Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,
Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress."

_Book VII._ At Adam's request Raphael next explains how the earth was
created, saying that, as Satan had seduced one-third of heaven's
inhabitants, God decided to create a new race, whence angels could be
recruited to repeople his realm. In terms simple enough to make
himself understood, Raphael depicts how the Son of God passing through
heaven's gates and viewing the immeasurable abyss, decided to evolve
from it a thing of beauty. He adds that the Creator made use of the
divine compasses "prepared in God's eternal store," to circumscribe
the universe, thus setting its bounds at equal distance from its
centre. Then his spirit, brooding over the abyss, permeated Chaos with
vital warmth, until its various components sought their appointed
places, and earth "self-balanced on her centre hung." Next the light
evolved from the deep began to travel from east to west, and "God saw
that it was good."

On the second day God created the firmament, on the third separated
water from dry land, and on the fourth covered the earth with plants
and trees, each bearing seed to propagate its kind. Then came the
creation of the sun, moon, and stars to rule day and night and divide
light from darkness, and on the fifth day the creation of the birds
and fishes, whom God bade multiply until they filled the earth. Only
on the sixth and last day did God call into life cattle and creeping
things, which crawled out of the earth full grown and perfect limbed.
Then, as there still lacked a creature endowed with reason to rule the
rest, God created man in his own image, fashioning him from clay by
breathing life into his nostrils. After thus creating Adam and his
consort Eve, God blessed both, bidding them be fruitful, multiply and