# The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton/Book the second

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.