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 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 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 way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth 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, uprose, As from his lair, the wild beast where he dwells In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den; The cattle in the fields and meadows green: With honey stor❜d: the rest are numberless, Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown 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 Behemoth biggest born of earth, upheaved was walk'd There wanted yet the master work, the end 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 For wings, and smallest lineaments exact These, as a line, their long dimension drew, Minims of nature; some of serpent kind, The parsimonious emmet, provident Pattern of just equality, perhaps eyes Directed in devotion, to adore And worship God Supreme, who made him chief Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent Let us make now man in our image, Man This said, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O Man, breathed The breath of life; in his own image he Ꭰ Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth; Wherever thus created, for no place Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou He brought thee into this delicious grove, Variety without end; but of the tree, Delighted; and with frequent intercourse THE WORKS OF GOD PRAISING BOWRING. SING thy Creator's praise, and own Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, Of honor and of majesty, thou diest; Death is the penalty imposed; beware, Here finish'd he, and all that he had made Yet not till the Creator from his work Thence to behold this new created world, Answering his great idea. Up he rode Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air heards't,) The heavens and all the constellations ring; To visit oft the dwellings of just men, He makes the skies His canopy. The pillars of His temple are Thou reard'st the universe sublime At Thy decree the waters fall- There hast Thou girt them with a shore, 'Tis there, along the streamlet's side, |