To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day,
In their viciffitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide.
Surveying his great work, that it was good:
For, of celestial bodies firft, the fun,

350

God faw,

A mighty fphere! he fram'd; unlightsome first,
Though of ethereal mold: then form'd the moon
Globofe, and every magnitude of stars,
And fow'd with ftars the heav'n, thick as a field.
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Tranfplanted from her cloudy fhrine, and plac'd
In the fun'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 fmall peculiar, though, from human fight
So far remote, with diminution feen.
Firft in his eaft the glorious lamp was feen,
Regent of day, and all the' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run

355

360

365

3.70

His longitude through heav'n's high road: the gray Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danc'd,

Shedding fweet influence. Lefs bright the moon, 375
But oppofite in levell'd weft was fet,

His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him; for other light she needed none
In that afpect; and ftill that diftance keeps
"Till night; then in the east her turn she shines,
Revolv'd on heav'n's great axle, and her reign
With thousand leffer lights dividual holds,

With thoufand thousand stars, that then appear'd
Spangling the hemisphere: then first adorn'd

380

With their bright luminaries, that set and rofe, 385

.

Glad ev'ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth day.
And God faid, Let the waters generate
Reptile, with spawn abundant, living foul:
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;

390

And faw that it was good, and blefs'd them, faying, 395
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas,

And lakes, and running ftreams, the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiply'd on the' earth.
Forthwith the founds and feas, each creek and bay,
With fry innumerable fwarm, and shoals

400

Of fish, that with their fins and fhining scales
Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft
Bank the mid fea: part fingle, or with mate,
Graze the fea-weed their pasture; and through groves
Of coral flray; or fporting with quick glance, 405
Show to the fun their wav'd coats, dropt with gold;
Or in their pearly fhells at eafe, attend

Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food

In jointed armour watch on fmooth the seal,

And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk

410

L. 391. Whales.] Sax. O. E. The hugeft creatures in the fea, as elephants are on the dry land: they are mentioned in particular, Gen. i. 21.

I.. 410. Dolphins.] from Delphi; Lat. from the Gr. becaufe the people of Delphi first discovered this fifh; or Delphax, Gr. i. e, an hog; because it refembles one in its long fnout, fatnefs, ribs, liver, and entrails. It is called the fea-bog, and the facred fifh, because it was confecrated to Neptune. A dolphin is a large fith, not unlike a porpoife; very straight, and the fwifteft of all fishes or birds; as swift as an arrow: it will overtake a fhip in full fail before the wind, and continually in motion. It doth live twenty or thirty years, and three or four days out of water, as an eel doth. Dolphins are faid to be lovers of men. It is a certain fign of a tempeft when they sport on the water. Their flesh was of great request among the ancients. They have no gall.

Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugeft of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory, fleeps or fwims,
And feems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a fea.
Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and fhores,
Their brood as num'rous hatch, from the' egg that foon
Burfting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd

415

Their callow young, but feather'd foon and fledge, 420
They fumm'd their pens, and foaring the' air fublime,
With clang defpis'd the ground, under a cloud
In profpect: there the eagle and the ftork
On cliffs and cedar-tops their eyries build :
Part loosely wing the region; part more wife

In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of feafons, and fet forth
Their airy caravan, high over feas

425

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

430

Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Flotes, as they pafs, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes:
From branch to branch the smaller birds with fong
Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings

L. 423. Stork.] Sax. Gr. Heb. Chahdah, i. c. kindness, or natural affection; because that bird hath a great love to its young; and they to the old ones, A fowl bigger than a common heron, with a white head, neck, belly, tail, and fore part; but black in the back, with broad claws, like the nails of a man.

L. 426.-rang'd in figure wedge their way.] Pliny has defcribed certain birds of paffage, flying in the form of a wedge, and spreading wider and wider. Those behind reft upon those before, till the leaders being tired, are, in their turn, received into the

rear.

L. 430. Crane.] Sax. O. E. A name formed from its found. A bird of paffage, celebrated by the prophet, for her obferving the fit time of coming and going from one country to another, Jer. viii. 7. It is a bird with a very long bill, neck, and legs; fometimes weighing ten pounds; and is a water fowl, reforting in fens.

435

Till ev'n; nor then the folemn nightingale

Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays:
Others on filver lakes and rivers bath'd

Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her ftate with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rifing on ftiff pennons, tower

440

The mid aereal sky: others on ground

Walk'd firm; the crefted cock, whose clarion founds

The filent hours, and the' other, whofe gay train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue

445

Of rainbows and ftarry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Ev'ning and morning folemniz'd the fifth day.
The fixth, and of creation last, arose
With ev'ning harps and matin; when God said,
Let the' earth bring forth foul living in her kind,
Cattle, and creeping things, and beaft of the' earth,
Each in their kind. The earth obey'd; and strait
Op'ning her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up rose,
As from his lair, the wild beaft where he wons
In foreft wild, in thicket, brake, or den:
Among the trees in pairs they rofe, they walk'd;
The cattle in the fields, and meadows green :
Those rare and folitary, these in flocks
Pafturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The graffy clods now calv'd, now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

450

455

460

His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 465 And rampant shakes his brinded mane: the ounce,

The libbard, and the tyger, as the mole

Rifing, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocks; the fwift ftag from under ground

Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould 470
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd

His vaftnefs fleec'd the flocks, and bleating rofe,
As plants: ambiguous between sea and land,
The river horfe, and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Infect or worm: thofe wav'd their limber fans

For wings, and fmallest lineaments exact

In all the liveries deck'd of fummer's pride,
With fpots of gold and purple', azure and green :
Thefe, as a line, their long dimenfion drew,
Streaking the ground with fmuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; fome of serpent-kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv❜d
Their fnaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parfimonious emmet, provident

Of future; in fmall room large heart inclos'd,
Pattern of juft equality perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty. Swarming next appear'd
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

480

485

490

I. 474. Crocodile.] Lat. Gr. i. e. yellow; because it is of a yellow colour, or because it hateth the smell and taste of saffron, which is yellow. A huge, voracious, and very strong, but timorous beast, in the Nile, Ganges, &c. living equally upon land and water; as our geefe, ducks, otters, &c. Its jaws are wide enough to fwallow a man whole, full of teeth. It hath fixty bones or joints in the back; and is the only beast that hath no tongue. The upper skin is firm, hard and impenetrable with any dart, spear or fhot, no not with a loaded cart; and therefore, Scaly is a proper epithet: but it may be wounded in the belly. It fwims with the feet, and fins, which are upon the tail; but is very flow in its pace, because the feet are short. The tail is near as long as the whole body. It lays its eggs in the fand or earth, and brings forth its young every year. Its eggs are as big as a goofe's, and it lays one every day for fixty days. It is thought they live 100 years, and are generally thirty feet long.

L. 490. Drone.] Sax. O. E. A wafp, or male bee, without a fting, who propagates the fpecies, but cannot gather honey, for want of it. Therefore, he fits and hatches the brood, keeps the while the female bees gather the honey abroad; and

cggs warm,