MHH 20

From the previous plate we read: Here said I! is your lot, in this space, if space it may be calld, Soon we saw the stable and the church, & I took him to the altar and open'd the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, into which I descended driving the Angel before me, soon we saw seven houses of brick, one we enterd; in it were a 

LC Rosenwald
Here's a better image

[PL 20] number of monkeys,
baboons, & all of that species chaind by the middle, grinning and
snatching at one another, but witheld by the shortness of their
chains: however I saw that they sometimes
grew numerous, and then
the weak were caught by the strong and with a grinning aspect,
first coupled with & then devourd, by
plucking off first one limb
and then another till the body was left a
helpless trunk. this
after grinning & kissing it with seeming
fondness they devourd
too; and here & there I saw one
savourily picking the flesh off
of his own tail; as the stench terribly
annoyd us both we went
into the mill, & I in my hand brought
the skeleton of a body,
which in the mill was Aristotles Analytics.
So the Angel said: thy phantasy has
imposed upon me & thou
oughtest to be ashamed.I answerd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.

---

Throughout Blake's work we see a radically criticism of the religious establishment:

PLATE 8
From Songs:
The Little Vagabond
But if at the Church they would give us some Ale.
And a pleasant fire, our souls to regale;
We'd sing and we'd pray, all the live-long day;
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray,
Then the Parson might preach & drink & sing.
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring:
And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church,
Would not have bandy children nor fasting nor birch.
And God like a father rejoicing to see,
His children as pleasant and happy as he:
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel
But kiss him & give him both drink and apparel.

LONDON
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
(Erdman 26-7)
  
And many other poems

---

The picture at the bottom is a serpent, his mouth wide open pointing  up, or maybe Leviathan, very suitable for the tone of this text.

RESURRECTION

Wikipedia Commons

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Christian Triumph

Blake painted 537 watercolors as illustrations to Edward Young's Night Thoughts. Of these 43 were engraved and included in an edition published in 1797. Blake gave greater emphasis than did Young to the Christian dimension in creating his illustrations. Blake seized the opportunity to create two images of the Resurrection.

The role that Jesus plays in Blake's own poetry gives him opportunity to bring up the resurrection in conjunction with Mary Magdalen, the raising of Lazarus, victory over death and regeneration.

 
 

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 213)
[Jerusalem speaks]
"These are the Daughters of Vala, Mother of the Body of death
But I thy Magdalen behold thy Spiritual Risen Body
Shall Albion arise? I know he shall arise at the Last Day!
I know that in my flesh I shall see God: but Emanations
Are weak. they know not whence they are, nor whither tend.

Jesus replied. I am the Resurrection & the Life.
I Die & pass the limits of possibility, as it appears
To individual perception. Luvah must be Created                 
And Vala; for I cannot leave them in the gnawing Grave.
But will prepare a way for my banished-ones to return"

John 11
[21] Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
[22] But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
[23] Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
[24] Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
[25] Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
[26] And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
[27] She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Jerusalem, Plate 98, (E 257)
"South stood the Nerves of the Eye. East in Rivers of bliss the Nerves of the
Expansive Nostrils West, flowd the Parent Sense the Tongue. North stood
The labyrinthine Ear. Circumscribing & Circumcising the excrementitious
Husk & Covering into Vacuum evaporating revealing the lineaments of Man
Driving outward the Body of Death in an Eternal Death & Resurrection  
Awaking it to Life among the Flowers of Beulah rejoicing in Unity
In the Four Senses in the Outline the Circumference & Form, forever
In Forgiveness of Sins which is Self Annihilation. it is the Covenant of Jehovah"

First Corinthians 15
[19] If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
[20] But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
[21] For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
[22] For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
[23] But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
[24] Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
[25] For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
[26] The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 

Four Zoas, Night I, PAGE 4, (E 301)                 
In Eden; in the Auricular Nerves of Human life
Which is the Earth of Eden, he his Emanations propagated
Fairies of Albion afterwards Gods of the Heathen, Daughter of Beulah Sing
His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity
His fall into the Generation of Decay & Death & his Regeneration
     by the Resurrection from the dead 

Romans 6
[8] Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
[9] Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
[10] For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
[11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

MHH 19

Continuing from Plate 18:

[PL 19] 
  My friend the Angel climb'd up from his station into the mill;
I remain'd alone, & then this appearance was no more, but I found
myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moon light
hearing a harper who sung to the harp. & his theme was, The man
who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds
reptiles of the mind.
  But I arose, and sought for the mill, & there I found my
Angel, who surprised asked me, how I escaped?
  I answerd.  All that we saw was owing to your metaphysics: for
when you ran away, I found myself on a bank by moonlight hearing
a harper, But now we have seen my eternal lot, shall I shew you
yours? he laughd at my proposal: but I by force suddenly caught
him in my arms, & flew westerly thro' the night, till we were
elevated above the earths shadow: then I flung myself with him
directly into the body of the sun, here I clothed myself in
white, & taking in my hand Swedenborgs volumes sunk from the
glorious clime, and passed all the planets till we came to
saturn, here I staid to rest & then leap'd into the void, between
saturn & the fixed stars.
  Here said I! is your lot, in this space, if space it may be
calld, Soon we saw the stable and the church, & I took him to the
altar and open'd the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, into which
I descended driving the Angel before me, soon we saw seven houses
of brick, one we enterd; in it were a

Erdman 41-2)

By the 'angel' Blake might be referring to the religious establishment.  This whole book is aimed at a severe critique of the Christian religion as he has seen it.

