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God and his works, Creator him they sung,
Both e on fit evening was,

and when first morn.

Again, Cod, Let there be firmament

Amid the voters, 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 Heav'n 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 carth
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 br

bare backs upheave

Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low

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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,

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For haste; such flight the great command imprcss'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' y throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where wave 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
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:

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And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' 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 flow'r'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 clust' ring vine, forth crept
The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed
Embattl'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 th' 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
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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
To' 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

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A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first,
Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon
Globose, and every magnitude of stars,

And sow'd with stars the Heav'n thick as a field :
Of light by far the greater part he took,
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Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd
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 sight
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

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His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the grey Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd

Shedding sweet influence: Icss bright the moon, But opposite in leveli'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, 380
Revolv'd on Heav'n'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,
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 th' 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;

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And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas

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And lakes and running streams the waters fill; 1
And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' earth.
Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
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 through groves
Of coral stray, or sporting with quick glance
Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold,

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