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
fill the earth, and hold dominion over every living thing upon it.
Having placed creatures so richly endowed in Paradise, God left them
free to enjoy all it contained, save the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, in regard to which he warned them "in the
day thou eatest thereof, thou diest." Then, his work finished, the
Creator returned to heaven, where he and the angels spent the seventh
day resting from their work.

_Book VIII._ Not daring to intrude upon the conversation of Adam and
Raphael, Eve waits at a distance, knowing her husband will tell her
all she need learn. Meanwhile, further to satisfy his curiosity, Adam
inquires how the sun and stars move so quietly in their orbit? Raphael
rejoins that, although the heavens are the book of God, wherein man
can read his wondrous works, it is difficult to make any one
understand the distances separating the various orbs. To give Adam a
slight idea of them, Raphael declares that he--whose motions are not
slow--set out from heaven at early morn and arrived at Eden only at
midday. Then he describes the three rotations to which our earth is
subject, names the six planets, and assures Adam God holds them all in
his hand and prescribes their paths and speed.

In his turn, Adam entertains Raphael with a description of his
amazement when he awoke on a flowery hillside, to see the sky, the
woods, and the streams; his gradual acquaintance with his own person
and powers, the naming of the animals, and his awe when the divine
master led him into Paradise and warned him not to touch the central
tree. After describing his loneliness on discovering that all living
creatures went about in pairs, Adam adds tha