300

Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,
For haste; such flight the great command impress'd
On the swift floods : as armies at the call

295
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the watry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With serpent error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy oose deep channels wore ;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within those banks, where rivers now 305
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd seas :
And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, 310
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,
Whose feed is in herself upon the earth.
He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadornd,
Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad 315
Her universal face with pleasant green,
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd
Opening their various colors, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth florith'd thick the cluftring vine, forth crept 326
The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed
Imbattel'd in her field, and th' humble thrub,

And ü

And bush with frizled hair implicit: laft
Rofe as in dance the stately trees, and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm’d
Their blossoms : with high woods the hills were crown'd,
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain fide,
With borders long the rivers : that earth now
Seem'd like to Heav'n, a seat where Gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt 330
Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rain'd
Upon the earth, and man to till the ground
None was, but from the earth a dewy mist
Went

up and water'd all the ground, and each Plant of the field, which ere it was in th' earth

335 God made, and every herb, before it grew On the

green Atem ; God saw that it was good : So ev'n and morn recorded the third day.

Again th' Almighty fpake, Let there be lights High in th' expanse of Heaven, to divide

340 The day from 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 ; and it was fo. 345 And God made two great lights, great for their use To Man, the greater to have rule by day, The less by night altern; and made the stars, And let them in the firmament of Heaven To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day 350 In their viciffitude, and ru'e the night, And light from darkness to divide. God saw,

Surveying

Surveying his great work, that it was good : For of celestial bodies first the fun : A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightfome first,

355
Though of ethereal mold: then form?d the moon
Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
And sow'd with stars the Heay'n thick as a field :
Of light by far the greater part he took,
- Transplanted from her cloudy fhrine, and plac'd 360
In the sun's orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light, firm to retain
Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light
Hither as to their fountain other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, 365
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their finall peculiar, though from human sight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, 370

Regent of day, and all th’horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocond to run
His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding sweet influence : less bright the moon 375
But oppofit in level'd west was set
His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him, for other light she needed none
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn she shines, 380
Revolv’d on Heav'n's great axle, and her reign
With thousand leffer lights dividual holds,

With

With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the hemisphere: then first adorn'd
With their bright luminaries that set and rose, 385
Glad evening and glad morn crown’d the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters generate
Reptil with spawn abundant, living soul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
€ Display'd on the open firmament of Heaven.

390 And God created the great whales, and each Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously The waters generated by their kinds, And every bird of wing after his kind; And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas And lakes and running streams the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiply'd, on th' earth. Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals

400 Of fish that with their fins and shining scales Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft Bank the mid sea: part single or with mate Graze the sea weed their pasture, and through groves ,,Of coral stray, or sporting with quick glance 405 Show to the fun their wav'd coats dropt with gold, Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal, And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk 410 Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gate Tempest the ocean : there leviathan,

Hugest

2

a

Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps or swims
And seems a moving land, and at his gills 415
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a fea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens and shores
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th' egg that soon!
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd
Their callow young, but feather'd soon and fledge 420
They fumm’d their pens, and soaring th' air sublime
With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud
In prospect; there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosly wing the region, part more wise 425
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of feasons, and set forth
Their

aery caravan high over seas
Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Lasing their fight; so steers the prudent crane

: 430 Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Flotes, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes :. From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings Till ev'n, nor then the solemn nightingale 435 Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays : Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit 440 The dank, and rising on stiff pennons, tower The mid aereal (ky: Others on ground.

Walk'd