Troop to their standard, so the wat'ry 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, 300
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With serpent error wand'ring, found their
And on the washy oose deep channels wore,
Easy, 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 seas;
And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, And fruit tree yielding fruit after her kind; Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.
He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
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 flow'r'd
Op'ning their various colours, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept
302 serpent] See Strabo, ix. 424. Ap. Rhod. iv. 1541. Davies ad Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 42. Solin. Polyhist. cxxiv. 4. x. Virg. Georg. i. 244. Seneca Thyestes, 869. Peele's Works by Dyce, ii. 11, ed. 1829: and Sandys' Psalms, p. 170.
With snake-like glide between the bordering hills.' 302 wand'ring] Winding. ii. 56. Bentl. MS.
The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed Embattel'd 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 heav'n, a seat where Gods might
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt [dwell,
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 the earth,
GOD made, and ev'ry herb, before it grew
On the green stem: GoD saw 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 signs, For seasons, and for days, and circling years; And let them be for lights, as I ordain
321 swelling] See Le Api de Ruscellai, v. 460.
E dir ci come col gonfiato ventre
L'idropica cucurbita s'ingrossi.'
and Milton's Prose Works, vi. p. 388. The tumid pumpkin.' 321 corny] Virg. Æn. iii. 22.
Virgulta, et densis hastilibus horrida myrtus.' Hume.
Their office in the firmament of heav'n
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 heav'n,
To illuminate the earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God saw,
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 heav'n 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
358 sow'd] Spens. Hymn to Heav. Beauty. v. 53. All sow'd with glistering stars, more thick than grass.'
362 liquid] Lucret. lib. v. 282.
Largus item liquidi fons luminis, æthereus sol.' Newton. 366 her] In the first ed. 'his horns,' which Fenton and Bentley follow.
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 th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocond to run
His longitude through heav'n's high road: the gray
Dawn and the Pleiades before him danc'd,
Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon,
But opposite in level'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, 380
Revolv'd on heav'n'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
373 gray] See Carew's Poems, p. 60, 12mo.
The yellow planets, and the gray
Dawn, shall attend thee on thy way.' Todd.
37+ Pleiades] Phosphoros. Bentl. MS.
375 sweet] P. Fletcher's Locusts, p. 40.
'There every starre sheds his sweet influence.' Todd.
376 opposite] v. Adamus Exul of Grotius, p. 20.
'Sed Luna, noctis domina, fraternum sibi
Furata lumen, splendet alienâ face :
Cumque alma Phoebe solis opposita viæ
Regione vadit, lumen adversum bibit.'
33 thousand stars]
Rutilantia corpora mille,
Mille oculos, mille igniculos intexit olympo.'
A. Rams. Poem. Sacr. i. p. 6.
With their bright luminaries, that set and rose,
Glad ev'ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth
And GoD said, Let the waters generate [day.
Reptil with spawn abundant, living soul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Display'd on the open firmament of heav'n.
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, multiply, and in the seas,
396
And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiply'd on the 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 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
402 sculls] See Hagthorpe's Divine Meditations, p. 39. The sculls, oh! Lord, of all the lakes and fountains, The herdes are thine upon ten thousand mountains.' 407 shells] A. Rams. Poem Sacr. i. p. 8.
'Pars quoque tarda, hærens scopulis, sub cortice concha, Pinnarumque, pedumque expers, depascit arenam.'
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