Milton, the 2nd Book, Prophetic Books

The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton — Book the second
Exported from Wikisource on 12/19/19
P. 30 How wide the Gulf & Unpassable! between Simplicity & Insipidity.
MILTON
Contraries are Positives:
A Negation is not a Contrary.
BOOK THE SECOND
THERE is a place where Contraries are equally True:
This place is called Beulah. It is a pleasure lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come, Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
5⁠With solemn mourning, into Beulah's moony shades & hills
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah,
Enraptur'd with affection sweet and mild benevolence.
Beulah is evermore created around Eternity; appearing
To the Inhabitants of Eden around them on all sides.
10⁠But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district,
As the beloved infant in his mother's bosom round incircled
With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to
The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah
Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest.
15⁠And it is thus Created. Lo, the Eternal Great Humanity
To whom be Glory & Dominion Evermore, Amen,
Walks among all his awful Family seen in every face:
As the breath of the Almighty such are the words of man to man
In the great Wars of Eternity, in fury of Poetic Inspiration,
20⁠To build the Universe stupendous: Mental forms Creating.
But the Emanations trembled exceedingly, nor could they
Live, because the Life of Man was too exceeding unbounded.
His joy became terrible to them, they trembled & wept,
Crying with one voice: Give us a habitation & a place
25⁠In which we may be hidden under the shadow of wings:
For if we, who are but for a time & who pass away in winter,
Behold these wonders of Eternity we shall consume:
But you, O our Fathers & Brothers, remain in Eternity
But grant us a Temporal Habitation, do you speak
30⁠To us; we will obey your words as you obey Jesus
The Eternal who is blessed for ever & ever. Amen.
So spake the lovely Emanations: & there appeared a pleasant
Mild Shadow above, beneath, & on all sides round.
P. 31 INTO this pleasant Shadow all the weak & weary
Like Women & Children were taken away as on wings
Of dovelike softness, & shadowy habitations prepared for them.
But every man return'd & went still going forward thro'
5⁠The Bosom of the Father in Eternity on Eternity,
Neither did any lack or fall into Error without
A Shadow to repose in all the Days of happy Eternity.
Into this pleasant Shadow Beulah all Ololon descended,
And when the Daughters of Beulah heard the lamentation
10⁠All Beulah wept, for they saw the Lord coming in the Clouds,
And the Shadows of Beulah terminate in rocky Albion.
And all Nations wept in affliction, Family by Family:
Germany wept towards France & Italy: England wept & trembled
Towards America: India rose up from his golden bed,
15⁠As one awaken'd in the night: they saw the Lord coming
In the Clouds of Ololon with Power & Great Glory.
And all the Living Creatures of the Four Elements wail'd
With bitter wailing: these in the aggregate are named Satan
And Rahab: they know not of Regeneration, but only of Generation,
20⁠The Fairies, Nymphs, Gnomes & Genii of the Four Elements,
Unforgiving & unalterable, these cannot be Regenerated
But must be Created, for they know only of Generation.
These are the Gods of the Kingdoms of the Earth: in contrarious
And cruel opposition: Element against Element, opposed in War,
25⁠Not Mental, as the Wars of Eternity, but a Corporeal Strife:
In Los's Halls continual labouring in the Furnaces of Golgonooza.
Orc howls on the Atlantic: Enitharmon trembles: All Beulah weeps
Thou hearest the Nightingale begin the Song of Spring:
The Lark sitting upon his earthly bed, just as the morn
30⁠Appears, listens silent, then springing from the waving Cornfield! loud
He leads the Choir of Day: trill, trill, trill, trill,
Mounting upon the wings of light into the Great Expanse,
Reechoing against the lovely blue & shining heavenly Shell.
His little throat labours with inspiration; every feather
35⁠On throat & breast & wings vibrates with the effluence Divine:
All Nature listens silent to him, & the awful Sun
Stands still upon the Mountain looking on this little Bird
With eyes of soft humility & wonder, love & awe.
