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The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed, 321
Embattel'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;

With tufts the valleys and each fountain side; 327 With borders long the rivers: that earth now

Seem'd like to heaven, a seat where gods might Or wander with delight, and love to haunt [dwell, Her sacred shades: though GOD had yet not rain'd Upon the earth, and man to till the ground

332

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 ev'ry herb, before it grew
On the green stem: GOD saw that it was good:
So ev'n and morn recorded the third day.

336

340

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

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.

Their office in the firmament of heaven

345

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,

350

357

361

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 heaven thick as a field.
Of light by far the greater part he took,
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

365

358 sow'd] Spens. Hymn to Heav. Beauty. v. 53.
'All sow'd with glistering stars, more thick than grass.'

Todd. 362 liquid] Lucret. lib. v. 282. 'Largus item liquidi fons luminis, æthereus sol.' Newton. 866 her] In the first ed. 'his horns,' which Fenton and Bentley follow.

Their small peculiar, though from human sight So far remote, with diminution seen.

376

First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, 370
Regent of day, and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through heaven's high road: the gray
Dawn and the Pleiades before him danc'd,
Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon,
But opposite in level'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 heaven'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

373 gray] See Carew's Poems, p. 60, 12mo.
'The yellow planets, and the gray
Dawn, shall attend thee on thy way.'

374 Pleiades] Phosphoros. Bentl. MS.
375 sweet] P. Fletcher's Locusts, p. 40.

Todd.

'There every starre sheds his sweet influence.' Todd.

376 opposite] v. Adamus Exul of Grotius, p. 20.

'Sed Luna, noctis domina, fraternum sibi
Furata lumen, splendet alienâ face:
Cumque alma Phœbe solis opposita viæ
Regione vadit, lumen adversum bibit.'

383 thousand stars]

'Rutilantia corpora mille,

Mille oculos, mille igniculos intexit olympo.'

A. Rams. Poem. Sacr. i. p. 6.

With their bright luminaries, that set and rose,
Glad ev'ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth
And God said, Let the waters generate [day.
Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul :
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Display'd on the open firmament of heaven.
And God created the great whales, and each
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

390

The waters generated by their kinds,

And every bird of wing after his kind;

396

And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying,
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,
And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiply'd on the 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

400

405

Of coral stray, or sporting with quick glance
Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold;
Or in their pearly shells at ease attend
Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food

402 sculls] See Hagthorpe's Divine Meditations, p. 39. 'The sculls, oh! Lord, of all the lakes and fountains, The herdes are thine upon ten thousand mountains.' 407 shells] A. Rams. Poem Sacr. i. p. 8. 'Pars quoque tarda, hærens scopulis, sub cortice concha, Pinnarumque, pedumque expers, depascit arenam.'

415

In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal
And bended dolphins play; part huge of bulk,
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean; there Leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps, or swims
And seems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg, that
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd [soon
Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge,
They summ'd their pens, and soaring th' air sublime
With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud

409 armour watch] A. Ramsæi Poem. Sacr. i. 7.

non remige pinna

Sulcat aquas, munitâ latens sub tegmine testa.'

410 bended] See Huet's Note to Manilius, v. 418: he gives near ten examples from the Latin Poets of this expression. 'Perpetuum hoc Delphinûm Epitheton.' v. Burm. ad Ovid. i. p. 269. 'Curvo Delphine.' Sat. Theb. i. 121. Also Fanshaw's Pastor Fido. p. 11.

'The crook-back'd dolphin loves in floods.' 416 spouts] Ov. Met. iii. 686.

'Et acceptum patulis mare naribus efflant.' Newton. 422 clang] See Stat. Theb. xii. 516, and Burman's Note to Ovid. Metam. xii. 528. See Orellius on Arnobius, vol. ii. p. 477. Tryphiodorus. v. 345. (Merrick's Transl.)

'Loud as th' embody'd cranes, a numerous throng
Driven by the stormy winter sail along,
While the faint ploughman, and the labouring swain
Curse the dire clangor of the noisy train.'

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