Chapter I

Who in mysterious Sinai's awful cave,
To Man the wondrous art of writing gave,
Again he speaks in thunder and in fire!
Thunder of Thought, & flames of fierce desire:
Even from the depths of Hell his voice I hear,
Within the unfathom'd caverns of my Ear.

Therefore I print; nor vain my types shall be:
Heaven, Earth & Hell, henceforth shall live in harmony.

'HIS theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn
Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Saviour over me
Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song.

Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! expand!
I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine:
Fibres of love from man to man thro' Albion's pleasant land.
In all the dark Atlantic vale down from the hills of Surrey
A black water accumulates, return Albion! return!
Thy brethren call thee, and thy fathers, and thy sons,
Thy nurses and thy mothers, thy sisters and thy daughters
Weep at thy soul's disease, and the Divine Vision is darken'd:
Thy Emanation that was wont to play before thy face,
Beaming forth with her daughters into the Divine bosom,
Where hast thou hidden thy Emanation lovely Jerusalem
From the vision and fruition of the Holy-one?
I am not a God afar off, I am a brother and friend;
Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in me:
Lo! we are One; forgiving all Evil; Not seeking recompense;
Ye are my members O ye sleepers of Beulah, land of shades!

But the perturbed Man away turns down the valleys dark;
Phantom of the over heated brain! shadow of immortality!
Seeking to keep my soul a victim to thy Love! which binds
Man the enemy of man into deceitful friendships:
Jerusalem is not! her daughters are indefinite;
By demonstration man alone can live, and not by faith.
My mountains are my own, and I will keep them to myself:
The Malvern and the Cheviot, the Wolds, Plinlimmon & Snowdon
Are mine, here will I build my Laws of Moral Virtue:
Humanity shall be no more: but war & princedom & victory!

So spake Albion in jealous fears, hiding his Emanation
Upon the Thames and Medway, rivers of Beulah: dissembling
His jealousy before the throne divine, darkening, cold!

THE banks of the Thames are clouded! the ancient porches of Albion are
Darken'd! they are drawn thro' unbounded space, scatter'd upon
The Void in incoherent despair! Cambridge & Oxford & London,
Are driven among the starry Wheels, rent away and dissipated,
In Chasms & Abysses of sorrow, enlarg'd without dimension, terrible.
Albion's mountains run with blood, the cries of war & of tumult
Resound into the unbounded night, every Human perfection
Of mountain & river & city, are small & wither'd & darken'd.
Cam is a little stream! Ely is almost swallowed up!
Lincoln & Norwich stand trembling on the brink of Udan-Adan!
Wales and Scotland shrink themselves to the west and to the North!
Mourning for fear of the warriors in the Vale of Entuthon-Benython
Jerusalem is scatter'd abroad like a cloud of smoke thro' non-entity:
Moab & Ammon & Amalek & Canaan & Egypt & Aram
Recieve her little-ones for sacrifices and the delights of cruelty.
Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish'd at me,
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God, the Human Imagination.
O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life!
Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of ages,
While I write of the building of Golgonooza, and of the terrors of Entuthon:
Of Hand & Hyle & Coban, of Kwantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd & Hutton:
Of the terrible sons & daughters of Albion, and their Generations.

Scofield, Kox, Kotope and Bowen, revolve most mightily upon
The Furnace of Los: before the eastern gate bending their fury
They war, to destroy the Furnaces, to desolate Golgonooza:
And to devour the Sleeping Humanity of Albion in rage & hunger.
They revolve into the Furnaces Southward & are driven forth Northward,
Divided into Male and Female forms time after time.
From these Twelve all the Families of England spread abroad.

The Male is a Furnace of beryll; the Female is a golden Loom;
I behold them and their rushing fires overwhelm my Soul,
In London's darkness; and my tears fall day and night,
Upon the Emanations of Albion's Sons; the Daughters of Albion,
Names anciently remember'd, but now contemn'd as fictions!
Although in every bosom they controll our Vegetative powers.

These are united into Tirzah and her Sisters, on Mount Gilead,
Cambel & Gwendolen & Conwenna & Cordelia & Ignoge.
And these united into Rahab in the Covering Cherub on Euphrates,
Gwiniverra & Gwinefred & Gonorill & Sabrina beautiful,
Estrild, Mehetabel & Ragan, lovely Daughters of Albion,
They are the beautiful Emanations of the Twelve Sons of Albion.

The Starry Wheels revolv'd heavily over the Furnaces:
Drawing Jerusalem in anguish of maternal love,
Eastward, a pillar of a cloud with Vala upon the mountains
Howling in pain, redounding from the arms of Beulah's Daughters,
Out from the Furnaces of Los above the head of Los.
A pillar of smoke writhing afar into Non-Entity, redounding
Till the cloud reaches afar outstretch'd among the Starry Wheels
Which revolve heavily in the mighty Void above the Furnaces.

O what avail the loves & tears of Beulah's lovely Daughters?
They hold the Immortal Form in gentle bands & tender tears,
But all within is open'd into the deeps of Entuthon Benython
A dark and unknown night, indefinite, unmeasurable, without end,
Abstract Philosophy warring in enmity against Imagination
(Which is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus, blessed for ever.)
And there Jerusalem wanders with Vala upon the mountains.
Attracted by the revolutions of those Wheels the Cloud of smoke
Immense, and Jerusalem & Vala weeping in the Cloud,
Wander away into the Chaotic Void, lamenting with her Shadow
Among the Daughters of Albion, among the Starry Wheels:
Lamenting for her children, for the sons & daughters of Albion.

Los heard her lamentations in the deeps afar! his tears fall
Incessant before the Furnaces, and his Emanation divided in pain,
Eastward toward the Starry Wheels. But Westward a black Horror,
HIS Spectre driv'n by the Starry Wheels of Albion's sons, black and
Opake divided from his back; he labours and he mourns!
For as his Emanation divided, his Spectre also divided
In terror of those starry wheels: and the Spectre stood over Los
Howling in pain: a black'ning Shadow, black'ning dark & opake
Cursing the terrible Los; bitterly cursing him for his friendship
To Albion, suggesting murderous thoughts against Albion.

Los rag'd and stamp'd the earth in his might & terrible wrath!
He stood and stamp'd the earth; then he threw down his hammer in rage &
In fury: then he sat down and wept, terrified! Then arose
And chaunted his song, labouring with the tongs and hammer:
But still the Spectre divided, and still his pain increas'd!

In pain the Spectre divided, in pain of hunger and thirst,
To devour Los's Human Perfection, but when he saw that Los
WAS living: panting like a frighted wolf, and howling
He stood over the Immortal, in the solitude and darkness:
Upon the dark'ning Thames, across the whole Island westward,
A horrible Shadow of Death, among the Furnaces: beneath
The pillar of folding smoke; and he sought by other means
To lure Los: by tears, by arguments of science & by terrors:
Terrors in every Nerve, by spasms & extended pains:
While Los answer'd unterrified to the opake blackening Fiend.

