Hafted with glad precipitance, uprowl'd
As drops on duft conglobing from the dry;
Part rife in chrystal Wall, or ridge direct,
For hafte; fuch flight the great command imprefs'd
On the swift floods. As Armies at the call
Of Trumpet (for of Armies thou haft heard)
Troop to their Sandard: fo the watry throng,
Wave rowling after Wave, where way they found,
If fteep, with torrent rapture, if through Plain,
Soft-ebbing; nor withftood them Rock or Hill,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With Serpent error wandring, found their way,
And on the washy Ooze deep Channels wore;
Eafie, ére God had bid the ground be dry
All but within those banks, where Rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry Land Earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated Waters he call'd Seas:
And faw that it was good, and faid, Let th' Earth
Put forth the verdant Grafs, Herb yielding Seed,
And Fruit Tree yielding Fruit after her kind,
Whofe Seed is in her felf upon the Earth.
He fcarce had faid, when the bare Earth, 'till then
Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender Grafs, whofe verdure clad
Her Universal face with pleasant green:
Then Herbs of every leaf, that fudden flowr'd
Op'ning their various colours, and made gay
Her bofom smelling fweet. And these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the cluftring Vine; forth crept
The smelling Gourd; up ftood the corney Reed
Embattell'd in her field: and the humble Shrub,
And Bush with frizl'd hair implicit; laft
Role as in Dance the stately Trees, and fpred
Their branches hung with copious Fruit; oz gemm'd'
Their bloffoms: with high woods the hills were
With tufts the vallies and each fountain fide, [crown'd,
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
Her facred fhades. 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 ere it was in the Earth,
God made, and every Herb, before it grew
On the green ftem; God faw that it was good,
So Eev'n and Morn recorded the Third Day.
Again th' Almighty fpake: Let there be Lights
High in th' expanfe 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 fo.
And God made two great Lights, great for theirufe
To Man, the greater to have rule by Day,
The lefs by Night alterne: and made the Stars,
And set them in the Firmament of Heaven
To 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 firft the Sun
A mighty Sphere he fram'd, unlight some first,
Tho' of Ethereal Mould: 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 36. 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 his horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their small peculiar, though from human fight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
First in his Eaft the glorious Lamp was feen,
Regent of Day, and all th' Horizon round
Invested with bright Rays, jocund to run
His Longitude through Heav'ns high rode the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding sweet influence: Lefs bright the Moon, 375 But oppofite in level'd Weft was set
His mirror, with full face borrowing her Light
From him, for other light the needed noneb
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps
'Till night; then in the Eaft her turn the shines,
Revolv'd on Heav'ns great Axle, and her Reign
With thousand leffer Lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand Stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the Hemisphere: then first adorn'd
With their bright Luminaries that set and rose
Glad Eevning and glad Morn crown'd the Fourth day.
And God faid, Let the Waters generate
Reptil with Spawn abundant, living Soul;
And let Foul flie above the Earth, with Wings
Display'd on the 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 blefs'd them, faying,
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas
And Lakes and running Streams the waters fill;
And let the Foul be multiply'd on the Earth.
Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay
With Frie innumerable fwarm, and Shoals
Of Fish that with their Fins and thining Scales
Glide under the green Wave, in Sculls that oft
Bank themid Sea: part fingle or with mate
Graze the Sea weed their pafture, and thro' Groves
of Coral ftray, or fporting with quick glance
Show to the Sun their way'd coats dropt with Gold,
Or in their Pearly fhells at eafe, attend
Moift nutriment, or under Rocks their food
In jointed Armour watch: on smooth the Seal,
And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their Gate
Tempeft the Ocean: there Leviathan
Hugeft of living Creatures, on the Deep
Stretcht like a Promontory fleeps or fwims,
And feems a moving Land, and at his Gills
Draws in, and at his Trunk spouts out a Sea.
Mean while the tepid Caves, and Fens and Shores
Their Brood as numerous hatch, from the Egg that
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd [foon
Their callow young, but feather'd foon and fledge 420
They fumm'd their Pens, and foaring th' air fublime
With clang defpis'd the ground, under a cloud
In profpect; there the Eagle and the Stork
On Cliffs and Cedar tops their Eyries build:
Part loofly wing the Region, part more wife
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their Aerie Caravan high over Seas
Flying, and over Lands with mutual wing
Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent Crane
Her annual voyage, born on Winds; the Air
Floats, as they pafs. Fann'd with unnumber'd plumes
From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with fong
Solac'd the Woods, and spread their painted wings
'Till Eev❜n, nor then the folemn Nightingal
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her foft lays.
Others on Silver Lakes and Rivers bath'd
Their downy Breaft; the Swan with Arch'd neck
Between her White wings mantling prondly, rowes
Her ftate with Oary feet: yet oft they quit
The Dank, and rifing on ftiff Pennons, towre››
The mid Aerial Sky: Others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crefted Cock whofe clarion founds
The filent hours; and th' other whose gay Train
Adorns him, colour'd with the Florid hue
Of Rainbows and Starry Eyes, The Waters thus
With Fish replenisht, and the Air with Fowl,
Eevning and Morn folemniz'd the Fifth day.
The Sixth, and of Creation laft, arofe
With Eevning Harps and Matin, when God said, 450
Let th' Earth bring forth Fowl living in her kind,
Cattel and Creeping things, and Beast of the Earth, r
Each of their kind. The Earth obey'd, and strait
Op'ning her fertil Womb teem'd at a Birth
Innumerous living Creatures, perfect Forms,
Limb'd and full-grown out of the ground up rofe,
As from his Laire the wild Beaft where he wons
In Foreft wild, in Thicket, Brake, or Den;
Among the Trees in Pairs they rofe, they walk'd:
The Cattel in the Fields and Meadows green:
Those rare and folitary, thefe in Flocks
Pafturing at once, and in broad Herds upfprung.
The graffic Clods now calv'd, now half appear'd'
The Tawny Lyon, pawing to get free
His hinder Parts, then springs as broke from Bounds,
And Rampant shakes his brinded Main. The Ounce,
The Libbard, and the Tyger, as the Mole
Rifing, the crumbl'd Earth above them threw
In hillocks. The swift Stag from under ground
Bore up his branching Head: Scarce from his mould
Behemoth, biggest born of Earth, upheav'd
His Vaftness. Fleec'd the Flocks and bleating rofe,
As Plants; ambiguous between Sea and Land
The River Horfe and fcaly Crocodile.
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Infect or Worm: thole wav'd their limber Fans
For Wings, and fnrallest Lineaments exa&
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