And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gait,
Tempeft the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugeft of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory, fleeps or fwims,
And feems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk fpouts out a fea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and fhores,
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th'egg that foon
Bursting with kindly rupture forth difclos'd
Their callow 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 ftork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosely wing the region, part more wife
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of feafons, and fet forth
Their airy caravan high over feas
Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent crane
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 fong
Solac'd the woods, and fpread their painted wings
Till even; nor then the folemn nightingale 435
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her foft lays :
Others on filver lakes and rivers bath'd
Their downy breaft; the fwan with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows
Her ftate with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rifing on stiff pennons, tow'r
The mid aereal fky: others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crefted cock, whofe clarion founds The filent hours; and th' other whofe gay train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue.
Of rainbows and ftarry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn folemniz'd the fifth day.
The fixth, and of creation last, arose
With evening harps and matin; when God fai3, 450
Let th' earth bring forth foul living in her kind,
Cattle, and creeping things, and beast 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 forms,
Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up rofe,
As from his lair, the wild beaft where he wons
In foreft wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rofe, they walk'd;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
Pafturing at once, and in broad herds upfprung
The graffy clods now calv'd, now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder 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 fwift ftag from under ground
Bore up his branching head: fcarce from his mould
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd
His vaftnefs: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rofe,
As plants: ambiguous between fea and land
The river-horfe and fcaly crocodile.
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Infect or worm; those wav'd their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of fummer's pride,
With fpots of gold and purple', azure and green:
These as a line their long dimenfion drew,
Streaking the ground with finous trace; not all
Minims of nature; fome of ferpent-kind,
Wond'rous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their fnaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parfimonious emmet, provident
Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd,
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, joined 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 honey ftor'd: the reft are numberless,
And thou their natures know'ft, and gav't them names,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The ferpent, fubtleft beaft of all the field,
Of huge extent fometimes, with brazen eyes.
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
Now heav'n in all her glory fhone, and roll'd
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand 500
Firft wheel'd their courfe; earth in her rich attire
Confummate lovely fmil'd; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was fwum, was walk'd
Frequent; and of the fixth day yet remain'd;
There wanted yet the mafter-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endu’d
With fanctity of reafon, might erect
His ftature, and upright with front ferene
Govern the reft, felf-knowing, and from thence 510 Magnanimous to correfpond with heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Defcends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God fupreme, who made him chief 515
Of all his works: therefore th' Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Prefent?) thus to his Son audibly spake.
Let us make now man in our image, man
In our fimilitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of fea and air,
Beast of the field, and over all the earth,
And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.
This faid, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O man!
Duft of the ground, and in thy noftrils breath'd 525
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Exprefs, and thou becam'ft a living foul.
Male he created thee, but thy confort
Female for race; then blefs'd mankind, and said, 530
Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fifh of the fea, and fowl of th' air,
And every living thing that moves on th' earth.
Wherever thus created, for no place
Is yet diftinct 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 pleafant fruit for food
Gave thee; all forts are here that all th' earth yields,
Variety without end; but of the tree,
Which tafted works knowledge of good and evil,
Thou may't not; in the day thou eat'ft, thou dy'st; Death is the penalty impos'd; beware,
And govern well thy appetite, left 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 ev❜n and morn accomplish'd the fixth day:
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
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great idea. Up he rode,
Follow'd with acclamation, and the found
Symphonious of ten thoufand harps that tun'd
Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air
Refounded, (thou remember'ft, for thou heard'ft),
The heav'ns and all the conftellations rung,
The planets in their ftation lift'ning ftood,
While the bright pomp afcended jubilant.
Open ye everlafting gates! they fung;
Open, ye heav'ns, your living doors! let in
The great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his fix days work, a world!
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To vifit oft the dwellings of just men,
Delighted, and with frequent intercourfe
Thither will fend his winged meffengers
On errands of fupernal grace! So fung
The glorious train afcending. He thro' heaven,
That open'd wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal houfe direct the way;
A broad and ample road, whofe duft is gold,
And pavement ftars, as ftars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou feeft
Powder'd with ftars. And now on earth the feventh
Ev'ning arofe in Eden; for the fun
Was fet, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
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