Tranfplanted from her cloudy Shrine, and plac'd 360 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,
And hence the Morning Planet guilds her horns
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their fmail peculiar, though from human fight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
Firft in his Eaft the glorious Lamp was feen, 370
Regent of Day, and all th' Horizon round
Invefted with bright Rays, jocond to run
His Longitude through Heav'ns high rode: the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding fweet influence: lefs bright the Moon, 375
But oppofite in level'd Weft was fet
His mirror, with full face borrowing her Light
From him, for other light the needed none
In that afpect, and ftill that distance keeps
Till night, then in the East her turn the fhines, 380
Revolv'd on Heav'ns great Axle, and her Reign
With thousand leffer Lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand Stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the Hemifphere: then first adorn'd
With their bright Luminaries that Set and Rofe, 385.
Glad Eevning and glad Morn crown'd the fourth day.
And God faid, let the Waters generate
Reptil with Spawn abundant, living Soul:
And let Fowle flie above the Earth, with wings
Display'd on the op'n 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 faw 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 Fowle be multiply'd on the Earth.
Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay
With Frie innumerable fwarm, 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 fingle or with mate
Graze the Sea weed their pasture, and thro' Groves,
Of Coral stray, or sporting with quick glance 405
Show to the Sun their wav'd coats dropt with Gold,
Or in their Pearly shells at ease, attend
Moift nutriment, or under Rocks their food
In jointed Armour watch: on fmooth the Seal,
And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk 410
Wallowing unweildy, enormous in their Gate
Tempeft the Ocean: there Leviathan
Hugeft of living Creatures, on the Deep
Streicht like a Promontory fleeps or fwims,
And seems a moving Land, and at his Gills
Draws in, and at his Trunck spouts out a Sea.
Mean while the tepid Caves, and Fens and shoars Their Brood as numerous hatch,from theEgg that foon Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd
Theircallow young, but feather'd foon and fledge 420
They fumm'd their Pens, and foaring th' air fublime
With clang defpis'd the ground, under a cloud
In profpect; there the Eagle and the Stork
On Cliffs and Cedar tops their Eyries build:
Part loofly wing the Region, part more wife
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of feafons, and set forth:
Their Aerie Caravan high over Seas
Flying, and over Lands with mutual wing
Ealing their flight; fo fteers the prudent Crane 430
Her annual voyage, born on Winds; the Aire
Floats, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes :,
From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with fong
Solac'd the Woods, and spred their painted wings
Till Eev'n, nor then the folemn Nightingal
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her foft layes:
Others on Silver Lakes and Rivers Bath'd
Their downy Breaft; the Swan with Arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, Rowes
Her ftate with Oary feet: yet oft they quit
The Dank, and rifing on ftiff Tennons, towre
The mid Aereal Sky: Others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crefted Cock whofe clarion founds
The filent hours, and th'other whose gay Train
Adorns him, colour'd with the Florid hue
Of Rainbows and Starry Eyes. The Waters thus
With Fith replenisht, and the Aire with Fowle,
Levning and Morn folemniz'd the Fifth day.
The Sixth, and of Creation laft arofe
With Eevning Harps and Mattin, when God faid, 450
Let th'Earth bring forth Fowle living in her kind,
Cattel and Creeping things, and Beast of the Earth,
Each of their kind. The Earth obey'd, and ftrait
Op'ning her fertil Womb teem'd at a Birth
Innumerous living Creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown: out of the ground up rofe
As from his Laire the wild Beaft where he wons
In Forrest wild, in Thicket, Brake, or Den;
Among the Trees in Pairs they rose, they walk'd:
The Cattel in the Fields and Meddows green: 460
Those rare and folitary, these in flocks
Pafturing at once, and in broad Herds upfprung.
The graffie Clods now Calv'd, now half appear'd
The Tawny Lion, pawing to get free
464
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from Bonds,
And Rampant shakes his Brinded main; the Ounce,
The Libbard, and the Tyger, as the Moale
Rifing, the crumbl'd Earth above them threw
In Hillocks; the fwift Stag from under ground
Bore up his branching Head: fcarce from his mould
Behemoth biggest born of Earth upheav'd
His vaftness Fleec'd the Flocks and bleating rofe,
As Plants ambiguous between Sea and Land
The River Horfe and fcaly Crocodile.
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Infect or Worm:, thofe wav'd their limber fans
For wings, and fmalleft Lineaments exact
In all the Liveries deck'd of Summers pride
With fpots of Gold and Purple, azure and green:
These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with finuous trace; not all
Minims of Nature; fome of Serpent kind
Wondrous in length and corpulence involv'd
Their Snaky foulds, and added wings. Firft crept
The Parfimonious Emmet, provident
Of future, in small room large heart enclos'd,
Pattern of juft equality perhaps
Hereafter, join'd in her popular Tribes
Of Commonalty: fwarming next appear'd
The Female Bee that feeds her Husband Drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen Cells
With Hony ftor'd: the reft are numberless,
And thou their Natures know'ft,and gave them names,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The Serpent futtl'ft Beaft of all the field,
Of huge extent fometimes, with brazen Eyes
And hairy Main terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
Now Heav'n in all her Glory fhon, and rowl'd
Her motions, as the great first-Movers hand
Firft wheel'd their courfe; Earth in her rich attire
Confummate lovely fmil'd; Aire, Water, Earth,
By Fowle, Fish, Beaft, was flown, was fwum, was walkt
Frequent; and of the Sixth day yet remain'd;
There wanted yet the Mafter work, the end 505
Of all yet done; a Creature who not prone
And Brute as other Creatures, but endu'd
With Sanctity of Reason, might erect
His Stature, and upright with Front ferene
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