Milton (excerpts)/Preface

The Stolen & Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid; of Plato & Cicero. which all Men ought to contemn: are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible. but when the New Age is at leisure to Pronounce; all will be set right: & those Grand Works of the more ancient & consciously & professedly Inspired Men, will hold their proper rank. & the Daughters of Memory shall become the Daughters of Inspiration. Shakespeare & Milton were both curbd by the general malady & infection from the silly Greek & Latin slaves of the Sword[.] Rouze up O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the Camp, the Court, & the University: who would if they could, for ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War. Painters! on you I call! Sculptors! Architects! Suffer not the fashonable Fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works or the expensive advertizing boasts that they make of such works; believe Christ & his Apostles that there is a Class of Men whose whole delight is in Destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman models if we are but just & true to our own imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live forever; in Jesus our Lord.


 * And did those feet in ancient time,
 * Walk upon Englands mountains green:
 * And was the holy Lamb of God,
 * On Englands pleasant pastures seen!


 * And did the Countenance Divine,
 * Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
 * And was Jerusalem builded here,
 * Among these dark Satanic Mills?


 * Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
 * Bring me my Arrows of desire:
 * Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
 * Bring me my Chariot of fire!


 * I will not cease from Mental Fight,
 * Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
 * Till we have built Jerusalem,
 * In Englands green & pleasant Land

Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets Numbers XI, ch 29.v.