From him who shed the first, and that a brother's!
But thou, my Anah! let me call thee mine, 400
Albeit thou art not; 'tis a word I cannot
Part with, although I must from thee. My Anah!
Thou who dost rather make me dream that Abel
Had left a daughter, whose pure pious race
Survived in thee, so much unlike thou art
The rest of the stem Cainites, save in beauty,
For all of them are fairest in their favour----

_Aho._ (_interrupting him_).
And would'st thou have her like our father's foe
In mind, in soul? If _I_ partook thy thought,
And dreamed that aught of _Abel_ was in _her_!-- 410
Get thee hence, son of Noah; thou makest strife.

_Japh._ Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!

_Aho._ But
He slew not Seth: and what hast thou to do
With other deeds between his God and him?

_Japh._ Thou speakest well: his God hath judged him, and
I had not named his deed, but that thyself
Didst seem to glory in him, nor to shrink
From what he had done.

_Aho._ He was our father's father;
The eldest born of man, the strongest, bravest,
And most enduring:--Shall I blush for him 420
From whom we had our being? Look upon
Our race; behold their stature and their beauty,
Their courage, strength, and length of days----

_Japh._ They are numbered.

_Aho._ Be it so! but while yet their hours endure,
I glory in my brethren and our fathers.

_Japh._ My sire and race but glory in their God,
Anah! and thou?----

_Anah_. Whate'er our God decrees,
The God of Seth as Cain, I must obey,
And will endeavour patiently to obey.
But could I dare to pray in his dread hour 430
Of universal vengeance (if such should be),
It would not be to live, alone exempt
Of all my house. My sister! oh, my sister!
What were the world, or other worlds, or all
The brightest future, without the sweet past--
Thy love, my father's, all the life, and all
The things which sprang up with me, like the stars,
Making my dim existence radiant with
Soft lights which were not mine? Aholibamah!
Oh! if there should be mercy--seek it, find it: 440
I abhor Death, because that