Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/302

288 Book II.

P. 30, ll. 1 to 20. In the second book it appears that Ololon, intending to enter into the pangs of repentance in Milton's bosom (see above, p. 19, l. 50) thinking such to be the refuge from the intellectual wars of eternity, found that she had entered Beulah, which, rightly viewed, is not repentance but innocence. It is sexual and is the "three-fold," but is not a place of war, but the exterior of Eden, the veil, so to speak, of the joys that belong to the wars of eternity, — a sort of Mundane Shell, not made of rocks and tears, bat sweet emotions. It is created by the wars, as contraries create one another.

P. 30, l. 32 to p. 31, l. 7. It is, like all the temporal world, of which it is a portion, a creation of inercy, and is the Mercy Seat itself. Therefore its symbol is the emotion of marriage, given to enable the weaker form of love to endure itself, and not be blinded by the light of the stronger form. It is the innocent Vala before she became Rahab.

P. 31, ll. 7 to 11. It is an emotion that ends in realism, — terminates in Rocky Albion.

P. 31, ll. 11 to 17. And as Beulah weeps with the sorrow of Ololon, all nations, all ideas feel with her, and the Zoas, the Los's halls, generation and regeneration, stand visible in all their relations and their contrasts. ("A tear is an intellectual thing.")

Once more at this point we see the story of the poet through the veil of his writings, we see the contrition of Los, and his reconciliation with Enitharmon in "Vala," and we read the "Truchsessan letter" over Blake's shoulder.

P. 31, ll. 17 to 63. We see also Blake's art reconciled to make some use of Nature, not hating nor fearing, for this is the wider meaning of the reconciliation of Los and Enitharmon. He finds wonderful things in the sandal which he has bound on his foot to walk forward through Eternity, he hears the birds and sees the flowers, and they form part of the