ENCOMPASSING

                        British Museum     

                             Europe 

Frontispiece, Copy A

      

Paradise Lost, Book 7

John Milton

Proverbs 8

[22] The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
[23] I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
[24] When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
[25] Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
[26] While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
[27] When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
[28] When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
[29] When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
[30] Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
[31] Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

Job 26

[8] He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.
[9] He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.
[10] He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
[11] The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.

Europe, Plate 2, (E 61)

"Unwilling I look up to heaven! unwilling count the stars!
Sitting in fathomless abyss of my immortal shrine.
I sieze their burning power
And bring forth howling terrors, all devouring fiery kings.

Devouring & devoured roaming on dark and desolate mountains      
In forests of eternal death, shrieking in hollow trees.
Ah mother Enitharmon!
Stamp not with solid form this vig'rous progeny of fires.

I bring forth from my teeming bosom myriads of flames.
And thou dost stamp them with a signet, then they roam abroad    
And leave me void as death:
Ah! I am drown'd in shady woe, and visionary joy.

And who shall bind the infinite with an eternal band?
To compass it with swaddling bands? and who shall cherish it
With milk and honey?                                             
I see it smile & I roll inward & my voice is past.

She ceast & rolld her shady clouds
Into the secret place."

Book of Urizen, Plate 20, (E 80)

"6. And Urizen craving with hunger                           
Stung with the odours of Nature
Explor'd his dens around
           
7. He form'd a line & a plummet
To divide the Abyss beneath.
He form'd a dividing rule:                                

8. He formed scales to weigh;
He formed massy weights;
He formed a brazen quadrant;

He formed golden compasses
And began to explore the Abyss                                   
And he planted a garden of fruits

9. But Los encircled Enitharmon
With fires of Prophecy
From the sight of Urizen & Orc.

10. And she bore an enormous race"                                

Jerusalem, Plate 24, (E 169)
"Yet thou wast lovely as the summer cloud upon my hills
When Jerusalem was thy hearts desire in times of youth & love.
Thy Sons came to Jerusalem with gifts, she sent them away
With blessings on their hands & on their feet, blessings of gold,
And pearl & diamond: thy Daughters sang in her Courts:           
They came up to Jerusalem; they walked before Albion
In the Exchanges of London every Nation walkd
And London walkd in every Nation mutual in love & harmony
Albion coverd the whole Earth, England encompassd the Nations,
Mutual each within others bosom in Visions of Regeneration;      
Jerusalem coverd the Atlantic Mountains & the Erythrean,
From bright Japan & China to Hesperia France & England.
Mount Zion lifted his head in every Nation under heaven:
And the Mount of Olives was beheld over the whole Earth:
The footsteps of the Lamb of God were there: but now no more     
No more shall I behold him, he is closd in Luvahs Sepulcher." 

Four Zoas, Night 2, Page 24, (E 314) 

"Luvah & Vala trembling & shrinking, beheld the great Work master                                                     t
And heard his Word! Divide ye bands influence by influence
Build we a Bower for heavens darling in the grizly deep
Build we the Mundane Shell around the Rock of Albion

The Bands of Heaven flew thro the air singing & shouting to Urizen
Some fix'd the anvil, some the loom erected, some the plow       
And harrow formd & framd the harness of silver & ivory
The golden compasses, the quadrant & the rule & balance
They erected the furnaces, they formd the anvils of gold beaten in mills
Where winter beats incessant, fixing them firm on their base
The bellows began to blow & the Lions of Urizen stood round the anvil
Page 25 
And the leopards coverd with skins of beasts tended the roaring fires
Sublime distinct their lineaments divine of human beauty
The tygers of wrath called the horses of instruction from their mangers
They unloos'd them & put on the harness of gold & silver & ivory
In human forms distinct they stood round Urizen prince of Light
Petrifying all the Human Imagination into rock & sand" 

Larry was fond of saying that the Hebrews were a chosen people in order to be a blessing. Likewise God has set the limits of time and space as a blessing so that the world may evolve and mature. 

Songs of Innocence, Plate 9, (E 9)

"Look on the rising sun: there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.      
And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve
Comfort in morning joy in the noon day.

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face      
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove." 

If we learn to bear the woes of life as gratefully as we welcome the joys, if we learn to love as we are loved, then we will see as we are seen. The cloud which obscures our vision will be removed.     

First Corinthians 13

[12] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.   

 

Minute Particulars

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 92

Look for the Four Zoas as well as Jerusalem in the image.

First posted October 2010

Most of this post came from Damon's A Blake Dictionary, pages 280-81: "Minute Particulars are the outward expression in this world of the eternal individualities of all things. God, 'the Divine-Humanity,' is ultimately 'the Only General and Universal Form.'" 

Jerusalem, Plate 91, (E 251) 

"He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children
One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst
Jesus will appear (verse 20): so he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect Whole        
Must see it in its Minute Particulars; Organized & not as thou
O Fiend of Righteousness pretendest; thine is a Disorganized
And snowy cloud: brooder of tempests & destructive War
You smile with pomp & rigor: you talk of benevolence & virtue!
I act with benevolence & virtue & get murderd time after time: 
You accumulate Particulars, & murder by analyzing, that you
May take the aggregate; & you call the aggregate Moral Law:
And you call that Swelld & bloated Form; a Minute Particular.
But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars: & every
Particular is a Man; a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus."

So the minute particulars are the outward expression of the 
individuals!, our fathers, mothers, children-- and of course many other 
things. 

