Heavn's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific Word; your discord end.
Nor stay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Follow'd in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then stay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things.
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230
This be thy just circumference, O world!
Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void. Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat❜ry calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235
And vital virtue' infused and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed
Like things to like, the rest to sev'ral place
Disparted, and between spun out the air;
And Earth. self-balanced, on her centre hung.
Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light Ethereal first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 245
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun
232. It is well observed, that this book is a magnificent paraphrase of the Mosaic account of the creation.
243. Gen. i. 3. I cannot but observe here that one of the most sublime, and at the same time learned of modern reasoners, in speaking to me on this passage of Scripture, remarked, that the usual way in which it is understood is not only incorrect, but greatly diminishes its sublimity. It is highly wrong, according to him, to suppose that light was first called into being on the creation of this world, for Heaven had been for ever filled with it, and God himself is compared to it; the expression, consequently, 'Let there be light,' is to be interpreted, Let the light flow forth let there be light shining from its great original fountain on the commencing system.'
Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side,
With borders long the rivers: that earth now
Seem'd like to Heav'n, a seat where Gods might
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
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 ev'ry herb, before it grew
On the green stem; God saw that it was good:
So ev❜n and morn recorded the third day.
Again the Almighty spake, Let there be Lights
High in th' expanse of Heaven, to divide
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 Heav'n,
To give light on the earth: and it was so.
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 set them in the firmament of Heav'n
T'illuminate the earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God saw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good:
For, of celestial bodies, first the sun,
A mighty sphere, he framed, unlightsome first, 355
Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon
Globose, and ev'ry magnitude of stars,
And sow'd with stars the Heav'n thick as a field: Of light by far the greater part he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed 300 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,
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their small peculiar, though for human sight
So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through Heav'n's high road. The grey
Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced,
Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon,
But opposite in levell'd west was set
His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him, for other light she needed none
In that aspéct; and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn she shines, 380
Revolved on Heav'n's great axle; and her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the hemisphere. Then first adorn'd
With her bright luminaries that set and rose,
Glad ev'ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth day.
And God said, Let the waters generate
Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Display'd on th' open firmament of Heav'n.
And God created the great whales, and each
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously
The waters generated by their kinds,
And ev'ry 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.
Forth with the sounds and seas, each creek and bay
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
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,
Shew to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold,
Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend
373. For longitude Bentley reads his long career.
402. Sculls, a Saxon word, signifying an assembly.
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