With thousand lesser 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 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 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 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. Forthwith 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 wav'd coats dropt

with gold,

Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal,

And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk Wallowing unwieldly, enormous in their gait

Tempest the ocean: there Leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land, and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,

Their brood as numerous hatch, from th'

egg that soon

Bursting with kindly rapture forth disclos'd

The callow young, but feather'd soon and fledge

They summ'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 loosely wing the region, part more wise
In common, ranged in figure, wedge their
way,

Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their aery caravan, high over seas
Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing
Easing their flight; so steers the prudent

crane

Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Floats as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes :

From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

Solaced the woods, and spread their painted

wings

Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays:

Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed Their downy breast; the swan with arched néck,

Between her white wings mantling proudly,

rows

Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower The mid aerial sky: others on ground Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds

The silent hours, and the other whose gay train

Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters

thus

With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl, Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.

The sixth, and of creation last, arose With evening harps and matin; when God said,

Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind,

Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of th' Earth,

Each in their kind. The Earth obey'd, and straight

uprose,

was walk'd

ounce,

The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole Rising, the crumbled 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, upheaved His vastness: fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,

There wanted yet the master work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature who not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endow'd
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from
thence

eyes

ground,

Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans

For wings, and smallest lineaments exact In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride, With spots of gold and purple, azure and green :

These, as a line, their long dimension drew, 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 en-
closed,

Pattern of just equality, perhaps
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonality: swarming next appear'd
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

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, And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.

This said, he form'd 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 becamest a living soul.
Male he created thee; but thy consort
Female, for race; then bless'd mankind, and
said,

D

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;

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.

Here finish'd he, and all that he had made View'd, and behold all was entirely good; So even and morn accomplish'd the sixth day;

Yet not till the Creator from his work Desisting, though unwearied, up return'd, Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode;

Thence to behold this new created world, The addition of his empire, how it show'd In prospect from his throne, how good how fair,

Answering his great idea. Up he rode Follow'd with acclamation, and the sound Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned

Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou heard'st,)

The heavens and all the constellations ring; The planets in their station listening stood, While the bright pomp ascended jubilant. Open, ye everlasting gates! they sung, Open, ye Heavens! your living doors; let in The great Creator from his work return'd Magnificent, his six days work, a World; Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign

To visit oft the dwellings of just men,

Delighted; and with frequent intercourse Thither will send his winged messengers On errands of supernal grace.

THE WORKS OF GOD PRAISING HIM.

BOWRING.

SING thy Creator's praise, and own
Him greatest-wisest-God alone.
He wraps himself in robes of light,
And, clothed in garments pure and bright
Of honor and of majesty,

He makes the skies His canopy.

The pillars of His temple are
Built on the ocean; and His car,
The clouds of heaven. Th' Eternal Mind
Rides on the pinions of the wind:
A thousand spirits wait His will,
And, touch'd with fire, His word fulfil.

Thou reard'st the universe sublime
On arches of unshaken time-
And wrap'dst this vast terraqueous globe
With the deep waters as a robe-
And bad'st the eternal hills sustain
The o'erhanging pregnant clouds of rain.

At Thy decree the waters fall-
They hasten at Thy thunder's call;
Down from the rocky height they gush,
And thro' the thirsty valleys rush
On to the vast receptacle,
Where Thou hast bid the waters dwell.

There hast Thou girt them with a shore,
That they may flood the earth no more:
While thousand and ten thousand rills,
Wand'ring among the mazy hills,
Fresh from their sparkling fountain burst,
Where the wild asses quench their thirst.

'Tis there, along the streamlet's side, The winged fowls of heaven abide ; Among the waving boughs they sing, That overhang the crystal spring;