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 410 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. Mean while the tepid caves, and fens and shores Their brood as numerous hatch, from th' egg that
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 430 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
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, Ev'ning and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.
The sixth, and of creation last arose With evening harps and matin, when God said, 450 Let th' earth bring forth soul 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 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 Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. The grassy clods now calv'd, now half appear' The tawny lion, 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 tiger, as the mole Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw In hillocs: the swift stag from under ground Bare 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, 480 Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all Minims of nature; some of serpent kind, Wond'rous 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 inclos'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 490
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stor'd: the rest are numberless,
And thou their natures knows't, and gav'st them
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
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 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
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 indued With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence 510 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. Let us make now Man in our image, Man
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 becams't a living soul.
Male he created thee, but thy consórt
Female for race; then bless'd mankind, and said, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold 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
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
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, thou dy'st; Death is the penalty impos'd, beware,
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 even and morn accomplish'd the sixth day: 550 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,
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