"So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,
Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones,
And virtues, winged spirits, and chariots wing'd
From th' armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd,
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage! and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them spirit liv'd,
Attendant on their Lord: heaven open'd wide 205
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound!
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
On heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
"Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep,
peace!'
Said then th' omnific Word, 'your discord end :
Nor staid. but, on the wings of cherubim
Uplifter, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice. Him all his train
Follow'd in bright possession to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepar'd
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
ne foot he centred, and the other turn'd,
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, This be thy just circumference, O world!'
"Thus God the heaven created, thus the earth, Matter unform'd and void: darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat❜ry calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235
And vital virtue infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purg'd
The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs,
Adverse to life; then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the air:
And earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung.
"Let there be light!' said God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 245
To journey through the airy gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided light the day, and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the first day even and morn.
Nor pass'd uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial choirs, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birth-day of heaven and earth! with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd
God and his works, Creator him they sung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn.
66 Again, God said, 'Let there be firmament Amid the waters, and let it divide
The waters from the waters!' And God made
The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great round; partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing; for as earth, so he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far remov'd, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame.
And heaven he nam'd the firmament: so even
And morning chorus sung 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 humour soft'ring all her globe, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture: when God said, '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 ascend the sky; So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters: thither they Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd As drops on dust conglobing from the dry ; Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,
For haste; such flight the great command impress'd
On the swift floods. As armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
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 way,
And on the washy ooze 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 the earth
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, 310
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 flower'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet; and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clustering 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 the 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 the 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
Го
man, the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night altern; ard 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. 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, 355
Though of ethereal mould; then form'd the moon
Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
And cow'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 360
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 signt
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, 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,375 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, 385
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 tnem, saying, 'Be fruitful, 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
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 thro' groves
Of coral stray, or, sporting, with quick glance, 405
Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropp'a with gold,
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