Chapter III

I saw a Monk of Charlemaine
Arise before my sight:
I talk'd with the Grey Monk as we stood
In beams of infernal light.

Gibbon arose with a lash of steel,
And Voltaire with a wracking wheel:
The Schools in clouds of learning roll'd
Arose with War in iron & gold.

Thou lazy Monk, they sound afar,
In vain condemning glorious War,
And in your Cell you shall ever dwell:
Rise, War, & bind him in his Cell.

The blood red ran from the Grey Monk's side,
His hands & feet were wounded wide,
His body bent, his arms & knees
Like to the roots of ancient trees.

When Satan first the black bow bent
And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent,
He forg'd the Law into a Sword
And spill'd the blood of mercy's Lord.

Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine!
O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain
Your Grecian Mocks & Roman Sword
Against this image of his Lord!

For a Tear is an Intellectual thing:
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King:
And the bitter groan of a Martyr's woe
Is an Arrow from the Almightie's Bow.

BUT Los, who is the Vehicular Form of strong Urthona,
Wept vehemently over Albion where Thames' currents spring
From the rivers of Beulah; pleasant river! soft, mild, parent stream.
And the roots of Albion's Tree enter'd the Soul of Los
As he sat before his Furnaces clothed in sackcloth of hair,
In gnawing pain dividing him from his Emanation:
Inclosing all the Children of Los time after time,
Their Giant forms condensing into Nations & Peoples & Tongues.
Translucent the Furnaces of Beryll & Emerald immortal:
And Seven-fold each within other: incomprehensible
To the Vegetated Mortal Eye's perverted & single vision.
The Bellows are the Animal Lungs, the Hammers, the Animal Heart
The Furnaces, the Stomach for Digestion; terrible their fury
Like seven burning heavens rang'd from South to North.
Here, on the banks of the Thames, Los builded Golgonooza,
Outside of the Gates of the Human Heart beneath Beulah
In the midst of the rocks of the Altars of Albion. In fears
He builded it, in rage & in fury. It is the Spiritual Fourfold
London: continually building & continually decaying desolate!
In eternal labours: loud the Furnaces & loud the Anvils
Of Death thunder incessant around the flaming Couches of
The Twenty-four Friends of Albion, and round the awful Four,
For the protection of the Twelve Emanations of Albion's Sons,
The Mystic Union of the Emanation in the Lord; Because
Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre,
His Emanation is an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow:
But she is made receptive of Generation thro' mercy
In the Potters Furnace, among the Funeral Urns of Beulah,
From Surrey hills, thro' Italy and Greece, to Hinnom's vale.

IN Great Eternity, every particular Form gives forth or Emanates
Its own peculiar Light, & the Form is the Divine Vision,
And the Light is his Garment. This is Jerusalem in every Man,
A Tent & Tabernacle of Mutual Forgiveness, Male & Female Clothings.
And Jerusalem is called Liberty among the Children of Albion.
But Albion fell down, a Rocky fragment from Eternity hurl'd
By his own Spectre, who is the Reasoning Power in every Man,
Into his own Chaos which is the Memory between Man & Man.
The silent broodings of deadly revenge, springing from the
All powerful parental affection, fills Albion from head to foot:
Seeing his sons assimilate with Luvah, bound in the bonds
Of Spiritual Hate, from which springs Sexual Love as iron chains,
He tosses like a cloud outstretch'd among Jerusalem's Ruins
Which overspread all the Earth, he groans among his ruin'd porches.

But the Spectre like a hoar frost & a Mildew rose over Albion,
Saying, I am God, O Sons of Men! I am your Rational Power!
Am I not Bacon & Newton & Locke who teach Humility to Man?
Who teach Doubt & Experiment: & my two Wings Voltaire, Rousseau.
Where is that Friend of Sinners? that Rebel against my Laws?
Who teaches Belief to the Nations, & an unknown Eternal Life.
Come hither into the Desart & turn these stones to bread.
Vain foolish Man! wilt thou believe without Experiment?
And build a World of Phantasy upon my Great Abyss?
A World of Shapes in craving lust & devouring appetite.
So spoke the hard cold constructive Spectre: he is named Arthur:
Constructing into Druid Rocks round Canaan, Agag & Aram & Pharoh.
Then Albion drew England into his bosom in groans & tears,
But she stretch'd out her starry Night in Spaces against him like
A long Serpent, in the Abyss of the Spectre which augmented
The Night with Dragon wings, cover'd with stars, & in the Wings
Jerusalem & Vala appear 'd: & above, between the Wings, magnificent,
The Divine Vision dimly appear'd in clouds of blood weeping.

WHEN those who disregard all Mortal Things, saw a Mighty-One
Among the Flowers of Beulah still retain his awful strength,
They wonder'd, checking their wild flames, & Many gathering
Together into an Assembly, they said, let us go down
And see these changes; Others said, If you do so, prepare
For being driven from our fields: what have we to do with the Dead?
To be their inferiors or superiors we equally abhor:
Superior, none we know: inferior, none: all equal share
Divine Benevolence & Joy, for the Eternal Man
Walketh among us, calling us his Brothers & his Friends:
Forbidding us that Veil which Satan puts between Eve & Adam,
By which the Princes of the Dead enslave their Votaries,
Teaching them to form the Serpent of precious stones & gold,
To sieze the Sons of Jerusalem & plant them in One Man's Loins:
To make One Family of Contraries: that Joseph may be sold
Into Egypt; for Negation: a Veil the Saviour born & dying rends.

But others said: Let us to him who only Is, & who
Walketh among us, give decision: bring forth all your fires!

So saying, an eternal deed was done: in fiery flames
The Universal Concave raged, such thunderous sounds as never
Were sounded from a mortal cloud, nor on Mount Sinai old,
Nor in Havilah where the Cherub roll'd his redounding flame.

Loud! loud! the Mountains lifted up their voices, loud the Forests,
Rivers thunder'd against their banks, loud Winds furious fought:
Cities & Nations contended in fires & clouds & tempests,
The Seas rais'd up their voices & lifted their hands on high,
The Stars in their courses fought, the Sun, Moon, Heaven, Earth,
Contending for Albion & for Jerusalem his Emanation,
And for Shiloh, the Emanation of France, & for lovely Vala.

Then far the greatest number were about to make a Separation,
And they Elected Seven, call'd the Seven Eyes of God,
Lucifer, Molech, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah, Jesus.
They nam'd the Eighth, he came not, he hid in Albion's Forests.
But first they said: (& their Words stood in Chariots in array,
Curbing their Tygers with golden bits & bridles of silver & ivory)

Let the Human Organs be kept in their perfect Integrity,
At will Contracting into Worms, or Expanding into Gods,
And then, behold! what are these Ulro Visions of Chastity?
Then as the moss upon the tree: or dust upon the plow:
Or as the sweat upon the labouring shoulder: or as the chaff
Of the wheat-floor or as the dregs of the sweet wine-press:
Such are these Ulro Visions, for tho' we sit down within
The plowed furrow, list'ning to the weeping clods, till we
Contract or Expand Space at will: or if we raise ourselves
Upon the chariots of the morning, Contracting or Expanding Time:
Every one knows, we are One Family: One Man blessed for ever.

Silence remain'd & every one resum'd his Human Majesty,
And many conversed on these things as they labour'd at the furrow,
Saying: It is better to prevent misery, than to release from misery:
It is better to prevent error, than to forgive the criminal:
Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones:
And those who are in misery cannot remain so long,
If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth.

They Plow'd in tears, the trumpets sounded before the golden Plow,
And the voices of the Living Creatures were heard in the clouds of heaven,
Crying: Compell the Reasoner to Demonstrate with unhewn Demonstrations,
Let the Indefinite be explored, and let every Man be Judged
By his own Works. Let all Indefinites be thrown into Demonstrations
To be pounded to dust & melted in the Furnaces of Affliction:
He who would do good to another, must do it in Minute Particulars,
General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite & flatterer:
For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars,
And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.
The Infinite alone resides in Definite & Determinate Identity,
Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falshood continually,
On Circumcision: not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion!

So cried they at the Plow. Albion's Rock frowned above,
And the Great Voice of Eternity rolled above terrible in clouds,
Saying, Who will go forth for us: & Who shall we send before our face?

THEN Los heaved his thund'ring Bellows on the Valley of Middlesex
And thus he chaunted his Song: the Daughters of Albion reply.

