And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Appear'd not : over all the face of Earth Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the Main ocean powd, not idle; but, with warm pole.

peace,' Prolific humour softening all her globe, " "Silence, ye troubled wares, and thou deep, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Said then the omnitic Word ;' your discord end!" Sative with genial moisture ; when God said, Nor staid; but, on the wings of cherubiin "Be gatherd nos ye waters under Heaven Uplitted, in paternal glory rode

Into one plue, and let dry iand appear.' Par into Chaos, and the world unborn ;

immediately the mountains huge appear For Chaos heard his voice : him all his train Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave Followd in bright procession, to behold

into the clouds; their tups ascend the sky: Creation, and the wonders of his might.

So high as heav'd the tumid bilis, so low Tlien staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, He took the golden compasses, prepard

Capacivus bed of waters: thither they In God's eternal store, to circumscribe

Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll d, This universe, and all created things :

As drops on dhist conglobing from the dry: One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd Pari rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, Round through the vast profundity obscure ; For haste; such fight the great command imAnd said, “Thus far extend, thus farthy bounds,

press'd This le thy just circumference, O World !! On the swift foods: as armies at the call Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth, Of trumpets (tur of arinies thou hast heard) Matter unförm'd and void : darkness profound Troup to their standard ; so the watery throng, Cover'd the abyss: but on the watery caim Wave rolling after ware, wiele way they found, His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, listeer, with torrent rap'ure, if through plain, And vital virtue infus'd, anul vital warmth Soft-ebbing! nor withstood them sock or hill; Throughout the Auid mass; but downward Put they, or under ground, or circuit wide purg'd

With serpent errour wandering, found their way, The black tartarcous cold infernal dregs, And on the washy oos deep channels wore; Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry, Like things to like; the rest to several piace AJI but within those banks, where rivers now Disparted, and between spun out the air; Stream, and perpetual draw their hunid train. And Farth, self-balanc'd, on lier centie hung. The dry land, Earth; and the great receptacie “ • Let there be light,' said God; and wrthwith Of congregated waters, he call'd Seas: Light

And saw that it was good, and said, Let the Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure

Earth Sprung from the deep; and from her native east Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding secil, Tojourney through the aery gloom began, And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun Whose seed is in herself upon the Farth.' Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

lle scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good; Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd, [riad And light from darkness by the heinispiere Brought forth the tender grass, whose versiue Divided : light the Day, and darkness Night, Her universal face with pleasant green; He nam'd. Thus was the first day even and morn: Then herbs of every lear, that sudden ilower'd Nor past unce.ebrated, nor unsung

Opening their various colours, anıl ina le gay By the celestial quires, when orient light Hier busom, smeling sweet: and, thesc scarce Exhaling first froin darkness they beheld;

blown,

[ereit Eirib-day of Heaven and Earth; with joy and Forth flourishi'd thick the clustering vine, torih The hollow universal orb they fillid, (shout | The swelling gourd, up stood the comiy reid And wuch'd their golden harps, and hymning Embattled in her field, and the launble shrui), prais'd

And bust with frizzled hair implieit: last God and his works; Creator him they sung, Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread Loth when first evening was, and when first Their branches hung with copivas fruit, or

[crown'd, " Again, God said, “Let there be firinament Their blossoms: with high woods the hills rere Amid the waters, and let it divide

With tufts the valleys, and each fountain site; The waters from the waters ;' and God made With burders long the rivers: that Farth now The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,

Seer'd like to Iltarea, a seat where yods might Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd

dwell, In circuit to the utte pinost convex

Or wander with delight, and love to haunt Of this great round; partition firin and sure, Her sacred s, ides: though Gud had yet not The waiers underneath from those above

rain's Dividing : for as Earth, so he the sorid

Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground Built on circumfluous waters cam, in wide None was ; but from the Earth a dewy mist Crystalline occan, and the loud misriile

Went up, an'l water'd all the ground, and each Of Chaos far remov'd; lest fierce extremes Plant of the field; which, ere it was in the Earth, Contiguous might distemper the whole frame: God made, and erery herb, before it grew And Heaven he nam'd the Firmament: so even On the green stem: God saw that it was good : And morning chorus sung the second day. (yet So even and morn recorded the third day.

