Page 146 of 239

PARADISE LOST.

Thus God the heaven created, thus the earth,

Matter unformed and void. Darkness profound

Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,

And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth,

Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purged

The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs,

Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed

Like things to like; the rest to several place

Disparted, and between spun out the air;

And earth, self-balanced, on her centre 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, Sphered in a radiant cloud—for yet the sun Was not—she in a cloudy tabernacle Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good; And light from darkness by the hemisphere Divided. Light, the Day, and darkness, Night, He named. Thus was the first day even and morn; Nor passed uncelebrated, nor unsung By the celestial choirs, when orient light Exhaling first from darkness they beheld, Birth-day of heaven and earth, with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they filled, And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised 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, diffused

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

Caystalline ocean, and the loud misrule

Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes

Contiguous might distemper the whole frame.

And heaven He named the firmament. So even

And morning chorus sung the second day.

The earth was formed, but in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon immature involved, Appeared not; over all the face of earth Main ocean flowed, not idle, but with warm Prolific humour softening all her globe, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture; when God said, Be gathered 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 heaved the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters. Thither they Hasted with glad precipitance, uprolled, As drops on dust conglobing from the dry; Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, For haste; such flight the great command impressed On the swift floods; as armies at the call Of trumpet—for of armies thou hast heard— Troop to their standard, so the watery 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 torrent repture. - Torrent, which forces everything from its path.