“So Los lamented over Satan, who triumphant divided the Nations”
He set his face against Jerusalem to destroy the Eon of Albion
“But Los hid Enitharmon from the sight of all these things,”
Upon the Thames whose lulling harmony repos’d her soul:
Where Beulah lovely terminates in rocky Albion:
“Terminating in Hyde Park, on Tyburns awful brook.”
And the Mills of Satan were separated into a moony Space
“Among the rocks of Albions Temples, and Satans Druid sons”
“Offer the Human Victims throughout all the Earth, and Albions”
“Dread Tomb immortal on his Rock, overshadowd the whole Earth:”
Where Satan making to himself Laws from his own identity.
Compell’d others to serve him in moral gratitude & submission
Being call’d God: setting himself above all that is called God.
And all the Spectres of the Dead calling themselves Sons of God
In his Synagogues worship Satan under the Unutterable Name
And it was enquir’d: Why in a Great Solemn Assembly
The Innocent should be condemn’d for the Guilty? Then an Eternal rose
“Saying. If the Guilty should be condemn’d, he must be an Eternal Death”
And one must die for another throughout all Eternity.
Satan is fall’n from his station & never can be redeem’d
But must be new created continually moment by moment
“And therefore the Class of Satan shall be calld the Elect, & those”
“Of Rintrah. the Reprobate, & those of Palamabron the Redeem’d”
“For he is redeem’d from Satans Law, the wrath falling on Rintrah,”
And therefore Palamabron dared not to call a solemn Assembly
Till Satan had assum’d Rintrahs wrath in the day of mourning
In a feminine delusion of false pride self-deciev’d.
So spake the Eternal and confirm’d it with a thunderous oath
But when Leutha a Daughter of Beulah) beheld Satans condemnation
She down descended into the midst of the Great Solemn Assembly
“Offering herself a Ransom for Satan, taking on her, his Sin.”
Mark well my words. they are of your eternal salvation!
“And Leutha stood glowing with varying colours immortal, heart-piercing”
And lovely: & her moth-like elegance shone over the Assembly
At length standing upon the golden floor of Palamabron
She spake: I am the Author of this Sin! by my suggestion
My Parent power Satan has committed this transgression.
“I loved Palamabron & I sought to approach his Tent,”
But beautiful Elynittria with her silver arrows repelld me.
For her light is terrible to me. I fade before her immortal beauty.
O wherefore doth a Dragon-form forth issue from my limbs
To sieze her new born son? Ah me! the wretched Leutha!
“This to prevent, entering the doors of Satans brain night after night”
Like sweet perfumes I stupified the masculine perceptions
“And kept only the feminine awake, hence rose his soft”
Delusory love to Palamabron: admiration join’d with envy
“Cupidity unconquerable! my fault, when at noon of day”
The Horses of Palamabron call’d for rest and pleasant death:
“I sprang out of the breast of Satan, over the Harrow beaming”
In all my beauty! that I might unloose the flaming steeds
As Elynittria use’d to do; but too well those living creatures
“Knew that I was not Elynittria, and they brake the traces”
“But me, the servants of the Harrow saw not: but as a bow”
Of varying colours on the hills; terribly rag’d the horses.
“Satan astonishd, and with power above his own controll”
“Compell’d the Gnomes to curb the horses, & to throw banks of sand”
Around the fiery flaming Harrow in labyrinthine forms.
And brooks between to intersect the meadows in their course.
The Harrow cast thick flames: Jehovah thunderd above:
Chaos & ancient night fled from beneath the fiery Harrow:
The Harrow cast thick flames & orb’d us round in concave fires
“A Hell of our own making. see, its flames still gird me round.”
Jehovah thunder’d above! Satan in pride of heart
Drove the fierce Harrow among the constellations of Jehovah
Drawing a third part in the fires as stubble north & south
To devour Albion and Jerusalem the Emanation of Albion
“Driving the Harrow in Pitys paths. ’twas then, with our dark fires”
Which now gird round us (O eternal torment) I form’d the Serpent
Of precious stones & gold turn’d poisons on the sultry wastes
The Gnomes in all that day spar’d not; they curs’d Satan bitterly.
“To do unkind things in kindness! with power armd, to say”
The most irritating things in the midst of tears and love
These are the stings of the Serpent! thus did we by them; till thus
“They in return retaliated, and the Living Creatures maddend.”
The Gnomes labourd. I weeping hid in Satans inmost brain;
“But when the Gnomes refus’d to labour more, with blandishments”
I came forth from the head of Satan! back the Gnomes recoil’d.
“And call’d me Sin, and for a sign portentous held me. Soon”
“Day sunk and Palamabron return’d, trembling I hid myself”
In Satans inmost Palace of his nervous fine wrought Brain:
For Elynittria met Satan with all her singing women.
Terrific in their joy & pouring wine of wildest power
They gave Satan their wine: indignant at the burning wrath.