The angel, you recall had driven the devilish Blake to a sorry position (See MHH 18); he climbed up to where he had been.  At his departure Blake found himself in a pleasant position beside a river; a post could be written describing Blake's pleasure and river.
(For the River of Life see Golden String.)

The river strongly contrasts to the storm that the angel had invoked.

We might say the harper was singing 'good tidings of great joy' which we may find in Luke 2:10,
(Blake in fact found them some years later.)

The harp is a sacred instrument going back to the ancient days in Egypt

(Genesis 4:21  And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp , the instrument David used to accompany his Psalms.)

Jubal and the Harp
widipedia commons

The angel, you recall had been showing the devil 'his eternal lot', and now the devil 'had his inning'.
(In this drama the 'angel' is a symbol of established religion and the devil is the writer of MHH.)

He grabbed the angel and flew with him through the western gate (in this case eternity).  They went out of the world so to speak and then flew right into the 'body of the sun'

The angel in MHH 18 had come to a black sun, while the devils sun is full of Light.
Blake took the heavy weight of Swedenborg's works which 'sunk him from that glorious clime'; he appears to mean that he had studied Swedenborg who espoused the dead theology that Blake had been able to 'kick'.

With this brilliant poetry Blake is autobiographical and theological: the worship of the 'word for word'  Bible on the pulpit becomes a black hole.

This Plate ends with the seven houses, evocative of John's evaluation of the seven churches, to be particularized no doubt in MHH 19.

SELF-AWARENESS

Marriage of Heaven & Hell,  Plate 5, (E 34)
"  Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough
to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place &
governs the unwilling.
  And being restraind it by degrees becomes passive till it is
only the shadow of desire.
  The history of this is written in Paradise Lost. & the Governor
or Reason is call'd Messiah.
  And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the
heavenly host, is calld the Devil or Satan and his children are
call'd Sin & Death
  But in the Book of Job Miltons Messiah is call'd Satan.
  For this history has been adopted by both parties
  It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out. but the
Devils account is, that the Messiah fell. & formed a heaven
of what he stole from the Abyss"

In the above passage Blake struggled with understanding the most productive way of viewing the archetype which is called Satan. Harold Bloom in Blake's Apocalypse (Page 362) compares the formulations of Satan in the three books: Job, Paradise Regained and Milton. Three authors wrestle with the relationship of God and Man as it is impacted by the divisive, destructive entity known as Satan.

Bloom:
"Like the Book of Job and Paradise Regained, Blake's Milton is a study in self-awareness. Job and Milton's Son of God come to recognize themselves in their true relation to God. Blake's Milton recognizes himself as God or imaginative Man and proceeds to purge from himself everything opposed to that recognition. But where  the Book of Job and Paradise Regained identify sonship to God with obedience to Him, Blake's Milton urges us to 'seek not the heavenly father beyond the skies' but rather 'obey thou the Words of the Inspired Man.' Job and Milton's Son of God overcome their temptations, which in Job are deeply involved with inner conflicts. Blake's Milton is close to Job in that he  must rid himself of the conviction of his own righteousness before he can resolve the conflict within his own self. 

The clearest link between the Book of Job, Paradise Regained, and Milton is that the protagonist of each work must overcome Satan, or a condition brought on by Satan's activity. Here Milton occupies a kind of middle position with respect to  both the earlier works. Like Job, Blake's Milton must overcome his Satanic situation or inwardness, rather than Satan himself. But like the Son of God, Blake's Milton must resist overt Satanic temptation as well. Blake's Milton is both a suffering man, like Job, and a Son of God, very like Milton's Christ. 
...
Just as Paradise Regained afforded Milton the opportunity to explore the Jobean problem within himself, so Blake's Milton allowed the later poet to advance his personal solution to the problem of evil as it confronted him in his own life. The historical Milton indeed became a Rintrah in the wilderness, and a lonely prophet is and excellent prospect for Satan. Paradise Regained concludes with the Son of God  returning to his mother's house, to wait upon the will of God. So John Milton, at the end learned to wait, comforted by a paradise within himself, happier far than the outer one he had failed to bring about in his England. Blake's temptation, in the Bard's song, is an instructive contrast to this pattern of painfully acquired patience and prophetic hope. Under the 'mild' self-imposition of a subtler Satan than the ones who tried Job and Christ, Blake is tempted to forsake Prophecy altogether.   
...
What justifies the ways of God  to men in Milton is finally just and only this: that certain men have the courage to cast out what is not human in them, and so become Man, and to become Man is to have become God."

