Round through the vast profundity obscure, And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230 Thus be thy just circumference, O World. Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth, Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound Cover'd th' abyss: but on the wat'ry calm His brooding wings the Spi'rit of God outspread, And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd The black tartareous cold infernal dregs Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd Like things to like, the rest to several place 240 Disparted, and between spun out the air, And Earth, self-balanc'd, on her centre hung.
Let there be light, said God, and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep, and from her native east To journey through the airy gloom began, Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'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 nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn: Nor pass'd uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial quires, when orient light Exhaling first from darkness they beheld; 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 hymping prais'd
God and his works, Creator him they sung, Both when first evening 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 made The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd 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 Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule Of Chaos far remov'd, lest fierce extremes Contiguous might distemper the whole frame: And Heav'n he nam'd the firmament: So even And morning chorus sung the second 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 humor soft'ning all her globe, 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 Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky; So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd
As drops on dust conglobing from the dry; Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, For haste; such flight the great command impress'd On the swift floods: as armies at the call Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard) Troop to their standard, so the wat'ry throng, Wave rolling after wave, where wave they found, If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain, Soft ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill, 300 But they, or underground, or circuit wide With serpent error wand'ring, found their way, And on the washy ooze deep channels wore; Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry, All but within those 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 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 seed 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,
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd Opening their various colors, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown, Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed 321 Embattled in her field, and th' humble shrub, And bush with frizzled bair implicit : last Rose as in dance the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd,
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 God made, and every herb, before it grew On the green stem; God saw that it was good: So ev❜n and morn recorded the third day.
Again th' Almighty spake, Let there be lights High in th' expanse of Heav'n, to divide 340 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. And God made two great lights, great for their use Το 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 To illuminate the earth, and rule the day In their vicissitude, and rule the night, And light from darkness to divide. Surveying his great work, that it was good: For of celestial bodies first the sun
A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first, Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
And sow'd with stars the Heav'n thick as a field; Of light by far the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd 360 In the sun'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 small peculiar, though from human sight So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his East the glorious lamp was seen, 370 Regent of day, and all th' horizon around Invested with bright rays, jocund to run His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the grey Dawn and the Pleiades before him danc'd Shedding sweet influence: less bright the moon, But opposite in levell'd West was set
His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
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