Page:The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton.djvu/65

 The Spectre of Satan stood upon the roaring sea & beheld

Milton within his sleeping Humanity: trembling & shudd'ring

He stood upon the waves a Twenty seven fold mighty Demon

Gorgeous & beautiful: loud roll his thunders against Milton:

Loud Satan thunder'd, loud & dark upon mild Felpham shore,

Not daring to touch one fibre he howl'd round upon the Sea.

I also stood in Satan's bosom & beheld its desolations:

A ruin'd Man: a ruin'd building of God, not made with hands:

Its plains of burning sand, its mountains of marble terrible:

Its pits & declivities flowing with molten ore & fountains

Of pitch & nitre: its ruin'd palaces & cities & mighty works:

Its furnaces of affliction, in which his Angels & Emanations

Labour with blacken'd visages among its stupendous ruins,

Arches & Pyramids & porches, colonades & domes,

In which dwells Mystery, Babylon, here is her secret place,

From hence she comes forth in the Churches in delight,

Here is her cup fill'd with its poisons, in these horrid vales,

And here her scarlet Veil woven in pestilence & war;

Here is Jerusalem bound in chains in the Dens of Babylon.

In the Eastern porch of Satan's Universe Milton stood & said:

Satan! my Spectre! I know my power thee to annihilate,

And be a greater in thy place, & be thy Tabernacle,

A covering for thee to do thy will, till one greater comes

And smites me as I smote thee & becomes my covering.

Such are the Laws of thy false Heav'ns: but Laws of Eternity

Are not such: know thou! I come to Self Annihilation.

Such are the Laws of Eternity, that each shall mutually

Annihilate himself for others' good, as I for thee.

Thy purpose & the purpose of thy Priests & of thy Churches

Is to impress on men the fear of death; to teach

Trembling & fear, terror, constriction: abject selfishness.

Mine is to teach Men to despise death & to go on

In fearless majesty annihilating Self, laughing to scorn

Thy Laws & terrors, shaking down thy Synagogues, as webs.

I come to discover before Heav'n & Hell the Self righteousness

In all its Hypocritic turpitude, opening to every eye

These wonders of Satan's holiness, shewing to the Earth

The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart, & Satan's Seat

Explore in all its Selfish Natural Virtue & put off

In Self annihilation all that is not of God alone: 41