What may Man be? who can tell! But what may Woman be?
To have power over Man from Cradle to corruptible Grave.
He who is an Infant, and whose Cradle is a Manger,
Knoweth the Infant sorrow: whence it came, and where it goeth:
And who weave it a Cradle of the grass that withereth away.
This World is all a Cradle for the erred wandering Phantom,
Rock'd by Year, Month, Day & Hour; and every two Moments
Between, dwells a Daughter of Beulah, to feed the Human Vegetable.
Entune, Daughters of Albion, your hymning Chorus mildly:
Cord of affection thrilling extatic on the iron Reel:
To the golden Loom of Love! to the moth-labour'd Woof!
A Garment and Cradle weaving for the infantine Terror:
For fear, at entering the gate into our World of cruel
Lamentation, it flee back and hide in Non-Entity's dark wild,
Where dwells the Spectre of Albion: destroyer of Definite Form.
The Sun shall be a Scythed Chariot of Britain: the Moon, a Ship
In the British Ocean! Created by Los's Hammer: measured out
Into Days & Nights & Years & Months, to travel with my feet
Over these desolate rocks of Albion: O daughters of despair!
Rock the Cradle, and in mild melodies tell me where you found
What you have en woven with so much tears & care! so much
Tender artifice! to laugh, to weep, to learn, to know:
Remember! recollect! what dark befel in wintry days.

O it was lost for ever! and we found it not: it came
And wept at our wintry Door: Look! look! behold! Gwendolen
Is become a Clod of Clay! Merlin is a Worm of the Valley!

Then Los uttered with Hammer & Anvil: Chaunt! revoice!
I mind not your laugh: and your frown I not fear: and
You must my dictate obey from your gold-beam'd Looms: trill
Gentle to Albion's Watchman, on Albion's mountains: reeccho,
And rock the Cradle while! Ah me! of that Eternal Man,
And of the cradle'd Infancy in his bowels of compassion,
Who fell beneath his instruments of husbandry & became
Subservient to the clods of the furrow: the cattle and even
The emmet and earth-worm are his superiors & his lords.
Then the response came warbling from trilling Looms in Albion.
We Women tremble at the light therefore: hiding fearful,
The Divine Vision with Curtain & Veil & fleshly Tabernacle.
Los utter'd, swift as the rattling thunder upon the mountains:
Look back into the Church Paul! Look! Three Women around
The Cross! O Albion why didst thou a Female Will Create?

AND the voices of Bath & Canterbury & York & Edinburgh, Cry
Over the Plow of Nations in the strong hand of Albion, thundering along
Among the Fires of the Druid & the deep black rethundering Waters
Of the Atlantic which poured in impetuous loud, loud, louder & louder.
And the Great Voice of the Atlantic howled over the Druid Altars:
Weeping over his Children in Stone-henge, in Maiden & Colchester,
Round the Rocky Peak of Derbyshire, London Stone & Rosamond's Bower.

What is a Wife & what is a Harlot? What is a Church? & What
Is a Theatre? are they Two & not One? can they Exist Separate?
Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing? Brotherhood is Religion,
O Demonstrations of Reason, Dividing Families in Cruelty & Pride!

But Albion fled from the Divine Vision with the Plow of Nations enflaming,
The Living Creatures madden'd and Albion fell into the Furrow, and
The Plow went over him & the Living was Plowed in among the Dead:
But his Spectre rose over the starry Plow. Albion fled beneath the Plow
Till he came to the Rock of Ages, & he took his Seat upon the Rock.

Wonder siez'd all in Eternity: to behold the Divine Vision open
The Center into an Expanse, & the Center rolled out into an Expanse.

IN beauty the Daughters of Albion divide & unite at will:
Naked & drunk with blood Gwendolen dancing to the timbrel
Of War: reeling up the Street of London she divides in twain,
Among the Inhabitants of Albion: the People fall around
The Daughters of Albion, divide & unite in jealousy & cruelty.
The Inhabitants of Albion at the Harvest & the Vintage
Feel their Brain cut round beneath the temples shrieking,
Bonifying into a Scull, the Marrow exuding in dismal path.
They flee over the rocks bonifying: Horses, Oxen, feel the knife.
And while the Sons of Albion, by severe War & Judgment, bonify,
The Hermaphroditic Condensations are divided by the Knife,
The obdurate Forms are cut asunder by Jealousy & Pity.

Rational Philosophy and Mathematic Demonstration
Is divided in the intoxications of pleasure & affection:
Two Contraries War against each other in fury & blood.
And Los fixes them on his Anvil, incessant his blows:
He fixes them with strong blows, placing the stones & timbers
To Create a World of Generation from the World of Death:
Dividing the Masculine & Feminine: for the comingling
Of Albion's & Luvah's Spectres was Hermaphroditic.

Urizen wrathful strode above directing the awful Building,
As a Mighty Temple: delivering Form out of confusion.
Jordan sprang beneath its threshold bubbling from beneath
Its pillars: Euphrates ran under its arches: white sails
And silver oars reflect on its pillars, & sound on its ecchoing
Pavements: where walk the Sons of Jerusalem who remain Ungenerate.
But the revolving Sun and Moon pass thro its porticoes.
Day & night, in sublime majesty & silence they revolve
And shine glorious within: Hand & Koban arch'd over the Sun
In the hot noon, as he travel'd thro his journey: Hyle & Skofield
Arch'd over the Moon at midnight, & Los fix'd them there,
With his thunderous Hammer: terrified the Spectres rage & flee.
Canaan is his portico: Jordan is a fountain in his porch,
A fountain of milk & wine to relieve the traveller:
Egypt is the eight steps within, Ethiopia supports his pillars:
Lybia & the Lands unknown are the ascent without:
Within is Asia & Greece, ornamented with exquisite art:
Persia & Media are his halls: his inmost hall is Great Tartary:
China & India & Siberia are his temples for entertainment:
Poland & Russia & Sweden, his soft retired chambers:
France & Spain & Italy & Denmark & Holland & Germany
Are the temples among his pillars, Britain is Los's Forge:
America North & South are his baths of living waters.

Such is the Ancient World of Urizen in the Satanic Void,
Created from the Valley of Middlesex by London's River.
From Stone-henge and from London Stone, from Cornwall to Cathnes,
The Four Zoas rush around on all sides in dire ruin.
Furious in pride of Selfhood the terrible Spectres of Albion
Rear their dark Rocks among the Stars of God: stupendous
Works! A World of Generation continually Creating, out of
The Hermaphroditic Satanic World of rocky destiny,
AND formed into Four precious stones, for enterance from Beulah.
For the Veil of Vala, which Albion cast into the Atlantic Deep
To catch the Souls of the Dead, began to Vegetate & Petrify
Around the Earth of Albion, among the Roots of his Tree.
This Los formed into the Gates & mighty Wall, between the Oak
Of Weeping & the Palm of Suffering, beneath Albion's Tomb.
Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,
The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place
Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity.

For Four Universes round the Mundane Egg remain Chaotic:
One to the North, Urthona: One to the South, Urizen:
One to the East, Luvah: One to the West, Tharmas:
They are the Four Zoas that stood around the Throne Divine:
Verulam, London, York & Edinburgh, their English names.
But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen, Southward,
And Albion was slain upon his Mountains & in his Tent,
All fell towards the Centre, sinking downwards in dire ruin.
In the South remains a burning Fire: in the East, a Void:
In the West, a World of raging Waters: in the North, solid Darkness
Unfathomable without end; but in the midst of these
Is Built eternally the sublime Universe of Los & Enitharmon.

And in the North Gate, in the West of the North, toward Beulah,
Cathedron's Looms are builded, and Los's Furnaces in the South.
A wondrous golden Building, immense with ornaments sublime
Is bright Cathedron's golden Hall, its Courts, Towers & Pinnacles.

And one Daughter of Los sat at the fiery Reel & another
Sat at the shining Loom with her Sisters attending round:
Terrible their distress & their sorrow cannot be utter'd.
And another Daughter of Los sat at the Spinning Wheel:
Endless their labour, with bitter food, void of sleep,
Tho' hungry they labour: they rouze themselves anxious
Hour after hour labouring at the whirling Wheel,
Many Wheels, & as many lovely Daughters sit weeping.
Yet the intoxicating delight that they take in their work
Obliterates every other evil: none pities their tears,
Yet they regard not pity & they expect no one to pity,
For they labour for life & love, regardless of any one
But the poor Spectres that they work for: always incessantly

They are mock'd by every one that passes by: they regard not,
They labour: & when their Wheels are broken by scorn & malice
They mend them sorrowing with many tears & afflictions.
Other Daughters Weave on the Cushion & Pillow Network fine,
That Rahab & Tirzah may exist & live & breathe & love:
Ah, that it could be as the Daughters of Beulah wish!

Other Daughters of Los, labouring at Looms less fine,
Create the Silk-worm & the Spider & the Catterpiller
To assist in their most grievous work of pity & compassion:
And others Create the wooly Lamb & the downy Fowl
To assist in the work: the Lamb bleats: the Sea- fowl cries:
Men understand not the distress & the labour & sorrow
That in the Interior Worlds is carried on in fear & trembling,
Weaving the shudd'ring fears & loves of Albion's Families.
Thunderous rage the Spindles of iron, & the iron Distaff
Maddens in the fury of their hands, weaving in bitter tears
The Veil of Goats-hair & Purple & Scarlet & fine twined Linen.

THE clouds of Albion's Druid Temples rage in the eastern heaven,
While Los sat terrified beholding Albion's Spectre, who is Luvah,
Spreading in bloody veins in torments over Europe & Asia:
Not yet formed, but a wretched torment unformed & abyssal
In flaming fire: within the Furnaces the Divine Vision appear'd
On Albion's hills; and often walking from the Furnaces, in clouds
And flames among the Druid Temples & the Starry Wheels,
Gather'd Jerusalem's Children in his arms & bore them like
A Shepherd, in the night of Albion which overspread all the Earth.

I gave thee liberty and life, O lovely Jerusalem,
And thou hast bound me down upon the Stems of Vegetation.
I gave thee Sheep-walks upon the Spanish Mountains, Jerusalem,
I gave thee Priam's City and the Isles of Grecia lovely:
I gave thee Hand & Scofield & the Counties of Albion:
They spread forth like a lovely root into the Garden of God.
They were as Adam before me: united into One Man,
They stood in innocence & their skiey tent reach'd over Asia
To Nimrod's Tower, to Ham & Canaan walking with Mizraim
Upon the Egyptian Nile, with solemn songs to Grecia
And sweet Hesperia, even to Great Chaldea & Tesshina,
Following thee as a Shepherd by the Four Rivers of Eden.
Why wilt thou rend thyself apart, Jerusalem?
And build this Babylon & sacrifice in secret Groves,
Among the Gods of Asia: among the fountains of pitch & nitre.
Therefore thy Mountains are become barren, Jerusalem:
Thy Valleys, Plains of burning sand, thy Rivers, waters of death.
Thy Villages die of the Famine, and thy Cities
Beg bread from house to house, lovely Jerusalem.
Why wilt thou deface thy beauty & the beauty of thy little-ones
To please thy Idols, in the pretended chastities of Uncircumcision?
Thy Sons are lovelier than Egypt or Assyria: wherefore
Dost thou blacken their beauty by a Secluded place of rest,
And a peculiar Tabernacle, to cut the integuments of beauty
Into veils of tears and sorrows, O lovely Jerusalem!
They have perswaded thee to this, therefore their end shall come,
And I will lead thee thro' the Wilderness in shadow of my cloud,
And in my love I will lead thee, lovely Shadow of Sleeping Albion.

This is the Song of the Lamb, sung by Slaves in evening time.

But Jerusalem faintly saw him, clos'd in the Dungeons of Babylon.
Her Form was held by Beulah's Daughters, but all within unseen
She sat at the Mills, her hair unbound, her feet naked,
Cut with the flints; her tears run down, her reason grows like
The Wheel of Hand, incessant turning day & night without rest.
Insane she raves upon the winds, hoarse, inarticulate:
All night Vala hears, she triumphs in pride of holiness
To see Jerusalem deface her lineaments with bitter blows
Of despair, while the Satanic Holiness triumph'd in Vala,
In a Religion of Chastity & Uncircumcised Selfishness
Both of the Head & Heart & Loins, clos'd up in Moral Pride.

But the Divine Lamb stood beside Jerusalem, oft she saw
The lineaments Divine & oft the Voice heard, & oft she said.

O Lord & Saviour, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee:
Or hast thou been pierced in the House of thy Friends?
Art thou alive: & livest thou for evermore? or art thou
Not: but a delusive shadow, a thought that liveth not.
Babel mocks, saying, there is no God nor Son of God:
That thou, O Human Imagination, O Divine Body, art all
A delusion: but I know thee, O Lord, when thou arisest upon
My weary eyes, even in this dungeon & this iron mill.
The Stars of Albion cruel rise: thou bindest to sweet influences:
For thou also sufferest with me altho' I behold thee not:
And altho' I sin & blaspheme thy holy name, thou pitiest me:
Because thou knowest I am deluded by the turning mills,
And by these visions of pity & love because of Albion's death.

Thus spake Jerusalem, & thus the Divine Voice replied.

Mild Shade of Man, pitiest thou these Visions of terror & woe?
Give forth thy pity & love, fear not! lo I am with thee always.
Only believe in me that I have power to raise from death
Thy Brother who Sleepeth in Albion: fear not, trembling Shade.

BEHOLD: in the Visions of Elohim Jehovah, behold Joseph & Mary,
And be comforted, O Jerusalem, in the Visions of Jehovah Elohim.
She looked & saw Joseph the Carpenter in Nazareth, & Mary
His espoused Wife. And Mary said, If thou put me away from thee
Dost thou not murder me? Joseph spoke in anger & fury, Should I
Marry a Harlot & an Adulteress? Mary answer'd, Art thou more pure
Than thy Maker, who forgiveth Sins & calls again Her that is Lost?
Tho' She hates, he calls her again in love. I love my dear Joseph,
But he driveth me away from his presence, yet I hear the voice of God
In the voice of my Husband: tho' he is angry for a moment, he will not
Utterly cast me away: if I were pure, never could I taste the sweets
Of the Forgiveness of Sins; if I were holy, I never could behold the tears
Of love! of him who loves me in the midst of his anger in furnace of fire.
Ah my Mary! said Joseph, weeping over & embracing her closely in
His arms: Doth he forgive Jerusalem & not exact Purity from her who is
Polluted. I heard his voice in my sleep & his Angel in my dream:

Saying, Doth Jehovah Forgive a Debt only on condition that it shall
Be Payed? Doth he Forgive Pollution only on conditions of Purity?
That Debt is not Forgiven! That Pollution is not Forgiven!
Such is the Forgiveness of the Gods, the Moral Virtues of the
Heathen, whose tender Mercies are Cruelty. But Jehovah's Salvation
Is without Money & without Price, in the Continual Forgiveness of Sins,
In the Perpetual Mutual Sacrifice in Great Eternity! for behold,
There is none that liveth & Sinneth not! And this is the Covenant
Of Jehovah: If you Forgive one-another, so shall Jehovah Forgive You:
That He Himself may Dwell among You. Fear not then to take
To thee Mary thy Wife, for she is with Child by the Holy Ghost.
Then Mary burst forth into a Song: she flowed like a River of
Many Streams in the arms of Joseph, & gave forth her tears of joy
Like many waters, and Emanating into gardens & palaces upon
Euphrates, & to forests & floods & animals wild & tame from
Gihon to Hiddekel, & to corn fields & villages & inhabitants
Upon Pison & Arnon & Jordan. And I heard the voice among
The Reapers, Saying, Am I Jerusalem the lost Adulteress? or am I
Babylon come up to Jerusalem? And another voice answer 'd, Saying:
Does the voice of my Lord call me again? am I pure thro' his Mercy
And Pity? Am I become lovely as a Virgin in his sight, Who am
Indeed a Harlot drunken with the Sacrifice of Idols, does he
Call her pure as he did in the days of her Infancy, when She
Was cast out to the loathing of her person? The Chaldean took
Me from my Cradle. The Amalekite stole me away upon his Camels,
Before I had ever beheld with love the Face of Jehovah: or known
That there was a God of Mercy: O Mercy, O Divine Humanity!
Forgiveness & Pity & Compassion! If I were Pure I should never
Have known Thee: If I were Unpolluted I should never have
Glorified thy Holiness, or rejoiced in thy great Salvation.
Mary leaned her side against Jerusalem, Jerusalem recieved
The Infant into her hands in the Visions of Jehovah. Times passed on:
Jerusalem fainted over the Cross & Sepulcher. She heard the voice:
Wilt thou make Rome thy Patriarch Druid, & the Kings of Europe his
Horsemen? Man in the Resurrection changes his Sexual Garments at Will:

Every Harlot was once a Virgin: every Criminal an Infant Love!

REPOSE on me till the morning of the Grave. I am thy life.

Jerusalem replied. I am an outcast: Albion is dead:
I am left to the trampling foot & the spurning heel:
A Harlot I am call'd. I am sold from street to street:
I am defaced with blows & with the dirt of the Prison:
And wilt thou become my Husband, O my Lord & Saviour?
Shall Vala bring thee forth? shall the Chaste be ashamed also?
I see the Maternal Line, I behold the Seed of the Woman:
Cainah & Ada & Zillah & Naamah, Wife of Noah.
Shuah's daughter & Tamar & Rahab the Canaanites;
Ruth the Moabite & Bathsheba of the daughters of Heth,
Naamah the Ammonite, Zibeah the Philistine, & Mary.
These are the Daughters of Vala, Mother of the Body of death:
But I thy Magdalen behold thy Spiritual Risen Body.
Shall Albion arise? I know he shall arise at the Last Day!
I know that in my flesh I shall see God: but Emanations
Are weak, they know not whence they are, nor whither tend.

