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,

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

355

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 360
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, jocond to run

365

370

His longitude through heaven's high road: the gray

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.

366 her] In the first ed. 'his horns,' which Fenton and Bentley follow.

373 gray] See Carew's Poems, p. 60, 12mo.

"The yellow planets, and the gray

Dawn shall attend thee on thy way.' Todd.

Dawn and the Pleiades before him danc'd, Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon, But opposite in level'd west was set

376

380

385

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,
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
With their 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 the 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,

374 Pleiades] Phosphoros. Bentl. MS.

375 sweet] P. Fletcher's Locusts, p. 40.

'There every starre sheds his sweet influence. Todd. 376 opposite] v. Adamus Exsul of Grotius, p. 20.

'Sed Luna, noctis domina, fraternum sibi

Furata lumen, splendet alienâ face:
Cumque alma Phoebe solis opposita viæ
Regione vadit, lumen adversum bibit.'

383 thousand stars]

'Rutilantia corpora mille,

Mille oculos, mille igniculos intexit olympo.'

390

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

And every bird of wing after his kind;

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

396

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

400

405

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;
Or in their pearly shells at ease attend
Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food
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,

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.'

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

'non remige pinna

Sulcat aquas, munitâ latens sub tegmine testâ.'

410

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

'The crook-back'd dolphin loves in floods.'

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.

415

Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg, that

soon

Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd

419

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
In prospect: there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosely wing the region, part more wise

425

In common rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery caravan, high over seas

Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing
Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane

416 spouts] Ov. Met. iii. 686.

'Et acceptum patulis mare naribus efflant. Newton.

430

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.'

425 region] Spens. F. Q. iv. 8. 9. Bentl. MS.

430 steers] See Sir J. Davies on Dancing, p. 158. (1602.) 'Yet do the cranes deserve a greater praise,

VOL. I.

Which keep such measure in their airy ways,
As when they all in order ranked are.'

31

Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes.
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays.
Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd

Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck

Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows

Her state with oary feet: yet oft they quit

The dank, and rising on stiff pennons tower
The mid aerial sky. Others on ground

435

440

Walk'd firm; the crested cock, whose clarion sounds The silent hours, and th' other, whose gay train

431 air] See Esch. Prom. v. 125.

ἀιθὴς δ' ἐλαφραῖς

Πτερύγων ῥιπαῖς ὑποσυρίζει.

434 Solac'd] Virg. Æn. vii. 32.

Toda.

'Ethera mulcebant cantu.' Todd.

438 swan] See Donne's Poems, p. 297. (1633.)
'When goodly like a ship in her full trim,
A swan so white that you may unto him
Compare all whitenesse, but himself to none,
Glided along, and as he glided watch'd,
And with his arched neck this poor fish catch'd,
It mov'd with state."

440 oary] Sil. Ital. xiv. 190.

'Innatat albus olor, pronoque immobile corpus
Dat fluvio, et pedibus tacitas eremigat undas.'

443 crested cock] See Martial. Epig. xiv. 223.
'Cristataque sonant undique lucis aves.'

See Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 30.

"The crested cock sings "Hunt is up" to him.'

Wakefield.