And thus the Spectre spake: Wilt thou still go on to destruction
Till thy life is all taken away by this deceitful Friendship?
He drinks thee up like water: like wine he pours thee
Into his tuns: thy Daughters are trodden in his vintage.
He makes thy Sons the trampling of his bulls, they are plow'd
And harrow'd for his profit, Io! thy stolen Emanation
Is his garden of pleasure! all the Spectres of his Sons mock thee;
Look how they scorn thy once admired palaces, now in ruins
Because of Albion; because of deceit and friendship; For Lo!
Hand has peopled Babel & Nineveh; Hyle, Ashur & Aram:
Coban's son is Nimrod: his son Cush is adjoin'd to Aram,
By the Daughter of Babel, in a woven mantle of pestilence & war.
They put forth their spectrous cloudy sails; which drive their immense
Constellations over the deadly deeps of indefinite Udan-Adan.
Kox is the Father of Shem & Ham & Japheth, he is the Noah
Of the Flood of Udan-Adan. Hutn is the Father of the Seven
From Enoch to Adam: Schofield is Adam who was New-
Created in Edom. I saw it indignant, & thou art not moved!
This has divided thee in sunder: and wilt thou still forgive?
O! thou seest not what I see! what is done in the Furnaces.
Listen, I will tell thee what is done in moments to thee unknown:
Luvah was cast into the Furnaces of affliction and sealed,
And Vala fed, in cruel delight, the Furnaces with fire:
Stern Urizen beheld; urg'd by necessity to keep
The evil day afar, and if perchance with iron power
He might avert his own despair: in woe & fear he saw
Vala incircle round the Furnaces where Luvah was clos'd:
With joy she heard his howlings, & forgot he was her Luvah,
With whom she liv'd in bliss in times of innocence & youth:
Vala comes from the Furnace in a cloud, but wretched Luvah
Is howling in the Furnaces, in flames among Albion's Spectres,
To prepare the Spectre of Albion to reign over thee O Los,
Forming the Spectres of Albion according to his rage:
To prepare the Spectre sons of Adam, who is Scofield: the Ninth
Of Albion's sons, & the father of all his brethren in the Shadowy
Generation. Cambel & Gwendolen wove webs of war & of
Religion, to involve all Albion's sons, and when they had
Involv'd Eight, their webs roll'd outwards into darkness
And Scofield the Ninth remain'd on the outside of the Eight,
And Kox, Kotope, & Bowen,' One in him, a Fourfold Wonder,
Involv'd the Eight. Such are the Generations of the Giant Albion,
To separate a Law of Sin, to punish thee in thy members.

Los answer'd. Altho' I know not this! I know far worse than this:
I know that Albion hath divided me, and that thou O my Spectre,
Hast just cause to be irritated: but look stedfastly upon me:
Comfort thyself in my strength; the time will arrive,
When all Albion's injuries shall cease, and when we shall
Embrace him tenfold bright, rising from his tomb in immortality.
They have divided themselves by Wrath, they must be united by
Pity: let us therefore take example & warning O my Spectre.
O that I could abstain from wrath! O that the Lamb
Of God would look upon me and pity me in my fury.
In anguish of regeneration: in terrors of self annihilation:
Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder;
And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction
Of Jerusalem, become her covering, till the time of the End.
O holy Generation, Image of regeneration!
O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!
Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!
The Dead despise & scorn thee, & cast thee out as accursed:
Seeing the Lamb of God in thy gardens & thy palaces,
Where they desire to place the Abomination of Desolation.
Hand sits before his furnace: scorn of others & furious pride,
Freeze round him to bars of steel & to iron rocks beneath
His feet: indignant self-righteousness like whirlwinds of the north,
ROSE up against me thundering from the Brook of Albion's River,
From Ranelagh & Strumbolo, from Cromwell's gardens & Chelsea
The place of wounded Soldiers; but when he saw my Mace
Whirl'd round from heaven to earth, trembling he sat: his cold
Poisons rose up: & his sweet deceits cover'd them all over
With a tender cloud. As thou art now, such was he O Spectre.
I know thy deceit & thy revenges, and unless thou desist
I will certainly create an eternal Hell for thee. Listen!
Be attentive! be obedient! Lo the Furnaces are ready to recieve thee.
I will break thee into shivers, & melt thee in the furnaces of death,
I will cast thee into forms of abhorrence & torment if thou
Desist not from thine own will, & obey not my stern command:
I am clos'd up from my children: my Emanation is dividing
And thou my Spectre art divided against me. But mark,
I will compell thee to assist me in my terrible labours. To beat
These hypocritic Selfhoods on the Anvils of bitter Death.
I am inspired: I act not for myself: for Albion's sake
I now am what I am! a horror and an astonishment
Shudd'ring the heavens to look upon me: Behold what cruelties
Are practised in Babel & Shinar, & have approach'd to Zion's Hill.
While Los spoke, the terrible Spectre fell shudd'ring before him
Watching his time with glowing eyes to leap upon his prey.
Los open'd the Furnaces in fear, the Spectre saw to Babel & Shinar
Across all Europe & Asia, he saw the tortures of the Victims.
He saw now from the outside what he before saw & felt from within,
He saw that Los was the sole, uncontroll'd Lord of the Furnaces,
Groaning he kneel'd before Los's iron-shod feet on London Stone,
Hung'ring & thirsting for Los's life yet pretending obedience,
While Los pursu'd his speech in threat'nings loud & fierce.
Thou art my Pride & Self-righteousness: I have found thee out:
Thou art reveal'd before me in all thy magnitude & power:
Thy Uncircumcised pretences to Chastity must be cut in sunder:
Thy holy wrath & deep deceit cannot avail against me,
Nor shalt thou ever assume the triple-form of Albion's Spectre,
For I am one of the living: dare not to mock my inspired fury.
If thou wast cast forth from my life: if I was dead upon the mountains
Thou mightest be pitied & lov'd: but now I am living: unless
Thou abstain ravening I will create an eternal Hell for thee.
Take thou this Hammer & in patience heave the thundering Bellows,
Take thou these Tongs: strike thou alternate with me: labour obedient.
Hand & Hyle & Koban: Skofeld, Kox & Kotope, labour mightily
In the Wars of Babel & Shinar; all their Emanations were
Condens'd. Hand has absorb'd all his Brethren in his might;
All the infant Loves & Graces were lost, for the mighty Hand
CONDENS'D his Emanations into hard opake substances,
And his infant thoughts & desires into cold, dark, cliffs of death.
His hammer of gold he siez'd; and his anvil of adamant;
He siez'd the bars of condens'd thoughts, to forge them,
Into the sword of war, into the bow and arrow;
Into the thundering cannon and into the murdering gun.
I saw the limbs form'd for exercise, contemn'd; & the beauty of
Eternity, look'd upon as deformity, & loveliness as a dry tree:
I saw disease forming a Body of Death around the Lamb
Of God, to destroy Jerusalem, & to devour the body of Albion
By war and stratagem to win the labour of the husbandman.
Awkwardness arm'd in steel: Folly in a helmet of gold:
Weakness with horns & talons: ignorance with a rav'ning beak:
Every Emanative joy forbidden as a Crime:
And the Emanations buried alive in the earth with pomp of religion:
Inspiration deny'd: Genius forbidden by laws of punishment:
I saw terrified: I took the sighs & tears & bitter groans:
I lifted them into my Furnaces, to form the spiritual sword,
That lays open the hidden heart: I drew forth the pang
Of sorrow red hot: I work'd it on my resolute anvil:
I heated it in the flames of Hand, & Hyle, & Coban
Nine times; Gwendolen & Cambel & Gwineverra
Are melted into the gold, the silver, the liquid ruby,
The crysolite, the topaz, the jacinth, & every precious stone.
Loud roar my Furnaces and loud my hammer is heard:
I labour day and night. I behold the soft affections
Condense beneath my hammer into forms of cruelty,
But still I labour in hope, tho' still my tears flow down,
That he who will not defend Truth, may be compell'd to defend
A Lie, that he may be snared and caught and snared and taken,
That Enthusiasm and Life may not cease: arise Spectre arise!
Thus they contended among the Furnaces with groans &c tears;
Groaning the Spectre heav'd the billows, obeying Los's frowns;
Till the Spaces of Erin were perfected in the furnaces
Of affliction, and Los drew them forth, compelling the harsh Spectre
INTO the Furnaces & into the valleys of the Anvils of Death,
And into the mountains of the Anvils & of the heavy Hammers,
Till he should bring the Sons & Daughters of Jerusalem to be
The Sons & Daughters of Los, that he might protect them from
Albion's dread Spectres: storming, loud, thunderous & mighty
The Bellows & the Hammers move compell'd by Los's hand.