Wild with prophetic fury his former life became like a dream
“Cloth’d in the Serpents folds, in selfish holiness demanding purity”
“Being Most impure, self-condemn’d to eternal tears, he drove”
Me from his inmost Brain & the doors clos’d with thunders sound
O Divine Vision who didst create the Female: to repose
The Sleepers of Beulah: pity the repentant Leutha. My
Sick Couch bears the dark shades of Eternal Death infolding
The Spectre of Satan. he furious refuses to repose in sleep
I humbly bow in all my Sin before the Throne Divine.
Not so the Sick-one; Alas what shall be done him to restore?
“Who calls the Individual Law, Holy: and despises the Saviour.”
Glorying to involve Albions Body in fires of eternal War–
Now Leutha ceas’d: tears flow’d: but the Divine Pity supported her.
All is my fault! We are the Spectre of Luvah the murderer.
Of Albion: O Vala! O Luvah! O Albion! O lovely Jerusalem
“The Sin was begun in Eternity, and will not rest to Eternity”
“Till two Eternitys meet together, Ah! lost! lost! lost! for ever!”
So Leutha spoke. But when she saw that Enitharmon had
Created a New Space to protect Satan from punishment;
She fled to Enitharmons Tent & hid herself. Loud raging
“Thundered the Assembly dark & clouded, and they ratify’d”
“The kind decision of Enitharmon & gave a Time to the Space,”
Even Six Thousand years; and sent Lucifer for its Guard.
But Lucifer refus’d to die & in pride he forsook his charge
“And they elected Molech, and when Molech was impatient”
“The Divine hand found the Two Limits: first of Opacity, then of Contraction”
“Opacity was named Satan, Contraction was named Adam.”
Triple Elohim came: Elohim wearied fainted: they elected Shaddai.
“Shaddai angry, Pahad descended: Pahad terrified, they sent Jehovah”
“And Jehovah was leprous; loud he call’d, stretching his hand to Eternity”
“For then the Body of Death was perfected in hypocritic holiness,”
“Around the Lamb, a Female Tabernacle woven in Cathedrons Looms”
He died as a Reprobate. he was Punish’d as a Transgressor!
Glory! Glory! Glory! to the Holy Lamb of God
I touch the heavens as an instrument to glorify the Lord!
The Elect shall meet the Redeem’d. on Albions rocks they shall meet
“Astonish’d at the Transgressor, in him beholding the Saviour.”
And the Elect shall say to the Redeemd. We behold it is of Divine
Mercy alone! of Free Gift and Election that we live.
“Our Virtues & Cruel Goodnesses, have deserv’d Eternal Death.”
Thus they weep upon the fatal Brook of Albions River.
But Elynittria met Leutha in the place where she was hidden.
“And threw aside her arrows, and laid down her sounding Bow;”
She sooth’d her with soft words & brought her to Palamabrons bed
“In moments new created for delusion, interwoven round about,”
“In dreams she bore the shadowy Spectre of Sleep, & namd him Death.”
In dreams she bore Rahab the mother of Tirzah & her sisters
“In Lambeths vales; in Cambridge & in Oxford, places of Thought”
“Intricate labyrinths of Times and Spaces unknown, that Leutha lived”
“In Palamabrons Tent, and Oothoon was her charming guard.”
The Bard ceas’d. All consider’d and a loud resounding murmur
Continu’d round the Halls; and much they question’d the immortal
Loud voicd Bard. and many condemn’d the high tone’d Song
Saying Pity and Love are too venerable for the imputation
Of Guilt. Others said. It it is true! if the acts have been perform’d
Let the Bard himself witness. Where hadst thou this terrible Song
The Bard replied. I am Inspired! I know it is Truth! for I Sing
According to the inspiration of the Poetic Genius
Who is the eternal all-protecting Divine Humanity
To whom be Glory & Power & Dominion Evermore Amen
Then there was great murmuring in the Heavens of Albion
Concerning Generation & the Vegetative power & concerning
The Lamb the Saviour: Albion trembled to Italy Greece & Egypt
To Tartary & Hindostan & China & to Great America
Shaking the roots & fast foundations of the Earth in doubtfulness
The loud voic’d Bard terrify’d took refuge in Miltons bosom
Then Milton rose up from the heavens of Albion ardorous!
“The whole Assembly wept prophetic, seeing in Miltons face”
And in his lineaments divine the shades of Death & Ulro
“He took off the robe of the promise, & ungirded himself from the oath of God”
“And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still”
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp
“Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.”
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for my soul lies at the gates of death.
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
“I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,”
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate
And I be siez’d & giv’n into the hands of my own Selfhood
“The Lamb of God is seen thro’ mists & shadows, hov’ring”
Over the sepulchers in clouds of Jehovah & winds of Elohim
“A disk of blood, distant; & heav’ns & earth’s roll dark between”
What do I here before the Judgment? without my Emanation?
“With the daughters of memory, & not with the daughters of inspiration[?]”
