And God created the great whales, and each

Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously
The waters generated by their kinds;

And every bird of wing after his kind;

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

395

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

400

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,

405

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

410

415

Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,

Their brood as numerous hatch, from th' egg that soon

Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclos'd

Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge

420

They summ'd their pens; and soaring th' air sublime
With clang despis'd 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

In common, rang'd in figure, wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery 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
Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till ev'n; nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays :
Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd

425

430

435

Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck,
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

440

The dank, and rising on stiff pennons tower

The mid aëriel sky: others on ground

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

The silent hours, and th' other whose gay train

Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue

445

Of rainbows and starry' eyes. The waters thus

With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl, Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day. "The sixth, and of creation last, arose

With evening harps and matin, when God said,
'Let the earth bring forth soul living in her kind,

450

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

Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,

455

Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up roșe,

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:
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

460

Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The grassy clods now calv'd; 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,
The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw

465

In hillocks: the swift stag from under ground

Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould

Behemoth, biggest born of earth upheav'd

471

His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants: ambiguous between sea and land
The river horse and scaly crocodile.

the ground,

At once came forth whatever creeps
Insect or worm: those wav'd their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride,

475

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, involv’d

480

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

485円

Of future; in sinall room large heart enclos'd;
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

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey stor'd: the rest are numberless,

490

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,

495

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

500

First wheel'd their course: earth in her rich attire

Consummate lovely smil'd; 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
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

505

510

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

And worship God supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works: therefore th' Omnipotent

515

Eternal Father (for where is not he

Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake.

"Let us make now man in our image, man

520

In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,
Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.'
This said, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God

Express; and thou becam❜st a living soul.

525

Male he created thee; but thy consort

Female, for race; then bless'd mankind, and said,
'Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth;
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold

530

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

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

535

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

540

Gave thee; all sorts are here that all th' earth yields,

Variety without end; but of the tree,

Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil,

Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thon dy'st;

Death is the penalty impos'd; beware,

545

And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin

Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death. "Here finish'd he, and all that he had made

View'd, and behold all was entirely good;
So ev'n and morn accomplish'd the sixth day :
Yet not till the Creator, from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up return'd,
Up to the Heav'n of Heav'ns, his high abode;
Thence to behold this new created world
Th' addition of his empire, how it show'd

550