Then Loud from their green covert all the Birds begin their Song:
40⁠The Thrush, the Linnet & the Goldfinch, Robin & the Wren
Awake the Sun from his sweet reverie upon the Mountain:
The Nightingale again assays his song & thro' the day
And thro' the night warbles luxuriant: every Bird of Song
Attending his loud harmony with admiration & love.
45⁠This is a Vision of the Lamentation of Beulah over Ololon.
Thou perceivest the Flowers put forth their precious Odours,
And none can tell how from so small a center comes such sweet,
Forgetting that within that Center Eternity expands
Its ever during doors, that Og & Anak fiercely guard.
50⁠First e'er the morning breaks joy opens in the flowery bosoms,
Joy even to tears, which the Sun rising dries: first the Wild Thyme
And Meadow-sweet downy and soft, waving among the reeds,
Light springing on the air lead the sweet Dance, they wake
The Honeysuckle sleeping on the Oak: the flaunting beauty
55⁠Revels along upon the wind: the White-thorn, lovely May,
Opens her many lovely eyes: listening the Rose still sleeps:
None dare to wake her, soon she bursts her crimson curtained bed
And comes forth in the majesty of beauty: every Flower,
The Pink, the Jessamine, the Wall-flower, the Carnation
60⁠The Jonquil, the mild Lilly opes her heavens; every Tree
And Flower & Herb soon fill the air with an innumerable Dance,
Yet all in order sweet & lovely, Men are sick with Love:
Such is a Vision of the Lamentation of Beulah over Ololon.
P. 32 AND the Divine Voice was heard in the Songs of Beulah, Saying:
When I first Married you, I gave you all my whole Soul:
I thought that you would love my loves & joy in my delights,
Seeking for pleasures in my pleasures, O Daughter of Babylon.
5⁠Then thou wast lovely, mild & gentle, now thou art terrible
In jealousy & unlovely in my sight, because thou hast cruelly
Cut off my loves in fury till I have no love left for thee.
Thy love depends on him thou lovest & on his dear loves
Depend thy pleasures, which thou hast cut off by jealousy:
10⁠Therefore I shew my Jealousy & set before you Death.
Behold Milton descended to Redeem the Female Shade
From Death Eternal; such your lot, to be continually Redeem'd
By Death & misery of those you love & by Annihilation.
When the Sixfold Female perceives that Milton annihilates
15⁠Himself: that seeing all his loves by her cut off, he leaves
Her also, intirely abstracting himself from Female loves:
She shall relent in fear of death; She shall begin to give
Her maidens to her husband, delighting in his delight.
And then & then alone begins the happy Female joy
20⁠As it is done in Beulah, & thou, O Virgin Babylon Mother of Whoredoms,
Shalt bring Jerusalem in thine arms in the night watches: and
No longer turning her a wandering Harlot in the streets,
Shalt give her into the arms of God your Lord & Husband.
Such are the Songs of Beulah, in the Lamentations of Ololon.
P. 34 AND all the Songs of Beulah sounded comfortable notes
To comfort Ololon's lamentation, for they said:
Are you the Fiery Circle that late drove in fury & fire
The Eight Immortal Starry-Ones down into Ulro dark,
5⁠Rending the Heavens of Beulah with your thunders & lightnings?
And can you thus lament & can you pity & forgive?
Is terror chang'd to pity, O wonder of Eternity?
And the Four States of Humanity in its Repose,
Were shewed them. First of Beulah, a most pleasant Sleep
10⁠On Couches soft, with mild music, tended by Flowers of Beulah,
Sweet Female forms, winged or floating in the air spontaneous:
The Second State is Alla, & the third State Al-Ulro:
But the Fourth State is dreadful, it is named Or-Ulro.
The First State is in the Head, the Second is in the Heart,
15⁠The Third in the Loins & Seminal Vessels, & the Fourth
In the Stomach & Intestines terrible, deadly, unutterable.
And he whose Gates are open'd in those Regions of his Body
Can from those Gates view all these wondrous Imaginations.
But Ololon sought the Or-Ulro & its fiery Gates,
20⁠ And the Couches of the Martyrs: & many Daughters of Beulah
Accompany them down to the Ulro with soft melodious tears,
A long journey & dark thro' Chaos in the track of Milton's course,
To where the Contraries of Beulah War beneath Negations Banner.
Then View'd from Milton's Track they see the Ulro, a vast Polypus
25⁠Of living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing,
A self-devouring monstrous Human Death Twenty seven fold:
Within it sit Five Females & the nameless Shadowy Mother,
Spinning it from their bowels with songs of amorous delight
And melting cadences that lure the Sleepers of Beulah down
30⁠The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea:
Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell.
Four Universes round the Universe of Los remain Chaotic,
Four intersecting Globes, & the Egg form'd World of Los
In midst: stretching from Zenith to Nadir, in midst of Chaos.
35⁠One of these Ruin'd Universes is to the North, named Urthona:
One in the South, this was the glorious World of Urizen:
One to the East, of Luvah: One to the West, of Tharmas.
But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen in the South
All fell towards the Center sinking-downward in dire Ruin.
40⁠Here in these Chaoses the Sons of Ololon took their abode,
In chasms of the Mundane Shell which open on all sides round,
Southward & by the East within the Breach of Milton's descent,
To watch the time, pitying & gentle to awaken Urizen.
They stood in a dark land of death, of fiery corroding waters,
45⁠Where lie in evil death the Four Immortals pale and cold,
And the Eternal Man, even Albion, upon the Rock of Ages.
Seeing Milton's Shadow, some Daughters of Beulah trembling
Return'd, but Ololon remain'd before the Gates of the Dead.
50⁠And Ololon looked down into the Heavens of Ulro in fear.
They said: How are the Wars of man which in Great Eternity
Appear around, in the External Spheres of Visionary Life,
Here render'd deadly within the Life & Interior Vision?
How are the Beasts & Birds & Fishes & Plants & Minerals
55⁠Here fix'd into a frozen bulk subject to decay & death?
Those Visions of Human Life & Shadows of Wisdom & Knowledge
P. 35 ARE here frozen to unexpansive deadly destroying terrors.
And War & Hunting, the Two Fountains of the River of Life,
Are become Fountains of bitter Death & of Corroding Hell:
Till Brotherhood is chang'd into a Curse & a Flattery,
5⁠By Differences between Ideas, that Ideas themselves, (which are
The Divine Members) may be slain in offerings for sin.
O dreadful Loom of Death! O piteous Female Forms compell'd
To weave the Woof of Death! On Camberwell Tirzah's Courts,
Malah's on Blackheath, Rahab & Noah dwell on Windsor's heights:
10⁠Where once the Cherubs of Jerusalem spread to Lambeth's Vale
Milcah's Pillars shine from Harrow to Hampstead, where Hoglah
On Highgate's heights magnificent Weaves over trembling Thames
To Shooters' Hill and thence to Blackheath the dark Woof; Loud,
Loud roll the Weights & Spindles over the whole Earth let down
15⁠On all sides round to the Four Quarters of the World, eastward on
Europe to Euphrates & Hindu to Nile & back in Clouds
Of Death across the Atlantic to America North & South.
So spake Ololon in reminiscence astonish'd, but they
Could not behold Golgonooza without passing the Polypus,
20⁠A wondrous journey not passable by Immortal feet, & none
But the Divine Saviour can pass it without annihilation.
For Golgonooza cannot be seen till having pass'd the Polypus
It is viewed on all sides round by a Four-fold Vision,
Or till you become Mortal & Vegetable in Sexuality
25⁠Then you behold its mighty Spires & Domes of ivory & gold
And Ololon examined all the Couches of the Dead,
Even of Los & Enitharmon & all the Sons of Albion
And his Four Zoas terrified & on the verge of Death:
In midst of these was Milton's Couch, & when they saw Eight
30⁠Immortal Starry-Ones, guarding the Couch in flaming fires,
They thunderous utter'd all a universal groan falling down
Prostrate before the Starry Eight asking with tears forgiveness,
Confessing their crime with humiliation and sorrow.
O how the Starry Eight rejoic'd to see Ololon descended:
35⁠And now that a wide road was open to Eternity
By Ololon's descent thro' Beulah to Los & Enitharmon.
For mighty were the multitudes of Ololon, vast the extent
Of their great sway reaching from Ulro to Eternity,
Surrounding the Mundane Shell outside in its Caverns
40⁠And through Beulah, and all silent forbare to contend
With Ololon, for they saw the Lord in the Clouds of Ololon.
There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find,
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find
This Moment & it multiply, & when it once is found
45⁠It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed:
In this Moment Ololon descended to Los & Enitharmon
Unseen beyond the Mundane Shell, Southward in Milton's track.
Just in this Moment when the morning odours rise abroad,
And first from the Wild Thyme, stands a Fountain in a rock
50⁠Of crystal flowing into two Streams, one flows thro' Golgonooza
And thro' Beulah to Eden beneath Los's western Wall:
The other flows thro' the Aerial Void & all the Churches
Meeting again in Golgonooza beyond Satans Seat.
The Wild Thyme is Los's Messenger to Eden, a mighty Demon,
55⁠Terrible, deadly & poisonous his presence in Ulro dark,
Therefore he appears only a small Root creeping in grass
Covering over the Rock of Odours his bright purple mantle:
Beside the Fount above the Lark's Nest in Golgonooza.
Luvah slept here in death & here is Luvah's empty Tomb:
60⁠Ololon sat beside this Fountain on the Rock of Odours.
Just at the place to where the Lark mounts is a Crystal Gate:
It is the enterance of the First Heaven, named Luther: for
The Lark is Los's Messenger thro' the Twenty seven Churches,
That the Seven Eyes of God, who walk even to Satan's Seat
65⁠Thro' all the Twenty-seven Heavens, may not slumber nor sleep.
But the Lark's Nest is at the Gate of Los, at the eastern
Gate of wide Golgonooza & the Lark is Los's Messenger.
P. 36 WHEN on the highest lift of his light pinions he arrives
At that bright Gate, another Lark meets him, & back to back
They touch their pinions, tip [to] tip: and each descend
To their respective Earths & there all night consult with Angels
5⁠Of Providence & with the eyes of God all night in slumbers
Inspired; & at the dawn of day send out another Lark
Into another Heaven to carry news upon his wings.
Thus are the Messengers dispatch'd till they reach the Earth again
In the East Gate of Golgonooza, & the Twenty-eighth bright
10⁠Lark met the Female Ololon descending into my Garden.
Thus it appears to Mortal eyes & those of the Ulro Heavens
But not thus to Immortals: the Lark is a mighty Angel.
For Ololon step'd into the Polypus within the Mundane Shell:
They could not step into Vegetable Worlds without becoming
15⁠The enemies of Humanity except in a Female Form:
And as One Female Ololon and all its mighty Hosts
Appear'd: a Virgin of twelve years: nor time nor space was
To the perception of the Virgin Ololon, but as the
Flash of lightning, but more quick, the Virgin in my Garden
20⁠Before my Cottage stood, for the Satanic Space is delusion.
For When Los join'd with me he took me in his fiery whirlwind:
My Vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeth's shades:
He set me down in Felpham's Vale & prepar'd a beautiful
Cottage for me, that in three years I might write all these Visions,
25⁠To display Nature's cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion.
Walking in my Cottage Garden, sudden I beheld
The Virgin Ololon & address'd her as a Daughter of Beulah.
Virgin of Providence, fear not to enter into my Cottage.
What is thy message to thy friend: What am I now to do?
30⁠Is it again to plunge into deeper affliction? behold me
Ready to obey, but pity thou my Shadow of Delight:
Enter my Cottage, comfort her, for she is sick with fatigue.
P. 37 THE Virgin answer'd: Knowest thou of Milton who descended,
Driven from Eternity; him I seek, terrified at my Act
In Great Eternity which thou knowest: I come him to seek.
So Ololon utter'd in words distinct the anxious thought:
5⁠Mild was the voice but more distinct than any earthly.
That Milton's Shadow heard, & condensing all his Fibres
Into a strength impregnable of majesty & beauty infinite,
I saw he was the Covering Cherub & within him Satan
And Rahab in an outside which is fallacious within,
10⁠Beyond the outline of Identity in the Selfhood deadly:
And he appear'd the Wicker Man of Scandinavia, in whom
Jerusalem's children consume in flames among the Stars.
Descending down into my Garden a Human Wonder of God,
Reaching from heaven to earth, a Cloud & Human Form,
15⁠I beheld Milton with astonishment & in him beheld
The Monstrous Churches of Beulah, the Gods of Ulro dark,
Twelve monstrous dishumanized terrors, Synagogues of Satan,
A Double Twelve & Thrice Nine: such their divisions.
And these their Names & their Places within the Mundane Shell.
20⁠In Tyre & Sidon I saw Baal & Ashtaroth. In Moab Chemosh:
In Ammon Molech: loud his Furnaces rage among the Wheels
Of Og, & pealing loud the cries of the Victims of Fire:
And pale his Priestesses unfolded in Veils of Pestilence, border'd
With War: Woven in Looms of Tyre & Sidon by beautiful Ashtaroth.
25⁠In Palestine Dagon, Sea Monster: worship'd o'er the Sea.
Thammuz in Lebanon & Rimmon in Damascus curtain'd:
Osiris, Isis, Orus, in Egypt: dark their Tabernacles on Nile
Floating with solemn songs, & on the Lakes of Egypt nightly
With pomp even till morning break & Osiris appear in the sky.
30⁠But Belial of Sodom & Gomorrha, obscure Demon of Bribes
And secret Assasinations, not worship'd nor ador'd: but
With the finger on the lips & the back turn'd to the light.
And Saturn, Jove & Rhea of the Isles of the Sea remote.
These Twelve Gods, are the Twelve Spectre Sons of the Druid Albion
35⁠And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their Churches.
Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch,
Methuselah, Lamech: these are Giants, mighty, Hermaphroditic.
Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the second, Salah, Heber,
Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, these are the Female-Males,
40⁠A Male within a Female hid as in an Ark & Curtains.
Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul, Constantine, Charlemaine,
Luther, these seven are the Male-Females, the Dragon Forms,
Religion hid in War, a Dragon red & hidden Harlot.
All these are seen in Milton's Shadow who is the Covering Cherub,
45⁠The Spectre of Albion, in which the Spectre of Luvah inhabits,
In the Newtonian Voids between the Substances of Creation.
For the Chaotic Voids outside of the Stars are measured by
The Stars, which are the boundaries of Kingdoms, Provinces
50⁠And Empires of Chaos invisible to the Vegetable Man.
The Kingdom of Og is in Orion: Sihon is in Ophiucus.
Og has Twenty-seven Districts: Sihon's Districts Twenty-one,
From Star to Star, Mountains & Valleys, terrible dimension
Stretched out, compose the Mundane Shell, a mighty Incrustation
55⁠Of Forty-eight deformed Human Wonders of the Almighty
With Caverns whose remotest bottoms meet again beyond
The Mundane Shell in Golgonooza, but the Fires of Los rage
In the remotest bottoms of the Caves, that none can pass
Into Eternity that way, but all descend to Los
60⁠To Bowlahoola & Allamanda & to Entuthon Benython.
The Heavens are the Cherub: the Twelve Gods are Satan:
P. 39 AND the Forty-eight Starry Regions are Cities of the Levites,
The Heads of the Great Polypus. Four-fold twelve enormity
In mighty & mysterious comingling, enemy with enemy,
Woven by Urizen into Sexes from his mantle of years.
5⁠And Milton collecting all his fibres into impregnable strength
Descended down a Paved work of all kinds of precious stones
Out from the eastern sky; descending down into my Cottage
Garden, clothed in black, severe & silent he descended.
The Spectre of Satan stood upon the roaring sea & beheld
10⁠Milton within his sleeping Humanity: trembling & shudd'ring
He stood upon the waves a Twenty seven fold mighty Demon
Gorgeous & beautiful: loud roll his thunders against Milton:
Loud Satan thunder'd, loud & dark upon mild Felpham shore,
Not daring to touch one fibre he howl'd round upon the Sea.
15⁠I also stood in Satan's bosom & beheld its desolations:
A ruin'd Man: a ruin'd building of God, not made with hands:
Its plains of burning sand, its mountains of marble terrible:
Its pits & declivities flowing with molten ore & fountains
Of pitch & nitre: its ruin'd palaces & cities & mighty works:
20⁠Its furnaces of affliction, in which his Angels & Emanations
Labour with blacken'd visages among its stupendous ruins,
Arches & Pyramids & porches, colonades & domes,
In which dwells Mystery, Babylon, here is her secret place,
From hence she comes forth in the Churches in delight,
25⁠Here is her cup fill'd with its poisons, in these horrid vales,
And here her scarlet Veil woven in pestilence & war;
Here is Jerusalem bound in chains in the Dens of Babylon.
In the Eastern porch of Satan's Universe Milton stood & said:
Satan! my Spectre! I know my power thee to annihilate,
30⁠And be a greater in thy place, & be thy Tabernacle,
A covering for thee to do thy will, till one greater comes
And smites me as I smote thee & becomes my covering.
Such are the Laws of thy false Heav'ns: but Laws of Eternity
Are not such: know thou! I come to Self Annihilation.
35⁠Such are the Laws of Eternity, that each shall mutually
Annihilate himself for others' good, as I for thee.
Thy purpose & the purpose of thy Priests & of thy Churches
Is to impress on men the fear of death; to teach
Trembling & fear, terror, constriction: abject selfishness.
40⁠Mine is to teach Men to despise death & to go on
In fearless majesty annihilating Self, laughing to scorn
Thy Laws & terrors, shaking down thy Synagogues, as webs.
I come to discover before Heav'n & Hell the Self righteousness
In all its Hypocritic turpitude, opening to every eye
45⁠These wonders of Satan's holiness, shewing to the Earth
The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart, & Satan's Seat
Explore in all its Selfish Natural Virtue & put off
In Self annihilation all that is not of God alone:
To put off Self & all I have, ever & ever. Amen.
50⁠Satan heard, Coming in a cloud, with trumpets & flaming fire,
Saying: I am God the judge of all, the living & the dead.
Fall therefore down & worship me, submit thy supreme
Dictate, to my eternal Will & to my dictate bow.
I hold the Balances of Right & Just & mine the Sword:
55⁠Seven Angels bear my Name & in those Seven I appear,
But I alone am God & I alone in Heav'n & Earth
Of all that live dare utter this, others tremble & bow:
P. 40 TILL all Things become One Great Satan in Holiness
Oppos'd to Mercy, and the Divine Delusion Jesus be no more.
Suddenly around Milton on my Path, the Starry Seven
Burn'd terrible: my Path became a solid fire, as bright
5⁠As the clear Sun & Milton silent came down on my Path.
And there went forth from the Starry limbs of the Seven, Forms
Human, with Trumpets innumerable, sounding articulate
As the Seven spake: and they stood in a mighty Column of Fire
Surrounding Felpham's Vale, reaching to the Mundane Shell, Saying:
10⁠Awake, Albion awake! reclaim thy Reasoning Spectre. Subdue
Him to the Divine Mercy. Cast him down into the Lake
Of Los, that ever burneth with fire, ever & ever, Amen!
Let the Four Zoas awake from Slumbers of Six thousand years.
Then loud the Furnaces of Los were heard; & seen as Seven Heavens
15⁠Stretching from South to North over the mountains of Albion.
Satan heard; trembling round his Body, he incircled it:
He trembled with exceeding great trembling & astonishment,
Howling in his Spectre round his Body hung'ring to devour,
But fearing for the pain, for if he touches a Vital
20⁠His torment is unendurable: therefore he cannot devour:
But howls round it as a lion round his prey continually.
Loud Satan thunder'd, loud & dark upon mild Felpham's Shore,
Coming in a Cloud with Trumpets & with Fiery Flame,
An awful Form eastward from midst of a bright Paved-work
25⁠Of precious stones by Cherubim surrounded: so permitted
(Lest he should fall apart in his Eternal Death) to imitate
The Eternal Great Humanity Divine surrounded by
His Cherubim & Seraphim in ever happy Eternity.
