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 aeriel sky: others on ground

Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds
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 liar, the wild beast where 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 clouds now calved; now half appear'd
The tawney lion, pawning 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 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 smaller lineaments 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
Offuture; in small room laige 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 nature know'st, and gavest them names,
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 Mover's hand

First wheel'd their course: Earth in her rich attire
Consumate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,

By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swam, war walk'd,
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:
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

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 sorts are here that all the Earth yields

Variety without end; but of the tree,

Which, tasted, work, knowledge of good and evil,

Thou may'st not; in the day thou eatest thou diest : Death is the penelty imposed; beware,

R

And govern well thy appetite; lest 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 even and morn accomplish'd the sixth day;
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up return'd,
Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abo de
Thence to behold this new created world,
The addition of his empire, how it show'd

In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
Auswering his great idea. Up he rode
Follow'd with acclamation, and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned
Angelic harmonies: the Earth, the air

Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou heard'st,)
The Heavens and all the constellations rung,
The planets in their station listening stood,
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.
Open, ye everlasting gates! they sung,
Open, ye Heavens! your living doors; let in
The great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his six day's work, a world;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men,
Delighted; and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace. So sung

The glorious train ascending: He through Heaven,
That open'd wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way;
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,

Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest
Powder'd with stars. And now on Earth the seventh

Evening arose in Eden, for the sun

Was set, and twilight from the east came on,

Forerunning night; when at the holy mount

Of Heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead, fix'd for ever firm and sure,
The filial power arived, and sat him down
With his great Father; for he also went
Invissible, yet staid (such privilege

Hath Omnipresence,) and the work ordain'd,
Author and end of all things; and from work
Now resting, blessed and hallow'd the seventh day.
As resting, on that day from all his work :
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe,
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sound on fret by strings or golden wire,
Temper'd soft tuning, intermix'd with voice
Choral or unison of incense clouds,

:

Fuming from golden cencers, hid the mount.
Creation and the sixth days' acts they sung:

Great are thy works, Jehovah ? infinité

Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue
Relate thee! Greater now in thy return

Than from giant Angels: Thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound
Thy empire! Easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,
Thou hast repelled; while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might his evil
Thou usest, and from thence createst more good,
Witness this new-made world, another Heaven
From Heaven gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars