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,
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,
And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiplied 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 Of coral stray, or, sporting with quick glance, Shew to the sun their waved 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, 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.
PARADISE LOST, BOOK VII.
HE tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg, that soon,
Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed
Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge They summ'd their pens, and, soaring the 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, In common, ranged 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 Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumber'd plumes. From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings, Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays. Others on silver lakes and rivers bathed
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
Walk'd firm: the crested cock whose clarion sounds The silent hours, and the other whose gay train Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry eyes.
Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day.
PARADISE LOST, BOOK VII.
"LET the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind, Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the
Each in their kind!" The Earth obey'd, and straight, Opening her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, Limb'd and full grown. Out of the ground up rose, As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den ; Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk'd; The cattle in the fields and meadows green : Those rare and solitary, these in flocks Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. The grassy clods now calved; now half appear'd The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds, And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce, The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw In hillocks; the swift stag from under ground Bore up his branching head; scarce from his mould Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
His vastness; fleeced the flocks and bleating rose, As plants; ambiguous between sea and land, The river-horse and scaly crocodile.
PARADISE LOST, BOOK VII.
T once came forth whatever creeps the ground, Insect or worm.
Those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride, With spots of gold and purple, azure and green; These as a line their long dimension drew, Streaking the ground with sinuous trace: not all Minims of nature; some of serpent kind, Wondrous in length and corpulence, involved Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future, in small room large heart enclosed; Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty. Swarming next appear'd The female bee, that feeds her husband drone Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored. The rest are numberless;
The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field, Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes And hairy mane terrific.
PARADISE LOST, BOOK VII.
OW Heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great First Mover's hand First wheel'd their course; Earth in her rich attire Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'd. There wanted yet the master work, the end Of all yet done; a creature who, not prone And brute as other creatures, but endued With sanctity of reason, might erect His stature, and upright with front serene Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven, But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes, Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God supreme, who made him chief Of all his works.
PARADISE LOST, BOOK VII.
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