Jesus replied, I am the Resurrection & the Life.
I Die & pass the limits of possibility, as it appears
To individual perception. Luvah must be Created,
And Vala; for I cannot leave them in the gnawing Grave,
But will prepare a way for my banished-ones to return.
Come now with me into the villages, walk thro' all the cities:
Tho' thou art taken to prison & judgment, starved in the streets,
I will command the cloud to give thee food & the hard rock
To flow with milk & wine, tho' thou seest me not a season,
Even a long season, & a hard journey & a howling wilderness:
Tho' Vala's cloud hide thee & Luvah's fires follow thee:
Only believe & trust in me. Lo, I am always with thee!

So spoke the Lamb of God while Luvah's Cloud reddening above
Burst forth in streams of blood upon the heavens, & dark night
Involv'd Jerusalem, & the Wheels of Albion's Sons turn'd hoarse
Over the Mountains, & the fires blaz'd on Druid Altars,
And the Sun set in Tyburn's Brook where Victims howl & cry.

But Los beheld the Divine Vision among the flames of the Furnaces:
Therefore he lived & breathed in hope, but his tears fell incessant
Because his Children were clos'd from him apart: & Enitharmon
Dividing in fierce pain: also the Vision of God was clos'd in clouds
Of Albion's Spectres, that Los in despair oft sat, & often pondered,
On Death Eternal, in fierce shudders upon the mountains of Albion
Walking, & in the vales in howlings fierce: then to his Anvils
Turning, anew began his labours, tho' in terrible pains.

JEHOVAH stood among the Druids in the Valley of Annandale,
When the Four Zoas of Albion, the Four Living Creatures, the Cherubim
Of Albion, tremble before the Spectre in the starry Harness of the Plow
Of Nations. And their Names are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona.
Luvah slew Tharmas the Angel of the Tongue, & Albion brought him
To Justice in his own City of Paris, denying the Resurrection.
Then Vala the Wife of Albion, who is the Daughter of Luvah,
Took vengeance Twelve-fold among the Chaotic Rocks of the Druids,
Where the Human Victims howl to the Moon, & Thor & Friga
Dance the dance of death, contending with Jehovah among the Cherubim.
The Chariot Wheels filled with Eyes rage along the howling Valley,
In the Dividing of Reuben & Benjamin bleeding from Chester's River.
The Giants & the Witches & the Ghosts of Albion dance with
Thor and Friga, & the Fairies lead the Moon along the Valley of Cherubim,
Bleeding in torrents from Mountain to Mountain, a lovely Victim.
And Jehovah stood in the Gates of the Victim, & he appeared
A weeping Infant in the Gates of Birth in the midst of Heaven.
The Cities & Villages of Albion became Rock & Sand Unhumanized,
The Druid Sons of Albion & the Heavens a Void around unfathomable,
No Human Form but Sexual, & a little weeping Infant pale reflected
Multitudinous in the Looking Glass of Enitharmon, on all sides
Around in the clouds of the Female, on Albion's Cliffs of the Dead.
Such the appearance in Cheviot, in the Divisions of Reuben,
When the Cherubim hid their heads under their wings in deep slumbers,
When the Druids demanded Chastity from Woman & all was lost.
How can the Female be Chaste, O thou stupid Druid, Cried Los,
Without the Forgiveness of Sins in the merciful clouds of Jehovah,
And without the Baptism of Repentance to wash away Calumnies, and
The Accusations of Sin, that each may be Pure in their Neighbours' sight?
O, when shall Jehovah give us Victims from his Flocks & Herds,
Instead of Human Victims by the Daughters of Albion & Canaan?
Then laugh'd Gwendolen, & her laughter shook the Nations & Familys of
The Dead beneath Beulah, from Tyburn to Golgotha, and from
Ireland to Japan: furious her Lions & Tygers & Wolves sport before
Los on the Thames & Medway: London & Canterbury groan in pain.
Los knew not yet what was done: he thought it was all in Vision,
In Visions of the Dreams of Beulah among the Daughters of Albion,
Therefore the Murder was put apart in the Looking-Glass of Enitharmon.
He saw in Vala's hand the Druid Knife of Revenge & the Poison Cup
Of Jealousy, and thought it a Poetic Vision of the Atmospheres,
Till Canaan roll'd apart from Albion across the Rhine, along the Danube.
And all the Land of Canaan suspended over the Valley of Cheviot,
From Bashan to Tyre & from Troy to Gaza of the Amalekite:
And Reuben fled with his head downwards among the Caverns
OF the Mundane Shell, which froze on all sides round Canaan on
The vast Expanse: where the Daughters of Albion Weave the Web
Of Ages & Generations, folding & unfolding it, like a Veil of Cherubim:
And sometimes it touches the Earth's summits, & sometimes spreads
Abroad into the Indefinite Spectre, who is the Rational Power.

Then All the Daughters of Albion became One before Los: even Vala.
And she put forth her hand upon the Looms in dreadful howlings,
Till she vegetated into a hungry Stomach & a devouring Tongue.
Her Hand is a Court of Justice, her Feet, two Armies in Battle:
Storms & Pestilence, in her Locks: & in her Loins Earthquake
And Fire, & the Ruin of Cities & Nations & Families & Tongues.

She cries. The Human is but a Worm, & thou, O Male! Thou art
Thyself Female, a Male, a breeder of Seed, a Son & Husband: & Lo,
The Human Divine is Woman's Shadow, a Vapor in the summer's heat.
Go assume Papal dignity, thou Spectre, thou Male Harlot! Arthur,
Divide into the Kings of Europe in times remote, O Woman-born
And Woman-nourish 'd & Woman-educated & Woman-scorn'd!

Wherefore art thou living? said Los, & Man cannot live in thy presence.
Art thou Vala the Wife of Albion, O thou lovely Daughter of Luvah?
All Quarrels arise from Reasoning, the secret Murder, and
The violent Man-slaughter, these are the Spectre's double Cave:
The Sexual Death living on accusation of Sin & Judgment,
To freeze Love & Innocence into the gold & silver of the Merchant.
Without Forgiveness of Sin Love is Itself Eternal Death.

Then the Spectre drew Vala into his bosom, magnificent, terrific,
Glittering with precious stones & gold, with Garments of blood & fire.
He wept in deadly wrath of the Spectre, in self-contradicting agony,
Crimson with Wrath & green with Jealousy, dazling with Love
And Jealousy immingled, & the purple of the violet darken'd deep
Over the Plow of Nations thund'ring in the hand of Albion's Spectre.
A dark Hermaphrodite they stood frowning upon London's River:
And the Distaff & Spindle in the hands of Vala, with the Flax of
Human Miseries, turn'd fierce with the Lives of Men along the Valley,
As Reuben fled before the Daughters of Albion, Taxing the Nations.

Derby Peak yawn'd a horrid Chasm at the Cries of Gwendolen, & at
The stamping feet of Ragan upon the flaming Treddles of her Loom,
That drop with crimson gore with the Loves of Albion & Canaan,
Opening along the Valley of Rephaim, weaving over the Caves of Machpelah,
TO decide Two Worlds with a great decision: a World of Mercy, and
A World of Justice; the World of Mercy for Salvation,
To cast Luvah into the Wrath, and Albion into the Pity,
In the Two Contraries of Humanity & in the Four Regions.

For in the depths of Albion's bosom in the eastern heaven,
They sound the clarions strong, they chain the howling captives:
They cast the lots into the helmet: they give the oath of blood in Lambeth:
They vote the death of Luvah, & they nail'd him to Albion's tree in Bath:
They stain'd him with poisonous blue, they inwove him in cruel roots,
To die a death of Six thousand years bound round with vegetation:
The sun was black & the moon roll'd a useless globe thro' Britain.

Then left the Sons of Urizen the plow & harrow, the loom,
The hammer & the chisel, & the rule & compasses; from London fleeing
They forg'd the sword on Cheviot, the chariot of war & the battle-ax,
The trumpet fitted to mortal battle, & the flute of summer in Annandale:
And all the Arts of Life, they chang'd into the Arts of Death in Albion.
The hour-glass contemn'd because its simple workmanship
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, & the water wheel
That raises water into cisterns broken & burn'd with fire:
Because its workmanship was like the workmanship of the shepherd.
And in their stead, intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel:
To perplex youth in their outgoings, & to bind to labours in Albion
Of day & night the myriads of eternity that they may grind
And polish brass & iron hour after hour, laborious task:
Kept ignorant of its use, that they might spend the days of wisdom
In sorrowful drudgery, to obtain a scanty pittance of bread:
In ignorance to view a small portion & think that All,
And call it Demonstration: blind to all the simple rules of life.

