Page:The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton.djvu/57

 So spake the lovely Emanations: & there appeared a pleasant

Mild Shadow above, beneath, & on all sides round.

P. 31 INTO this pleasant Shadow all the weak & weary

Like Women & Children were taken away as on wings

Of dovelike softness, & shadowy habitations prepared for them.

But every man return'd & went still going forward thro'

The Bosom of the Father in Eternity on Eternity,

Neither did any lack or fall into Error without

A Shadow to repose in all the Days of happy Eternity.

Into this pleasant Shadow Beulah all Ololon descended,

And when the Daughters of Beulah heard the lamentation

All Beulah wept, for they saw the Lord coming in the Clouds,

And the Shadows of Beulah terminate in rocky Albion.

And all Nations wept in affliction, Family by Family:

Germany wept towards France & Italy: England wept & trembled

Towards America: India rose up from his golden bed,

As one awaken'd in the night: they saw the Lord coming

In the Clouds of Ololon with Power & Great Glory.

And all the Living Creatures of the Four Elements wail'd

With bitter wailing: these in the aggregate are named Satan

And Rahab: they know not of Regeneration, but only of Generation,

The Fairies, Nymphs, Gnomes & Genii of the Four Elements,

Unforgiving & unalterable, these cannot be Regenerated

But must be Created, for they know only of Generation.

These are the Gods of the Kingdoms of the Earth: in contrarious

And cruel opposition: Element against Element, opposed in War,

Not Mental, as the Wars of Eternity, but a Corporeal Strife:

In Los's Halls continual labouring in the Furnaces of Golgonooza.

Orc howls on the Atlantic: Enitharmon trembles: All Beulah weeps

Thou hearest the Nightingale begin the Song of Spring:

The Lark sitting upon his earthly bed, just as the morn

Appears, listens silent, then springing from the waving Cornfield! loud

He leads the Choir of Day: trill, trill, trill, trill,

Mounting upon the wings of light into the Great Expanse,

Reechoing against the lovely blue & shining heavenly Shell.

His little throat labours with inspiration; every feather

On throat & breast & wings vibrates with the effluence Divine:

All Nature listens silent to him, & the awful Sun

Stands still upon the Mountain looking on this little Bird 33