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Prolific humour soft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture, when God said,
Be gather'd 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 heav'd the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd
As drops on dust conglobling from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

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For haste; such flight the great command impress'd

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land appear.]

This is again exactly copied from Moses; And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. Gen. i. 9. And it was so is very short in Moses; Milton enlarges upon it, as the subject will admit some fine strokes of poetry, and seems to have had his eye upon the 104th Psalm, which is likewise a divine hymn in praise of the creation, sixth and following verses. Thou coveredst the earth with the deep; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they

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mountains, they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them, &c. We suppose that we need not desire the reader to remark the beautiful numbers in the following verses of the poem, how they seem to rise with the rising mountains, and to sink again with the falling waters.

285. Immediately the mountains &c.] We have the same elevation of thought in the third day, when the mountains were brought forth, and the deep was made. We have also the rising of the whole vegetable world described in this day's work, which is filled with all the graces that other poets have lavished on their description of the spring, and leads the reader's imagination into a theatre equally sur

On the swift floods: as armies at the call

Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the watʼry 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 serpent error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy ooze deep channels wore ;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within those banks, where rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, Earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd Seas:

And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' earth

299. If steep, with torrent rapture,] I have seen a marginal reading with torrent rupture, as in ver. 419. we have bursting with kindly rupture. But we may understand torrent rapture in the same manner as glad pre-· cipitance, ver. 291.

303. And on the washy ooze
deep channels wore;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground
be dry, &c.]

The earth was just now emerged
from the waters in which it had
been wrapt; it was therefore
all one great washy ooze, slime
and mud. In this soft earth
deep channels were easily worn
by the streaming water, till it
was dry every where but within
the banks,

-where rivers now Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.

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You cannot read it otherwise than slowly, and so as to give your mind a picture of the thing described. Many examples of

the like kind are to be found in our author and all good poets. Richardson.

307. The dry land, earth, &c.] These are again the words of Genesis formed into verse, Gen. i. 10, 11. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. But when he comes to the descriptive part, he then opens a finer vein of poetry.

Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed,
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, unadorn❜d,

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Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad 315
Her universal face with pleasant green,

Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay

Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept 320
The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed
Imbattel'd in her field, and th' 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 gemm'd 325
Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd,
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side,

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321. -the corny reed] The horny reed stood upright among the undergrowth of nature, like a grove of spears or a battalion with its spikes aloft. Corneus [Latin] of or like horn. Hume.

323. ——with frizzled hair implicit:] Hair, coma in Latin,

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With borders long the rivers: that earth now
Seem'd like to heav'n, a seat where Gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rain'd
Upon the earth, and man to till the ground
None was, but from the earth a dewy mist
Went up and water'd all the ground, and each
Plant of the field, which ere it was in th' earth
God made, and every herb, before it grew
On the green stem; God saw that it was good:
So ev❜n and morn recorded the third day.

Again th' Almighty spake, Let there be lights
High in th' expanse of heaven to divide
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

331.though God had yet not rain'd &c.] This is taken from the second chapter of Genesis; the poet was studious to weave in all that Moses had written of the creation. Gen. ii. 4, 5, 6. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground: but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

338. So ev'n and morn recorded the third day.] Recorded, celebrated, caused to be remembered. This was done by the even and morning chorus, (ver.

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275.) with evening harps and matin, (ver. 450.) What is done by the voices and instruments is poetically ascribed to the time in which they were employed. Richardson.

339. Again th' Almighty spake, Let there be lights &c.] Gen. i. 14, 15. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so. We see, when he makes the divine Person speak, he still keeps close to Scripture; but afterwards he indulges a greater latitude of thought, and gives freer scope to his imagination.

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 altern; and made the stars,
And set them in the firmament of heaven
To' illuminate the earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God saw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good:

346. And God made two great lights,] The several glories of the heavens make their appearance on the fourth day. Addison. The very words of Moses, And God made two great lights; not that they were greater than all other stars and planets, but are only greater lights with reference to man, and therefore Milton judiciously adds,

-great for their use To man, the greater to have rule by day,

The less by night altern; that is, alternate, a word added to Moses's account, as in their vicissitude is afterwards; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. Gen. i. 16, 17, 18. So far, we see, he keeps close to Scripture, but

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that of celestial bodies the sun was first framed, and then the moon and stars, observing this order of creation, we suppose, according to the degrees of usefulness to men. The sun, he says, was unlightsome first; and it is most probable, that the bodies of the sun and moon &c. were formed at the same time as the body of the earth on the first day, but they were not made those complete luminous bodies, they did not shine out in their lustre and glory till the fourth day, the air perhaps or atmosphere not being sufficiently cleared before to transmit their rays to the earth. Milton's hypothesis is different. He says that the light was transplanted from her cloudy shrine or tabernacle, wherein she had sojourned the three first days, and on the fourth day was placed in the sun's orb, which was become now the great palace of light. But let it be remembered that this is all hypothesis, and that the Scripture determines nothing

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