Op'ning their various colours, and made gay
Her bofom fwelling fweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick th' cluft'ring vine, forth crept 320
The smelling gourd, up flood the corny reed
Embattled in her field, and th' humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair implicit : laft
Rofe as in dance the ftately trees, and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd,
The 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 heav'n, a feat where gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt 330
Her facred fhades; though Gon 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 on th' earth, 335
GOD made, and ev'ry herb, before it
On the green stem; GOD faw that it was good:
So ev❜n and morn recorded the third day.
Again th' Almighty fpake, Let there be lights
High in th' expanfe of Heav'n, to divide
The day from night; and let them be for figns,
For feafons, 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 fo.
And God made two great lights, great for their use
To man, the greater to have rule by day,
The lefs by night altern; and made the stars,
And fet them in the firmament of Heav'n,
T'illuminate the Earth; and rule the day
In their viciffitude, and rule the night,
And light from darknefs to divide. GOD faw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good:
For of celeftial bodies firft the fun
A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first,
Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon
Globofe, and ev'ry magnitude of stars,
And fow'd with ftars the Heav'n thick as a field:
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Tranfplanted from her cloudy fhrine, 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 horn;
By tincture or reflexion they augment
Their small peculiar, though from human fight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
First in the east his glorious lamp was feen,
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 danc'd,
Shedding sweet influence; lefs bright the moon, 375
But oppofite in levell'd weft was fet
His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him; for other light fhe needed none
In that afpect; and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn she shines,
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 hemifphere: then firft adorn'd
With their bright luminaries, that fet and rose,
Glad ev'ning 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 heav'n.
And God created the great whales, and each
Soul living, each crept, which plenteously
The waters generated by their kinds,
And ev'ry bird of wing after his kind,
And faw that it was good, and blefs'd them, faying,
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas,
And lakes, and running ftreams, the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' earth.
Forthwith the founds and feas, each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, and sholes
Of fish, that with their fins and fhining scales
Glide under the green wave, in fculls that oft
Bank the mid fea: part fingle or with mate
Graze the fea weed their pafture, and through groves
Ot coral ftray; or fporting with quick glance, 4C5
Show to the fun their way'd coats dropt with gold;
Or in their pearly fhells at eafe, attend
Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch; on fmooth the feal,
And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gait,
Tempeft the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugeft of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory, fleeps or fwims,
And seems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a fea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and fhores,
Their brood as num'rous hatch, from th' egg
Bursting with kindly rupture forth difelos'd
Their callow young, but feather'd foon and fledge 420
They fumm'd their pens, and foaring th' air fublime,
With clang defpis'd the ground, under a cloud
In profpect; 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 feafons, and fet forth
Their airy caravan high over feas
Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats, as they pafs, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes;'
From branch to branch the ímaller birds with fong
Solac'd the woods, and fpread their painted wings
Till ev'n; nor then the folemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her foft lays :
Others on filver lakes and rivers bath'd
Their downy breaft; the fwan, with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her ftate with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rifing on stiff pennons, tow'r
The mid aerial fky: others on ground
X
Walk'd firm ;, the crested cock, whofe clarion founds
The filent hours; and th' other, whofe gay train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue
Of rainbows and ftarry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenifh'd, and the air with fowl,
Ev'ning and morn folemniz'd the fifth day.
The fixth, and of creation last, arose
With ev'ning harps and matin; when GoD faid, 450
Let th' earth bring forth foul living in her kind,
Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of th' earth,
Each in their kind The earth obey'd, and ftraight
Op'ning her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown; out of the ground up rofe,
As from his lair, the wild beaft where he wons
In foreft wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rofe, they walk'd;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare and folitary, thefe in flocks
Pafturing at once, and in broad herds unfprung.
The graffy clods now calv'd, now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder parts, then fprings as broke from bonds, 465
And rampant fhakes his brinded mane; the ounce,
The libbard, and the tyger, as the mole
Rifing, the crumbl'd earth above them threw
In hillocks; the fwift ftag from under ground
Bore up his branching head: fcarce from his mould 470
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd
His vaftnefs: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rofe,
As plants: ambiguous between fea and land
The river horfe and fcaly crocodile.
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Infect or worm: thofe way'd their limber fans
For wings and fmallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of fummer's pride,
With fpots of gold and purple', azure and green :
Thefe as a line their long dimenfion drew,
480
Streaking the ground with finuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; fome of ferpent kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their fnaky folds, and added wings. Firft crept
The parfimonious emmet, provident
Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd,
Pattern of juft equality perhaps
Hereafter join'd in her popular tribes
Of commonal'ty: fwarming next appear'd
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey ftor'd: the reft are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them names
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The ferpent, fubtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent fometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
Now heav'n in all her glory fhone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great firft Mover's hand Firft wheel'd their courfe; earth in her rich attire Confummate lovely fmil'd; air, water, earth, By fowl, fish, beaft, was flown, was fwam, was walk'd Frequent; and of the fixth day yet remain❜d, There wanted yet the mafter work, the end Of all yet done; a creature, who not prone And brute as other creatures, but endu'd With fanctity of reason, might erect
His ftature and upright with front ferene
Govern the reft, felf knowing, and from thence 510
Magnanimous to correfpond with heav'n,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Defcends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship GoD fupreme, who made him chief 515 Of all his works: therefore th' Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Prefent?) thus to his Son audibly spake.
Let us make now man in our image, man
In our fimilitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of fea and air,
Beast of the field, and over all the earth,
And ev'ry creeping thing that creeps the ground.
This faid, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O Man,
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