Now, now the battle rages round thy tender limbs, O Vala,
Now smile among thy bitter tears; now put on all thy beauty.
Is not the wound of the sword sweet: & the broken bone delightful?
Wilt thou now smile among the scythes when the wounded groan in the field?
We were carried away in thousands from London, & in tens
Of thousands from Westminster & Marybone in ships clos'd up:
Chain'd hand & foot, compell'd to fight under the iron whips
Of our captains, fearing our officers more than the enemy.
Lift up thy blue eyes Vala & put on thy sapphire shoes:
O melancholy Magdalen, behold the morning over Maiden break!
Gird on thy flaming zone, descend into the sepulcher of Canterbury.
Scatter the blood from thy golden brow, the tears from thy silver locks:
Shake off the waters from thy wings, & the dust from thy white garments.
Remember all thy feigned terrors on the secret couch of Lambeth's Vale,
When the sun rose in glowing morn, with arms of mighty hosts
Marching to battle, who was wont to rise with Urizen's harps
Girt as a sower with his seed to scatter life abroad over Albion:
Arise, O Vala: bring the bow of Urizen: bring the swift arrows of light.
How rag'd the golden horses of Urizen, compell'd to the chariot of love!
Compell'd to leave the plow to the ox, to snuff up the winds of desolation,
To trample the corn fields in boastful neighings: this is no gentle harp,
This is no warbling brook, nor shadow of a mirtle tree:
But blood and wounds and dismal cries, and shadows of the oak:
And hearts laid open to the light, by the broad grizly sword:
And bowels hid in hammer'd steel rip'd quivering on the ground.
Call forth thy smiles of soft deceit: call forth thy cloudy tears:
We hear thy sighs in trumpets shrill when morn shall blood renew.

So sang the Spectre Sons of Albion round Luvah's Stone of Trial:
Mocking and deriding at the writhings of their Victim on Salisbury:
Drinking his Emanation in intoxicating bliss, rejoicing in Giant dance.
For a Spectre has no Emanation but what he imbibes from decieving
A Victim: Then he becomes her Priest & she his Tabernacle,
And his Oak Grove, till the Victim rend the woven Veil,
In the end of his sleep when Jesus calls him from his grave.

Howling the Victims on the Druid Altars yield their souls
To the stern Warriors: lovely sport the Daughters round their Victims,
Drinking their lives in sweet intoxication: hence arose from Bath
Soft deluding odours, in spiral volutions intricately winding
Over Albion's mountains, a feminine indefinite cruel delusion,
Astonish'd, terrified & in pain & torment, Sudden they behold
Their own Parent, the Emanation of their murder'd Enemy,
Become their Emanation and their Temple and Tabernacle:
They knew not, this Vala was their beloved Mother, Vala Albion's Wife.

Terrified at the sight of the Victim, at his distorted sinews:
The tremblings of Vala vibrate thro' the limbs of Albion's Sons,
While they rejoice over Luvah in mockery & bitter scorn:
Sudden they become like what they behold, in howlings & deadly pain.
Spasms smite their features, sinews & limbs: pale they look on one another;
They turn, contorted: their iron necks bend unwilling towards
Luvah: their lips tremble: their muscular fibres are tramp'd & smitten,
They become like what they behold! Yet immense in strength & power,
IN awful pomp & gold, in all the precious unhewn stones of Eden,
They build a stupendous Building on the Plain of Salisbury: with chains
Of rocks round London Stone, of Reasonings, of unhewn Demonstrations,
In labyrinthine arches, (Mighty Urizen the Architect,) thro' which
The Heavens might revolve & Eternity be bound in their chain.
Labour unparalleled! a wondrous rocky World of cruel destiny,
Rocks piled on rocks reaching the stars, stretching from pole to pole.
The Building is Natural Religion & its Altars Natural Morality:
A building of eternal death, whose proportions are eternal despair.
Here Vala stood turning the iron Spindle of destruction
From heaven to earth, howling, invisible: but not invisible
Her Two Covering Cherubs, afterwards named Voltaire & Rousseau:
Two frowning Rocks, on each side of the Cove & Stone of Torture,
Frozen Sons of the feminine Tabernacle of Bacon, Newton & Locke.
For Luvah is France; the Victim of the Spectres of Albion.
Los beheld in terror; he pour'd his loud storms on the Furnaces:
The Daughters of Albion clothed in garments of needle work
Strip them off from their shoulders and bosoms, they lay aside
Their garments, they sit naked upon the Stone of trial.
The knife of flint passes over the howling Victim: his blood
Gushes & stains the fair side of the fair Daughters of Albion.
They put aside his curls: they divide his seven locks upon
His forehead: they bind his forehead with thorns of iron,
They put into his hand a reed, they mock, Saying: Behold
The King of Canaan, whose are seven hundred chariots of iron!
They take off his vesture whole with their Knives of flint:
But they cut asunder his inner garments: searching with
Their cruel fingers for his heart, & there they enter in pomp,
In many tears: & there they erect a temple & an altar:
They pour cold water on his brain in front, to cause
Lids to grow over his eyes in veils of tears: and caverns
To freeze over his nostrils, while they feed his tongue from cups
And dishes of painted clay. Glowing with beauty & cruelty,
They obscure the sun & the moon: no eye can look upon them.
Ah! alas! at the sight of the Victim, & at sight of those who are smitten,
All who see, become what they behold: their eyes are cover'd
With veils of tears and their nostrils & tongues shrunk up,
Their ear bent outwards, as their Victim, so are they in the pangs
Of unconquerable fear! amidst delights of revenge Earth-shaking!

And as their eye & ear shrunk, the heavens shrunk away:
The Divine Vision became first a burning flame, then a column
Of fire, then an awful fiery wheel surrounding earth & heaven,
And then a globe of blood wandering distant in an unknown night:
Afar into the unknown night the mountains fled away:
Six months of mortality, a summer: & six months of mortality, a winter:
The Human form began to be alter'd by the Daughters of Albion,
And the perceptions to be dissipated into the Indefinite. Becoming
A mighty Polypus nam'd Albion's Tree: they tie the Veins
And Nerves into two knots: & the Seed into a double knot:
They look forth: the Sun is shrunk: the Heavens are shrunk
Away into the far remote: and the Trees & Mountains wither'd
Into indefinite cloudy shadows in darkness & separation.
By Invisible Hatreds adjoin'd, they seem remote and separate
From each other; and yet are a Mighty Polypus in the Deep!
As the Misletoe grows on the Oak, so Albion's Tree on Eternity: Lo!
He who will not comingle in Love, must be adjoin'd by Hate.

They look forth from Stone-henge: from the Cove round London Stone
They look on one another: the mountain calls out to the mountain:
Plinlimmon shrunk away: Snowdon trembled: the mountains
Of Wales & Scotland beheld the descending War, the routed flying.
Red run the streams of Albion: Thames is drunk with blood.
As Gwendolen cast the Shuttle of war, as Cambel return'd the beam,
The Humber & the Severn are drunk with the blood of the slain:
London feels his brain cut round: Edinburgh's heart is circumscribed:
York & Lincoln hide among the flocks, because of the griding knife.
Worcester & Hereford, Oxford & Cambridge reel & stagger,
Overwearied with howling: Wales & Scotland alone sustain the fight!
The inhabitants are sick to death: they labour to divide into Days
And Nights, the uncertain Periods: and into Weeks & Months. In vain
They send the Dove & Raven, & in vain the Serpent over the mountains,
And in vain the Eagle & Lion over the four-fold wilderness.
They return not: but generate in rocky places desolate.
They return not: but build a habitation separate from Man.
The Sun forgets his course, like a drunken man he hesitates,
Upon the Cheselden hills, thinking to sleep on the Severn.
In vain: he is hurried afar into an unknown Night.
He bleeds in torrents of blood as he rolls thro' heaven above,
He chokes up the paths of the sky: the Moon is leprous as snow:
Trembling & descending down, seeking to rest on high Mona:
Scattering her leprous snows in flakes of disease over Albion.
The Stars flee remote: the heaven is iron, the earth is sulphur,
And all the mountains & hills shrink up like a withering gourd:
As the Senses of Men shrink together under the Knife of flint,
In the hands of Albion's Daughters, among the Druid Temples,
BY those who drink their blood & the blood of their Covenant.
And the Twelve Daughters of Albion united in Rahab & Tirzah,
A Double Female: and they drew out from the Rocky Stones
Fibres of Life to Weave, for every Female is a Golden Loom.
The Rocks are opake hardnesses covering all Vegetated things.
And as they Wove & Cut from the Looms in various divisions,
Stretching over Europe & Asia from Ireland to Japan,
They divided into many lovely Daughters to be counterparts
To those they Wove, for when they Wove a Male, they divided
Into a Female to the Woven Male, in opake hardness
They cut the Fibres from the Rocks, groaning in pain they Weave:
Calling the Rocks Atomic Origins or Existence; denying Eternity
By the Atheistical Epicurean Philosophy of Albion's Tree.
Such are the Feminine and Masculine when separated from Man.
They call the Rocks Parents of Men, & adore the frowning Chaos,
Dancing around in howling pain clothed in the bloody Veil,
Hiding Albion's Sons within the Veil, closing Jerusalem's
Sons without: to feed with their Souls the Spectres of Albion.
Ashamed to give Love openly to the piteous & merciful Man,
Counting him an imbecile mockery: but the Warrior
They adore, & his revenge cherish with the blood of the Innocent.
They drink up Dan & Gad, to feed with milk Skofeld & Kotope:
They strip off Joseph's Coat & dip it in the blood of battle.
Tirzah sits weeping to hear the shrieks of the dying: her Knife
Of flint is in her hand: she passes it over the howling Victim.
The Daughters Weave their Work in loud cries over the Rock
Of Horeb: still eyeing Albion's Cliffs eagerly, siezing & twisting
The threads of Vala & Jerusalem running from mountain to mountain
Over the whole Earth: loud the Warriors rage in Beth Peor,
Beneath the iron whips of their Captains & consecrated banners:
Loud the Sun & Moon rage in the conflict: loud the Stars
Shout in the night of battle & their spears grow to their hands
With blood, weaving the deaths of the Mighty into a Tabernacle
For Rahab & Tirzah; till the Great Polypus of Generation covered the Earth.
In Verulam the Polypus's Head, winding around his bulk
Thro' Rochester and Chichester & Exeter & Salisbury,
To Bristol: & his Heart beat strong on Salisbury Plain,
Shooting out Fibres round the Earth, thro' Gaul & Italy
And Greece, & along the Sea of Rephaim into Judea
To Sodom & Gomorrha: thence to India, China & Japan.
The Twelve Daughters in Rahab & Tirzah have circumscrib'd the Brain
Beneath & pierced it thro' the midst with a golden pin.
Blood hath stain'd her fair side beneath her bosom.

