James A. Hillhouse [pp. 329-335]

834 James.... [APRI
With stones inestimable, studded so
That sun or stars were useless there.
* * *
* there they dwell, and muse
And wander: Beings beautiful, immortal
Minds vast as heaven, capacious as the sky;
Whose thoughts connect Past, Present and To Come,
And glow with light intense, imperishable.
So in the starry chambers of the Sea
And Air-pavilions, upper Tabernacles,
They study Nature's secrets, and enjoy
No poor dominion."
These and many such like things which he
her, awaken doubt and fear in her breast.
cannot fathom him. "Once," she says "Once, in his gentle countenance, methought,
Love grew in reverence, as my lips described
The power, the patience, purity and faith,
Of our Almighty Father! Then 1 hoped
His spirit, tempered by its earthly passion,
Fast ripening for a love that never dies! Most strange!-Incomprehensible the more,
The more I think!-All tenderness, all love,
He seemed,-happy and social as a child: But now into such deeps of thought he lapses,
So like despair,-as makes me weep, or, rather,
Tremble."
Absalom goes to the battle, and consigns Tamar
to Hadad's care. He withdraws her to a place of
safety, until he learns the issue of the fight. He
soon hears that her father has been slain, and his
troops defeated. Under pretence of seeking safety,
he then flies to a sequestered place in the wood,
near a cave. He here informs Tamar of her father's fate, and endeavors to persuade her
"to retire,
And piously, on some far, peaceful shore,
With mingled tears embalm his memory."
She is resolute in her determination to return to
David, and firmly refuses his earnest solicitations.
He finally becomes enraged, and, in an altered
tone, e xclaims
"Hold! Hold!
For thou must hear. If deaf to love, thou'rt not
Tofearfdl ecstasy.
(TAMAR startled:-he proceeds, but agitated and irresolute.)
Confide in meI can transport thee-O, to a paradise,
To which this Canaan is a darksome span:Beings shall welcomne-serve thee-lovely as Angels;The Elemental Powers shall stoop:-the Sea
Disclose her wonders, and receive thy feet
Into her sapphire chambers;-orbed clouds
Shall chariot thee from zone to zone, while earth,
A dwindled islet, floats beneath thee;-every
Season and clime shall blend for thee the garland.
The abyss of Time shall cast its secrets, —ere
The Flood marred primal nature,-ere this Orb
Stood in her station! Thou shalt know the stars,
The houses of Eternity, their names,
Their courses, destiny,-all marvels high.
Tam. Talk not so madly.
Had. (vehemently.) Speak-answerWilt thou be mine, if mistress of them all?
Tam. Thy mien appals me;-l1 know not %hat I fear;
Thou woulds't not wrong mne,-reft and fatherless,Confided to thee as a sacred trust Had. (haughtily.) My power
Is questioned. Whom dost thou imagine me?
Tam. Indeed surpassed by nothing human.
Had. Bah!
Tam. 0, Hadad, Hadad, what unhallowed thought
So ruffles and transforms thee?
Had. Still, still
Thou call'st me Hadad,-boy, worm, heritor,
Of a poor, vanquished, tributary King!Then KNOW me.
Tarn. Seraphs hover round me!
Had. Woman! (struggling, as with conflicting emotions,)
What thou so dotest on-this form-was Hadad'sBut I-the spirit-I, who speak through these
Clay lips, and glimmer through these eyes,Have challenged fellowship, equality,
With Deathless Ones,-prescient Intelligences,Who scorn Man and his molehill, and esteem
The outgoing of the morning, yesterday!1, who commune with thee, have dared, proved, suffered,
In life, in death-and in that state whose vale
[Is death's first issue! I could freeze thy blood
With mysteries too terrible-of Hades!Not there imrnmured, for by my art I'scaped
Those confines, and with Beings dwelt-of bright
Unbodied essence. Canst thou now conceive
The love that could persuade me to these fetters?Abandoning my power-1I, who could touch
The firmament, and plunge to darkest Sheol;
Bask in the sun's orb, fathom the green sea,
Even while I speak it-here to root and grow
In earth again, a mortal. abject thing,
To win and to enjoy thy love."
Now indeed are her eyes opened to his real character; but she is not dazzled by the display of the
pomp and power and wisdom of which he is the
master. Her heart is firm in the faith and'might
of God and angels," and she calls upon Heaven to
forsake her not. Hadad perseveres in his endeavors, recounting to her all the infinite miseries
which hlie has dared for her love, reminding her
that she is parentless and given over beyond the
hope of rescue to his power, with none to help or
friend her, and urging her, by all the arguments
which he can adduce, to turn to
"happiness beyond the lot of mortal;
Beauty unfading, knowledge like the Angels';
Glory, and sovereignty, and length of days."
But she recoils from his words and his presence,
and exclaims
"Heart, hold thou firm! God look on me!
For I am sore beset!-If'tis my crime
Not to have abhorred thee utterly, and sealed
My ears like adamant, nor ventured, once,
Exchange a thought,-'twas difficult, alas!
Seeing that form, and listening to a tongue
Employed so oft in noblest eloquence,
To realize thee foul, and reprobate,Abandonied,-hating God,-cruelly bent
To drag a frail, bereaved, unhappy creature,
Down to thy own dark mansion-house of pain,
But now I know thee, I abjure thee,-hate thee,
More than unwittingly I loved. To God
I cleave-on God I call."
[APRIL$'
James A. Hillhouse.
834
tells
She