SCENE II. CREATION.

Eloheim, seated upon his Throne.

[Enter JEHOVAH, JESUS, and MICHAEL.

Eloheim. "Ye powers of Heaven!" This day hath Satan, our rebellious foe, been vanquished. Lest he again presumptuous rise, let us create new worlds, and people them with beings who by slow degrees shall rise and fill the place of those by him deceived. Go forth, ye heavenly messengers; examine well the boundless realms of space, and bring report form thence back to the Eternal Throne.

Jehovah, Jesus, and Michael, [all]. Eternal father! Great Eloheim, Maker and King of the celestial worlds. Joyful we go, thy mandates to fulfill.

[Exeunt JEHOVAH, JESUS, and MICHAEL.

Eloheim. Far into chaos proudly ride my messengers.

Winds bear them onward o'er the deep profound.

[Reenter JEHOVAH, JESUS, and MICHAEL.

Jehovah, Jesus, and Michael, [all]. Almighty Ruler. The way is clear. Send forth thy Word alone, and worlds will rise, and circle into space, obedient to thy call.

Elo. Silence, ye troubled waves! your discord end. Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds. This be thy circumference, O world!"

Jeh. Behold the Earth. “Matter unformed and void; darkness profound covers the abyss.”

Michael. But see, “the Spirit of God outspread, and vital virtue infused, and vital warmth throughout the fluid mass. Like things to like! The rest to several places disparted.” And in the air. “the Earth, self-balanced, on her centre hangs.”

Elo. “Let there be light.”

Jesus. “Hail! Holy light. Offspring of Heaven, first born.”

Elo. The light is good. Let darkness flee into the shades of night, and light make up the day.

Mich. Mark! “the celestial choirs, when orient light, exhaling first from darkness, they behold, — birthday of Heaven and Earth, with joy and shout, the hollow, universal orb they fill.”

Elo. “Let there be a firmament amid the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

Jeh. “Behold the firmament — expanse of liquid, pure, transparent, elemental air, diffused in circuit to the uttermost convex; partition form and sure, the waters underneath from those above dividing.”

Jesus. The water still doth compass all the Earth, moulding the plastic mass, and doth implant, within her genial breast, the seeds of various life.

Elo. “Be gathered, now, ye waters under Heaven, into one place, and let dry land appear.’ Land, freed from your prison-house, arise, and be called Earth. Ye waters, seas. Now ‘let the Earth put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind whose seed is in herself, upon the Earth.”

Mich. Oh, sight sublime! The Earth, till now, barren and fruitless was; “her universal face” now clothed in “pleasant green.” Listen, ye Gods! The morning stars, which in the vast expanse of Heaven, circle their rounds, together sing. The sons of God, swift-winged angels, shout for joy.

Elo. “Let there be lights, high in the expanse of Heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, for seasons and for days, and circling years; and let them be for lights, as I ordain their office, in the firmament of Heaven, to give light on the earth.” “Two great lights, — great for their use to man, — the greater to have rule by day, the less by night; the stars I also set in the high firmament, to illuminate the Earth, and rule the day in their vicissitude, and rule the night, and light from darkness to divide.”

Jeh. Behold, “the thousand, thousand stars, that now appear, spangling the hemisphere,” the luminaries bright, that rise and set, and crown the glory of the fourth new day.

Elo. “Let the waters generate reptile, with spawn abundance; living soul; and let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings displayed, on the open firmament of Heaven, and the great whales, and each soul living, each that creeps and in the waters generate, and each bird of its kind, — let each be blessed;’ ‘be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas and lakes, and running streams, the waters fill: and let the fowl be multiplied.”

Jesus. Let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be glad, and hail the dawning of the fifth new day.

Elo. This is the sixth and last morn of creation. Let every creature forth, from its genial mother, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of earth, each of his kind. All, all is good, and pleasing in my sight.

Jesus. “Now Heaven in all her glory shines. Earth, in her rich attire, consummate, lovely, smiles; air, water, earth, fowl, fish, and beast are here, and yet there wants the master work of all yet done; a creature endued with reason, which erect may stand, and self-acknowledged, govern all the rest.”

Elo. “Let us make man, in our own image, man in our similitude, and let them rule over the fish and fowl of sea and air, beast of the field, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing, that creeps the ground.” Thou art created male and female, in the form and likeness of the Gods. Go forth, be blessed; ‘be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, subdue it, and throughout dominion hold’ over all, all else that breathes upon its bosom. Now all is finished, all complete and perfect. Immortal Gods, let us to our high seat ascend, that from our lofty throne our perfect works we may behold.

[To represent the creation of man, Jehovah, Jesus, and Michael stroke each candidate separately pretending to form; and by blowing into their faces, pretend to vivify them. They are then supposed to be as Adam, newly made, and perfectly ductile in the hands of their makers. A deep sleep then falls upon the new Adam, and ribs are extracted, out of which, in another apartment, their wives are formed. They are then commanded to awake, and their wives are introduced to them; after which they file by twos into the garden.]