And this is the manner of the Sons of Albion in their strength;
They take the Two Contraries which are calld Qualities, with which
Every Substance is clothed, they name them Good & Evil,
From them they make an Abstract, which is a Negation
Not only of the Substance from which it is derived,
A murderer of its own Body: but also a murderer
Of every Divine Member: it is the Reasoning Power,
An Abstract objecting power, that Negatives every thing.
This is the Spectre of Man: the Holy Reasoning Power,
And in its Holiness is closed the Abomination of Desolation.

Therefore Los stands in London building Golgonooza,
Compelling his Spectre to labours mighty; trembling in fear
The Spectre weeps, but Los unmov'd by tears or threats remains.

I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's
I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create.

So Los, in fury & strength: in indignation & burning wrath
Shudd'ring the Spectre howls, his howlings terrify the night.
He stamps around the Anvil, beating blows of stern despair,
He curses Heaven & Earth, Day & Night & Sun & Moon,
He curses Forest Spring & River, Desart & sandy Waste,
Cities & Nations, Families & Peoples, Tongues & Laws,
Driven to desperation by Los's terrors & threat'ning fears.

Los cries, Obey my voice & never deviate from my will
And I will be merciful to thee: be thou invisible to all
To whom I make thee invisible, but chief to my own Children,
O Spectre of Urthona: Reason not against their dear approach
Nor them obstruct with thy temptations of doubt & despair;
O Shame, O strong & mighty Shame I break thy brazen fetters;
If thou refuse, thy present torments will seem southern breezes
To what thou shalt endure if thou obey not my great will.

The Spectre answer'd. Art thou not asham'd of those thy Sins
That thou callest thy Children! lo the Law of God commands
That they be offered upon his Altar: O cruelty & torment
For thine are also mine! I have kept silent hitherto,
Concerning my chief delight: but thou hast broken silence;
Now I will speak my mind! Where is my lovely Enitharmon,
O thou my enemy, where is my Great Sin? She is also thine.
I said: now is my grief at worst, incapable of being
Surpassed: but every moment it accumulates more & more,
It continues accumulating to eternity: the joys of God advance
For he is Righteous: he is not a Being of Pity & Compassion,
He cannot feel Distress: he feeds on Sacrifice & Offering:
Delighting in cries & tears & clothed in holiness & solitude;
But my griefs advance also, for ever & ever without end.
O that I could cease to be! Despair! I am Despair
Created to be the great example of horror & agony: also my
Prayer is vain. I called for compassion: compassion mock'd,
Mercy & pity threw the grave stone over me & with lead
And iron, bound it over me for ever: Life lives on my
Consuming: & the Almighty hath made me his Contrary,
To be all evil, all reversed & for ever dead: knowing
And seeing life, yet living not: how can I then behold
And not tremble; how can I be beheld & not abhorr'd?

So spoke the Spectre shudd'ring, & dark tears ran down his shadowy face
Which Los wiped off, but comfort none could give, or beam of hope.
Yet ceas'd he not from labouring at the roarings of his Forge
With iron & brass Building Golgonooza in great contendings,
Till his Sons & Daughters came forth from the Furnaces
At the sublime Labours, for Los compell'd the invisible Spectre
TO labours mighty, with vast strength, with his mighty chains,
In pulsations of time, & extensions of space, like Urns of Beulah,
With great labour upon his anvils, & in his ladles the Ore
He lifted, pouring it into the clay ground prepar'd with art:
Striving with Systems to deliver Individuals from those Systems:
That whenever any Spectre began to devour the Dead,
He might feel the pain as if a man gnaw'd his own tender nerves.

Then Erin came forth from the Furnaces, & all the Daughters of Beulah
Came from the Furnaces, by Los's mighty power for Jerusalem's
Sake: walking up and down among the Spaces of Erin:
And the Sons and Daughters of Los came forth in perfection lovely,
And the Spaces of Erin reach'd from the starry heighth to the starry depth.

Los wept with exceeding joy & all wept with joy together:
They fear'd they never more should see their Father, who
Was built in from Eternity, in the Cliffs of Albion.

But when the joy of meeting was exhausted in loving embrace,
Again they lament. O what shall we do for lovely Jerusalem?
To protect the Emanations of Albion's mighty ones from cruelty?
Sabrina & Ignoge begin to sharpen their beamy spears
Of light and love: their little children stand with arrows of gold:
Ragan is wholly cruel, Scofield is bound in iron armour:
He is like a mandrake in the earth before Reuben's gate:

He shoots beneath Jerusalem's walls to undermine her foundations:
Vala is but thy Shadow, O thou loveliest among women:
A shadow animated by thy tears, O mournful Jerusalem!

WHY wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?
Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:
But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:
What shall we do for thee, O lovely mild Jerusalem?

And Los said, I behold the finger of God in terrors!
Albion is dead! his Emanation is divided from him!
But I am living! yet I feel my Emanation also dividing.
Such thing was never known! O pity me, thou all-piteous-one!
What shall I do! or how exist, divided from Enitharmon?
Yet why despair? I saw the finger of God go forth
Upon my Furnaces, from within the Wheels of Albion's Sons;
Fixing their Systems, permanent: by mathematic power
Giving a body to Falshood that it may be cast off for ever.
With Demonstrative Science piercing Apollyon with his own bow:
God is within, & without: he is even in the depths of Hell!

Such were the lamentations of the Labourers in the Furnaces!

And they appear'd within & without incircling on both sides
The Starry Wheels of Albion's Sons, with Spaces for Jerusalem,
And for Vala the shadow of Jerusalem, the ever mourning Shade:
On both sides, within & without beaming gloriously:
Terrified at the sublime Wonder, Los stood before his Furnaces,
And they stood around, terrified with admiration at Erin's Spaces,
For the Spaces reach'd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth:
And they builded Golgonooza: terrible eternal labour!

What are those golden builders doing? where was the burying-place
Of soft Ethinthus? near Tyburn's fatal Tree? is that
Mild Zion's hills, most ancient promontory, near mournful
Ever weeping Paddington? is that Calvary and Golgotha?
Becoming a building of pity and compassion? Lo!
The stones are pity, and the bricks, well wrought affections:
Enamel'd with love & kindness, & the tiles engraven gold,
Labour of merciful hands: the beams & rafters are forgiveness:
The mortar & cement of the work, tears of honesty: the nails
And the screws & iron braces, are well wrought blandishments,
And well contrived words, firm fixing, never forgotten,
Always comforting the remembrance: the floors, humility:
The cielings, devotion: the hearths, thanksgiving.
Prepare the furniture, O Lambeth, in thy pitying looms;
The curtains, woven tears & sighs, wrought into lovely forms
For comfort: there the secret furniture of Jerusalem's chamber
Is wrought: Lambeth! the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, loveth thee:
Thou art one with her & knowest not of self in thy supreme joy.
Go on, builders in hope: tho' Jerusalem wanders far away,
Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels.

Fourfold the Sons of Los in their divisions: and fourfold,
The great City of Golgonooza: fourfold toward the north,
And toward the south fourfold, & fourfold toward the east & west,
Each within other toward the four points: that toward
Eden, and that toward the World of Generation,
And that toward Beulah, and that toward Ulro:
Ulro is the space of the terrible starry wheels of Albion's sons:
But that toward Eden is walled up, till time of renovation:
Yet it is perfect in its building, ornaments & perfection.

And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity:
West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,
The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.
These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity
In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebar's flood.
And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East,
And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North.

And the North Gate of Golgonooza toward Generation,
Has four sculptur'd Bulls, terrible, before the Gate of iron,
And iron, the Bulls: and that which looks toward Ulro,
Clay bak'd & enamel'd, eternal glowing as four furnaces:
Turning upon the Wheels of Albion's sons with enormous power.
And that toward Beulah four, gold, silver, brass, & iron:

AND that toward Eden, four, form'd of gold, silver, brass, & iron.

The South, a golden Gate, has four Lions terrible, living:
That toward Generation, four, of iron carv'd wondrous:
That toward Ulro, four, clay bak'd, laborious workmanship:
That toward Eden, four, immortal gold, silver, brass & iron.

The Western Gate fourfold, is clos'd: having four Cherubim
Its guards, living, the work of elemental hands, laborious task:
Like Men, hermaphroditic, each winged with eight wings.
That towards Generation, iron; that toward Beulah, stone:
That toward Ulro, clay; that toward Eden, metals:
But all clos'd up till the last day, when the graves shall yield their dead.

The Eastern Gate, fourfold: terrible & deadly its ornaments:
Taking their forms from the Wheels of Albion's sons, as cogs
Are form'd in a wheel, to fit the cogs of the adverse wheel.

That toward Eden, eternal ice, frozen in seven folds
Of forms of death: and that toward Beulah, stone:
The seven diseases of the earth are carved terrible.

And that toward Ulro, forms of war: seven enormities:
And that toward Generation, seven generative forms.

And every part of the City is fourfold: & every inhabitant, fourfold.
And every pot & vessel & garment & utensil of the houses,
And every house, fourfold; but the third Gate in every one
Is clos'd as with a threefold curtain of ivory & fine linen & ermine.
And Luban stands in middle of the City: a moat of fire,
Surrounds Luban, Los's Palace & the golden Looms of Cathedron.

And sixty-four thousand Genii, guard the Eastern Gate:
And sixty-four thousand Gnomes, guard the Northern Gate:
And sixty-four thousand Nymphs, guard the Western Gate:
And sixty-four thousand Fairies, guard the Southern Gate.

Around Golgonooza lies the land of death eternal: a Land
Of pain and misery and despair and ever brooding melancholy:
In all the Twenty-seven Heavens, numbered from Adam to Luther:
From the blue Mundane Shell, reaching to the Vegetative Earth.
The Vegetative Universe opens like a flower from the Earth's center,

In which is Eternity. It expands in Stars to the Mundane Shell
And there it meets Eternity again, both within and without,
And the abstract Voids between the Stars are the Satanic Wheels.

There is the Cave; the Rock; the Tree: the Lake of Udan Adan:
The Forest, and the Marsh, and the Pits of bitumen deadly:
The Rocks of solid fire: the Ice valleys: the Plains
Of burning sand; the rivers, cataract & Lakes of Fire:
The Islands of the fiery Lakes: the Trees of Malice, Revenge,
And black Anxiety: and the Cities of the Salamandrine men:
(But whatever is visible to the Generated Man,
Is a Creation of mercy & love, from the Satanic Void.)
The land of darkness flamed, but no light, & no repose:
The land of snows of trembling, & of iron hail incessant:
The land of earthquakes: and the land of woven labyrinths:
The land of snares & traps & wheels & pit- falls & dire mills:
The Voids, the Solids, & the land of clouds & regions of waters,
With their inhabitants: in the Twenty-seven Heavens beneath Beulah:
Self- righteousnesses conglomerating against the Divine Vision:
A Concave Earth wondrous, Chasmal, Abyssal, Incoherent,
Forming the Mundane Shell: above: beneath: on all sides surrounding
Golgonooza: Los walks round the walls night and day.

He views the City of Golgonooza, & its smaller Cities:
The Looms & Mills & Prisons & Work-houses of Og & Anak:
The Amalekite: the Canaanite: the Moabite: the Egyptian:
And all that has existed in the space of six thousand years:
Permanent, & not lost (not lost) nor vanish'd, & every little act,
Word, work, & wish, that has existed, all remaining still
In those Churches ever consuming & ever building, by the Spectres
Of all the inhabitants of Earth, wailing to be Created:
Shadowy to those who dwell not in them, meer possibilities:
But to those who enter into them they seem the only substances,
For every thing exists & not one sigh nor smile nor tear,
ONE hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away.

He views the Cherub at the Tree of Life, also the Serpent,
Orc the first born coil'd in the south: the Dragon Urizen:
Tharmas the Vegetated Tongue, even the Devouring Tongue:
A threefold region, a false brain: a false heart:
And false bowels: altogether composing the False Tongue,
Beneath Beulah: as a wat'ry flame revolving every way,
And as dark roots and stems: a Forest of affliction: growing
In seas of sorrow. Los also views the Four Females:
Ahania, and Enion, and Vala and Enitharmon lovely,
And from them all the lovely beaming Daughters of Albion.
Ahania & Enion & Vala, are three evanescent shades:
Enitharmon is a vegetated mortal Wife of Los:
His Emanation, yet his Wife till the sleep of Death is past.

Such are the Buildings of Los: & such are the Woofs of Enitharmon.

And Los beheld his Sons, and he beheld his Daughters:
Every one a translucent Wonder: a Universe within,
Increasing inwards, into length, and breadth, and heighth:
Starry & glorious: and they, every one in their bright loins,
Have a beautiful golden gate which opens into the vegetative world:
And every one a gate of rubies & all sorts of precious stones
In their translucent hearts, which opens into the vegetative world:
And every one a gate of iron dreadful and wonderful
In their translucent heads, which opens into the vegetative world.
And every one has the three regions Childhood: Manhood: & Age.
But the gate of the tongue, the western gate in them is clos'd,
Having a wall builded against it: and thereby the gates
Eastward & Southward & Northward, are incircled with flaming fires.
And the North is Breadth, the South is Heighth & Depth:

The East is Inwards: & the West is Outwards every way.
And Los beheld the mild Emanation Jerusalem eastward bending
Her revolutions toward the Starry Wheels in maternal anguish,
Like a pale cloud arising from the arms of Beulah's Daughters:
In Entuthon Benython's deep Vales beneath Golgonooza.

