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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 sculis 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 aëry 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; th' 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 neck,

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

Opening her fertile womb teem'd at a birth, Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown; out of the ground

uprose,

As from his lair, the wild beast where he dwells

In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they
walk'd:

The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds up-
sprung.

With honey stor❜d: the rest are numberless,
And thou their nature know'st, and gav'st
them 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 Heav'n in all her glory shone, and roll'd

Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand

The grassy clods now calved; now half ap- First wheeled their course; Earth in her rich pear'd

The tawny lion, pawing to get free

attire Consummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth, His hinder parts, then springs as broke from By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, bonds, And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'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 bleat-
ing rose,

was walk'd

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

Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven; But grateful to acknowledge whence his good As plants: ambiguous between sea and land Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and The river-horse, and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the

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

eyes

Directed in devotion, to adore

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,

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,

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

Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, Of honor and of majesty,

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

heards't,)

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,

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:

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