I in my Selfhood am that Satan: I am that Evil One!
He is my Spectre! in my obedience to loose him from my Hells
“To claim the Hells, my Furnaces, I go to Eternal Death.”
And Milton said. I go to Eternal Death! Eternity shudder’d
“For he took the outside course, among the graves of the dead”
A mournful shade. Eternity shudderd at the image of eternal death
Then on the verge of Beulah he beheld his own Shadow;
A mournful form double; hermaphroditic: male & female
In one wonderful body. and he enterd into it
“In direful pain for the dread shadow, twenty-seven-fold”
“Reachd to the depths of direst Hell, & thence to Albions land:”
“Which is this earth of vegetation on which now I write,”
The Seven Angels of the Presence wept over Miltons Shadow!
“As when a man dreams, he reflects not that his body sleeps,”
Else he would wake; so seem’d he entering his Shadow: but
With him the Spirits of the Seven Angels of the Presence
Entering; they gave him still perceptions of his Sleeping Body;
“Which now arose and walk’d with them in Eden, as an Eighth”
Image Divine tho’ darken’d; and tho walking as one walks
In sleep; and the Seven comforted and supported him.
Like as a Polypus that vegetates beneath the deep!
They saw his Shadow vegetated underneath the Couch
Of death: for when he enterd into his Shadow: Himself:
His real and immortal Self: was as appeard to those
“Who dwell in immortality, as One sleeping on a couch”
Of gold; and those in immortality gave forth their Emanations
“Like Females of sweet beauty, to guard round him & to feed”
His lips with food of Eden in his cold and dim repose!
But to himself he seemd a wanderer lost in dreary night.
Onwards his Shadow kept its course among the Spectres; call’d
“Satan, but swift as lightning passing them, startled the shades”
Of Hell beheld him in a trail of light as of a comet
That travels into Chaos: so Milton went guarded within.
The nature of infinity is this: That every thing has its
Own Vortex; and when once a traveller thro Eternity.
“Has passd that Vortex, he percieves it roll backward behind”
“His path, into a globe itself infolding; like a sun:”
“Or like a moon, or like a universe of starry majesty,”
While he keeps onwards in his wondrous journey on the earth
“Or like a human form, a friend with whom he livd benevolent.”
As the eye of man views both the east & west encompassing
“Its vortex; and the north & south, with all their starry host;”
Also the rising sun & setting moon he views surrounding
His corn-fields and his valleys of five hundred acres square.
“Thus is the earth one infinite plane, and not as apparent”
To the weak traveller confin’d beneath the moony shade.
“Thus is the heaven a vortex passd already, and the earth”
A vortex not yet pass’d by the traveller thro’ Eternity.
“First Milton saw Albion upon the Rock of Ages,”
“Deadly pale outstretchd and snowy cold, storm coverd;”
A Giant form of perfect beauty outstretchd on the rock
In solemn death: the Sea of Time & Space thunderd aloud
“Against the rock, which was inwrapped with the weeds of death”
“Hovering over the cold bosom, in its vortex Milton bent down”
“To the bosom of death, what was underneath soon seemd above.”
A cloudy heaven mingled with stormy seas in loudest ruin;
“But as a wintry globe descends precipitant thro’ Beulah bursting,”
With thunders loud and terrible: so Miltons shadow fell
Precipitant loud thundring into the Sea of Time & Space.
“Then first I saw him in the Zenith as a falling star,”
“Descending perpendicular, swift as the swallow or swift;”
“And on my left foot falling on the tarsus, enterd there;”
But from my left foot a black cloud redounding spread over Europe.
Then Milton knew that the Three Heavens of Beulah were beheld
By him on earth in his bright pilgrimage of sixty years
Full-page design. For caption see Textual Note.]
“In those three females whom his Wives, & those three whom his Daughters”
“Had represented and containd, that they might be resum’d”
By giving up of Selfhood: & they distant view’d his journey
“In their eternal spheres, now Human, tho’ their Bodies remain clos’d”
In the dark Ulro till the Judgment: also Milton knew: they and
“Himself was Human, tho’ now wandering thro Death’s Vale”
“In conflict with those Female forms, which in blood & jealousy”
“Surrounded him, dividing & uniting without end or number.”
“He saw the Cruelties of Ulro, and he wrote them down”
In iron tablets: and his Wives & Daughters names were these
“Rahab and Tirzah, & Milcah & Malah & Noah & Hoglah,”
They sat rangd round him as the rocks of Horeb round the land
Of Canaan: and they wrote in thunder smoke and fire
“His dictate; and his body was the Rock Sinai; that body,”
Which was on earth born to corruption: & the six Females
Are Hor & Peor & Bashan & Abarim & Lebanon & Hermon
Seven rocky masses terrible in the Desarts of Midian.
But Miltons Human Shadow continu’d journeying above
The rocky masses of The Mundane Shell; in the Lands
Of Edom & Aram & Moab & Midian & Amalek.
– Blake