AND Hand & Hyle rooted into Jerusalem by a fibre
Of strong revenge, & Scofeld Vegetated by Reuben's Gate
In every Nation of the Earth, till the Twelve Sons of Albion
Enrooted into every Nation: a mighty Polypus growing
From Albion over the whole Earth: such is my awful Vision.
I see the Four-fold Man. The Humanity in deadly sleep,
And its fallen Emanation. The Spectre & its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present & Future, existing all at once
Before me; O Divine Spirit sustain me on thy wings!
That I may awake Albion from his long & cold repose.
For Bacon & Newton sheath'd in dismal steel their terrors hang
Like iron scourges over Albion. Reasonings like vast Serpents
Infold around my limbs, bruising my minute articulations.
I turn my eyes to the Schools & Universities of Europe,
And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire
Wash'd by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth
In heavy wreathes folds over every Nation: cruel Works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden, which
Wheel within Wheel in freedom revolve in harmony & peace.
I see in deadly fear in London Los raging round his Anvil
Of death: forming an Ax of gold; the Four Sons of Los
Stand round him cutting the Fibres from Albion's hills,
That Albion's Sons may roll apart over the Nations,
While Reuben enroots his brethren in the narrow Canaanite
From the Limit Noah to the Limit Abram, in whose Loins
Reuben in his Twelve-fold majesty & beauty shall take refuge,
As Abraham flees from Chaldea shaking his goary locks.
But first Albion must sleep, divided from the Nations.
I see Albion sitting upon his Rock in the first Winter,
And thence I see the Chaos of Satan & the World of Adam,
When the Divine Hand went forth on Albion in the mid Winter
And at the place of Death, when Albion sat in Eternal Death
Among the Furnaces of Los in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.

HAMPSTEAD, Highgate, Finchley, Hendon, Muswell Hill, rage loud
Before Bromion's iron Tongs & glowing Poker reddening fierce;
Hertfordshire glows with fierce Vegetation; in the Forests
The Oak frowns terrible, the Beech & Ash & Elm enroot
Among the Spiritual fires: loud the Corn-fields thunder along
The Soldier's Fife, the Harlot's shriek, the Virgin's dismal groan,
The Parent's fear, the Brother's jealousy, the Sister's curse,
Beneath the Storms of Theotormon, & the thund'ring Bellows
Heaves in the hand of Palamabron, who in London's darkness
Before the Anvil watches the bellowing flames: thundering
The Hammer loud rages in Rintrah's strong grasp, swinging loud
Round from heaven to earth, down falling with heavy blow
Dead on the Anvil, where the red hot wedge groans in pain.
He quenches it in the black trough of his Forge: London's River
Feeds the dread Forge, trembling & shuddering along the Valleys.

Humber & Trent roll dreadful before the Seventh Furnace,
And Tweed & Tyne anxious give up their souls for Albion's sake.
Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire,
From Oxfordshire to Norfolk on the Lake of Udan Adan
Labour within the Furnaces, walking among the Fires,
With Ladles huge & iron Pokers over the Island white.

Scotland pours out his Sons to labour at the Furnaces:
Wales gives his Daughters to the Looms; England, nursing Mothers
Gives to the Children of Albion & to the Children of Jerusalem.
From the blue Mundane Shell even to the Earth of Vegetation,
Throughout the whole Creation which groans to be deliver'd,
Albion groans in the deep slumbers of Death upon his Rock.

Here Los fix'd down the Fifty-two Counties of England & Wales,
The Thirty-six of Scotland, & the Thirty-four of Ireland,
With mighty power, when they fled out at Jerusalem's Gates,
Away from the Conflict of Luvah & Urizen, fixing the Gates
In the Twelve Counties of Wales, & thence Gates looking every way,
To the Four Points, conduct to England & Scotland & Ireland,
And thence to all the Kingdoms & Nations & Families of the Earth.
The Gate of Reuben in Carmarthenshire: the Gate of Simeon in
Cardiganshire: & the Gate of Levi in Montgomeryshire:
The Gate of Judah, Merionethshire: the Gate of Dan, Flintshire:
The Gate of Napthali, Radnorshire: the Gate of Gad, Pembrokeshire:
The Gate of Asher, Carnarvonshire: the Gate of Issachar, Brecknokshire:
The Gate of Zebulun, in Anglesea & Sodor, so is Wales divided,
The Gate of Joseph, Denbighshire: the Gate of Benjamin, Glamorganshire:
For the protection of the Twelve Emanations of Albion's Sons.

And the Forty Counties of England are thus divided in the Gates:
Of Reuben, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex. Simeon, Lincoln, York, Lancashire.
Levi, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey. Judah, Somerset, Glouster, Wiltshire.
Dan, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset. Napthali, Warwick, Leicester, Worcester.
Gad, Oxford, Bucks, Harford. Asher, Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire.
Issachar, Northampton, Rutland, Nottgham. Zebulun, Bedford, Huntgn, Camb.
Joseph, Stafford, Shrops, Heref. Benjamin, Derby, Cheshire, Monmouth.
And Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmoreland & Durham are
Divided in the (the) Gates of Reuben, Judah, Dan & Joseph.

And the Thirty-six Counties of Scotland, divided in the Gates:
Of Reuben, Kincard, Haddntn, Forfar. Simeon, Ayr, Argyll, Banff.
Levi, Edinburh, Roxbro, Ross. Judah, Abrdeen, Berwik, Dumfries.
Dan, Bute, Caitnes, Clakmanan. Napthali, Nairn, Invernes, Linlithgo.
Gad, Peebles, Perth, Renfru. Asher, Sutherlan, Stirling, Wigtoun.
Issachar, Selkirk, Dumbartn, Glasgo. Zebulun, Orkney, Shetland, Skye.
Joseph, Elgin, Lanerk, Kinros. Benjamin, Kromarty, Murra, Kirkubriht.
Governing all by the sweet delights of secret amorous glances,
In Enitharmon's Halls builded by Los & his mighty Children.

All things acted on Earth are seen in the bright Sculptures of
Los's Halls, & every Age renews its powers from these Works,
With every pathetic story possible to happen from Hate or
Wayward Love, & every sorrow & distress is carved here,
Every Affinity of Parents, Marriages & Friendships are here
In all their various combinations wrought with wondrous Art,
All that can happen to Man in his pilgrimage of seventy years.
Such is the Divine Written Law of Horeb & Sinai:
And such the Holy Gospel of Mount Olivet & Calvary.

HIS Spectre divides & Los in fury compells it to divide:
To labour in the fire, in the water, in the earth, in the air,
To follow the Daughters of Albion as the hound follows the scent
Of the wild inhabitant of the forest, to drive them from his own:
To make a way for the Children of Los to come from the Furnaces.
But Los himself against Albion's Sons his fury bends, for he
Dare not approach the Daughters openly lest he be consumed
In the fires of their beauty & perfection & be Vegetated beneath
Their Looms, in a Generation of death & resurrection to forgetfulness.
They wooe Los continually to subdue his strength: he continually
Shews them his Spectre; sending him abroad over the four points of heaven
In the fierce desires of beauty & in the tortures of repulse: He is
The Spectre of the Living pursuing the Emanations of the Dead.
Shudd'ring they flee: they hide in the Druid Temples in cold chastity:
Subdued by the Spectre of the Living & terrified by undisguis'd desire.

For Los said: Tho' my Spectre is divided, as I am a Living Man
I must compell him to obey me wholly: that Enitharmon may not
Be lost, & lest he should devour Enitharmon: Ah me!
Piteous image of my soft desires & loves: O Enitharmon!
I will compell my Spectre to obey: I will restore to thee thy Children.
No one bruises or starves himself to make himself fit for labour!

