MILTON: BOOK THE SECOND
There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
“This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow”
Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah
Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence
Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing
“To the Inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides.”
But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district
As the beloved infant in his mothers 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.
And it is thus Created. Lo the Eternal Great Humanity
To whom be Glory & Dominion Evermore Amen
Walks among all his awful Family see 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,”
To 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
In 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
To 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 appeard a pleasant
“Mild Shadow above: beneath: & on all sides round,”
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 returnd & went still going forward thro’
The 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
“All 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:
As one awakend 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”
“The 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”
“Not 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 earthy bed: just as the morn
Appears; listens silent; then springing from the waving Corn-field! loud
“He leads the Choir of Day! trill, trill, trill, trill,”
Mounting upon the wings of light into the Great Expanse:
Reecchoing against the lovely blue & shining heavenly Shell:
His little throat labours with inspiration; every feather
On 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
“The 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.
This is a Vision of the lamentation of Beulah over Ololon!
Thou percievest the Flowers put forth their precious Odours!
And none can tell how from so small a center comes such sweets
Forgetting that within that Center Eternity expands
“Its ever during doors, that Og & Anak fiercely guard[.]”
First eer 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 & 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
Revels along upon the wind; the White-thorn lovely May
Opens her many lovely eyes: listening the Rose still sleeps t243
None dare to wake her. soon she bursts her crimson curtaind bed
And comes forth in the majesty of beauty; every Flower:
“The Pink, the Jessamine, the Wall-flower, the Carnation”
“The 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
And Milton oft sat up on the Couch of Death & oft conversed
In vision & dream beatific with the Seven Angels of the Presence
I have turned my back upon these Heavens builded on cruelty
My Spectre still wandering thro’ them follows my Emanation
He hunts her footsteps thro’ the snow & the wintry hail & rain
The idiot Reasoner laughs at the Man of Imagination
And from laughter proceeds to murder by undervaluing calumny
Then Hillel who is Lucifer replied over the Couch of Death
And thus the Seven Angels instructed him & thus they converse.
We are not Individuals but States: Combinations of Individuals
We were Angels of the Divine Presence: & were Druids in Annandale
“Compelld to combine into Form by Satan, the Spectre of Albion,”
“Who made himself a God &, destroyed the Human Form Divine. [Hebrew text]”
But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form as multitudes
Because we were combind in Freedom & holy Brotherhood Vox Populi t245
While those combind by Satans Tyranny first in the blood of War
“And Sacrifice &, next, in Chains of imprisonment: are Shapeless Rocks”
“Retaining only Satans Mathematic Holiness, Length: Bredth & Highth”
Calling the Human Imagination: which is the Divine Vision & Fruition
“In which Man liveth eternally: madness & blasphemy, against”
“Its own Qualities, which are Servants of Humanity, not Gods or Lords[.]”
Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.
States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.
Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches
And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
“And Hell & the Grave! States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.”
Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!
The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
“Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination”
“The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State”
Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created
Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot
“The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the Knife”
“But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever. Amen Halle[l]ujah”
Thus they converse with the Dead watching round the Couch of Death.
For God himself enters Death’s Door always with those that enter
“And lays down in the Grave with them, in Visions of Eternity”
Till they awake & see Jesus & the Linen Clothes lying
“That the Females had Woven for them, & the Gates of their Fathers House”
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
“Then 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
Therefore 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 percieves that Milton annihilates
Himself: 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
“As 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
And all the Songs of Beulah sounded comfortable notes
“To comfort Ololons lamentation, for they said[:]”
Are you the Fiery Circle that late drove in fury & fire
The Eight Immortal Starry-Ones down into Ulro dark
Rending the Heavens of Beulah with your thunder & lightnings
And can you thus lament & can you pity & forgive?
Is terror changd 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
“On 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:”
The Third in the Loins & Seminal Vessels & the Fourth
“In the Stomach & Intestines terrible, deadly, unutterable”
And he whose Gates are opend in those Regions of his Body
Can from those Gates view all these wondrous Imaginations
But Ololon sought the Or-Ulro & its fiery Gates
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 Miltons course
To where the Contraries of Beulah War beneath Negations Banner
Then view’d from Miltons Track they see the Ulro: a vast Polypus
Of 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
The 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.”
One of these Ruind Universes is to the North named Urthona
One to 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
Here 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 Miltons descent
“To watch the time, pitying & gentle to awaken Urizen”
They stood in a dark land of death of fiery corroding waters
Where lie in evil death the Four Immortals pale and cold
And the Eternal Man even Albion upon the Rock of Ages[.]
“Seeing Miltons Shadow, some Daughters of Beulah trembling”
“Returnd, but Ololon remaind before the Gates of the Dead”
And 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 renderd Deadly within the Life & Interior Vision
“How are the Beasts & Birds & Fishes, & Plants & Minerals”
Here fixd into a frozen bulk subject to decay & death[?]
Those Visions of Human Life & Shadows of Wisdom & Knowledge
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 changd into a Curse & a Flattery
“By 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 compelld
“To weave the Woof of Death, On Camberwell Tirzahs Courts”
“Malahs on Blackheath, Rahab & Noah. dwell on Windsors heights”
Where once the Cherubs of Jerusalem spread to Lambeths Vale
Milcahs Pillars shine from Harrow to Hampstead where Hoglah
On Highgates heights magnificent Weaves overtrembling Thames
To Shooters Hill and thence to Blackheath the dark Woof! Loud
Loud roll the Weights & Spindles over the whole Earth let down
“On 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 astonishd, but they”
Could not behold Golgonooza without passing the Polypus
“A wondrous journey not passable by Immortal feet, & none”
But the Divine Saviour can pass it without annihilation.
For Golgonooza cannot be seen till having passd the Polypus
It is viewed on all sides round by a Four-fold Vision
Or till you become Mortal & Vegetable in Sexuality
Then 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 Miltons Couch, & when they saw Eight”
“Immortal Starry-Ones, guarding the Couch in flaming fires”
They thunderous utterd 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!
“And now that a wide road was open to Eternity,”
“By Ololons 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
And through Beulah. and all silent forbore 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
It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed[.]
In this Moment Ololon descended to Los & Enitharmon
Unseen beyond the Mundane Shell Southward in Miltons track
Just in this Moment when the morning odours rise abroad
“And first from the Wild Thyme, stands a Fountain in a rock”
“Of 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”
Terrible 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 Larks nest in Golgonooza
Luvah slept here in death & here is Luvahs empty Tomb
Ololon 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 Satans Seat
Thro all the Twenty-seven Heavens may not slumber nor sleep
“But the Larks Nest is at the Gate of Los, at the eastern”
Gate of wide Golgonooza & the Lark is Los’s Messenger
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 tip: and each descend
To their respective Earths & there all night consult with Angels
Of 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 dispatchd till they reach the Earth again
“In the East Gate of Golgonooza, & the Twenty-eighth bright”
Lark. 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
The 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
Before my Cottage stood for the Satanic Space is delusion
For when Los joind with me he took me in his firy whirlwind
My Vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeths shades
He set me down in Felphams Vale & prepard a beautiful
Cottage for me that in three years I might write all these Visions
To display Natures 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
Is 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 t247”
The Virgin answerd. 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 utterd in words distinct the anxious thought
“Mild was the voice, but more distinct than any earthly”
That Miltons 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 Raha[b], in an outside which is fallacious! within t248”
“Beyond the outline of Identity, in the Selfhood deadly”
And he appeard the Wicker Man of Scandinavia in whom
Jerusalems children consume in flames among the Stars
– Blake