Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd, Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad Her universal face with pleasant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom smelling sweet; and these scarce blown, Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed Embattled in her field, and th' humble shrub, And bush with frizzled hair implicit last. Rose as in dance the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd Their blossoms; with high woods the hills were crown'd,
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side, With borders long the rivers; that earth now Seem'd like to heaven, 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 mist Went up, and water'd all the ground, and each Plant of the field, which ere it was in th' earth God made, and every herb, before it grew On the green stem. God saw that it was good: So even 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 signs, For seasons, and for days, and circling years; And let them be for lights, as I ordain Their office in the firmament of heaven, To give light on the earth!' and it was so. 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 heaven T'illuminate the earth, and rule the day In their vicissitude, and rule the night, And light from darkness to divide. 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 mould: then form'd the moon Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
And sow'd with stars the heaven, 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 draw light, And hence the morning planet gilds her horns; By tincture or reflection they augment
Their small peculiar, though, from human sight So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, Regent of day, and all the' horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through heaven's high road; the grey Dawn and the Pleiades before him danc'd, Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon, 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 aspect, and still that distance keeps Till night; then in the east her turn she shines, Revolv❜d on heaven'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 evening 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 the open firmament of heaven!' 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, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and in the seas, And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiplied on th' earth!' Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
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 thro' groves Of coral stray, or, sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropp'd 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. 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 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 airy 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 even ; nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays. Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd
Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower The mid aereal 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 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 th' earth bring forth fowl living in her kind, 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, Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up-rose As from his lair, the wild beast, when 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 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 In hillocks; the swift stag from under ground Bore up his branching head; scarce from his mould Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd
His vastness: fleec'd 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 way'd 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 involv'd Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future, in small 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, And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown [names, The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field, Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes And hairy mane terrific, though to thee Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
"Now heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd Her motions, as the first great Mover's hand 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 heaven; But grateful to acknowledge whence his good 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 Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake :
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