Milton, Plate 38 [43], (E 139)
"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 Heavn & Hell the Self righteousness
In all its Hypocritic turpitude, opening to every eye
These wonders of Satans holiness shewing to the Earth     
The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart, & Satans Seat
Explore in all its Selfish Natural Virtue & put off
In Self annihilation all that is not of God alone:
To put off Self & all I have ever & ever Amen"

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 142)
"That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery
There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries
The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination.
Plate 41 [48]
To bathe in the Waters of Life; to wash off the Not Human
I come in Self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration
To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour
To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration
To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albions covering          
To take off his filthy garments, & clothe him with Imagination
To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration"

Wikimedia
Illustration of the Book of Job
Plate 18

Text on Plate 18
"Also the Lord accepted Job"
"And my Servant Job shall pray for you"
"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his Friends"
and
Matthew 5
[44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
[45] That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
[46] For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
[47] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
[48] Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

MHH 18

By degrees we beheld the infinite Abyss, fiery as the smoke 
of a burning city; beneath us at an immense distance was the sun,
black but shining[;] round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd
vast spiders, crawling after their prey; which flew or rather
swum in the infinite deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals
sprung from corruption. & the air was full of them, & seemd
composed of them; these are Devils. and are called Powers of the
air, I now asked my companion which was my eternal lot? he said,
between the black & white spiders 
  But now, from between the black & white spiders a cloud and
fire burst and rolled thro the deep blackning all beneath, so
that the nether deep grew black as a sea & rolled with a terrible
noise: beneath us was nothing now to be seen but a black tempest,
till looking east between the clouds & the waves, we saw a
cataract of blood mixed with fire and not many stones throw from
us appeard and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent.
at last to the east, distant about three degrees appeard a fiery
crest above the waves slowly it reared like a ridge of golden
rocks till we discoverd two globes of crimson fire. from which
the sea fled away in clouds of smoke, and now we saw, it was the
head of Leviathan. his forehead was divided into streaks of green
& purple like those on a tygers forehead: soon we saw his mouth &
red gills hang just above the raging foam tinging the black deep
with beams of blood, advancing toward (Erdman 41)

Behemoth and Leviathan
Illustrations to the Book of Job

Job.40
[15] Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
Job.41
[1] Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Isa.27
[1] In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
[10] And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Erdman, at page 115 of The Illuminated Blake refers to the script as barren, by which I suppose he may have meant 'print-like' rather than the usual cursive; it suggests barren thoughts, no doubt with vivid meaning to Blake, but if I dreamed it, it could be nothing but a black nightmare.

Blake is hanging topsy-turvy head down into the 'infinite Abyss', which looked like a 'burning city' and far below a shining black sun (the title of many novels).  It was esoterically connected with the Nazi regime.

Around the sun white and black spiders revolve. They might represent black and white devils, the black ones fearful and the white ones crafty and pernicious.  Their prey swam like various attractive and hideous animals; "these are Devils and are called the Powers of the air" (See Ephesians 2:2):

"2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:"

The next paragraph might well be considered a reference to Revelations. For example Rev 8:8

"[8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;"

The "monstrous serpent" also suggests Behemoth and Leviathan portrayed in Illustrations of the Book of Job:

These words also evoke Revelation 12:

[9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

BIBLE IN MILTON

Original in National Gallery
Tempera Job and His Daughters

In Blake's Milton there are several places where we are reminded of incidents in the Bible by his use of words and phrases which are familiar from Bible reading. Blake is expanding the associations within his poem to go beyond his literal descriptions and include entire scenarios with archetypal implications.

Milton, Plate 21, [23], (E 116) 

"Then the Divine Family said. Six Thousand Years are now
Accomplish'd in this World of Sorrow; Miltons Angel knew
The Universal Dictate; and you also feel this Dictate.
And now you know this World of Sorrow, and feel Pity. Obey
The Dictate! Watch over this World, and with your brooding wings,
Renew it to Eternal Life: Lo! I am with you alway
But you cannot renew Milton he goes to Eternal Death"

So spake the Family Divine as One Man even Jesus
Uniting in One with Ololon & the appearance of One Man
Jesus the Saviour appeard coming in the Clouds of Ololon!

