The Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit 440 grassy The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower clods now The mid aerial sky. Others on ground
Walked firm-the crested cock, whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and the other, whose gay train Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus With Fish replenished, 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
Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the earth, Each in their kind!" The Earth obeyed, and,
Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, Limbed and full-grown. Out of the ground up
As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den— Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked; The cattle in the fields and meadows green: 460 Those rare and solitary, these in flocks Pasturing at once and in broad herds, upsprung. The grassy clods now calved; now half appeared The tawny lion, pawing 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 the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw Insects In hillocks; the swift stag from underground swarm Bore up his branching head; scarce from his reptiles
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness; fleeced the flocks and bleating
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 smallest lineaments exact In all the liveries decked of summer's pride, With spots of gold and purple, azure and green; These as a line their long dimension drew, 480 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
Of future, in small room large heart enclosed- Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter-joined in her popular tribes Of commonalty. Swarming next appeared The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 490 Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored. The rest are numberless, And thou their natures know'st, and gavʼst them
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.
Man is "Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and created
a living Her motions, as the great First Mover's hand 500 First wheeled their course; Earth, in her rich
Consummate, lovely smiled; Air, Water, Earth, By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked,
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, 511 But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and
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 formed 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 becam❜st a living soul.
Male he created thee, but thy consort Female, for race; then blessed mankind,
"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
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
Variety without end; but of the tree
Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou diest.
Death is the penalty imposed; beware, And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.
Here finished He, and all that he had made Viewed, and, behold! all was entirely good. So even and morn accomplished the sixth Day; Yet not till the Creator, from his work Desisting, though unwearied, up returned, Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode, Thence to behold this new-created World, The addition of his empire, how it showed In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair, Answering his great idea. Up he rode, Followed with acclamation, and the sound Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned
Happy Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused, the sons Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy
And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced,
Created in his image, there to dwell
And worship him, and in reward to rule Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air, And multiply a race of worshipers Holy and just! thrice happy, if they know Their happiness, and persevere upright!"
So sung they, and the Empyrean rung With halleluiahs. Thus was Sabbath kept. And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked How first this World and face of things began, And what before thy memory was done From the beginning, that posterity,
Informed by thee, might know. If else thou seek'st
Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.' 640
THE END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK
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