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Surveying his great work, that it was good:
For of celeftial bodies firft the fun

A mighty fphere he fram'd, unlightsome first,
Though of ethereal mold: then form'd the moon
Globofe, and every magnitude of stars,

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And fow'd with ftars the Heav'n thick as a field:
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy fhrine, and plac'd 360
In the fun's orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light, firm to retain
Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light.1
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.
First in his eaft the glorious lamp was feen,
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run

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His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the gray Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd

Shedding fweet influence: lefs bright the moon

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But oppofit in level'd weft was fet

His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him, for other light fhe needed none
In that afpéct, and ftill that diftance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn fhe fhines,
Revolv'd on Heav'n's great axle, and her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,

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With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the hemifphere: then firft adorn'd
With their bright luminaries that set and rose,
Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth day.
And God faid, Let the waters generate
Reptil with spawn abundant, living foul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Display'd 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 faw that it was good, and blefs'd them, faying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas

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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 swarm, and fhoals
Of fish that with their fins and shining scales
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 through groves
Of coral ftray, or sporting with quick glance
Show to the fun their wav'd coats dropt with gold,
Or in their pearly fhells at ease, attend
Moift nutriment, or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch: on fmooth the feal,
And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gate
Tempeft the ocean: there leviathan,

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Hugeft

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Hugeft of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory fleeps or swims
And seems a moving land, and at his gills
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' egg that foon
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd

Their callow young, but feather'd soon 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 stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loofly wing the region, part more wife
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of feafons, and fet forth

Their aery caravan high over feas

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Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

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Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Flotes, as they pafs, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes:
From branch to branch the smaller birds with fong
Solac'd the woods, and spread 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 state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid aereal fky: Others on ground

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Walk'd

Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion founds
The filent hours, and th' other whose gay train
Adorns him, color'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 folemniz'd the fifth day.
The fixth, and of creation last arose

rofe

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With evening harps and matin, when God faid, 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
Opening her fertil womb teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up
As from his lair the wild beaft where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rofe, they walk'd:
The cattel in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare and folitary, 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

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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

Rifing, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocs: the fwift ftag from under ground
Bore up his branching head: fcarce from his mold 470
Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd

His vaftness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rofe,

As

As plants: ambiguous between fea and land

The river-horse and fcaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Infect or worm: thofe wav'd their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of fummer's pride
With spots of gold and purple', azure and green:
These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with finuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; fome of ferpent kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their fnaky folds, and added wings. Firft crept
The parfimonious emmet, provident

Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd,
Pattern of just equality perhaps

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Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes

Of commonalty: fwarming next appear'd

The female bee, that feeds her hufband drone

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Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey ftor'd: the rest are numberless,

And thou their natures know'ft, and gave them names,
Needlefs to thee repeated; nor unknown

The ferpent fubtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent fometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee

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Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

Now Heav'n in all her glory fhone, and roll'd
Her motions, as the great firft Mover's hand
First wheel'd their courfe; earth in her rich attire
Confummate lovely fmil'd; air, water, earth,

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