Matter un-form'd, and void! Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss; but, on the watʼry calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God out-fpread,
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 reft to feveral place
Dif-parted; and between, fpun out the air:
And earth felf-ballanc'd on her centre hung.
Let there be light! said God
Ethereal, firft of things, quinteffence pure,
Sprung from the Deep: and from her native east,
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphear'd in a radiant cloud; (for yet the Sun
Was not) she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good:
And light from darkness by the hemifphere
Divided light the day, and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the First Day ev❜n and morn:
Nor paft un-celebrated, nor un-fung
By the cœleftial choires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birth-day of heav'n and earth! with joy, and shout,
The hollow univerfal orb they fill'd;
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd
God, and His works; Creator Him they sung, 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 expanfe of liquid, pure,
Tranfparent, elemental air, diffus'd
In circuit to the utermoft convex
Of this great Round: partition firm, and fure, The waters underneath from thofe above
Dividing for as earth, fo He the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Chryftallin ocean, and the loud mif rule
Of Chaos far remov'd: left fierce extremes
Contiguous, might diftemper the whole frame:
And heav'n He nam'd the firmament: fo ev'n
And morning chorus fung the Second Day.
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 humor foft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture when God faid,
Be gather'd now ye waters under heav'n
Into one place, and let dry land appear!....
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs up-heave
Into the clouds, their tops afcend the sky..
So high as heav'd the tumid hills, fo low
Down funk a hollow bottom, broad, and deep,
Capacious bed of waters! Thither they
Hafted with glad precipitance, up-rowl'd,
As drops on duft conglobing from the dry:
Part rife in chrystal wall, or ridge dire&,
For hafte; fuch flight the great command impress'd
On the swift floods: as armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of our armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard; so the watʼry throng,
Wave rowling after wave, where way they found,
If fteep, with torrent rapture; if through plain,
Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock, or hill
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With ferpent-error wand'ring, found their way.
And on the washy oofe deep channels wore ;
Eafy, e'er God had bid the ground be dry,
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 feas;
And faw that it was good: and faid, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grafs, herb yielding feed,
And fruit tree yielding fruit after her kind;
Whofe feed is in her felf upon the earth !....
He scarce had faid, when the bare earth ('till then
Defert, and bare, un-fightly, un adorn'd)
Brought forth the tender grafs, whose verdure clad
Her univerfal face with pleasant green ::
Then, herbs of every leaf, that fudden flow'r'd:
Op'ning their various colors, and made gay
Her bofom, smelling sweet.
And these fearee
blown,
Forth - flourish'd thick the cluftring vine, forth
The fmelling gourd, up ftood the corny reed Embattel'd in her field; and th' humble shrub, And bush, with frizl'd hair implicit. Laft,
Rose, as in dance, the ftately trees, and spread, Their branches hung with copious fruit: or gemm'd Their boffoms with high woods the hills were crown'd;
With tufts the vallies; 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 facred 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 mist
Went up, and water'd all the ground, and each
Plant of the field; which, e'er it was in th' earth
God made, and ev'ry herb, before it grew
On the green ftem: God faw that it was good.
So, ev'n, 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 feasons, 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, alterne: and made the ftars
And fed 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 cœleftial bodies firft, the fun
(A mighty sphere!) Hé fram'd; un-lightsome
Tho' of ethereal mold; then form'd the moon
Globofe; and ev'ry magnitude of stars zin
And fow'd with ftars the heav'n, thick as a field.
Of light by far the greater part hè tock,
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd
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 ftats
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 (from human fight
So far remote) with diminution feen.
First in his east the 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
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