O thou poor Human Form! said she. O thou poor child of woe!
Why wilt thou wander away from Tirzah: why me compel to bind thee?
If thou dost go away from me I shall consume upon these Rocks.
These fibres of thine eyes that used to beam in distant heavens,
Away from me, I have bound down with a hot iron.
These nostrils that expanded with delight in morning skies
I have bent downward with lead melted in my roaring furnaces
Of affliction, of love, of sweet despair, of torment unendurable.
My soul is seven furnaces, incessant roars the bellows
Upon my terribly flaming heart, the molten metal runs
In channels thro' my fiery limbs: O love, O pity, O fear,
O pain! O the pangs, the bitter pangs of love forsaken!
Ephraim was a wilderness of joy where all my wild beasts ran,
The River Kanah wander'd by my sweet Manasseh's side,
To see the boy spring into heavens sounding from my sight!
Go Noah, fetch the girdle of strong brass, heat it red-hot:
Press it around the loins of this ever expanding cruelty.
Shriek not so my only love: I refuse thy joys: I drink
Thy shrieks because Hand & Hyle are cruel & obdurate to me.

O SKOFIELD why art thou cruel? Lo Joseph is thine, to make
You One: to weave you both in the same mantle of skin.
Bind him down Sisters, bind him down on Ebal Mount of cursing.
Malah, come forth from Lebanon: & Hoglah, from Mount Sinai!
Come, circumscribe this tongue of sweets & with a screw of iron
Fasten this ear into the rock: Milcah, the task is thine!
Weep not so, Sisters, weep not so: our life depends on this:
Or mercy & truth are fled away from Shechem & Mount Gilead,
Unless my beloved is bound upon the Stems of Vegetation.

And thus the Warriors cry in the hot day of Victory, in Songs.

Look! the beautiful Daughter of Albion sits naked upon the Stone,
Her panting Victim beside her: her heart is drunk with blood,
Tho' her brain is not drunk with wine: she goes forth from Albion
In pride of beauty, in cruelty of holiness, in the brightness
Of her tabernacle, & her ark & secret place: the beautiful Daughter
Of Albion delights the eyes of the Kings: their hearts & the
Hearts of their Warriors glow hot before Thor & Friga. O Molech!
O Chemosh! O Bacchus! O Venus! O Double God of Generation!
The Heavens are cut like a mantle around from the Cliffs of Albion,
Across Europe, across Africa, in howlings & deadly War.
A sheet & veil & curtain of blood is let down from Heaven
Across the hills of Ephraim & down Mount Olivet to
The Valley of the Jebusite: Molech rejoices in heaven,
He sees the Twelve Daughters naked upon the Twelve Stones,
Themselves condensing to rocks & into the Ribs of a Man.
Lo, they shoot forth in tender Nerves across Europe & Asia:
Lo, they rest upon the Tribes, where their panting Victims lie.
Molech rushes into the Kings in love to the beautiful Daughters,
But they frown & delight in cruelty, refusing all other joy.
Bring your Offerings, your first begotten, pamper'd with milk & blood:
Your first born of seven years old, be they Males or Females,
To the beautiful Daughters of Albion! they sport before the Kings
Clothed in the skin of the Victim! blood, human blood, is the life
And delightful food of the Warrior: the well fed Warrior's flesh
Of him who is slain in War fills the Valleys of Ephraim with
Breeding Women walking in pride & bringing forth under green trees
With pleasure, without pain, for their food is blood of the Captive.
Molech rejoices thro' the Land from Havilah to Shur: he rejoices
In moral law & its severe penalties; loud Shaddai & Jehovah
Thunder above, when they see the Twelve panting Victims
On the Twelve Stones of Power, & the beautiful Daughters of Albion.
If you dare rend their Veil with your spear, you are healed of Love.
From the Hills of Camberwell & Wimbledon, from the Valleys
Of Walton & Esher, from Stone-henge & from Maiden's Cove,
Jerusalem's Pillars fall in the rendings of fierce War.
Over France & Germany, upon the Rhine & Danube,
Reuben & Benjamin flee: they hide in the Valley of Rephaim.
Why trembles the Warriors limbs when he beholds thy beauty
Spotted with Victims' blood: by the fires of thy secret tabernacle
And thy ark & holy place: at thy frowns, at thy dire revenge:
Smitten as Uzzah of old, his armour is soften'd: his spear
And sword faint in his hand, from Albion across Great Tartary.
O beautiful Daughter of Albion! cruelty is thy delight,
O Virgin of terrible eyes who dwellest by Valleys of springs,
Beneath the Mountains of Lebanon, in the City of Rehob in Hamath,
Taught to touch the harp, to dance in the Circle of Warriors
Before the Kings of Canaan, to cut the flesh from the Victim,
To roast the flesh in fire, to examine the Infant's limbs
In cruelties of holiness, to refuse the joys of love, to bring
The Spies from Egypt, to raise jealousy in the bosoms of the Twelve
Kings of Canaan, then to let the Spies depart to Meribah Kadesh
To the place of the Amalekite; I am drunk with unsatiated love:
I must rush again to War: for the Virgin has frown'd & refus'd.
Sometimes I curse & sometimes bless thy fascinating beauty.
Once Man was occupied in intellectual pleasures & energies,
But now my Soul is harrow'd with grief & fear & love & desire,
And now I hate & now I love & Intellect is no more:
There is no time for any thing but the torments of love & desire:
The Feminine & Masculine Shadows soft, mild & ever varying
In beauty, are Shadows now no more, but Rocks in Horeb.

THEN all the Males conjoined into One Male, & every one
Became a ravening eating Cancer growing in the Female,
A Polypus of Roots of Reasoning, Doubt, Despair & Death,
Going forth & returning from Albion's Rocks to Canaan:
Devouring Jerusalem from every Nation of the Earth.
Envying stood the enormous Form at variance with Itself
In all its Members: in eternal torment of love & jealousy:
Driv'n forth by Los time after time from Albion's cliffy shore:
Drawing the free loves of Jerusalem into infernal bondage,
That they might be born in contentions of Chastity & in
Deadly Hate between Leah & Rachel, Daughters of Deceit & Fraud:
Bearing the Images of various Species of Contention
And Jealousy & Abhorrence & Revenge & deadly Murder,
Till they refuse liberty to the Male: & not like Beulah
Where every Female delights to give her maiden to her husband.
The Female searches sea & land for gratifications to the
Male Genius: who in return clothes her in gems & gold
And feeds her with the food of Eden, hence all her beauty beams.
She Creates at her will a little moony night & silence
With Spaces of sweet gardens & a tent of elegant beauty:
Closed in by a sandy desart & a night of stars shining,
And a little tender moon & hovering angels on the wing.
And the Male gives a Time & Revolution to her Space
Till the time of love is passed in ever varying delights.
For All Things Exist in the Human Imagination,
And thence in Beulah they are stolen by secret amorous theft,
Till they have had Punishment enough to make them commit Crimes.
Hence rose the Tabernacle in the Wilderness & all its Offerings,
From Male & Female Loves in Beulah & their Jealousies,
But no one can consummate Female bliss in Los's World without
Becoming a Generated Mortal, a Vegetating Death.
And now the Spectres of the Dead awake in Beulah: all
The Jealousies become Murderous, uniting together in Rahab,
A Religion of Chastity, forming a Commerce to sell Loves
With Moral Law, an Equal Balance, not going down with decision.
Therefore the Male severe & cruel fill'd with stern Revenge:
Mutual Hate returns & mutual Deceit & mutual Fear.
Hence the Infernal Veil grows in the disobedient Female,
Which Jesus rends & the whole Druid Law removes away
From the Inner Sanctuary: a False Holiness hid within the Center.
For the Sanctuary of Eden is in the Camp, in the Outline,
In the Circumference: & every Minute Particular is Holy:
Embraces are Cominglings, from the Head even to the Feet,
And not a pompous High Priest entering by a Secret Place.