Tormented with sweet desire for these beauties of Albion,
They would never love my power if they did not seek to destroy
Enitharmon: Vala would never have sought & loved Albion
If she had not sought to destroy Jerusalem: such is that false
And Generating Love: a pretence of love to destroy love:
Cruel hipocrisy unlike the lovely delusions of Beulah:
And cruel forms, unlike the merciful forms of Beulah's Night.

They know not why they love nor wherefore they sicken & die,
Calling that Holy Love, which is Envy Revenge & Cruelty,
Which separated the stars from the mountains: the mountains from Man,
And left Man, a little grovelling Root, outside of Himself.
Negations are not Contraries: Contraries mutually Exist:
But Negations Exist Not: Exceptions & Objections & Unbeliefs
Exist not: nor shall they ever be Organized for ever & ever.
If thou separate from me, thou art a Negation: a meer
Reasoning & Derogation from me, an Objecting & cruel Spite
And Malice & Envy: but my Emanation, Alas! will become
My Contrary. O thou Negation, I will continually compell
Thee to be invisible to any but whom I please, & when
And where & how I please, and never! never! shalt thou be Organized,
But as a distorted & reversed Reflexion in the Darkness
And in the Non Entity: nor shall that which is above
Ever descend into thee: but thou shalt be a Non Entity for ever.
And if any enter into thee, thou shalt be an Unquenchable Fire
And he shall be a never dying Worm, mutually tormented by
Those that thou tormentest, a Hell & Despair for ever & ever.

So Los in secret with himself communed & Enitharmon heard
In her darkness & was comforted: yet still she divided away
In gnawing pain from Los's bosom in the deadly Night;
First as a red Globe of blood trembling beneath his bosom
Suspended over her he hung: he infolded her in his garments
Of wool: he hid her from the Spectre, in shame & confusion of
Face; in terrors & pains of Hell & Eternal Death, the
Trembling Globe shot forth Self-living & Los howl'd over it:
Feeding it with his groans & tears day & night without ceasing:
And the Spectrous Darkness from his back divided in temptations,
And in grinding agonies, in threats, stiflings, & direful strugglings.

Go thou to Skofield: ask him if he is Bath or if he is Canterbury.
Tell him to be no more dubious: demand explicit words.
Tell him: I will dash him into shivers, where & at what time
I please: tell Hand & Skofield they are my ministers of evil
To those I hate: for I can hate also as well as they!

FROM every-one of the Four Regions of Human Majesty
There is an Outside spread Without, & an Outside spread Within,
Beyond the Outline of Identity both ways, which meet in One:
An orbed Void of doubt, despair, hunger & thirst & sorrow.
Here the Twelve Sons of Albion, join'd in dark Assembly,
Jealous of Jerusalem's children, asham'd of her little-ones,
(For Vala produc'd the Bodies, Jerusalem gave the Souls)
Became as Three Immense Wheels, turning upon one-another
Into Non-Entity, and their thunders hoarse appall the Dead,
To murder their own Souls, to build a Kingdom among the Dead.

Cast! Cast ye Jerusalem forth! The Shadow of delusions!
The Harlot daughter! Mother of pity and dishonourable forgiveness!
Our Father Albion's sin and shame! But father now no more!
Nor sons, nor hateful peace & love, nor soft complacencies
With transgressors meeting in brotherhood around the table,
Or in the porch or garden. No more the sinful delights
Of age and youth, and boy and girl, and animal and herb,
And river and mountain, and city & village, and house & family,
Beneath the Oak & Palm, beneath the Vine and Fig-tree,
In self-denial! — But War and deadly contention, Between
Father and Son, and light and love! All bold asperities
Of Haters met in deadly strife, rending the house & garden,
The unforgiving porches, the tables of enmity, and beds
And chambers of trembling & suspition, hatreds of age & youth,
And boy & girl, & animal & herb, & river & mountain,
And city & village, and house & family. That the Perfect
May live in glory, redeem'd by Sacrifice of the Lamb
And of his children, before sinful Jerusalem. To build
Babylon the City of Vala, the Goddess Virgin-Mother.
She is our Mother! Nature! Jerusalem is our Harlot-Sister
Return'd with Children of pollution, to defile our House
With Sin and Shame. Cast! Cast her into the Potter's field.
Her little-ones, She must slay upon our Altars: and her aged
Parents must be carried into captivity, to redeem her Soul,
To be for a Shame & a Curse, and to be our Slaves for ever.

So cry Hand & Hyle the eldest of the fathers of Albion's
Little-ones: to destroy the Divine Saviour, the Friend of Sinners;
Building Castles in desolated places, and strong Fortifications.
Soon Hand mightily devour'd & absorb'd Albion's Twelve Sons.
Out from his bosom a mighty Polypus, vegetating in darkness.
And Hyle & Coban were his two chosen ones, for Emissaries
In War: forth from his bosom they went and return'd,
Like Wheels from a great Wheel reflected in the Deep.
Hoarse turn'd the Starry Wheels, rending a way in Albion's Loins
Beyond the Night of Beulah. In a dark & unknown Night,
Outstretch'd his Giant beauty on the ground in pain & tears.

HIS Children exil'd from his breast, pass to and fro before him,
His birds are silent on his hills, flocks die beneath his branches,
His tents are fall'n: his trumpets, and the sweet sound of his harp,
Are silent on his clouded hills, that belch forth storms & fire.
His milk of Cows & honey of Bees, & fruit of golden harvest,
Is gather'd in the scorching heat, & in the driving rain:
Where once he sat he weary walks in misery and pain,
His Giant beauty and perfection fallen into dust:
Till from within his wither'd breast grown narrow with his woes,
The corn is turn'd to thistles & the apples into poison:
The birds of song to murderous crows, his joys to bitter groans:
The voices of children in his tents to cries of helpless infants:
And self-exiled from the face of light & shine of morning.
In the dark world, a narrow house! he wanders up and down,
Seeking for rest and finding none! and hidden far within,
His Eon weeping in the cold and desolated Earth.

All his Affections now appear withoutside: all his Sons,
Hand, Hyle & Coban, Guantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd & Hutton,
Scofeld, Kox, Kotope & Bowen; his Twelve Sons: Satanic Mill:
Who are the Spectres of the Twenty-four, each Double-form'd,
Revolve upon his mountains groaning in pain: beneath
The dark, incessant sky seeking for rest and finding none:
Raging against their Human natures, rav'ning to gormandize
The Human majesty and beauty of the Twenty-four,
Condensing them into solid rocks with cruelty and abhorrence.
Suspition & revenge, & the seven diseases of the Soul
Settled around Albion and around Luvah in his secret cloud.
Willing the Friends endur'd, for Albion's sake, and for
Jerusalem his Emanation shut within his bosom,
Which harden'd against them more and more: as he builded onwards
On the Gulph of Death in self-righteousness, that roll'd
Before his awful feet, in pride of virtue for victory:
And Los was roof'd in from Eternity in Albion's Cliffs
Which stand upon the ends of Beulah, and withoutside, all
Appear'd a rocky form against the Divine Humanity.

Albion's Circumference was clos'd: his Center began dark'ning
Into the Night of Beulah, and the Moon of Beulah rose
Clouded with storms: Los his strong Guard walk'd round beneath the Moon,
And Albion fled inward among the currents of his rivers.

He found Jerusalem upon the River of his City soft repos'd
In the arms of Vala, assimilating in one with Vala,
The Lilly of Havilah: and they sang soft thro' Lambeth's vales,
In a sweet moony night & silence that they had created,
With a blue sky spread over with wings and a mild moon,
Dividing & uniting into many female forms: Jerusalem
Trembling; then in one comingling in eternal tears,
Sighing to melt his Giant beauty, on the moony river.

