The smelling Gourd, up stood the Corny Reed
Embattelld in her Field: and the humble Shrub,
And Bush with frizlid Hair implicit : last
Rose as in Dance the stately Trees, and spread
Their Branches hung with Copious Fruit; or gem'd
Their Blossoms: with high Woods the Hills were

(crown'dy
With Tufts the Valleys, and each Fountain side,
With Borders long the Rivers. That Earth now
Seem'd like to Heav'nga Seat where Gods might dwell
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 Mift
Went up and water'd all the Ground, and each
Plant of the Field, which e're it was in th' Earth
God made, and every Herb, before it grew
On the green Stem; God law that it was Good. ·
So Ev'n and Morn recorded the third Day.

LXXXIII.

of the Sun, Moon, and Stars,

A Gain th’ Almighty spake: let there be Lights

High in th' expanse of Heav'n 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

יין

And set them in the Firniament of Heav'n
T'illuminate the Earth; and Rule the Day
In their Viciffitude, and Rule the Night,
And Light from Darkness to divide. God faw,
Surveying his great Work, that it was Good :
For of Celestial Bodies first the Sun
A mighty Sphere he fram’d, unlightsome first,
Though of Ethereal Mold then form'd the Moon
Globofe, and every magnitude of Stars
And fow'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 plac'd
In the Sun's Orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid Light, firmn: to retain
Her gather'a Beams, great Palace now of Light
Hither as to their Fountain other Stars
Repairing in their Golden UrnsdrawLight,
And hence the Morning Planet guilds her Horns;
By Tin&ture or Reflection they augment
Their small peculiar, though from humane Sight
So far remote, with Dimunition feen.
First in his Eaft the Glorious Lamp was seeng,
Regent of Day, and all th' Horizon round:
Invested with bright Rays, jocund to run
His Longitude through Heav'ns high Road; the grey
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding sweet Influence : less bright the Moon,
But opposite in leveld West was fet
His mirrour, with full Face borrowing her Light
From him, for other Light the needed none
In that Aspect, and still that Distance keeps
Till Night, then in the East her Turn she Shines;
Revolv'd on Heav'ns great Axle; and her Reign
Vith Thousand leffer Lights dividual holds,
Vith thousand thousand Stars that then appear'd
angling the Hemisphere; then first adorn'd

With the Oright Luminaries that fit, and rose,
Glad Evening and glad Morn crown'd the fourth day.

LXXXIV.

Of FIS H.

AND God faid, 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 every Bird of Wing after his Kind;
And saw that it was Good, and bless'd theni, saying
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas
And Lakes, and running Streams the Waters fill;,
And let the found he multiply'd on th' Earth,
Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay
With Frie innumerable Swarn, and Shoals
Of Fith that'with their Finns 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 thro' Groves
Of Coral stray, or sporting with quick Glance
Shew to the Sun their wav'd Coats dropt with Gold,
Or in their Pearly Shells at ease, attend
Moist Nutriment, or under Rocks their Food
In joynted Armour watch: on smooth the Seal
And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unweildie, enormous in their Gate
Tempest the Ocean: there Leviathan
Hugest of Living Creatures, on the Deep
Stretch'd like a Promontory Sleeps or Swims,

A

And seemis a moving Land, and at his Gills
Draws in, and at his Trunk spouts out a Sea.

LXXXV.

of the Birds.

( that loon

ME

Ean while the Tepid Cives,and Fens and Shares

Their Brood as numerous Hatch, from th' Egg Bursting with kindly Rupture forth disclos'd Their callow young, but feather'd soon and Hedg’d They fum’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 loofly wing the Region, part more wise In common, rang'd in Figure wedge their way, Intelligent of Seasons, and Lut forth Their airy Caravan high over Seas Flying, and over Lands with mutual Wing Easing their Flight; fo fteers the prudent Crane Her annual Voyage, born on Winds: the Air Floats, as they pass,fann'd with unnumber'd Plunos From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with Song Solac'd the Woods, and spread their painted Wings Till Ev'n, nor then the folemn Nightingale 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 The Dank, and rising on stiff Pennons, towre The mid Aereal Sky: Others on ground

Walk'd ܪ

Walk'd firm; the crested Cock whose Clarion founds
The silent Hours, and th' other whose gay Train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue
Of Rainbows and Starr-Eyes. The Waters thus
With Fish replenish'd, and the Air with Fowl,
Ev'ning and Morn folemniz'd the fifth Day.

LXXXVI.

Of the Beasts.

THE
*HE Sixth, and of Creation last arose

With Evening Harps and Matin, when God said,
Let th’Earth bring-forth Fowl living in her Kind,

Cattel and creeping Things, and Beast of th’Earth, :

Each in their Kind. The Earth obey'd, and strait

Op'ning her fertile Womb teeni'd at a Birth I!

Innumerous Living Creatures, perfect Forms, Limb'd and full grown: Out of the ground up rose. As from his Lair, the wild Beast where he wons

In Forrest wild, in Thicket, Brake or Den; -. Among the Trees in Pairs they rose, they walk'd:

The Cattel in the fields and Meadows green :

Those rare and solitary, these in Flocks 5 Pafturing at once, and in broad Herds up sprung,

The grassy Clods now calvd, now half appear'd
The tawny Lyon, pawing to get free
His hinder Parts, then Springs as broke from Bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded Main; the Ounce,
The Libbard and the Tygre, as the Mval
Rising, the crumblid Earth above them threw
In Hillocks: the fwift Stag from under ground
Bore up his Branching Head: fcarce from his mold
Behemoth biggest Born of Earth upheav'd
His vaftness: Fleec'd the Flocks and bleating rose,