Therefore I write Albions last words. Hope is banish'd from me. PLATE 48 These were his last words, and the merciful Saviour in his arms Reciev'd him, in the arms of tender mercy and repos'd The pale limbs of his Eternal Individuality Upon the Rock of Ages. Then, surrounded with a Cloud: In silence the Divine Lord builded with immortal labour, Of gold & jewels a sublime Ornament, a Couch of repose, With Sixteen pillars: canopied with emblems & written verse. Spiritual Verse, order'd & measur'd, from whence, time shall reveal. The Five books of the Decologue, the books of Joshua & Judges, Samuel, a double book & Kings, a double book, the Psalms & Prophets The Four-fold Gospel, and the Revelations everlasting Eternity groan'd. & was troubled, at the image of Eternal Death! Beneath the bottoms of the Graves, which is Earths central joint, There is a place where Contrarieties are equally true: (To protect from the Giant blows in the sports of intellect, Thunder in the midst of kindness, & love that kills its beloved: Because Death is for a period, and they renew tenfold.) From this sweet Place Maternal Love awoke Jerusalem With pangs she forsook Beulah's pleasant lovely shadowy Universe Where no dispute can come; created for those who Sleep. Weeping was in all Beulah, and all the Daughters of Beulah Wept for their Sister the Daughter of Albion, Jerusalem: When out of Beulah the Emanation of the Sleeper descended With solemn mourning out of Beulahs moony shades and hills: Within the Human Heart, whose Gates closed with solemn sound. And this the manner of the terrible Separation The Emanations of the grievously afflicted Friends of Albion Concenter in one Female form an Aged pensive Woman. Astonish'd! lovely! embracing the sublime shade: the Daughters of Beulah Beheld her with wonder! With awful hands she took A Moment of Time, drawing it out with many tears & afflictions And many sorrows: oblique across the Atlantic Vale Which is the Vale of Rephaim dreadful from East to West, Where the Human Harvest waves abundant in the beams of Eden Into a Rainbow of jewels and gold, a mild Reflection from Albions dread Tomb. Eight thousand and five hundred years In its extension. Every two hundred years has a door to Eden She also took an Atom of Space, with dire pain opening it a Center Into Beulah: trembling the Daughters of Beulah dried Her tears. she ardent embrac'd her sorrows. occupied in labours Of sublime mercy in Rephaims Vale. Perusing Albions Tomb She sat: she walk'd among the ornaments solemn mourning. The Daughters attended her shudderings, wiping the death sweat Los also saw her in his seventh Furnace, he also terrified Saw the finger of God go forth upon his seventh Furnace: Away from the Starry Wheels to prepare Jerusalem a place. When with a dreadful groan the Emanation mild of Albion. Burst from his bosom in the Tomb like a pale snowy cloud, Female and lovely, struggling to put off the Human form Writhing in pain. The Daughters of Beulah in kind arms reciev'd Jerusalem: weeping over her among the Spaces of Erin, In the Ends of Beulah, where the Dead wail night & day. And thus Erin spoke to the Daughters of Beulah, in soft tears Albion the Vortex of the Dead! Albion the Generous! Albion the mildest son of Heaven! The Place of Holy Sacrifice! Where Friends Die for each other: will become the Place, Of Murder, & Unforgiving, Never-awaking Sacrifice of Enemies The Children must be sacrific'd! (a horror never known Till now in Beulah.) unless a Refuge can be found To hide them from the wrath of Albions Law that freezes sore Upon his Sons & Daughters, self-exiled from his bosom Draw ye Jerusalem away from Albions Mountains To give a Place for Redemption, let Sihon and Og Remove Eastward to Bashan and Gilead, and leave PLATE 49 The secret coverts of Albion & the hidden places of America
(Erdman 196-7)
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Notes:
Plate 48 starts with 'the merciful Saviour in his arms Reciev'd him [Albion] and set him on the Rock of Ages coming from Isaiah 26:3, 'everlasting Rock.'
Rock is very persuasive in the Bible and in Blake: When the Children in the wilderness from Egypt moaned because of lack of water,
Moses angrily struck a rock, from which came 'everlasting water' God penalized him for that lapse by prohibiting from from entering the Promised Land.
This is an example of the ambiguous way Blake (an the Bible as well) dealt with the events of the O.T.
The Divine Lord is working (timelessly) before Abraham or Moses: "Before Abraham was I am" was spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John. (Many Bible students believe that Jesus was reported to have said he existed before Abraham; however a better idea (IMO) was that 'I am' was used elsewhere as a name for God. the books of the Bible: "from whence, time shall reveal. The Five books of the Decologue", etc. This is a step down from Heaven to earth (from the Eternal to the temporal).
Like so many of these posts Blake gives an alternation: heaven, fall to earth ("I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven") (Luke 10:18; memorialized by Milton in Paradise Lost.)"Eternity groan'd....at the image of Eternal Death!" we understand 'Eternal
Death' to mean being born (from Heaven to 'this vale of tears'.
"a place where Contrarieties are equally true:" which is to say 'Beulah': the first place where man descended from Heaven.
And on and on and on he goes.
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