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 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 : 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 and void: Darkness profound Cover'd the abyss; but on the watery calm His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 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 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 the 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 withstoood them rock or hill But they, or under ground, or circuit wide With serpent errour wandering, found their way, 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 the 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 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 colours, 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, 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 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 the 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 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
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