Beneath sat Chaos: Sin on his right hand, Death on his left,
30⁠And Ancient Night spread over all the heav'n his Mantle of Laws.
He trembled with exceeding great trembling & astonishment.
Then Albion rose up in the Night of Beulah on his Couch
Of dread repose seen by the visionary eye: his face is toward
The east, toward Jerusalem's Gates: groaning he sat above
35⁠His rocks, London & Bath & Legions & Edinburgh
Are the four pillars of his Throne: his left foot near London
Covers the shades of Tyburn: his instep from Windsor
To Primrose Hill stretching to Highgate & Holloway.
London is between his knees: its basements fourfold:
40⁠His right foot stretches to the sea on Dover cliffs, his heel
On Canterbury's ruins; his right hand covers lofty Wales:
His left Scotland; his bosom girt with gold involves
York, Edinburgh, Durham & Carlisle, & on the front
Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich: his right elbow
45⁠Leans on the Rocks of Erin's Land, Ireland, ancient nation.
His head bends over London: he sees his embodied Spectre
Trembling before him with exceeding great trembling & fear.
He views Jerusalem & Babylon, his tears flow down:
He mov'd his right foot to Cornwall, his left to the Rocks of Bognor:
50⁠He strove to rise to walk into the Deep, but strength failing
Forbad, & down with dreadful groans he sunk upon his Couch
In moony Beulah. Los his strong Guard Walks round beneath the Moon.
Urizen faints in terror striving among the Brooks of Arnon
With Milton's Spirit: as the Plowman or Artificer or Shepherd
55⁠While in the labours of his Calling sends his Thought abroad
To labour in the ocean or in the starry heaven. So Milton
Labour'd in Chasms of the Mundane Shell tho' here before
My Cottage midst the Starry Seven, where the Virgin Ololon
Stood trembling in the Porch: loud Satan thunder'd on the stormy Sea,
60⁠Circling Albion's Chffs, in which the Four-fold World resides
Tho' seen in fallacy outside: a fallacy of Satan's Churches.
P. 42 BEFORE Ololon Milton stood & perciev'd the Eternal Form
Of that mild Vision: wondrous were their acts by me unknown
Except remotely: and I heard Ololon say to Milton:
I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon, there a dread
5⁠ And awful Man I see, o'ercover'd with the mantle of years.
I behold Los & Urizen, I behold Orc & Tharmas,
The Four Zoas of Albion, & thy Spirit with them striving,
In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies.
Are those who contemn Religion & seek to annihilate it
10⁠Become in their Femin[in]e portions the causes & promoters
Of these Religions, how is this thing: this Newtonian Phantasm,
This Voltaire & Rousseau: this Hume & Gibbon & Bolingbroke:
This Natural Religion; this impossible absurdity?
Is Ololon the cause of this? O where shall I hide my face?
15⁠These tears fall for the little ones, the Children of Jerusalem,
Lest they be annihilated in thy annihilation.
No sooner she had spoke but Rahab Babylon appear'd
Eastward upon the Paved work across Europe & Asia,
Glorious as the midday Sun in Satan's bosom glowing:
20⁠A Female hidden in a Male, Religion hidden in War,
Nam'd Moral Virtue: cruel two-fold Monster shining bright,
A Dragon red & hidden Harlot which John in Patmos saw.
And all beneath the Nations innumerable of Ulro
Appear'd, the Seven Kingdoms of Canaan & Five Baalim
25⁠Of Philistea into Twelve divided, call'd after the Names
Of Israel: as they are in Eden. Mountain, River & Plain,
City & sandy Desart intermingled beyond mortal ken.
But turning toward Ololon in terrible majesty Milton
Replied: Obey thou the Words of the Inspired Man.
30⁠All that can be (can be) annihilated must be annihilated
That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery.
There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary:
The Negation must be destroy'd to redeem the Contraries.
