The Imelling Gourd, up ftood the Corny Reed
Embattell'd in her Field: and the humble Shrub,
And Bush with frizl'd Hair implicit : last
Rose as in Dance the stately Trees, and spread
Their Branches hung with Copious Fruit; or gem'd
Their Blossoms: 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 Seat where Gods might dwell
Or wander with Delight, and love to haunt
Her Sacred Shades: though God had yet not rain'd
Upon the Earth, and Man to Till the Ground
None was, but from the Earth a dewy Mift
Went up and water'd all the Ground, and each
Plant of the Field, which e're it was in th' Earth
God made, and every Herb, before it grew
On the green Stem; God saw that it was Good.
So Ev'n and Morn recorded the third Day.
Of the Sun, Moon, and Stars:
A Gain th' Almighty spake: let there be
High in th' expanse of Heav'n to divide
The Day from Night; and let them be for Signs,
For Seafons, and for Days, and circling Years,
And let them be for Lightsas 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 less by Night altern and made the Stars,
And set 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 Darkness to divide. God faw,
Surveying his great Work, that it was Good :
For of Celestial Bodies first the Sun
A mighty Sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first,
Though of Ethereal Mold: then form'd the Moon
Globofe, 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
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 drawLight,
And hence the Morning Planet guilds her Horns;
By Tincture or Reflection they augment
Their small peculiar, though from humane Sight
So far remote, with Dimunition 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 through Heav'ns high Road; the grey
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding sweet Influence: less bright the Moon,
But oppofite in level'd West was fet
His mirrour, with full Face borrowing her Light
From him, for other Light the needed none
In that Afpect, and still that Distance keeps
Till Night, then in the East her Turn the Shines;
Revolv'd on Heav'ns 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 the Bright Luminaries that fit, and rose, Glad Evening and glad Morn crown'd the fourth day.
AND God faid, 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 plenteoufly
The Waters generated by their Kinds,
And every Bird of Wing after his Kind;
And faw that it was Good, and bless'd them, saying
*Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas
And Lakes, and running Streams the Waters fill;
And let the Food he multiply'd on th' Earth,
Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay
With Frie innumerable Swarm, and Shoals
Of Fish that with their Finns 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 thro' Groves
Of Coral ftray, or sporting with quick Glance
Shew 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 joynted Armour watch: on smooth the Seal
And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unweildie, enormous in their Gate
Tempeft the Ocean: there Leviathan
Hugest of Living Creatures, on the Deep
Stretch'd like a Promontory Sleeps or Swims,
And feems a moving Land, and at his Gills
Drawsin, and at his Trunk spouts out a Sea.
M
Ean while the Tepid Caves, and Fens and Shares
Their Brood as numerous Hatch, from th' Egg
(that foon
Bursting with kindly Rupture forth disclos'd
Their callow young, but feather'd foon and fledg'd
They fum'd their Pens, and foaring th' Air fublime
With clang despis'd the Ground, under a Cloud..
In Profpect; there the Eagle and the Stork
On Cliffs and Cedar Tops their Eyries build :
Part loofly wing the Region, part more wife
In common, rang'd in Figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of Seafons, and fet forth
Their airy Caravan high over Seas
Flying, and over Lands with mutual Wing
Eafing their Flight; so steers the prudent Crane
Her annual Voyage, born on Winds: the Air
Floats, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd Plumos
From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with Song
Solac'd the Woods, and spread their painted Wings
Till Ev'n, nor then the folemn Nightingale
Ceas'd Warbling, but all Night tun'd her soft lays;
Others on filver Lakes and Rivers bath'd
Their downy Breast; the Swan with arched Neck
Between her white Wingsmantling proudly, rows
Her state with Gary Feet: yet oft they quit
The Dank, and rifing on stiff Pennons, towre
The mid Aereal Sky: Others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crested Cock whose Clarion founds
The filent Hours, and the other whose gay Train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue
Of Rainbows and Starr-Eyes. The Waters thus
With Fish replenish'd, and the Air with Fowl,
Ev'ning and Morn folemniz'd the fifth Day.
HE Sixth, and of Creation last arose
With Evening Harps and Matin, when God faid, Let th' Earth bring forth Fowl living in her Kind, Cattel and creeping Things, and Beast of the Earth, Each in their Kind. The Earth obey'd, and strait 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 Beast where he wons In Forrest wild, in Thicket, Brake or Den; Among the Trees in Pairs they rose, they walk'd: The Cattel in the Fields and Meadows green : Those rare and folitary, these in Flocks Pasturing at once, and in broad Herds up sprung, The graffy Clods now calv'd, now half appear'd The tawny Lyon, pawing to get free His hinder Parts, then Springs as broke from Bonds, And rampant shakes his brinded Main; the Ounce, - The Libbard and the Tygre, as the Moal Rifing, the crumbl'd Earth above them threw In Hillocks: the fwift Stag from under ground Bore up his Branching Head: fcarce from his mold Behemoth biggest Born of Earth upheav'd
His vastness: Fleec'd the Flocks and bleating rose,
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