BUT when they saw Albion fall'n, upon mild Lambeth's vale:
Astonish'd, Terrified, they hover'd over his Giant limbs.
Then thus Jerusalem spoke, while Vala wove the veil of tears:
Weeping in pleadings of Love, in the web of despair.

Wherefore hast thou shut me into the winter of human life,
And clos'd up the sweet regions of youth and virgin innocence,
Where we live, forgetting error, not pondering on evil,
Among my lambs & brooks of water, among my warbling birds:
Where we delight in innocence before the face of the Lamb,
Going in and out before him in his love and sweet affection.

Vala replied weeping & trembling, hiding in her veil.

When winter rends the hungry family and the snow falls
Upon the ways of men hiding the paths of man and beast,
Then mourns the wanderer: then he repents his wanderings & eyes
The distant forest: then the slave groans in the dungeon of stone,
The captive in the mill of the stranger, sold for scanty hire.
They view their former life: they number moments over and over:
Stringing them on their remembrance as on a thread of sorrow.
Thou art my sister and my daughter: thy shame is mine also:
Ask me not of my griefs! thou knowest all my griefs.

Jerusalem answer'd with soft tears over the valleys.

Vala what is Sin? that thou shudderest and weepest
At sight of thy once lov'd Jerusalem! What is Sin but a little
Error & fault that is soon forgiven; but mercy is not a Sin
Nor pity nor love nor kind forgiveness: O! if I have Sinned
Forgive & pity me! O! unfold thy Veil in mercy & love!

Slay not my little ones, beloved Virgin daughter of Babylon,
Slay not my infant loves & graces, beautiful daughter of Moab.
I cannot put off the human form, I strive but strive in vain.
When Albion rent thy beautiful net of gold and silver twine,
Thou hadst woven it with art, thou hadst caught me in the bands
Of love: thou refusedst to let me go: Albion beheld thy beauty,
Beautiful thro' our Love's comeliness, beautiful thro' pity.
The Veil shone with thy brightness in the eyes of Albion,
Because it inclos'd pity & love; because we lov'd one-another.
Albion lov'd thee: he rent thy Veil: he embrac'd thee: he lov'd thee!
Astonish'd at his beauty & perfection, thou forgavest his furious love:
I redounded from Albion's bosom in my virgin loveliness:
The Lamb of God reciev'd me in his arms, he smil'd upon us:
He made me his Bride & Wife: he gave thee to Albion.
Then was a time of love: O why is it passed away!

Then Albion broke silence and with groans reply'd.

O Vala! O Jerusalem! do you delight in my groans!
You O lovely forms, you have prepared my death-cup:
The disease of Shame covers me from head to feet: I have no hope.
Every boil upon my body is a separate & deadly Sin.
Doubt first assail'd me, then Shame took possession of me:
Shame divides Families, Shame hath divided Albion in sunder:
First fled my Sons, & then my Daughters, then my Wild Animations,
My Cattle next, last ev'n the Dog of my Gate; the Forests fled,
The Corn-fields, & the breathing Gardens outside separated,
The Sea: the Stars: the Sun: the Moon: driv'n forth by my disease.
All is Eternal Death unless you can weave a chaste
Body over an unchaste Mind! Vala! O that thou wert pure!
That the deep wound of Sin might be clos'd up with the Needle,
And with the Loom: to cover Gwendolen & Ragan with costly Robes
Of Natural Virtue, for their Spiritual forms without a Veil
Wither in Luvah's Sepulchre. I thrust him from my presence
And all my Children follow'd his loud howlings into the Deep.
Jerusalem! dissembler Jerusalem! I look into thy bosom:
I discover thy secret places. Cordelia! I behold
Thee whom I thought pure as the heavens in innocence & fear:
Thy Tabernacle taken down, thy secret Cherubim disclosed.
Art thou broken? Ah me, Sabrina, running by my side:
In childhood what wert thou? unutterable anguish! Conwenna!
Thy cradled infancy is most piteous. O hide, O hide!
Their secret gardens were made paths to the traveller:
I knew not of their secret loves with those I hated most,
Nor that their every thought was Sin & secret appetite.
Hyle sees in fear, he howls in fury over them. Hand sees
In jealous fear: in stern accusation with cruel stripes
He drives them thro' the Streets of Babylon before my face:
Because they taught Luvah to rise into my clouded heavens.
Battersea and Chelsea mourn for Cambel & Gwendolen:
Hackney and Holloway sicken for Estrild & Ignoge:
Because the Peak, Malvern & Cheviot Reason in Cruelty,
Penmaenmawr & Dhinas-bran Demonstrate in Unbelief,
Manchester & Liverpool are in tortures of Doubt and Despair,
Maiden & Colchester Demonstrate: I hear my Children's voices,
I see their piteous faces gleam out upon the cruel winds
From Lincoln & Norwich, from Edinburgh & Monmouth:
I see them distant from my bosom scourg'd along the roads,
Then lost in clouds; I hear their tender voices! clouds divide:
I see them die beneath the whips of the Captains; they are taken
In solemn pomp into Chaldea across the bredths of Europe;
Six months they lie embalm'd in silent death: worshipped,
Carried in Arks of Oak before the armies in the spring.
Bursting their Arks they rise again to life: they play before
The Armies: I hear their loud cymbals & their deadly cries.
Are the Dead cruel? are those who are infolded in moral Law
Revengeful? O that Death & Annihilation were the same!

Then Vala answer'd spreading her scarlet Veil over Albion.

ALBION thy fear has made me tremble; thy terrors have surrounded me:
Thy Sons have nail'd me on the Gates, piercing my hands & feet:
Till Scofield's Nimrod the mighty Huntsman before Jehovah came,
With Cush his Son & took me down. He in a golden Ark,
Bears me before his Armies tho' my shadow hovers here.
The flesh of multitudes fed & nouris'd me in my childhood,
My morn & evening food were prepar'd in Battles of Men.
Great is the cry of the Hounds of Nimrod along the Valley
Of Vision, they scent the odor of War in the Valley of Vision.
All Love is lost! terror succeeds & Hatred instead of Love,
And stern demands of Right & Duty instead of Liberty.
Once thou wast to me the loveliest Son of heaven: but now
Where shall I hide from thy dread countenance & searching eyes?
I have looked into the secret Soul of him I loved
And in the dark recesses found Sin & can never return.

Albion again utter'd his voice beneath the silent Moon.

I brought Love into light of day to pride in chaste beauty,
I brought Love into light & fancied Innocence is no more.

Then spake Jerusalem. O Albion! my Father Albion!
Why wilt them number every little fibre of my Soul,
Spreading them out before the Sun like stalks of flax to dry?
The Infant Joy is beautiful, but its anatomy
Horrible, ghast & deadly: nought shalt thou find in it
But dark despair & everlasting brooding melancholy!

Then Albion turn'd his face toward Jerusalem & spake.

Hide thou, Jerusalem, in empalpable voidness, not to be
Touch'd by the hand nor seen with the eye: O Jerusalem,
Would thou wert not & that thy place might never be found.
But come, O Vala.,, with knife & cup: drain my blood
To the last drop: then hide me in thy Scarlet Tabernacle.
For I see Luvah whom I slew, I behold him in my Spectre,
As I behold Jerusalem in thee, O Vala dark and cold.

