POETRY. 663 



• So be the sins of all my race confest, 



• So on their heads may peace and pardon rest.* 



— Thus spake our Sire, and down the steep descent 

 With strengthened heart, and fearless footstep went : 



Javan ! when we parted at his door, 



1 loved him as I never loved before. 



" Ere noon returning to his bower, I found 

 Our father labouring in his harvest ground, 

 (For yet he tilled a little plot of soil, 

 Patient and pleas'd with voluntary toil ;) 

 But O how changed from him, whose morning eye 

 Outshone the star, that told the sun was nigh 1 

 Loose in his feeble grasp the sickle shook ; 

 I mark'd the ghastly dolour of his look. 

 And ran to help him ; but his latest strength 

 Fail'd ; — prone upon his sheaves he fell at length , 

 I strove to raise him ; sight and sense were fled, 

 Nerveless his limbs, and backward sway'd his head- 

 Seth passed; I called him, and we bore our Sire 

 To neighbouring shades from noon's afflictive fire : 

 Ere long he 'woke to feeling, with a sigh, 

 And half unclosed his hesitating eye; 

 Strangely and timidly he peer'd around, 

 Like men in dreams whom sudden light confounds ; 

 ^' Is this a new Creation ? — Have I pass'd 



• The bitterness of death ?' — He look'd aghast, 

 Then sorrowful ;— ' No ; — men and trees appear ; 



• 'Tis not a new Creation, — pain is here : 



• From Sin's dominion is there no release ? 



• Lord ! let thy servant now depart in peace/ 

 .—Hurried remembrance crowding o'er his soul, 

 He knew us ; tears of consternation stole 



Down his pale cheeks : — ' Seth ! — Enoch ! — Where is Eve ? 



• How could the spouse her dying consort leave V 



'• Eve look'd that moment from their cottage-door 

 In quest of Adam, where he toil'd before ; 

 He was not there, she called him by his name ; 

 Sweet to his ear the well-known accents came ; 

 — * Here am I,' answer'd he, in tone so weak. 

 That we who held him scarcely heard him speak ; 

 But, resolutely bent to rise, in vain 

 He struggled till he swonn'd away with pain. 

 Eve call'd again, and turning tow'rds the shade. 

 Helpless as infancy, beheld him laid ; 

 She sprang, as smitten with a mortal wound. 

 Forward, and cast herself upon the ground 



