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The Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit 440 grassy The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower clods now The mid aerial sky. Others on ground

calved

Walked firm-the crested cock, whose clarion
sounds

The silent hours, and the other, whose gay train
Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus
With Fish replenished, and the air with Fowl,
Evening and morn solemnized the fifth Day.
"The sixth, and of Creation last, arose
With evening harps and matin; when God
said,

450

"Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her

kind,

Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the earth,
Each in their kind!" The Earth obeyed, and,

straight

Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limbed and full-grown. Out of the ground up

rose,

As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den—
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green: 460
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
Pasturing at once and in broad herds, upsprung.
The grassy clods now calved; now half appeared
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts-then springs, as broke from
bonds,

And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,
The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole

Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw Insects In hillocks; the swift stag from underground swarm Bore up his branching head; scarce from his reptiles

mould

and

47° creep

Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
His vastness; fleeced the flocks and bleating

rose,

As plants; ambiguous between sea and land,
The river-horse and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Insect or worm. Those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries decked of summer's pride,
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green;
These as a line their long dimension drew, 480
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; some of serpent kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involved
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident

Of future, in small room large heart enclosed-
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter-joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty. Swarming next appeared
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 490
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey stored. The rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gavʼst them

names,

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

1

Man is "Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and created

rolled

a living Her motions, as the great First Mover's hand 500 First wheeled their course; Earth, in her rich

soul

attire

Consummate, lovely smiled; Air, Water, Earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was
walked,

Frequent; and of the sixth Day yet remained.
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done-a creature who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect

His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven, 511
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and

eyes

Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works. Therefore the Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not He
Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake :-
"Let us make now Man in our 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,

520

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground!"
This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O Man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Express, and thou becam❜st a living soul.

Male he created thee, but thy consort
Female, for race; then blessed mankind,

said,

[blocks in formation]

"Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth;
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,
And every living thing that moves on the Earth!"
Wherever thus created-for no place

Is

yet distinct by name-thence, as thou know'st,
He brought thee into this delicious grove,
This Garden, planted with the trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste,

540

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee. All sorts are here that all the earth

yields,

Variety without end; but of the tree

Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil
Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou
diest.

Death is the penalty imposed; beware,
And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

551

Here finished He, and all that he had made
Viewed, and, behold! all was entirely good.
So even and morn accomplished the sixth Day;
Yet not till the Creator, from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,
Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode,
Thence to behold this new-created World,
The addition of his empire, how it showed
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great idea. Up he rode,
Followed with acclamation, and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned

Happy Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused, the sons Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy

of men

men,

And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced,

Created in his image, there to dwell

And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshipers
Holy and just! thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!"

630

So sung they, and the Empyrean rung
With halleluiahs. Thus was Sabbath kept.
And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked
How first this World and face of things began,
And what before thy memory was done
From the beginning, that posterity,

Informed by thee, might know. If else thou
seek'st

Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.' 640

THE END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK

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