sung),
So massy, vast, yet green in their old age, 870
Are overtopped,
Their summer blossoms by the surges lopped,
Which rise, and rise, and rise.
Vainly we look up to the lowering skies--
They meet the seas,
And shut out God from our beseeching eyes.
Fly, son of Noah, fly! and take thine ease,
In thine allotted ocean-tent;
And view, all floating o'er the element,
The corpses of the world of thy young days: 880
Then to Jehovah raise
Thy song of praise!

_A Mortal_.
Blessed are the dead
Who die in the Lord!
And though the waters be o'er earth outspread,
Yet, as _his_ word,
Be the decree adored!
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 appear