Jerusalem pined in her inmost soul over Wandering Reuben
As she slept in Beulah's Night hid by the Daughters of Beulah.

AND this the form of mighty Hand sitting on Albion's cliffs
Before the face of Albion, a mighty threat'ning Form.
His bosom wide & shoulders huge, overspreading wondrous,
Bear Three strong sinewy Necks & Three awful & terrible Heads,
Three Brains in contradictory council brooding incessantly,
Neither daring to put in act its councils, fearing each other,
Therefore rejecting Ideas as nothing & holding all Wisdom
To consist in the agreements & disagreements of Ideas,
Plotting to devour Albion's Body of Humanity & Love.
Such Form the aggregate of the Twelve Sons of Albion took: & such
Their appearance when combin'd: but often by birth -pangs & loud groans
They divide to Twelve: the key-bones & the chest dividing in pain
Disclose a hideous orifice; thence issuing the Giant-brood
Arise as the smoke of the furnace, shaking the rocks from sea to sea,
And there they combine into Three Forms, named Bacon & Newton & Locke,
In the Oak Groves of Albion which overspread all the Earth.
Imputing Sin & Righteousness to Individuals, Rahab
Sat deep within him hid: his Feminine Power unreveal'd
Brooding Abstract Philosophy, to destroy Imagination, the Divine-
Humanity: A Three-fold Wonder, feminine, most beautiful, Three-fold
Each within other. On her white marble & even Neck, her Heart
Inorb'd and bonified: with locks of shadowing modesty, shining
Over her beautiful Female features, soft flourishing in beauty,
Beams mild, all love and all perfection, that when the lips
Recieve a kiss from Gods or Men, a threefold kiss returns
From the press'd loveliness; so her whole immortal form, three-fold,
Three-fold embrace returns: consuming lives of Gods & Men,
In fires of beauty melting them as gold & silver in the furnace.
Her Brain enlabyrinths the whole heaven of her bosom & loins
To put in act what her Heart wills; O who can withstand her power?
Her name is Vala in Eternity: in Time her name is Rahab.
The Starry Heavens all were fled from the mighty limbs of Albion,
AND above Albion's Land was seen the Heavenly Canaan,
As the Substance is to the Shadow: and above Albion's Twelve Sons
Were seen Jerusalem's Sons: and all the Twelve Tribes spreading
Over Albion. As the Soul is to the Body, so Jerusalem's Sons
Are to the Sons of Albion: and Jerusalem is Albion's Emanation.

What is Above is Within, for everything in Eternity is translucent;
The Circumference is Within: Without, is formed the Selfish Center:
And the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity,
And the Center has Eternal States! these States we now explore.

And these the Names of Albion's Twelve Sons, & of his Twelve Daughters
With their Districts. Hand dwelt in Selsey, & had Sussex & Surrey
And Kent & Middlesex: all their Rivers & their Hills of flocks & herds;
Their Villages, Towns, Cities, Sea-Ports, Temples, sublime Cathedrals;
All were his Friends & their Sons & Daughters intermarry in Beulah,
For all are Men in Eternity, Rivers, Mountains, Cities, Villages.
All are Human, & when you enter into their Bosoms you walk
In Heavens & Earths; as in your own Bosom you bear your Heaven
And Earth, & all you behold: tho' it appears Without it is Within
In your Imagination, of which this World of Mortality is but a Shadow.

Hyle dwelt in Winchester, comprehending Hants, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall,
Their Villages, Cities, Sea Ports, their Corn fields & Gardens spacious,
Palaces, Rivers & Mountains, and between Hand & Hyle arose
Gwendolen & Cambel who is Boadicea: they go abroad & return
Like lovely beams of light from the mingled affections of the Brothers:
The Inhabitants of the whole Earth rejoice in their beautiful light.

Coban dwelt in Bath, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire,
Obey'd his awful voice: Ignoge is his lovely Emanation;
She adjoin'd with Gwantoke's Children, soon lovely Cordelia arose,
Gwantoke forgave & joy'd over South Wales & all its Mountains.

Peachey had North Wales, Shropshire, Cheshire & the Isle of Man,
His Emanation is Mehetabel, terrible & lovely upon the Mountains.

Brertun had Yorkshire, Durham, Westmoreland, & his Emanation
Is Ragan: she adjoin'd to Slade, & produced Gonorill far beaming.

Slade had Lincoln, Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, & his lovely
Emanation Gonorill rejoices over hills & rocks & woods & rivers.

Huttn had Warwick, Northampton, Bedford, Buckingham,
Leicester & Berkshire; & his Emanation is Gwinefred beautiful.

Skofeld had Ely, Rutland, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Norfolk,
Suffolk, Hartford & Essex: & his Emanation is Gwinevera
Beautiful, she beams towards the east, all kinds of precious stones
And pearl, with instruments of music in holy Jerusalem.

Kox had Oxford, Warwick, Wilts; his Emanation is Estrild:
Join'd with Cordelia she shines southward over the Atlantic.

Kotope had Hereford, Stafford, Worcester, & his Emanation
Is Sabrina: join'd with Mehetabel she shines west over America.

Bowen had all Scotland, the Isles, Northumberland & Cumberland:
His Emanation is Conwenna, she shines a triple form
Over the north with pearly beams gorgeous & terrible,
Jerusalem & Vala rejoice in Bowen & Conwenna.

But the Four Sons of Jerusalem that never were Generated
Are Rintrah and Palamabron and Theotormon and Bromion. They
Dwell over the Four Provinces of Ireland in heavenly light,
The Four Universities of Scotland, & in Oxford & Cambridge & Winchester.

But now Albion is darkened & Jerusalem lies in ruins:
Above the Mountains of Albion, above the head of Los.

And Los shouted with ceaseless shoutings, & his tears poured down
His immortal cheeks, rearing his hands to heaven for aid Divine!
But he spoke not to Albion: fearing lest Albion should turn his Back
Against the Divine Vision: & fall over the Precipice of Eternal Death.
But he receded before Albion, & before Vala weaving the Veil
With the iron shuttle of War among the rooted Oaks of Albion:
Weeping & shouting to the Lord day & night; and his Children
Wept round him as a flock silent Seven Days of Eternity.

AND the Thirty-two Counties of the Four Provinces of Ireland
Are thus divided; The Four Counties are in the Four Camps,
Munster South in Reuben's Gate, Connaut West in Joseph's Gate,
Ulster North in Dan's Gate, Leinster East in Judah's Gate,

For Albion in Eternity has Sixteen Gates among his Pillars,
But the Four towards the West were Walled up, & the Twelve
That front the Four other Points were turned Four Square
By Los for Jerusalem's sake & called the Gates of Jerusalem:
Because Twelve Sons of Jerusalem fled successive thro the Gates.
But the Four Sons of Jerusalem who fled not but remain'd
Are Rintrah & Palamabron & Theotormon & Bromion,
The Four that remain with Los to guard the Western Wall:
And these Four remain to guard the Four Walls of Jerusalem,
Whose foundations remain in the Thirty-two Counties of Ireland,
And in Twelve Counties of Wales, & in the Forty Counties
Of England, & in the Thirty-six Counties of Scotland.

And the names of the Thirty-two Counties of Ireland are these:
Under Judah & Issachar & Zebulun are Lowth, Longford,
Eastmeath, Westmeath, Dublin, Kildare, King's County,
Queen's County, Wicklow, Catherloh, Wexford, Kilkenny:
And those under Reuben & Simeon & Levi are these,
Waterford, Tipperary, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Clare:
And those under Ephraim, Manasseh & Benjamin are these,
Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim:
And those under Dan, Asher & Napthali are these,
Donnegal, Antrim, Tyrone, Fermangall, Armagh, Londonderry,
Down, Monaghan, Cavan. These are the Land of Erin.

All these Center in London & in Golgonooza, from whence
They are Created continually, East & West & North & South:
And from them are Created all the Nations of the Earth,
Europe & Asia & Africa & America, in fury Fourfold!