The Negation is the Spectre: the Reasoning Power in Man:
35⁠This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal
Spirit; a Selfhood which must be put off & annihilated alway,
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination:
P. 43 TO bathe in the waters of Life: to wash off the Not Human.
I come in Self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration,
To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour,
To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration,
5⁠To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albion's covering,
To take off his filthy garments & clothe him with Imagination,
To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration
That it no longer shall dare to mock with the aspersion of Madness,
Cast on the Inspired by the tame high finisher of paltry Blots:
10⁠Indefinite or paltry Rhymes: or paltry Harmonies:
Who creeps into State Government like a catterpiller to destroy,
To cast off the idiot Questioner who is always questioning,
But never capable of answering, who sits with a sly grin
Silent plotting when to question like a thief in a cave:
15⁠Who publishes doubt & calls it knowledge: whose Science is Despair:
Whose pretence to knowledge is Envy: whose whole Science is
To destroy the wisdom of ages to gratify ravenous Envy,
That rages round him like a Wolf day & night without rest.
He smiles with condescension: he talks of Benevolence & Virtue:
20⁠And those who act with Benevolence & Virtue they murder time on time.
These are the destroyers of Jerusalem, those are the murderers
Of Jesus, who deny the Faith & mock at Eternal Life:
Who pretend to Poetry that they may destroy Imagination,
By imitation of Nature's Images drawn from Remembrance.
25⁠These are the Sexual Garments, the Abomination of Desolation,
Hiding the Human Lineaments as with an Ark & Curtains
Which Jesus rent: & now shall wholly purge away with Fire
Till Generation is swallow'd up in Regeneration.
Then trembled the Virgin Ololon & reply'd in clouds of despair:
30⁠Is this our Femin[in]e Portion, the Six-fold Miltonic Female?
Terribly this Portion trembles before thee, O awful Man.
Altho' our Human Power can sustain the severe contentions
Of Friendship, our Sexual cannot: but flies into the Ulro.
Hence arose all our terrors in Eternity: & now remembrance
35⁠Returns upon us: are we contraries, O Milton, Thou & I,
O Immortal? how were we led to War the Wars of Death?
Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enter'd into
P. 44 BECOMES a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion?
Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee.
So saying the Virgin divided Six-fold, & with a shriek
Dolorous that ran thro' all Creation, a Double Six-fold Wonder:
5⁠Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths
Of Milton's Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea.
Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felpham's Vales,
In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings,
Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felpham's Vale
10⁠Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became
One Man, Jesus the Saviour, wonderful! round his limbs
The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood,
Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing
Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression:
15⁠A Garment of War. I heard it nam'd the Woof of Six Thousand Years.
And I beheld the Twenty-four Cities of Albion
Arise upon their Thrones to Judge the Nations of the Earth:
And the Immortal Four in whom the Twenty-four appear Four-fold
Arose around Albion's body: Jesus wept, & walked forth
20⁠From Felpham's Vale clothed in Clouds of blood, to enter into
Albion's Bosom, the bosom of death, & the Four surrounded him
In the Column of Fire in Felpham's Vale: then to their mouths the Four
Applied their Four Trumpets, & then sounded to the Four winds.
Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound:
25⁠My bones trembled, I fell outstretch'd upon the path
A moment, & my Soul returned into its mortal state,
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body:
And my sweet Shadow of delight stood trembling by my side.
Immediately the Lark mounted with a loud trill from Felpham's Vale,
30⁠And the Wild Thyme from Wimbleton's green & impurpled Hills.
And Los & Enitharmon rose over the Hills of Surrey:
Their clouds roll over London with a south wind: soft Oothoon
Pants in the Vales of Lambeth, weeping o'er her Human Harvest.
Los listens to the Cry of the Poor Man: his Cloud
35⁠Over London in volume terrific, low bended in anger.
Rintrah & Palamabron view the Human Harvest beneath.
Their Wine-presses & Barns stand open: the Ovens are prepar'd:
The Waggons ready: terrific Lions & Tygers sport & play:
All Animals upon the Earth are prepar'd in all their strength
P. 45 TO go forth to the Great Harvest & Vintage of the Nations.
Finis.
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