the mountain, by the appearance of an innumerable multitude of evil spirits thronging in from all sides, towards the place where the mortals are assembled Found the altars, and he hastens to the protection of his charge. The scene is then again changed, and the worshippers are introduced. Adam and Eve are represented as standing by themselves apart from their family; and from what passes between them we learn that Abel is kneeling with his face to the ground before his altar, humbly and resigned, awaiting the manifestation of the will of Heaven; while Cain is standing with the sacrificial instrument dropping the blood of the victim in his left hand, and shading his eyes with his right, as he arrogantly looks towards the sun, in expectation of the coming fire. In this awful moment a solemn sound is heard; a glorious splendour fills all the air, and a cherub with wings of flame descends upon the altar of Åbel, and with his touch kindles and consumes the accepted offering; at the sight of which, Cain wildly rushes from the spot, while his brethren, with anthems of thankfulness, salute their brother Abel as the acknowleged priest of Jehovah. The second act opens with an appalling communion between the angels of the two brothers, in which the guardian of Cain sorrowing confesses that he had been mastered by the demon, and forced to abandon his charge, is returning to receive, if Providence so pleases, a renewal and augmentation of strength in heaven. The sorrow of the angel is calm and solemn, and his apprehension at what may befal Cain, exposed, in the "unguarded hour," to the temptations of the fiend, and prone to evil, by the consequences of Adam's forfeiture, is affectingly implied in the silence and dejection with which he parts from his companion, and ascends to heaven, foreboding that he is never to be again permitted to return. The second scene exhibits Cain wandering solitary in a wild and rugged upland country, where the trees are stunted in their growth, broken by the tempest, and blasted by the lightning. He throws himself on the ledge of a precipice which overlooks the plain, where the altar of Abel is still seen smoking, and abandons himself to the implacable feelings of a degra ded spirit; in the midst of which, however, occasional gleams of hope and piety sparkle out, and shew the war between the good and evil of his nature, which so agitates his bosom, "Yes: he may serve their altars. What of that? My sacrifice and supplication scorn'd? While thus indulging these humilia cr of a cavern; but the fiend awfully advances, and bitterly taunts him with the rejection of his offering, and perpetual degradation from the natural right that belonged to the seniority of his birth 66 But," says the deriding demon "What though no flame from Heaven your altar fired, The demon then insinuates reasons In the third division of the subject, Cain, gnawed by remorse, is represented as endowed with more than Promethean fortitude. The first scene introduces him returning after he had murdered his brother. Eve, seeing him approach, runs to meet him, unconscious of the crime he had committed, and only anxious to sooth and console him; but on advancing towards him, she halts suddenly, alarmed and terrified at the alteration in his looks-the awful impress of his guilt. We are not told of what the mark set on his forehead consists; but the horror and aversion with which his heretofore too partial mother turns away and bids him hide his dreadful visage from her sight, is far more impressive than the most emphatic description. At her exclamation the fratricide sullenly retires, and the scene changes to an assembly of the fiends exulting at having gained, as they suppose, the soul of the first-born man, and triumphantly anticipating a tremendous increase of power and dominion by their achievements over mankind. In the midst, however, of this terrific exultation, their joy is suddenly silenced by the glorious apparition of Abel's spirit seen ascending to heaven, welcomed by the angels, and conducted by the host of the cherubim and seraphim, rejoicing in the salvation of the first of the human race that has incurred the penalty of death. This magnificent apotheosis is succeeded by a scene of solitude and horror that has no example. Cain, having wandered into a wilderness where nature suffered the first and greatest shock of the curse which shattered and blasted the face of the earth at the fall of man, leans against a rock, and looking abroad on a vast expanse of gloomy precipices, dark woods, and troubled waters, watches the heavy and funereal progress of a thunder-cloud which lowers between him and the sun, covering the landscape with the mantle of its black and portentous shadow. When he has stood some time in the sullen contemplation of these dark and lugubrious objects, he breaks out into a so liloquy, which we dare not venture to quote, calling upon the slumbering fires and thunders of the cloud to burst upon his head, and relieve him from the horrors of existence. Maddening in impiety, he exclaims, stretching his right hand in defiance towards the skies, "Thou dread, eternal, irresponsible, |