_Japh._ Father, it cannot be a sin to seek To save an earth-born being; and behold, These are not of the sinful, since they have The fellowship of angels. _Noah_. These are they, then, 470 Who leave the throne of God, to take them wives From out the race of Cain; the sons of Heaven, Who seek Earth's daughters for their beauty? _Aza._ Patriarch! Thou hast said it. _Noah_. Woe, woe, woe to such communion! Has not God made a barrier between Earth And Heaven, and limited each, kind to kind? _Sam._ Was not man made in high Jehovah's image? Did God not love what he had made? And what Do we but imitate and emulate His love unto created love? _Noah_. I am 480 But man, and was not made to judge mankind, Far less the sons of God; but as our God Has deigned to commune with me, and reveal _His_ judgments, I reply, that the descent Of Seraphs from their everlasting seat Unto a perishable and perishing, Even on the very _eve_ of _perishing_[153]?--world, Cannot be good. _Aza._ What! though it were to save? _Noah_. Not ye in all your glory can redeem What he who made you glorious hath condemned. 490 Were your immortal mission safety, 'twould Be general, not for two, though beautiful; And beautiful they are, but not the less Condemned. _Japh._ Oh, father! say it not. _Noah_. Son! son! If that thou wouldst avoid their doom, forget That they exist: they soon shall cease to be, While thou shalt be the sire of a new world, And better. _Japh._ Let me die with _this_, and _them_! _Noah_. Thou _shouldst_ for such a thought, but shalt not: he Who _can_, redeems thee. _Sam._ And why him and thee, 500 More than what he, thy son, prefers to both? _Noah_. Ask him who made thee greater than myself And mine, but not less subject to his own Almightiness. And lo! his mildest and Least to be tempted messenger appears! _Enter_ RAPHAEL[154] _the Archangel_. _Raph._ Spirits! Whose seat is near the throne, What do ye here? Is thus a Seraph's duty to be shown, Now that the hour is near 510 When Earth must be alone? Return! Adore and burn, In glorious homage with the elected "Seven." Your place is Heaven.