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His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235. 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
Disparted, and between spun out the air,
And earth felf-balanc'd on her centre hung.

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Let there be light, faid God; and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 2455 To journey through the aery gloom began, Spher'd in a radiant cloud; for yet the fun

Was not; the in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good;

And light from darkness by the hemisphere

Divided: light the day, and darkness night

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He nam'd. Thus was the first day ew'n and morn:

Nor past uncelebrated, nor unfung

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By the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birth-day of heaven and earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal' orb they fill'd,.

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd
God and his works; Creator him they fung,
Both when first ev'ning was, and when first morn.

Again God faid, Let there be firmament

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 fure,
The waters underneath from those above

Dividing: for as earth, fo he the world

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Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud mifrule
Of Chaos far remov'd, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And heaven he nam'd the Firmament: fo even
And morning chorus fung the second day.

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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 humour soft'ning all her globe, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture; when God faid, Be gather'd now ye waters under heaven 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 funk a hollow bottom, broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters: thither they Hafted with glad precipitance, uproll'd As drops on dust conglobing from the dry; Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, For haste; fuch flight the great command impress'd On the swift floods: as armies at the call

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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 ferpent-error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy oofe deep channels wore;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,

Al

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:

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And faw that it was good; and faid, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding feed, 310
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,
Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.

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He scarce had faid, when the bare earth, till them
Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad
Her universal face with pleasant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that fudden flower'd
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, up stood the corny reed
Imbattled 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
Their bloffoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd,.
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain-fide,
With borders long the rivers: that earth now
Seem'd like to heaven, a feat where gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her facred shades: tho' God had yet not rain'd
Upon the earth, and man to till the ground.
None was; but from the earth a dewy mist

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Went up and water'd all the ground, and each
Plant of the field, which, ere it was in th' earth, 3355

God made, and every herb, before it grew

On the green stem; God faw that it was good:
So even and morn recorded the third day.

Again th' Almighty spake, Let there be lights High in th' expanse of heaven, to divide The day from night; and let them be for figns, For seasons, and for days, and circling years; And let them be for lights, as I ordain Their office in the firmament of heaven, To give light on the earth; and it was so. 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 flars,

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And set them in the firmament of heaven,

To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day
In their viciffitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God faw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good :

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For of celestial bodies first the fun

A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first, 355 Tho' of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon

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Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
And fow'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 fun'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, tho' from human fight
So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude thro' heaven's high road; the gray

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Dawn

Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd, Shedding sweet influence: less bright the moon, 375

But oppofite in level'd west was set,

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
Revolv'd on heav'n's great axle, and her reign

With thousand leffer lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the hemisphere; then first adorn'd
With their bright luminaries, that fet and rose, 385
Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth day.

And God faid, Let the waters generate Reptile with spawn abundant, living foul: And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings Display'd on th' open firmament of heaven. And God created the great whales, and each Soul living, each that crept, which plenteoufly

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The waters generated by their kinds,

And every bird of wing after his kind;

And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, faying,

Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,

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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 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 seulls that oft
Bank the mid fea: part single or with mate
Graze the fea-weed their pasture, and thro' groves
Of coral stray; or sporting with quick glance. 405
Show to the fun their wav'd coats dropt with gold;
Or in their pearly shells at eafe, attend

Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food

In jointed armour watch: on smooth the feal,

And

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