And Thirty-two the Nations, to dwell in Jerusalem's Gates.
O Come ye Nations, Come ye People, Come up to Jerusalem.
Return, Jerusalem, & dwell together as of old: Return,
Return: O Albion, let Jerusalem overspread all Nations
As in the times of old; O Albion awake! Reuben wanders,
The Nations wait for Jerusalem, they look up for the Bride.

France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Turkey,
Arabia, Palestine, Persia, Hindostan, China, Tartary, Siberia,
Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Caffraria, Negroland, Morocco,
Congo, Zaara, Canada, Greenland, Carolina, Mexico,
Peru, Patagonia, Amazonia, Brazil. Thirty-two Nations,
And under these Thirty-two Classes of Islands in the Ocean,
All the Nations Peoples & Tongues throughout all the Earth.

And the Four Gates of Los surround the Universe Within and
Without; & whatever is visible in the Vegetable Earth, the same
Is visible in the Mundane Shell: revers'd in mountain & vale.
And a Son of Eden was set over each Daughter of Beulah, to guard
In Albion's Tomb the wondrous Creation: & the Four-fold Gate
Towards Beulah is to the South: Fenelon, Guion, Teresa,
Whitefield & Hervey guard that Gate, with all the gentle Souls
Who guide the great Wine-press of Love: Four precious Stones that Gate:

SUCH are Cathedron's golden Halls in the City of Golgonooza.

And Los's Furnaces howl loud, living, self-moving, lamenting
With fury & despair, & they stretch from South to North
Thro' all the Four Points: Lo! the Labourers at the Furnaces,
Rintrah & Palamabron, Theotormon & Bromion, loud lab'ring
With the innumerable multitudes of Golgonooza, round the Anvils
Of Death. But how they came forth from the Furnaces & how long,
Vast & severe the anguish e'er they knew their Father, were
Long to tell, & of the iron rollers, golden axle-trees & yokes
Of Brass, iron chains & braces & the gold, silver & brass,
Mingled or separate: for swords, arrows, cannons, mortars,
The terrible ball, the wedge, the loud sounding hammer of destruction,
The sounding flail to thresh, the winnow to winnow kingdoms,
The water wheel & mill of many innumerable wheels resistless,
Over the Four fold Monarchy from Earth to the Mundane Shell.

Perusing Albion's Tomb in the starry characters of Og & Anak:
To Create the lion & wolf, the bear, the tyger & ounce:
To Create the wooly lamb & downy fowl & scaly serpent,
The summer & winter, day & night, the sun & moon & stars,
The tree, the plant, the flower, the rock, the stone, the metal,
Of Vegetative Nature: by their hard restricting condensations.

Where Luvah's World of Opakeness grew to a period, It
Became a Limit, a Rocky hardness without form & void,
Accumulating without end: here Los, who is of the Elohim,
Opens the Furnaces of affliction in the Emanation,
Fixing the Sexual into an ever-prolific Generation,
Naming the Limit of Opakeness, Satan, & the Limit of Contraction,
Adam, who is Peleg & Joktan: & Esau & Jacob: & Saul & David.

Voltaire insinuates that these Limits are the cruel work of God,
Mocking the Remover of Limits & the Resurrection of the Dead,
Setting up Kings in wrath: in holiness of Natural Religion.
Which Los with his mighty Hammer demolishes time on time
In miracles & wonders in the Four-fold Desart of Albion,
Permanently Creating to be in Time Reveal'd & Demolish'd.
Satan, Cain, Tubal, Nimrod, Pharoh, Priam, Bladud, Belin,
Arthur, Alfred, the Norman Conqueror, Richard, John,

And all the Kings & Nobles of the Earth & all their Glories.
These are Created by Rahab & Tirzah in Ulro: but around
These, to preserve them from Eternal Death, Los Creates
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Ezekiel,

Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer.
As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains,
So Men pass on; but States remain permanent for ever.

The Spectres of the Dead howl round the porches of Los,
In the terrible Family feuds of Albion's cities & villages,
To devour the Body of Albion, hung'ring & thirsting & rav'ning.
The Sons of Los clothe them & feed & provide houses & gardens:
And every Human Vegetated Form in its inward recesses
Is a house of pleasantness & a garden of delight, Built by the
Sons & Daughters of Los in Bowlahoola & in Cathedron.

From London to York & Edinburgh the Furnaces rage terrible:
Primrose Hill is the mouth of the Furnace & the Iron Door:

THE Four Zoas clouded rage; Urizen stood by Albion,
With Rintrah and Palamabron and Theotormon and Bromion:
These Four are Verulam & London & York & Edinburgh:
And the Four Zoas are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona,
In opposition deadly, and their Wheels in poisonous
And deadly stupor turn'd against each other loud & fierce.
Entering into the Reasoning Power, forsaking Imagination,
They became Spectres: & their Human Bodies were reposed
In Beulah, by the Daughters of Beulah, with tears & lamentations.

The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man; & when separated
From Imagination, and closing itself as in steel, in a Ratio
Of the Things of Memory, It thence frames Laws & Moralities
To destroy Imagination, the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars.

Teach me, O Holy Spirit, the Testimony of Jesus! let me
Comprehend wonderous things out of the Divine Law.
I behold Babylon in the opening Streets of London, I behold
Jerusalem in ruins wandering about from house to house.
This I behold: the shudderings of death attend my steps.
I walk up and down in Six Thousand Years: their Events are present before me,
To tell how Los in grief & anger, whirling round his Hammer on high,
Drave the Sons & Daughters of Albion from their ancient mountains:
They became the Twelve Gods of Asia Opposing the Divine Vision.

The Sons of Albion are Twelve: the Sons of Jerusalem Sixteen.
I tell how Albion's Sons by Harmonies of Concords & Discords,
Opposed to Melody, and by Lights & Shades, opposed to Outline,
And by Abstraction, opposed to the Visions of Imagination,

By cruel Laws divided Sixteen into Twelve Divisions:
How Hyle roof'd Los in Albion's Cliffs, by the Affections rent
Asunder & opposed to Thought, to draw Jerusalem's Sons
Into the Vortex of his Wheels, therefore Hyle is called Gog,
Age after age drawing them away towards Babylon,
Babylon, the Rational Morality deluding to death the little ones
In strong temptations of stolen beauty: I tell how Reuben slept
On London Stone & the Daughters of Albion ran around admiring
His awful beauty: with Moral Virtue the fair deciever, offspring
Of Good & Evil, they divided him in love upon the Thames & sent
Him over Europe in streams of gore out of Cathedron's Looms.
How Los drave them from Albion & they became Daughters of Canaan,
Hence Albion was call'd the Canaanite & all his Giant Sons.
Hence is my Theme. O Lord my Saviour, open thou the Gates
And I will lead forth thy Words, telling how the Daughters
Cut the Fibres of Reuben, how he roll'd apart & took Root
In Bashan, terror-struck Albion's Sons look toward Bashan.
They have divided Simeon: he also roll'd apart in blood
Over the Nations, till he took Root beneath the shining Looms
Of Albion's Daughters in Philistea by the side of Amalek.
They have divided Levi: he hath shot out into Forty eight Roots
Over the Land of Canaan: they have divided Judah:
He hath took Root in Hebron, in the Land of Hand & Hyle.
Dan: Napthali: Gad: Asher: Issachar: Zebulun: roll apart
From all the Nations of the Earth to dissipate into Non Entity.

I see a Feminine Form arise from the Four terrible Zoas,
Beautiful but terrible, struggling to take a form of beauty,
Rooted in Shechem: this is Dinah, the youthful form of Erin.
The Wound I see in South Molton Street & Stratford place,
Whence Joseph & Benjamin roll'd apart away from the Nations:
In vain they roll'd apart: they are fix'd into the Land of Cabul.

AND Rahab, Babylon the Great, hath destroyed Jerusalem.
Bath stood upon the Severn with Merlin & Bladud & Arthur,
The Cup of Rahab in his hand: her Poisons Twenty-seven-fold.

And all her Twenty-seven Heavens, now hid & now reveal'd,
Appear in strong delusive light of Time & Space, drawn out
In shadowy pomp by the Eternal Prophet, created evermore:
For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down continually,
That not one Moment of Time be lost, & every revolution
Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola & Cathedron.
And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their Churches:
Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Manalaleel, Jared, Enoch,
Methuselah, Lamech: these are the Giants mighty, Hermaphroditic.
Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the Second, Salah, Heber,
Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah: these are the Female Males:
A 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:
The Female hid within a Male: thus Rahab is reveal'd,
Mystery, Babylon the Great: the Abomination of Desolation:
Religion hid in War: a Dragon red & hidden Harlot.
But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death & Hell
Opens Eternity in Time & Space: triumphant in Mercy.

Thus are the Heavens form'd by Los within the Mundane Shell:
And where Luther ends Adam begins again in Eternal Circle,
To awake the Prisoners of Death: to bring Albion again
With Luvah into light eternal, in his eternal day.

But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of Albion.