Heavn's height, and with the centre mix the pole.

Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace, Said then th' omnific Word; your discord end. Nor stay'd, but on the wings of Cherubin Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos, and the world unborn ,

220 For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train Follow'd in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then stay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepared

225 In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things. One foot he center d, and the other turn'd Round through the vast profundity obscure, And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230 This be thy just circumference, O world ! Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth, Matter un form'd and void. Darkness profound Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat'ry calm His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235 And vital virtue' infused and vital warmth Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged The black tartareous cold infernal dregs Adverse to life : then founded, then conglobed Like things to like, the rest to sev'ral place 240 Disparted, and between spun out the air ; And Earth. selt-balanced, on her centre hung.

Let there be light, said God; and forth with light Ethereal first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 245 To journey through the aery gloom began, Sphered in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun

225. Prov, viii. 27. 232. It is well observed, that this book is a magnificent para

phrase of the Moral account of the creation. 243. Geni. i. 3. I cannot but nhserve here that one of the most sublime, and at the same tine learned of niodern reaxopers, in speaking to me on this pasnige of Scripture, remark, d, that the tisnal wity in which it is understood is nni onis incorrect, but greatly diminishes its sublimity. It is highly wrong, according to hir, ic suppose that light was first called into bring on the creation of this world, for Heaven nad been for over filled with it, and Goul bisself is compared to it: the expression, consequently,

Let there be light,' is to be interpreted, Let the light flow forth, let there be light shining from its great original fountain on the commencing systeni.'

Was not: she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojouru'd the while. God saw the light was good ;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere 250
Divided : light the Day, and darkness Night
He named. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor uusung
By the celestial choirs, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld

255
Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth ; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works; Creator him they sing,
Both when first ev'ning was, and when first morn.

Again, God said, Let there be firmament 261 Amid the waters, and let it divide The waters from the waters. And God inade The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, Transparent, elemental air, diffused

265 In circuit to the uttermost convex Of this great round : partition firm and sure, The waters underneath from those above Dividing : for as earth, so he the world Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide 270 Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes Contiguous might distemper the whole frame: And Heav'n he named the Firmament. So ev'n And morning chorus sung the second day. 275

The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon immature involved, Appear'd not. Over all the face of th' earth Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm Prolific huniour soft'ning all her globe,

280 Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture, when God said, Be gather'd now, ye waters under Heav'n, Into one place, and let dry land appear. Immediately the mountains huge appear

285 Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave

256. Job xxxviii. 4. 7. I might multiply references without end i ihis part of the poem, but it must be left to the industry or curiosity of the reader to discover the scriptural allusions where they are so numerous as in the present instance.

Into the clouds ; their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they

290
Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'a
As drops on dust conglobing from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,
For haste: such flight the great command impressid
On the swift floods. As armies at the call 295
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the wat’ry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found;
If steep, with torrent rapture ; if through plain,
Soft-ebbing : nor withstood them rock or hill, 300
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With serpent error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy oose deep channels wore;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within those banks, where rivers now 305
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, Earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd Seas :
And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, 310
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,
Whose secd is in herself upon the earth.
He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad,
Her universal face with pleasant green;

316 Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'a Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown, Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept The smelling gourd, upstood the corny reed

321 Einbattled in her field, and th' humble shrub, And bush with frizzled hair implicit. Last Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread Their branches, hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd

321. Swelling has been suggested, and most probably correctly,

323. Hair, cona is the same in Latin, small leaves, twigs, &ci. implicit, en angled.

323. Gemm'd, from gemmare, to put forth blossoms.

Their blossoms : with high woods the hills were
crown'd

326
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side,
With borders long the rivers : that earth now
Seem'd like to Heav'n, a seat where Gods might

dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt 330
Her sacred shades. 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 ev'ry berb, before it grew
On the green stem; God saw that it was good :
So ev'n and morn recorded the third day.

Again the Almighty spake, Let there be Lights
High in th' expanse of Heaven, to divide 310
The day from night: and let them be for signs,
For seasons, and for days, and circling years;
And let them be for lights, as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of Heav'n,
To give light on the earth : and it was so. 345
And God made two great lights, great for their use
To Man; the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night altern ; and made the stars
And set them in the firmament of Heav'n
T' illuminate the earth, and rule the day

350
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God saw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good :
For, of celestial bodies, first the sun,
A mighty sphere, he framed, unlightsome first, 355
Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon
Globose, and ev'ry magnitude of stars,
And sow'd with stars the Heav'n thick as a field :
Of light by far the greater part be took,
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed 300
In the sun's orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light, firmi 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, 385
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns ;

By tincture or reflection they augment Their small peculiar, though for human sight So far remote, with diminution seen. First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, 370 Regent of day, and all ta' horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run His longitude through Heav'n's high road. The grey Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced, Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon, But opposite in levell'd west was set 376 His mirror, 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, 380 Revolved on Heav'n's great axle; and her reign With thousand lesser lights dividual holds, With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd Spangling the hemisphere. Then first adorm'd With her bright luminaries that set and rose, 385 Glad ev'ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters generate Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul: And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings Display'd on th' open firmament of Heav'n. 390 And God created the great whales, and each Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously The waters generated by their kinds, And ev'ry bird of wing after his kind; And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, 396 And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiply'd on th’ earth. Forth with the sounds and seas, each creek and bay With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals 400 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, 405 Shew to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold, Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend

373. For longitude Bentley reads his long career.
402. Scutts, a Saxon word, signifying an assenubly,