“So sang the Hierarchies. Meanwhile the Son On his great expedition now appeared, Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crowned Of majesty divine, sapience and love Immense; and all his Father in him shone. About his chariot numberless were poured Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones, And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots winged From the armoury of God, where stand of old Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand, Celestial equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived, Attendant on their Lord. Heaven opened wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound On golden hinges moving, to let forth The King of Glory, in his powerful Word And Spirit coming to create new worlds. On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore They viewed the vast immeasurable Abyss, Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turned by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Heaven’s highth, and with the centre mix the pole.
“ ‘Silence, ye troubled waves, and, thou Deep, peace!’ Said then the omnific Word: ‘your discord end!’ Nor stayed; but, on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos and the World unborn; For Chaos heard his voice. Him all his train Followed in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then stayed the fervid wheels and in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepared In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe This Universe, and all created things, One foot he centred, and the other turned Round through the vast profundity obscure, And said, ‘Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds; This be thy just circumference, O World!’ Thus God the heaven created, thus the Earth, Matter unformed and void. Darkness profound Covered the Abyss; but on the watery calm His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth, Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs, Adverse to life; then founded, then conglobed Like things to like, the rest to several place Disparted, and between spun out the air, And Earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung.