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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

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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

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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.

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Let there be light, said God; and forth with 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

225. Prov. viii. 27.

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 nad 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, et there be light shining from its great original fountain on the commencing system.'

Was not: she in a cloudy tabernacle

253

Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided light the Day, and darkness Night
He named. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

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By the celestial choirs, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld
Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised God and his works; Creator him they sung,

Both when first ev'ning was, and when first morn. Again, God said, Let there he firmament

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Of this great round: partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, so he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And Heav'n he named the Firmament. So ev'n
And morning chorus sung the second day.

The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved,
Appear'd not. Over all the face of th' earth
Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm
Prolific humour soft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture, when God said,
Be gather'd now, ye waters under Heav'n,
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave

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275

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256. Job xxxviii. 4. 7. I might multiply references without end In this part of the poem, but it must be left to the industry or coriosity of the reader to discover the scriptural allusions where they are so numerous as in the present instance.

Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd
As drops on dust conglobing from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

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For haste: such flight the great command impress'd
On the swift floods. As armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the wat'ry 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
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, Earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd Seas:

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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 seed is in herself upon the earth.

He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,

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Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad,
Her universal face with pleasant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept
The smelling gourd, upstood the corny reed
Embattled in her field, and th' humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair implicit. Last
Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread
Their branches, hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd

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321. Swelling has been suggested, and most probably correctly. 323. Hair. coma is the same in Latin, small leaves, twigs, &c, Implicit, entangled.

$25. Gemm'd, from gemmare, to put forth blossoms.

Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were

crown'd

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

dwell,

Or wander with delight, and love to haunt

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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,

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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.

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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,

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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,

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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

370

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

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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;

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And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,

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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 san their waved coats dropt with gold,
Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend

373. For longitude Bentley reads his long career.
462. Sculls, a Saxon word, signifying an assembly.

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