Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul: And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings Displayed on the 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 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 multiplied on the earth.” Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, 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 single, or with mate, Graze the sea-weed, their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray; or, sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved 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 unwieldy, 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 shore
Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg that
Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed
Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge They summ'd their pens; and, soaring the air sublime,
With clang despised the ground, under a cloud In prospect: there the eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build: Part loosely wing the region; part, more wise, In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their aëry caravan, high over seas
Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing Easing their flight; so steers 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 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 aërial sky: others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crested cock, whose clarion
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 solemnized 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 the earth Each in their kind.' The earth obey'd, and straight Opening her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, Limb'd and full-grown out of the ground uprose, 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: Those rare and solitary, these in flocks.
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. The grassy clods now calved; 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 tiger, as the mole
Rising, 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, upheaved His vastness; fleeced 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, Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineament exact
In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride, With spots of gold and purple, azure and green: These, as a line, their long dimension drew, Streaking the ground with sinuous trace: not all Minims of nature; some of serpent kind, Wondrous in length and corpulence, involved Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future; in small room large heart enclosed; Pattern of just equality, perhaps, Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: swarming, next appear'd The female bee, that feeds her husband drone Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored: the rest are numberless, And thou their natures know'st, and gavest them
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field, Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes And hairy mane terrific, though to thee Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
"Now heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand First wheel'd their course: earth in her rich attire Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth, By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd,
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain❜d: There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone And brute, as other creatures, but endued With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright, with front serene, Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence Magnanimous, to correspond with heaven; But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends; thither, with heart, and voice, and eyes, Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God Supreme, who made him chief Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent Eternal Father (for where is not he Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake : "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 breathed The breath of life; in his own image he Created thee, in the image of God
Express; and thou becamest a living soul, Male he created thee; but thy consort,
Female, for race; then bless'd mankind, and said, 'Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air, And every living thing that moves on the earth. Wherever thus created, for no place
yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know'st,
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