Matthew 28
[18] And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
[19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
[20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

John 8
[26] I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
[27] They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
[28] Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
[29] And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

John 17
[11] And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
[22] And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
[23] I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Milton, Plate 30 [33), (E 129)
"For if we who are but for a time, & who pass away in winter
Behold these wonders of Eternity we shall consume
But you O our Fathers & Brothers, remain in Eternity
But grant us a Temporal Habitation. do you speak
To us; we will obey your words as you obey Jesus                 
The Eternal who is blessed for ever & ever. Amen

So spake the lovely Emanations; & there appeard a pleasant
Mild Shadow above: beneath: & on all sides round,"

Hebrews 5
[8] Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
[9] And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 132)
"Thus they converse with the Dead watching round the Couch of Death.
For God himself enters Death's Door always with those that enter 
And lays down in the Grave with them, in Visions of Eternity
Till they awake & see Jesus & the Linen Clothes lying
That the Females had Woven for them, & the Gates of their Fathers House"

Luke 24
[10] It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
[11] And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
[12] Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

Milton, Plate 42 [49], (E 143)
"Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale 
In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings
Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felphams Vale
Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became 
One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs
The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood
Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing
Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression:
A Garment of War, I heard it namd the Woof of Six Thousand Years 

And I beheld the Twenty-four Cities of Albion
Arise upon their Thrones to Judge the Nations of the Earth
And the Immortal Four in whom the Twenty-four appear Four-fold
Arose around Albions body: Jesus wept & walked forth
From Felphams Vale clothed in Clouds of blood, to enter into     
Albions Bosom, the bosom of death & the Four surrounded him
In the Column of Fire in Felphams Vale; then to their mouths the Four
Applied their Four Trumpets & them sounded to the Four winds" 

Revelations 19
[11] And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
[12] His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
[13] And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Matthew 24
[27] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
[28] For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
[29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
[30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
[31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Exodus 13
[20] And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
[21] And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
[22] He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

These are some of the associations between passages in Milton and passages in the Bible. A careful reader will find many more.

MHH 16 and 17

The startling picture of Plate 16 is of a group of Giants huddled together in a small cave with ankles in chains. A lot is told about the Giants in The Unholy Bible. The Bible has this to say:

Gen.6
[4] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

'Giants have a long history in the Bible and in Greek mythology and other mythologies.  In ancient Greek history began with warring Giants; the Titan Chronos ruled until dethroned by his son Zeus.

Here in Plate 16 Blake identifies the Giants are related to the Prolific and the Devourers.

PLATE 16
The Giants who formed this world into its sensual
existence
and now seem to live in it in chains; are in truth.
the causes
of its life & the sources of all activity, but the
chains are,
the cunning of weak and tame minds. which have power to resist
energy. according to the proverb, the weak in courage is strong in cunning.
Thus one portion of being, is the Prolific. the
other, the
Devouring: to the devourer it seems as if the
producer was in
his chains, but it is not so, he only takes portions
of existence
and fancies that the whole.

   But the Prolific would cease to be Prolific unless the
Devourer as a sea recieved the excess of his delights.
   Some will say, Is not God alone the Prolific? I
answer, God only   Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.
   These two classes of men are always upon earth, & they should
be enemies; whoever tries [PL 17] to reconcile them seeks to
destroy existence.
(Erdman 40)   
  

---

In another context the Prolific is the prophet, the poet, the leader.  The Devourer is the conventional man who does only what the crowd does. Religion wants to reconcile them, but Jesus said no, they are entirely different.  Of course you may begin as an individual, but lapse into a conventional person, or vice versa.

'Messiah or Satan or Tempter', a diabolic Trinity that Blake sees as an
'antediluvian' or Giant; one might say that the angels around God's table are
Giants.

In the Memorable Fancy the angel pities the devil (recall this as an ironic satire).  At the devils suggestion the angel takes him through the various stages of a stable, a church, a church vault, a mill and finally a cave.  This is comparable to the other memorable fancy in plate 15 where the eagle  caused the inside of the cave to be infinite.

Religion is an endeavour to reconcile the two. Note. Jesus Christ did not wish to unite but to  separate them, as in the Parable of sheep and goats! & he says I came not to send Peace but a Sword.
Messiah or Satan or Tempter was formerly thought to be one of the Antediluvians who are our Energies.
                    A Memorable Fancy
An Angel came to me and said. O pitiable foolish  young man! O horrible! O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity, to  which thou art going in such career. I said. perhaps you will be willing to shew me my  eternal lot & we will contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most desirable
So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into the church vault at the end of which was a mill: thro' the mill we went, and came to a cave. down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way till a void boundless as a nether sky appeard beneath us & we held by the roots of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said, if you please we will commit ourselves to this void, and see whether providence is here also, if you will not I will? but he answerd. do not presume O young-man but as we here remain behold thy lot which will soon appear when the darkness passes away So I remaind with him sitting in the twisted [PL 18] root of an oak.(Erdman 40-41)

The next plate will alaborate on the scene that leaves us here.

(Tune in again in a couple of days.)

JESUS IN MILTON

Fogg Art Museum
Harvard University
The Resurrection
First Corinthians 15:3,4

Near the conclusion of Milton the Eight Starry Ones visit Blake's garden in Felpham. The Eight are the Seven Angels know as the Eyes of God plus Milton. The Eight are transformed into Jesus the Saviour who is united with Ololon as a man whose cloud folds around him as a garment. You will remember that Milton removed his garment as he began his pilgrimage in response to the Bard's Song.


