And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk 410
Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugelt of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory, fleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land, and at his gills

415
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th'

l'egg that foon Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd Their callow young, but feather'd soon and Hedge 420 They fumm'd their pens, and soaring th' air sublime, With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud In prospect; there the eagle and the fork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build: Part loosely wing the region, part more wise 425 In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth Their airy caravan high over seas Flying, and over lands with mutual wing Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane 430 Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Floats as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes: From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale

435 Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays: Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd 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 fiff pennons, tow'r The mid aereal sky: others on ground Walk'd firm; the crested cock, whose clarion sounds The filent hours; and th' other whose gay train

Adorns

440

Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue. 445 Of rainbows ani starry' eyes. The waters thus With fith replenish'd, and the air with fowl, Evening and morn folemniz'd the fifth day.

The sixth, and of creation lalt, arose With evening harps and matin; when God said, 450 Let th'earth bring forth foul living in her kind, Cattle, and creeping things, and bealt of th’earth, Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and strait Op'ning her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth Innumerous living creatures, perfect fornis, 455 Limb’d and full grown: out of the ground up rose, As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons 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: 460 Those rare and folitary, these in flocks' Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung The grassy clods now caly'd, now half appear'd The tawny lion, pawing to get free

404 His hiņder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce, The libbard, and the tyger, as the mole Rifing, 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, upheav'd

471 His vaftness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, As plants: ambiguous between sea and land The river-horse and scaly crocodile. At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475 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 foots of gold and purple', azure and green:

There

489

485

These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with finous trace; not all
Minims of nature; some of ferpent-kind,
Wondrous 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 inclos'd,
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

490
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stor'd: the rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them names,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent, fubtlest beast of all the field,

495 Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes And hairy mané terrific, though to thee Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

Now heav'n in all her glory shone, and rolld Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand 500 First wheel'd their course ; earth in her rich attire Confummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth, By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd Frequent; and of the fixth day yet remain'd ; There wanted yet the master-work, the end 505 Of all yet done ; a creature, who not prone And brute, as other creatures, but endu'd With fanctity of reason, might erect His ftature, and upright with front serene Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence 510 Magnanimous to correspond with heaven, But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes Direded in devotion, to adore

And 520

And worship God supreme, who made him chief 515
Of all his works : therefore th' Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present ?) thus to his Son audibly fpake.

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 breath'd 525
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Express, and thou becam'st a living foul.
Male he created thee, but thy consórt
Female for race; then bless'd mankind, and said, 530
Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea, and fowl of th' air,
And every living thing that moves on th' earth.
Wherever thus created, for no place

535 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 forts are here that all th' earth yields, Variety without end; but of the tree, Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil, Thou may'st not; in the day thou eatst, thou dy'st; Death is the penalty impos'd ; beware, 545 And govern well thy appetite, lelt 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

540

So ev'n and morn accomplish'd the fixth day: -550
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Defifting, though unwearied, up return'd,
Up to the heav'n of heav'ns, his high abode,
Thence to behold this new-created world,
Th' addition of his empire, how it show'd

555
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

560 Resounded, thou remember'it, for thou heard'st), The heav'ns and all the constellations rung, The planets in their station liftning stood, While the bright pomp ascended jubilant. Open ye everlasting gates ! they fung;

565 Open, ye heav'ns, your living doors ! let in

great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his fix days work, a world!
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men,

570
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of fupernal grace! So fung
The glorious train ascending. He thro' heaven,
That open'd wide her blazing portals, led 575
To God's eternal house direct the way;
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement Aars, as stars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou feest 580
Powder'd with stars. And now on earth the seventh
Ev'ning arose in Eden ; for the sun
Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount

Of

The