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 he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed
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 for human sight
So far remote, with diminution seen.

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First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,

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Regent of day, and all th' 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,

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But opposite in levell'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,
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 adorn'd
With her bright luminaries that set and rose,
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.
And God created the great whales, and each
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

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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,

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Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,

And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill;

And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' earth.

Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals

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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,

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Show to the sun their waved 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

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Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea.

Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores

Their brood as num'rous hatch, from th' egg that soon

Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclosed

Their callow young, but feather'd soon and fledge

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They summ'd their pens, and soaring th' air sublime,

With clang despised 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

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In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way,

Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their aëry 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
Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till ev'n, nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays:
Others on silver lakes and rivers bathed

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Their downy breast. The swan with arched neck

Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

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The dank, and rising on stiff pennons, tow'r

The mid aëreal sky: others on ground

Walk'd firm; the crested cock, whose clarion sounds

The silent hours, and th' other whose gay train

Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue

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Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl
Ev'ning and morn solemnized the fifth day.
The sixth, and of creation last, arose
With ev'ning harps and matin, when God said,
Let th' earth bring forth soul-living in her kind,

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Cattle and creeping things, and beast of th' earth,

Each in their kind. The earth obey'd; and straight
Opening her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth
Innum rous living creatures, perfect forms,

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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:

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Those rare and solitary, these in flocks,
Past'ring at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The grassy clods now calved; now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,

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The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocs: the swift stag from under ground
Bore
up his branching head; scarce from his mould
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
His vastness; fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,
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 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, involved

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Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident

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Of future, in small room large heart inclosed,
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes

Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

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Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey stored. The rest are numberless,

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,

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Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes

And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

Now Heav'n in all her glory shone, and roll'd

Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand

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First wheel'd their course; earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smiled; 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

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His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heav'n,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good

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Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God supreme, who made him chief

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Of all his works. Therefore th' 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

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Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And ev'ry creeping thing that creeps the ground.

This said, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O Man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life: in his own image he

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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,

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Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,

Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold

Over fish of the sea, and fowl of th' air,'

And ev'ry living thing that moves on th' earth.
Wherever thus created, for no place

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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

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