Milton, Plate 14 [15], (E 198)  
"Then Milton rose up from the heavens of Albion ardorous! 
The whole Assembly wept prophetic, seeing in Miltons face 
And in his lineaments divine the shades of Death & Ulro 
He took off the robe of the promise, & ungirded himself from the oath of God 

And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death!"

Milton has achieved his reunification; release from Eternal Death to Eternal Life. The work of Jesus continued as he entered Albion's  bosom. The account of the apocalypse which would follow, Blake related in Jerusalem.

Milton, Plate 42 [49], (E 143)
"Jesus wept & walked forth
From Felphams Vale clothed in Clouds of blood, to enter into     
Albions Bosom, the bosom of death & the Four surrounded him
In the Column of Fire in Felphams Vale; then to their mouths the Four
Applied their Four Trumpets & them sounded to the Four winds"

In Milton, Ololon and Milton passed through states which were required for their spiritual development. In the end they met Jesus the Imagination who is not a state but 'the Human Existence itself'. Together in the Universal Family, Milton with Ololon lived in Christ and he in them.

Jerusalem, Plate 34 [38], (E 179) 
"but mild the Saviour follow'd him,
Displaying the Eternal Vision! the Divine Similitude!
In loves and tears of brothers, sisters, sons, fathers, and friends
Which if Man ceases to behold, he ceases to exist:

Saying. Albion! Our wars are wars of life, & wounds of love,
With intellectual spears, & long winged arrows of thought:       
Mutual in one anothers love and wrath all renewing
We live as One Man; for contracting our infinite senses
We behold multitude; or expanding: we behold as one,
As One Man all the Universal Family; and that One Man
We call Jesus the Christ: and he in us, and we in him,        
Live in perfect harmony in Eden the land of life,"

In Golgonooza by Kathleen Raine we read on page 154:
"There is, besides, a 'supreme state', and this is the Divine Humanity, who is, for Blake, the God within.
...
But for Blake Jesus is something more specific: he is 'Jesus the Imagination', the 'supreme state' of humanity which transcends, and releases from, all the states of good and evil through which human souls pass. The presence of Jesus the Imagination is with every man at all times present, born with every birth, accompanying every soul throughout life as the 'saviour' who releases man from his present state. It is Satan, the Selfhood, who identifies the man with his present state; and who is therefore the Accuser who condemns; the Divine Humanity, Jesus the imagination, is the ever-present way of release from the states.
...
Human beings can be forgiven for they are not irrevocably 'evil' but can pass through many states, and the supreme state is the goal of all."

Milton, Plate 42 [49], (E 143)
"Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale
In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings
Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felphams Vale
Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became 
One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs
The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood
Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing
Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression:
A Garment of War, I heard it namd the Woof of Six Thousand Years" 

MHH 15

            Plate 15

         A Memorable Fancy

   I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the 
method in which
knowledge is transmitted from generation to 
generation.
   In the first chamber was a Dragon-Man, 
clearing away the
rubbish from a caves mouth; within, a 
number of Dragons were hollowing the  cave, 
  In the second chamber was a Viper folding round 
the rock & the 
cave, and others adorning it with gold silver and 
precious stones.
   In the third chamber was an Eagle with 
wings and feathers of air, 
he caused the inside of the cave to be 
infinite, around were
numbers  of Eagle like men, who built palaces in the immense cliffs.
   In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire raging around
&  melting the metals into living fluids.
   In the fifth chamber were Unnam'd forms, which cast the metals 
into the expanse.
   There they were reciev'd by Men who occupied the sixth
chamber,  and took the forms of books & were arranged in
libraries.
         ____________________________________________________

Blake's printing house in hell: Look at this comment:
"The juxtaposition of printmaker and poet in Blake's illustrations takes the systematized process of
engraving, whose end result produces art." from (William Blake's Reception.)  'Hell' at this point signifies Blake's studio.

His 'six chambers' are reminescent of the four zoas, listed as follows:
bull Luvah
lion Urizen
eagle Tharmas
man  Urthona
(See Fearful Symmetry p.277)

MHH might be considered a source of the development of The Four Zoas, but in the Unholy Bible a detailed discussion of the caverns of the Cave begins with  Cecrops of Greek Mythology who was half man and half (in the lower half) dragon.  Blake was probably familiar with that myth. 

The rubbish the dragon-man cleared away, Singer says, is the 'debris of materialism' that prevents man from having any interest in anything else.

The viper (or snake) is Satan who tempts man with all sorts of beauty such as gold and siver and precious stones; he is the "cherub with the flaming sword" that keeps us out of Eden.
Ezekiel 28:16:
"16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."

In the third chamber the eagle expands the cave to Infinity. The eagle is the polar opposite to the viper. Notice the picture of the eagle,especially the color.

The lions in the fourth chamber are equivalent to Blake's furnaces:

The 'cave' might be considered a commentary on Plato's 'cave'.

