Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyfs: but on the watry calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outfpread, 235
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverfe to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the reft to feveral place
Difparted, and between fpun out the air,
And Earth felf-balanc'd on her center hung.
Let there be light, faid God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, firft of things, quinteffence pure
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the fun
Was not; fhe in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good;
And light from darknefs by the hemifphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor paft uncelebrated, nor unfung
By the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and fhout The hollow univerfal orb they fill'd,
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd God and his works, Creator him they fung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn. 260 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,
Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd
In circuit to the uttermoft convex
Of this great round: partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, fo he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Chryftallin ocean, and the loud mifrule
Of Chaos far remov'd, left fierce extremes
Contiguous might diftemper the whole frame:
And Heav'n he nam'd the firmament: So even
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 Heaven
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
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, uproll'd
As drops on duft conglobing from the dry;
Part rife in crystal wall, or ridge direct,
For hafte; fuch flight the great command imprefs'd
On the fwift floods: as armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the watry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If steep, 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, ere 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 said, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding feed,
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,
Whose feed is in herself upon the earth.
He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Defert and bare, unfightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grafs, whofe verdure clad 315
Her univerfal face with pleafant green,
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd
Opening their various colors, and made gay
Her bofom fmelling fweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth florifh'd thick the cluftring vine, forth crept 320
The smelling gourd, up ftood the corny reed
Imbattel'd in her field, and th' humble shrub,
And bush with frizled hair implicit : laft
Rofe 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 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
Her facred fhades: 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 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' expanfe of Heaven, 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 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 lefs by night altern; and made the stars,
And fet them in the firmament of Heaven
To' 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 firft the fun
A mighty fphere 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,
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 horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their finall peculiar, though from human fight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
First in his eaft the glorious lamp was feen,
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocond to run
His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding fweet influence: lefs bright the moon
But oppofit in level'd weft was fet
His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him, for other light the needed none
In that afpéct, and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn the fhines,
Revolv'd on Heav'n's great axle, and her reign
With thousand leffer lights dividual holds,
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