Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far remov'd, left fierce extremes
Contiguous might diftemper the whole frame:
And heaven he nam'd the Firmament: fo ev'n
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 watry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If fteep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
Soft ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With ferpent-errour wand'ring, found their way,
And on the wafly cofe deep channels wore ;
Ealy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within thofe 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 faw 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 herself upon the earth.
He scarce had faid, when the bare earth, till then
Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grafs, whose verdure clad
Her univerfal face with pleafant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that fudden flower'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bofom fmelling fweet: and thefe fcarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clust'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 spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd
Their bloffoms: with high woods the hills were
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: though God had yet not rain'd
Upon the earth, and man to till the ground.
None was; but from the earth a dewy mist
Went up and water'd all the ground, and each
Plant of the field, which, ere it was in th' earth, 335
God made, and every herb, before it grew
On the green ftem; God faw that it was good:
So ev'n and morn recorded the third day.
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 figns,
For feafons, 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 stars,
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,
Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon
Globofe, and every magnitude of stars, ›
And fow'd with ftars the heaven thick as a field:
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy farine, and plac'd
In the fan'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, though from human fight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
Firft in his eaft the glorious lamp was feen,
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 dance'd,
Shedding sweet influence: less bright the moon, 375 But opposite in levell'd west was set,
His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light
From him; for other light she needed none
In that aspéct; and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn she shines,
Revolv'd on heaven'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 set and rofe, 385
Glad ev'ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth day.
And God faid, Let the waters generate
Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul :
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Difplay'd on the' open 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 blefs'd them; faying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas,
396 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 farm, and fhoals
Of fish, that with their fins and fhining fcales
Glide under the green wave, in fculls that oft
Bank the mid fea: part fingle or with mate
Graze the fea-weed their pasture, and thro' groves
Of coral ftray; or fporting with quick glance, 405
Show to the fun their wav'd coats dropt with gold;
Or in their pearly fhells at ease, attend
Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch: on fmooth the feal,
And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldly', enormous in their gait,
Tempest 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
Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th' egg that foo
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'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 fork
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 pafs, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes:
From branch to branch the smaller birds with fong.
Solace'd the woods, and fpread their painted wings
Till ev'n; 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 rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid aereal fky: others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crefted cock, whofe clarion founds
The filent hours; and th' other, whose
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