Here are two earlier posts on this subject:
The Printing House Printing House II

OLOLON IN MILTON

New York Public Library

                                Milton

                               Plate 50

Man cannot be healed of his disunity without recovering that portion of himself which Jung calls the Anima and Blake calls the Emanation. The complete man consists of the humanity and the Emanation, two contraries which together make a whole being. The negation of the contraries, named the Selfhood, Spectre or Shadow, was confronted in the first book of Milton. That which opposed Milton's healing was annihilated opening the way for the process of integration to continue through his assimilating his Emanation. In book two Ololon follows Milton's descent. She assumes responsibility for driving Milton into the Ulro and enters the transformative process.  
Although Ololon can be seen as Milton's emanation, Ololon is much more than that. She takes the form of a sweet river in Edan, she is a multitude of Eternals, she appears as a twelve year old virgin, a moony ark, and finally as a garment dipped in blood containing the literal expression of the Divine Revelation.

Jerusalem, Plate 88, (E 246)

"But if the Emanations mingle not; with storms & agitations
Of earthquakes & consuming fires they roll apart in fear
For Man cannot unite with Man but by their Emanations
Which stand both Male & Female at the Gates of each Humanity"

Milton, Plate 21 [23], (E 115)
"There is in Eden a sweet River, of milk & liquid pearl,         
Namd Ololon; on whose mild banks dwelt those who Milton drove
Down into Ulro: and they wept in long resounding song
For seven days of eternity, and the rivers living banks
The mountains wailld! & every plant that grew, in solemn sighs lamented."   

Milton, Plate 21 [23], (E 115) 
"And they lamented that they had in wrath & fury & fire
Driven Milton into the Ulro; for now they knew too late
That it was Milton the Awakener: they had not heard the Bard,
Whose song calld Milton to the attempt; and Los heard these laments.
He heard them call in prayer all the Divine Family;              
And he beheld the Cloud of Milton stretching over Europe.
But all the Family Divine collected as Four Suns
In the Four Points of heaven East, West & North & South
Enlarging and enlarging till their Disks approachd each other;
And when they touch'd closed together Southward in One Sun       
Over Ololon: and as One Man, who weeps over his brother,
In a dark tomb, so all the Family Divine. wept over Ololon.

Saying, Milton goes to Eternal Death! so saying, they groan'd in spirit
And were troubled! and again the Divine Family groaned in spirit!
And Ololon said, Let us descend also, and let us give            
Ourselves to death in Ulro among the Transgressors."   

Milton, PLATE 30 [33], (E 129)
"There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills           
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah
Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence"

 Milton, Plate 34 [38], (E 134)
"All fell towards the Center sinking downward in dire Ruin
Here in these Chaoses the Sons of Ololon took their abode        
In Chasms of the Mundane Shell which open on all sides round
Southward & by the East within the Breach of Miltons descent
To watch the time, pitying & gentle to awaken Urizen
They stood in a dark land of death of fiery corroding waters
Where lie in evil death the Four Immortals pale and cold         
And the Eternal Man even Albion upon the Rock of Ages[.]
Seeing Miltons Shadow, some Daughters of Beulah trembling
Returnd, but Ololon remaind before the Gates of the Dead

And Ololon looked down into the Heavens of Ulro in fear"

Milton, Plate 36 [40], (136)
"For Ololon step'd into the Polypus within the Mundane Shell
They could not step into Vegetable Worlds without becoming
The enemies of Humanity except in a Female Form          
And as One Female, Ololon and all its mighty Hosts
Appear'd: a Virgin of twelve years nor time nor space was
To the perception of the Virgin Ololon but as the
Flash of lightning but more  quick the Virgin in my Garden
Before my Cottage stood for the Satanic Space is delusion        

For when Los joind with me he took me in his firy whirlwind
My Vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeths shades
He set me down in Felphams Vale & prepard a beautiful
Cottage for me that in three years I might write all these Visions
To display Natures cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion[.]   
Walking in my Cottage Garden, sudden I beheld
The Virgin Ololon & address'd her as a Daughter of Beulah[:]

Virgin of Providence fear not to enter into my Cottage
What is thy message to thy friend: What am I now to do
Is it again to plunge into deeper affliction? behold me          
Ready to obey, but pity thou my Shadow of Delight
Enter my Cottage, comfort her, for she is sick with fatigue 
Plate 37 [41]
The Virgin answerd. Knowest thou of Milton who descended
Driven from Eternity; him I seek! terrified at my Act
In Great Eternity which thou  knowest!  I come him to seek" 

Milton, Plate 39 [44], (E 141)
"So Milton
Labourd in Chasms of the Mundane Shell, tho here before
My Cottage midst the Starry Seven, where the Virgin Ololon
Stood trembling in the Porch: loud Satan thunderd on the stormy Sea
Circling Albions Cliffs in which the Four-fold World resides     
Tho seen in fallacy outside: a fallacy of Satans Churches
PLATE 40 [46]
Before Ololon Milton stood & percievd the Eternal Form
Of that mild Vision; wondrous were their acts by me unknown
Except remotely; and I heard Ololon say to Milton

