His brooding wings the Spi'rit of God outfpread, 235
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mafs; but downward purg'd
The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs,
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Difparted, and between fpun out the air,.
And earth felf-balanc'd on her centre hung.
Let there be light, faid God; and forthwith light Ethereal, firft of things, quinteffence pure,
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 2455
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud; for yet the fun
Was not; fhe in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good;
And light from darknefs by the hemifphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unfung
By the celeftial quires, when orient light
Exhaling firft from darkness they beheld;
Birth-day of heaven and earth; with joy and fhout The hollow univerfal orb they fill'd;.
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'di
God and his works; Creator him they fung,
Both when first ev'ning was, and when first morn.
Again God faid, Let there be firmament
Amid the waters, and let it divide
The waters from the waters: and God made
The firmament expanfe of liquid, pure,
In circuit to the uttermof convex
Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd
Of this great round: partition firm and fure,
The waters underneath from thofe above
Dividing for as earth, fo he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud mifrule
Of Chaos far remov'd, left fierce extremes
Contiguous might diftemper the whole frame:
And heaven he nam'd the Firmament: fo even
And morning chorus fung the fecond day.
The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involv'd,
Appear'd not: over all the face of earth
Main ocean flow'd; not idle, but with warm
Prolific humour foft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture; when God faid,
Be gather'd now ye waters under heaven
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops afcend the sky:
So high as heav'd the tumid hills, fo low
Down funk a hollow bottom, broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hafted with glad precipitance, uproll'd
As drops on duft conglobing from the dry;
Part rife in cryftal wall, or ridge direct,
For hafte; fuch flight the great command imprefs'd
On the fwift floods: as armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou haft heard)
Troop to their standard, fo the wat'ry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If fleep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
Soft ebbing: nor withstood them rock or hill, 300.
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With ferpent-error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the wafhy oofe deep channels wore;
Eafy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
Ail but within those banks, where rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd Seas:
And saw that it was good; and faid, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grafs, herb yielding feed, 310
And fruit tree yielding fruit after her kind,
Whofe feed is in herfelf upon the earth.
He fcarce had said, when the bare earth, till them
Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grafs, whofe verdure clad
Her univerfal face with pleafant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bofom fmelling fweet: and these fcarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the cluft'ring vine, forth crept
The fmelling gourd, up ftood the corny reed
Imbattled in her field, and th' humble fhrub,
And bufh with frizzled hair implicit : laft
Rofe as in dance the ftately trees, and fpread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd
Their bloffoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd;.
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain-fide,
With borders long the rivers: that earth now
Seem'd like to heaven, a feat where gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her facred fhades: tho' God had yet not rain'd
Upon the earth, and man to till the ground.
None was; but from the earth a dewy mift
Went up and water'd all the ground, and each
Plant of the field, which, ere it was in th' earth, 3355
God made, and every herb, before it grew
On the green ftem;
So even and morn recorded the third day.
God faw that it was good ::
Again th' Almighty fpake, Let there be lights.
High in th' expanfe of heaven, to divide
The day from night; and let them be for figus,
For feasons, and for days, and circling years;
And let them be for lights, as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of heaven,
To give light on the earth; and it was fo.
And God made two great lights, great for their ufe
To man, the greater to have rule by day,
The lefs by night, altern; and made the flars,
And fet them in the firmament of heaven,
To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day
In their viciffitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God faw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good:
For of celestial bodies first the fun
A mighty fphere he fram'd, unlightfome first,
Tho' of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon
Globofe, and every magnitude of stars,
And fow'd with stars the heav'n thick as a field :
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Tranfplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd 360
In the fun'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 gilds her horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their fmall peculiar, tho' from human fight
So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude thro' heaven's high road; 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 fhe needed none
In that aspect; and fill that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn fhe fhines, 380
Revolv'd on heav'n's 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 fet and rofe, 385
Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth day.
And God faid, Let the waters generate
Reptile with spawn abundant, living foul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Difplay'd on th' open firmament of heaven.
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 blefs'd them, faying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas,
And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' earth.
Forthwith the founds and feas, each creek and bay,
With fry innumerable fwarm, and fhoals
Of fish, that with their fins and fhining fcales
Glide under the green wave, in seulls that oft
Bank the mid fea: part fingle or with mate
Graze the fea-weed their pasture, and thro' groves
Of coral ftray; or sporting with quick glance.
Show to the fun their wav'd coats dropt with gold;
Or in their pearly fhells at eafe, attend
Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food
Ja jointed armour watch: on smooth the feal,
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