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.

409

'Pars quoque tarda, hærens scopulis, sub cortice concha,
Pinnarumque, pedumque expers, depascit arenam.'
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
In common rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery caravan, high over seas

425

Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing
Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane 430

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.'

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

435

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

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.

Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue

Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.

445

450

The sixth, and of creation last, arose With evening harps and matin, when God said, Let the earth bring forth soul living in her kind, Cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth, Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and straight Op'ning 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 laire the wild beast, where he wonns In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;

455

Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk'd;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green : 460
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.

446 starry eyes] See Beaumont's Psyche, c. i. st. 61. v. 2.

'As when the gallant peacock doth display

His starry train.'

and A. Ramsæi Poem. Sacr. vol. i. p. 8.

'Dum tumet, et caudæ stellata syrmata spectat.'

451 soul] In Milton's own edition 'foul living.' Bentley pointed out the error and corrected it.

452 things] Bentley and Newton consider that there is an error in the text, and that we ought to read 'thing.'

457 wonns] Fairfax's Tasso, b. xvi. st. 67.

'A thousand devils in Limbo deep that wonne.' Todd.

462 broad] Hom. Il. xi. 678.

-αιπόλια πλάτες αιγῶν. Richardson.

The grassy clods now calv'd; now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

464

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, upheav'd
His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants ambiguous between sea and land
The river horse and scaly crocodile.

471

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Insect or worm; those wav'd 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:

463 calv'd] See Nonni Dionysiaca, iv. 427.

Καὶ στάχυς αυτολόχευτος ἀνηέξητο γιγάντων,
Ων ὃ μὲν ὑψικάρηνος ἀνέδραμεν ἄκρα τιταίνων
Στήθεος ἐνθώρηκος, ὃ δὲ προθορόντι καρήνω
Φρικτὸν ἀνοιγομένης ὑπερέσχεθεν ὤμον ἀρούρης·
*Αλλος ἄνω πρόεκυψεν ἐς ὄμφαλόν· ὃς δ ̓ ἔπι γαῖη
Ημετελὴς ἀνέτελλε, πεδότρεφὲς ὅπλον ἀέτρων·
*Αλλος ὑπερκύπτοντα λόφον προβλήτα τιταίνων,

31

Ουπω στέρνον ἔφαινε, καὶ ἔισέτι μήτρὸς ἀνέρπων
Ἐκ λαγόνων κατὰ βαιὸν ἀταρβέϊ μάρνατο Καδμῳ.

465 broke] Virg. Æn. xi. 492.

'Abruptis fugit præsepia vinclis.'

466 shakes] A. Ramsæi P. Sacr. vol. i. p. 9.

6

Hinc Leo prædator, Lybicis nova incola campis,

Ore fremens, oculis scintillans, perque torosa
Colla jubas jactans.'-