I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon. there a dread
And awful Man I see, oercoverd with the mantle of years.   
I behold Los & Urizen. I behold Orc & Tharmas;
The Four Zoa's of Albion & thy Spirit with them striving
In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies
Are those who contemn Religion & seek to annihilate it
Become in their Femin[in]e portions the causes & promoters       
Of these Religions, how is this thing? this Newtonian Phantasm
This Voltaire & Rousseau: this Hume & Gibbon & Bolingbroke
This Natural Religion! this impossible absurdity
Is Ololon the cause of this? O where shall I hide my face
These tears fall for the little-ones: the Children of Jerusalem  
Lest they be annihilated in thy annihilation." 

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 142)
"But turning toward Ololon in terrible majesty Milton
Replied. Obey thou the Words of the Inspired Man
All that can be annihilated must be annihilated 

That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery
There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries
The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination."

Milton, Plate 41 [48], (E 143)
"Then trembled the Virgin Ololon & replyd in clouds of despair

Is this our Femin[in]e Portion the Six-fold Miltonic Female      
Terribly this Portion trembles before thee O awful Man
Altho' our Human Power can sustain the severe contentions
Of Friendship, our Sexual cannot: but flies into the Ulro.
Hence arose all our terrors in Eternity! & now remembrance
Returns upon us! are we Contraries O Milton, Thou & I            
O Immortal! how were we led to War the Wars of Death
Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Plate 42 [49]
Becomes a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion
Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee

So saying, the Virgin divided Six-fold & with a shriek
Dolorous that ran thro all Creation a Double Six-fold Wonder!
Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths              
Of Miltons Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea.

Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale
In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings
Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felphams Vale
Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became 
One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs
The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood
Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing
Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression:"

MHH 14 and 15

PLATE 14 The ancient tradition that the world will be 
consumed in fire
at the end of six thousand years is true. as I have heard from Hell. For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby 
commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite. and 
holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.  
This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual 
enjoyment. But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by  printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception were cleansed 
every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite. 
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. (Erdman 39)

Genesis 3:

22] And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
[23] Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
[24] So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Blake speaks here of the creation being consumed; to him (as in the Gnostics and other disciplines) creation is something we don't need. When creation is
consumed at our death when we leave the body to enjoy Eternity.
'Sensual enjoyment' is a term I don't understand (perhaps if we read enough Blake it may become clear).
In the next few lines Blake refers to a new? method of printing he devised.
As we go beyond the sense based vision we perceive and enjoy Eternity.

In a letter to Butts Blake wrote:
    " Now I a fourfold vision see
And a fourfold vision is given to me Tis fourfold in my supreme delight And three fold in soft Beulahs night And twofold Always. May God us keep
 From Single vision & Newtons sleep(Erdman722)  
 The last line re "narrow chinks of his cavern" is certainly evocative of Plato's famous myth of the Cave.

---

"As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years

since its advent: the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is

the Angel sitting at the tomb; his writings are the linen clothes

folded up. Now is the dominion of Edom, & the return of Adam
into

Paradise; see Isaiah XXXIV & XXXV Chap:
Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to
Human existence.

From these contraries spring what the religious call Good &
Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason[.] Evil is the active 
springing from Energy.

Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.

(Erdman 33)

Swedenborg was an important influence in Blake's early years. At 33 Blake wrote this material in Marriage of Heaven and Hell.  Swedenborg is reported to have announced the advent of the New Heaven to come.

The New Heaven means return to the Garden of Eden.

Isaiah chapters 34  and 35 are an excellent source for the New Age announced by Swedenborg and Blake; the good one is 35:

[1] The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.


[2] It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

[3] Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

[4] Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

[5] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

[6] Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

[7] And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

[8] And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

[9] No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

[10] And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

The rest of the text here contains material that we've already heard often.

BLAKE IN MILTON

British Museum Milton
Copy A, Plate 29

 
Blake did not stand outside of the action which occurred in Milton. He began the book by using events in his own life to provide metaphors for the parable he presented in the Bard's Song which initiated Milton's decision to 'go to Eternal Death.' When Milton undertook his descent from his abode in Eternity to Albion's land, Blake watched his path in the appearance of  a falling star. At this point Milton entered Blake by way of his left foot. Blake was not claiming to understand what was happening to Milton, but he was claiming a desire to be used in the journey Milton was undertaking.
    
Blake's point in his poem Milton was that in undertaking the task of finding ways in which Milton's life and work may be transformed to epitomize the lineaments of the spiritual child of God he knew in Milton, he learned to transform himself. In the first book of Milton, the two poets learn to annihilate the Spectre, in the second book they learn to incorporate the Emanation.