The Earth was form'd, but in the womb as Avain ihe Almighty spake, ** Let there be Of waters, embryon immature involv’d, High in the expanse of Heave.., to divide [lights

morn.

semm'a

The day from night; and let them be for signs | Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend For seasons, and for days, and circling years; Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food And let them be for lights, as I ordain

In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal, Their office in the firmament of Heaven, And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk To give light on the Earth ;' and it was so. [use Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, And God made two great lights, great for their Tempest the ocean: there leviathan, To Man, the greater to have rule by day, Hugest of living creatures, on the deep The less by night, altern; and made the stars, Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps or swims, And set them in the firmament of Heaven And seems a moring land; and at his gills To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day Draws in, and at his trunk spoots out, a sea. In their vicissitude, and rule the night,

Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, And light from darkness to divide. God saw, Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg Surveying his great work, that it was good :

that soon For of celestial bodies first the Sun

Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first, Their callow young; but featherd soon and Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the

fledge

(sublime, Globose, and every magnitude of stars, [Moon They summ’d their pens; and, soaring the air And sow'd with stars the Heaven, thick as a With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud of light by far the greater part he took, [field: In prospect; there the eagle and the stork Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build : lo the Sun's orb, made porous to receive Part loosely wing the region, part more wise and drink the liquid light; firm to retain In common, rang'd in figure, wedge their way, Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light. Intelligent of seasons, and set forth Hither, as to their fountain, other stars

Their aery caravan, high over seas Repairing, in their golden uits draw light, Flying, and over lands, with mutaal wing And hence the morning-planet gilds her homs; Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane By tincture or reflection they augment

Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Their small peculiar, though from human sight Floats as they pass, fann'd with umnumber'd So far remote, with diminution scen.

plumes:

(song First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, From branch to branch the smaller birds with Regent of day, and all the horizon round Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings Invested with bright rays, jocund to run [gray Till even; vor then the solemn nightingale His longitude through Heaven's high road; the Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd ber soft lays: Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danc'd, Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bath'd Shedding sweet influence: less bright the Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck, But opposite in levelPd west was set, (Moon, Between her white wings mantling proadly, rots His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit From him; for other light she needed none The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower In that aspect, and still that distance keeps The mid aëreal sky: others on ground Till night, then in the east her turn she shines, Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion Revolv'd on Heaven's great axle, and her reign

sounds With thousand lesser lights dividual holds, The silent hours, and the ofher whose gay train With thousand thousand stars, that then ap- Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue pear'd

Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus Spangling the hemisphere: then first adorn'd With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl, With

their bright luminaries that set and rose, Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day. Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth “The sixth, and of creation last, arose day.

With evening harps and matin; when God said, " And God said, “Let the waters generate Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind, Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul : Caitle, and crceping thmgs, and beast of the And let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings

Earth,

(straight Display'd on the open firmament of Heaven.' Each in their kind. The Earth obey'd, and And God created the great whales, and each Opening her fertile womb teem'd at a birth Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously Innumerous living creatures, perfect forins, The waters gene. "ted by their kinds ;

Limb’d and full grown: out of the ground up And every bird of wing after his kind ;

rose, And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, As from his lair, the wild beast, where he woms • Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, (saying, In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den; And lakes, and running streams, jie waters fill : Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk do And let the fowl be multiplied, on the Earth.' The cattle in the fields and meadows green: Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and Those rare and solitary, these in docks With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals [bay, Pasturing at ones, and in broad herds upsprung. Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales, The grassy clods now calv'd; now half appear'd Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft The tawny lion, pawing to get free

(bonds, Bank the mid sea: part single, or with mate, His binder parts, then springs, as broke from Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through And.rampant shakes his brinded mane; the groves

The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole (ounce, Of coral stray; or, sporting with quick glance, Rising, the crumbled earth abuve them threw Show to the Sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold; In hillocks: the swift stag from under growad

Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould

Behemoth, biggest born of Earth, upheav'd [rose,
His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating
As plants: ambiguous between sea and land
The river-horse, and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Insect or worm: those wav'd 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,
Wonderous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future; in small room large heart enclos'd;
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stor❜d: the rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them

| 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
Variety without end; but of the tree, [yields,
Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and
evil,
[diest;
Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou
Death is the penalty imposed; beware,
And govern well thy appetite; lest Sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

"Here finished 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 tun'd
Angelic harmonies: the Earth, the air
Resounded, (thou remember'st,

for thou

names,

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

"Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand
First wheel'd their course: Earth in her rich
attire
Consummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was
walk'd

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Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain❜d:
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore
[chief
And worship God Supreme, who made him
Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present?) thus to his Son andibly spake.

heard'st,)

The Heavens and all the constellations rung,
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.' So sung [ven,
The glorious train ascending: he through Hea
That open'd wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way;
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou scest
Powder'd with stars. And now on Earth the
Evening arose in Eden, for the Sun [seventh
Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
Of Heaven's high-seated top, the imperial