BOOK SEVENTH
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��Of congregated waters he called Seas; And saw that it was good, and said, ' Let
the 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, unadorned, Brought forth the tender grass, whose ver- dure clad
Her universal face with pleasant green; Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden
flowered,
Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom, smelling sweet; and, these
scarce blown, Forth flourished thick the clustering vine,
forth crept 320
The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed Imbattled in her field: add the 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
gemmed Their blossoms. With high woods the hills
were crowned,
With tufts the valleys and each fountain- side, With borders long the rivers, that Earth
now Seemed like to Heaven, a seat where gods
might dwell, Or wander with delight, and love to
haunt 33
Her sacred shades; though God had yet
not rained
Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground None was, but from the Earth a dewy
mist Went up and watered all the ground, and
each Plant of the field, which ere it was in the
Earth
God made, and every herb before it grew On the green stem. God saw that it was
good;
So even and morn recorded the third Day. " Again the Almighty spake, * Let there
be Lights
High in the expanse of Heaven, to di- vide 340
��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, alterne; and made the
Stars,
And set them in the firmament of heaven To illuminate the Earth, and rule the
day 350
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 framed, unlightsome
first, Though of ethereal mould; then formed
the Moon
Globose, and every magnitude of Stars, And sowed with stars the heaven thick as a
field.
Of light by far the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and
placed 360
In the Sun's orb, made porous to receive And drink the liquid light, firm to retain Her gathered 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, 370
Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocond to run His longitude through heaven's high-road;
the grey
Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced, Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the
Moon,
But opposite in levelled west, was set, His mirror, with full face borrowing her
light From him ; for other light she needed none
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