     

Milton, Plate 14 [15], (E 108)
"Then on the verge of Beulah he [Milton] beheld his own Shadow;
A mournful form double; hermaphroditic: male & female
In one wonderful body. and he enterd into it
In direful pain for the dread shadow, twenty-seven-fold
Reachd to the depths of direst Hell, & thence to Albions land:  
Which is this earth of vegetation on which now I write,

The Seven Angels of the Presence wept over Miltons Shadow!
Plate 15 [17]
As when a man dreams, he reflects not that his body sleeps,
Else he would wake; so seem'd he entering his Shadow: but
With him the Spirits of the Seven Angels of the Presence
Entering; they gave him still perceptions of his Sleeping Body;
Which now arose and walk'd with them in Eden, as an Eighth   
Image Divine tho' darken'd; and tho walking as one walks
In sleep; and the Seven comforted and supported him.

Milton, Plate 15 [17], (E 109)
"First Milton saw Albion upon the Rock of Ages,
Deadly pale outstretchd and snowy cold, storm coverd;
A Giant form of perfect beauty outstretchd on the rock
In solemn death: the Sea of Time & Space thunderd aloud
Against the rock, which was inwrapped with the weeds of death    
Hovering over the cold bosom, in its vortex Milton bent down
To the bosom of death, what was underneath soon seemd above.
A cloudy heaven mingled with stormy seas in loudest ruin;
But as a wintry globe descends precipitant thro' Beulah bursting,
With thunders loud and terrible: so Miltons shadow fell        
Precipitant loud thundring into the Sea of Time & Space.

Then first I saw him in the Zenith as a falling star,
Descending perpendicular, swift as the swallow or swift;
And on my left foot falling on the tarsus, enterd there;
But from my left foot a black cloud redounding spread over Europe.          

Then Milton knew that the Three Heavens of Beulah were beheld
By him on earth in his bright pilgrimage of sixty years"

Milton, PLATE 21 [23], (E 115)
"And down descended into Udan-Adan; it was night:
And Satan sat sleeping upon his Couch in Udan-Adan:
His Spectre slept, his Shadow woke; when one sleeps th'other wakes

But Milton entering my Foot; I saw in the nether
Regions of the Imagination; also all men on Earth,               
And all in Heaven, saw in the nether regions of the Imagination
In Ulro beneath Beulah, the vast breach of Miltons descent.
But I knew not that it was Milton, for man cannot know
What passes in his members till periods of Space & Time
Reveal the secrets of Eternity: for more extensive               
Than any other earthly things, are Mans earthly lineaments.

And all this Vegetable World appeard on my left Foot,
As a bright sandal formd immortal of precious stones & gold:
I stooped down & bound it on to walk forward thro' Eternity."

Milton, Plate 22 [24], (E 116)
"Tho driven away with the Seven Starry Ones into the Ulro
Yet the Divine Vision remains Every-where For-ever. Amen.
And Ololon lamented for Milton with a great lamentation.

While Los heard indistinct in fear, what time I bound my sandals
On; to walk forward thro' Eternity, Los descended to me:         
And Los behind me stood; a terrible flaming Sun: just close
Behind my back; I turned round in terror, and behold.
Los stood in that fierce glowing fire; & he also  stoop'd down
And bound my sandals on in Udan-Adan; trembling I stood
Exceedingly with fear & terror, standing in the Vale             
Of Lambeth: but he kissed me and wishd me health.
And I became One  Man  with  him  arising in my strength:
Twas too late now to recede. Los had enterd into my soul:
His terrors now posses'd me whole! I arose in fury & strength."

Milton, Plate 36 [40], (E 136)  
"For Ololon step'd into the Polypus within the Mundane Shell
They could not step into Vegetable Worlds without becoming
The enemies of Humanity except in a Female Form          
And as One Female, Ololon and all its mighty Hosts
Appear'd: a Virgin of twelve years nor time nor space was
To the perception of the Virgin Ololon but as the
Flash of lightning but more  quick the Virgin in my Garden
Before my Cottage stood for the Satanic Space is delusion        

For when Los joind with me he took me in his firy whirlwind
My Vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeths shades
He set me down in Felphams Vale & prepard a beautiful
Cottage for me that in three years I might write all these Visions
To display Natures cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion[.]   
Walking in my Cottage Garden, sudden I beheld
The Virgin Ololon & address'd her as a Daughter of Beulah[:]

Virgin of Providence fear not to enter into my Cottage
What is thy message to thy friend: What am I now to do
Is it again to plunge into deeper affliction? behold me          
Ready to obey, but pity thou my Shadow of Delight
Enter my Cottage, comfort her, for she is sick with fatigue  
PLATE 37 [41]
The Virgin answerd. Knowest thou of Milton who descended
Driven from Eternity; him I seek! terrified at my Act
In Great Eternity which thou  knowest!  I come him to seek

So Ololon utterd in words distinct the anxious thought"

Milton, Plate 42 [49], (E 143)
"Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound
My bones trembled. I fell outstretchd upon the path              
A moment, & my Soul returnd into its mortal state
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body
And my sweet Shadow of Delight stood trembling by my side"