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To future men, and in their dwellings peace;
Glory to him, whose just avenging ire
Had driven out th' ungodly from his sight
And th' habitations of the just; to him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd

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Good out of evil to create, in stead

Of spirits malign a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.

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So sang the Hierarchies. Mean while the Son On his great expedition now appear'd, Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd Of Majesty divine, sapience and love Immense, and all his Father in him shone. About his chariot numberless were pour'd Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones, And virtues, winged spirits, and chariots wing'd, From the armoury of God, where stand of old 200 Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodg'd Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand, Celestial equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them spirit liv'd, Attendant on their Lord: heaven open'd wide 205 Her ever during gates, harmonious sound On golden hinges moving, to let forth The King of glory, in his powerful Word And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

On heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss

Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,

[blocks in formation]

211 214

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 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

220

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 center'd, and the other turn'd

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Round through the vast profundity obscurę, And said, thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,

This be thy just circumference, O world.

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Thus GOD the heaven created, thus the earth, Matter unform'd and void. Darkness profound Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat'ry 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

214 And] Newton would read 'In surging waves;' it seems better, says Todd, as the Doctor observes, to say of the sea, 'in surging waves,' than 'by.'

224 fervid] Hor. Od. i. i. 4.

'Metaque fervidis

Evitata rotis.'

Hume.

The black, tartareous, cold, infernal, dregs,
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like; the rest to several place 240
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

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Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourn'd the while. GOD saw the light was good;

250

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

255

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

229 founded] Rounded. Bentl. MS.

265

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
Crystallin 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 ev'n
And morning chorus sung the second day.

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275

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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,

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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,

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Troop to their standard, so the wat'ry 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
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 305
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.

316

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
Op'ning their various colours, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept

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.

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