Jerusalem then stretch'd her hand toward the Moon & spoke.

Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War,
When Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim?

Loud groan'd Albion from mountain to mountain & replied.

JERUSALEM! Jerusalem! deluding shadow of Albion!
Daughter of my phantasy! unlawful pleasure! Albion's curse!
I came here with intention to annihilate thee; But
My soul is melted away, inwoven within the Veil.
Hast thou again knitted the Veil of Vala, which I for thee
Pitying rent in ancient times. I see it whole and more
Perfect: and shining with beauty! But thou! O wretched Father!

Jerusalem reply'd, like a voice heard from a sepulcher:
Father! once piteous! Is Pity a Sin? Embalm'd in Vala's bosom .
In an Eternal Death for Albion's sake, our best beloved.
Thou art my Father & my Brother: Why hast thou hidden me,

Remote from the divine Vision, my Lord & Saviour?

Trembling stood Albion at her words in jealous dark despair,

He felt that Love and Pity are the same; a soft repose:
Inward complacency of Soul: a Self-annihilation.

I have erred! I am ashamed! and will never return more:
I have taught my children sacrifices of cruelty: what shall I answer?
I will hide it from Eternals! I will give myself for my Children!
Which way soever I turn, I behold Humanity and Pity!

He recoil'd: he rush'd outwards: he bore the Veil whole away.
His fires redound from his Dragon Altars in Errors returning.
He drew the Veil of Moral Virtue, woven for Cruel Laws,
And cast it into the Atlantic Deep, to catch the Souls of the Dead.
He stood between the Palm tree & the Oak of weeping
Which stand upon the edge of Beulah: and there Albion sunk
Down in sick pallid languor: These were his last words, relapsing
Hoarse from his rocks, from caverns of Derbyshire & Wales
And Scotland, utter'd from the Circumference into Eternity.

Blasphemous Sons of Feminine delusion! God in the dreary Void
Dwells from Eternity, wide separated from the Human Soul.
But thou, deluding Image, by whom imbu'd the Veil I rent,
Lo here is Vala's Veil whole, for a Law, a Terror & a Curse!
And therefore God takes vengeance on me: from my clay-cold bosom
My children wander, trembling victims of his Moral Justice.
His snows fall on me and cover me, while in the Veil I fold
My dying limbs. Therefore O Manhood, if thou art aught
But a meer Phantasy, hear dying Albion's Curse!
May God, who dwells in this dark Ulro & voidness, vengeance take,
And draw thee down into this Abyss of sorrow and torture,
Like me thy Victim. O that Death & Annihilation were the same!

WHAT have I said? What have I done? O all-powerful Human Words!
You recoil back upon me in the blood of the Lamb slain in his Children:
Two bleeding Contraries, equally true, are his Witnesses against me.
We reared mighty Stones: we danced naked around them:
Thinking to bring Love into light of day, to Jerusalem's shame:
Displaying our Giant limbs to all the winds of heaven: sudden
Shame siez'd us, we could not look on one-another for abhorrence: the Blue
Of our immortal Veins & all their Hosts fled from our Limbs,
And wander'd distant in a dismal Night clouded & dark:
The Sun fled from the Briton's forehead: the Moon from his mighty loins:
Scandinavia fled with all his mountains fill'd with groans.

O what is Life & what is Man? O what is Death? Wherefore
Are you my Children, natives in the Grave to where I go?
Or are you born to feed the hungry ravenings of Destruction,
To be the sport of Accident! to waste in Wrath & Love, a weary
Life, in brooding cares & anxious labours, that prove but chaff.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I have forsaken thy Courts,
Thy Pillars of ivory & gold: thy Curtains of silk & fine
Linen: thy Pavements of precious stones: thy Walls of pearl
And gold, thy Gates of Thanksgiving, thy Windows of Praise:
Thy Clouds of Blessing, thy Cherubims of Tender-mercy
Stretching their Wings sublime over the Little-ones of Albion!
Human Imagination, O Divine Body I have Crucified,
I have turned my back upon thee into the Wastes of Moral Law:
There Babylon is builded in the Waste, founded in Human desolation.
O Babylon, thy Watchman stands over thee in the night,
Thy severe Judge all the day long proves thee, O Babylon,
With provings of destruction, with giving thee thy hearts desire.
But Albion is cast forth to the Potter, his Children to the Builders,
To build Babylon because they have forsaken Jerusalem.
The Walls of Babylon are Souls of Men: her Gates the Groans
Of Nations: her Towers are the Miseries of once happy Families.
Her Streets are paved with Destruction, her Houses built with Death,
Her Palaces with Hell & the Grave; her Synagogues with Torments
Of ever-hardening Despair, squar'd & polish'd with cruel skill.
Yet thou wast lovely as the summer cloud upon my hills
When Jerusalem was thy heart's desire in times of youth & love.
Thy Sons came to Jerusalem with gifts. She sent them away
With blessings on their hands & on their feet, blessings of gold,
And pearl & diamond: thy Daughters sang in her Courts:
They came up to Jerusalem: they walked before Albion.
In the Exchanges of London every Nation walk'd,
And London walk'd in every Nation, mutual in love & harmony.
Albion cover'd the whole Earth, England encompass'd the Nations,
Mutual each within other's bosom in Visions of Regeneration:
Jerusalem cover'd the Atlantic Mountains & the Erythrean,
From bright Japan & China to Hesperia, France & England.
Mount Zion lifted his head in every Nation under heaven:
And the Mount of Olives was beheld over the whole Earth.
The footsteps of the Lamb of God were there: but now no more,
No more shall I behold him, he is clos'd in Luvah's Sepulcher.
Yet why these smitings of Luvah, the gentlest mildest Zoa?
If God was Merciful this could not be: O Lamb of God,
Thou art a delusion and Jerusalem is my Sin! O my Children,
I have educated you in the crucifying cruelties of Demonstration
Till you have assum'd the Providence of God & slain your Father.
Dost thou appear before me who liest dead in Luvah's Sepulcher?
Dost thou forgive me? thou who wast Dead & art Alive?
Look not so merciful upon me, O thou Slain Lamb of God!
I die! I die in thy arms tho' Hope is banish'd from me.

Thund'ring the Veil rushes from his hand, Vegetating Knot by
Knot, Day by Day, Night by Night: loud roll the indignant Atlantic
Waves & the Erythrean, turning up the bottoms of the Deeps.

AND there was heard a great lamenting in Beulah: all the Regions
Of Beulah were moved as the tender bowels are moved: & they said:

Why did you take Vengeance, O ye Sons of the mighty Albion?
Planting these Oaken Groves: Erecting these Dragon Temples.
Injury the Lord heals but Vengeance cannot be healed:
As the Sons of Albion have done to Luvah: so they have in him
Done to the Divine Lord & Saviour, who suffers with those that suffer.
For not one sparrow can suffer, & the whole Universe not suffer also,
In all its Regions, & its Father & Saviour not pity and weep.
But Vengeance is the destroyer of Grace & Repentence in the bosom
Of the Injurer: in which the Divine Lamb is cruelly slain!
Descend, O Lamb of God, & take away the imputation of Sin
By the Creation of States & the deliverance of Individuals Evermore. Amen.

Thus wept they in Beulah over the Four Regions of Albion:
But many doubted & despair 'd & imputed Sin & Righteousness
To Individuals & not to States, and these Slept in Ulro.