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 highth, and with the center mix the pole.

Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace,
Said then the Omnifick Word; your discord end !
Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn ;
For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train
Follow'd in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the feryid 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 :
One foot he center'd, 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 anul void: Darkness profound
Cover'd the abyss; but on the watery ealm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital viwtúe 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 center 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
To journey through thc aery gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojour'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 past uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial quires, 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.

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
Prolifick humour softening 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 watery throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
Soft-ebbing, nor withstpood them rock or hill:
But they, or under ground, of circuit wide
With serpent errour wandering, found their way,
And on the washy oose deep channels woré;
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 grąss, 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
Desart 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 coloury, and made gay
Her bosom, smelling sweet: and, these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clustering vine, forth crept
The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed
Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair implicit : Last

Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, atid sprendt Their branches lithg with copious fruit, or gemm'd Their blossdtis: With high woods the hills were

crown'd's With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side ;! With borders long the rivers that Earth now Seeri'd like to Heaven, *t seat where Gods might

dwell, Ot wander with delight, and love to haunt Her sacred shades of though God had yet not rain'' Upon the Earth, and many toʻtill 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 every herb, before it grew On the green stem: God saw tirat it was good : So event and mort recorded the third day.

Again the Ahmightý 'spake, Let there be lights
Higli in the expanse of Heaven, to divide
The day from night'; and let them be for signs,
For seasons, and fur days, and circling years;
And let them be for lights, as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of Heaven,
'TG-give- light on the Eartli ; and it was sơ:
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