Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
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, Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold; Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal, And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean: there leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land; and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea.
Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that soon Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd
Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge They summ'd their pens; and, soaring the air sublime, With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud In prospect; there the eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build : Part loosely wing the region, part more wise In common, rang'd in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their aery caravan, high over seas
Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing
Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes: From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays : Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bath'd 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 penons, tower The mid aerial sky.
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.
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl, Evening and morn solemniz'd 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 up rose, 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 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 clods now calv'd; now half appear'd The tawny lion, pawing to gret 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 In hillocks the swift stag from under ground Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, As plants: ambiguous between sea and land The river-horse, and scaly crocodile.
At once came forth whatever ereeps the ground, Insect or worm: those wav'd their limber fans For wings, and smallest 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, involv'd Their snaky folds, and added wings.
The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future; in small room large heart enclos'd; Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes
Of commonality; swarming next appear'd The female bee, that feeds her husband-drone Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st 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 first Mover's hand First wheel'd their course: earth in her rich attire Consummate lovely smil'd: air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'd: 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 breath'd 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 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, works knowledge of good and evil, Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou diest ; Death is the penalty impos'd: beware,
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 abode; Thence to behold this new-created world,
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