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Silence, ye troubled waves, and, thou deep, peace,

Said then th' omnific 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 stay'd 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 centre'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,

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And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230 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 watery 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

[blocks in formation]

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[blocks in formation]

Disparted, and between spun out the air,
And earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung.

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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

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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 ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the celestial choirs, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld,

Birth-day of heav'n and earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

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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

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Crystallin ocean, and the loud misrule

Of Chaos far remov'd, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And heav'n he nam'd the firmament: so ev'n
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'ning 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 imprest
On the swift floods: as armies at the call

Of trumpet, (for of armies thou hast heard,)
Troop to their standard, so the watʼry 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,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide.

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With serpent error wand'ring, 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 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 flower'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay

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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

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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. Senecæ 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.

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.

'Quo cornea summo

Virgulta, et densis hastilibus horrida myrtus.' Hume.

Embattle'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;

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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

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 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

Their office in the firmament of heaven

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To give light on the earth; and it was so.

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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,
To illuminate the earth, and rule the day

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