Let's go back to Letter 16 at Erdman 712; 

     "The Light of the Morning
     Heavens Mountains adorning
     In particles bright
     The jewels of Light
     Distinct shone & clear--
     Amazd & in fear
     I each particle gazed
     Astonishd Amazed
     For each was a Man
     Human formd.  Swift I ran
     For they beckond to me
     Remote by the Sea
     Saying.  Each grain of Sand
     Every Stone on the Land
     Each rock & each hill
     Each fountain & rill
     Each herb & each tree
     Mountain hill Earth & Sea
     Cloud Meteor & Star
     Are Men Seen Afar"

 Your might see "Men Seen Afar" in terms of fourfold vision; now look at the final six lines of Letter 23 on page 722 of Erdman:

     "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"

Jerusalem, Plate 55, (E 205)

"Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones:
And those who are in misery cannot remain so long
If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth." 

 Here's an extended essay on Blake's minute particulars as they relate to the atomicity of "Newton or even Democritus (the founder of the concept of atomicity) and classical physics to Niels Bohr and quantum physics."

Finally Damon in his first paragraph summarizes the elements of our experience:
"The Minute Particulars of God are men (J92:31);
of men they are children (J55:51);
of life the joys of living, especially the embraces of love (J69:42);
of ethics forgiveness instead if judgment (J43:61);
of art the vision and the finished product; of science, the basic facts. (J55:62)"

With so much material to study we must certainly expand our understanding of Minute Particulars. 

 

Growing Up

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

William Blake was different from his earliest years, and he knew it
well. Partly it was innate: his sheer intellectual quotient had to
be awesome. The concept of a spiritual quotient (in a child!) is
illusive, but in this case it should be looked at. A unique up-
bringing removed him further from his contemporaries. And finally
he inhabited a social environment very different from anything we
know today.

          

At the age of four young William ran screaming from his
nursery to report to his mother that he had seen God looking in
the window. That was the first of many such bizarre confrontations.
(They went on for forty years before he satisfactorily and defini-
tively identified God.) A happier event occurred at the age of
eight when he sighted a tree full of angels. Eagerly he reported
this vision as well; this would have earned him paternal chastise-
ment except for the intercession of a compassionate mother. No
doubt he learned from the experience that in social intercourse one
must take into account differences of perceptibility.

We know little about Blake's parents, but their care of him 

proves unusual understanding; they must have been fully aware
that they had a genius on their hands. Perhaps their most import-
ant decision came on William's first day in school. In accordance
with prevailing pedagogical custom the schoolmaster severely
birched a student. Young Blake, acting upon his keen sense of
moral outrage, rose from his desk and made an immediate exit. It
was his first and last experience with formal education. 

 

His father showed amazing respect for the child's judgment.
That decision meant that Blake missed the usual brain-
washing, or call it social conditioning, that modern psychologists
understand as the primary function of general education. It
meant that he never learned to think society's way. Instead he
thought, he saw, heard, tasted, and touched through his own 

windows of perception, and they retained their childlike clarity
throughout his life. Child, youth, or old man he always knew
whether or not the emperor had clothes on.

Instead of school he directed his own education, primarily 

centered in the Bible. In the place of ordinary social
conditioning Blake was Bible soaked. The stories of Ezra and
Ezekiel were as real to him as childhood games. He must have
known large portions of the Bible word for word because line after
line, digested, assimilated, and recreated, appear in the poetry
he wrote throughout his life. You can bet that made a difference!
 

Although by no means wealthy Blake's father enrolled him
at the age of ten in Pars Drawing School. He intended to give the
boy first class training as an artist, but William with character-
istic sensitivity declined to be favored this way at the expense
of his brothers. Instead he proposed apprenticeship to an engraver,
a more modest financial undertaking. His father took him to see
William Ryland, the Royal engraver, and prepared to put down a
princely sum for the apprenticeship, but the child objected on the
basis of Ryland's looks; he told his father that he thought the man
would live to be hanged. Once again the elder Blake respected the
child's judgment, and sure enough, twelve years later Ryland was
hanged for forgery.

At fourteen Blake began a seven year apprenticeship with
James Basire, an old fashioned but respectable engraver. Blessed
with understanding parents the young artist was equally fortunate
in the choice of a master. Basire, too, carefully preserved the
boy's individuality and sensitivity against the downward drag of
the world. When he found his other apprentices exploiting Blake's
innocence, he sent the child to Westminster Abbey to sketch the
gothic art found there.

For the next five years Blake spent his days in this and
other religious monuments communing with the images of legend and
history. His imagination was nurtured and strengthened by the
spiritual treasures of his country. One day he saw Jesus walking
with the Twelve--and painted them. On another occasion he was
present, the sole artist as it happened, when the embalmed body
of a King Edward of the 15th Century was exhumed for inspection
by the Antiquary Society.

Some of Blake's formative experiences he shared with
his contemporaries but not with us. For example 18th Century
measures against crime were rather repressive by modern standards;
petty crimes such as picking pockets were punished by hanging. A
few blocks from Blake's home was Tyburn, the public gallows. In
all likelihood on at least one occasion the impressionable lad wit-
nessed a ten year old child being hung for his crimes. Tyburn be-
came one of the mature poet's continually recurring symbols; he
often equated it with Calvary, and he conceived of Satan as Accuser
and Avenger.

When Blake was nineteen, the American colonies declared

their independence. His feelings, like those of many other London-

ers, resembled the feelings of American liberals 190 years later

about another war. At 23 he was swept along with a crowd that

stormed Newgate Prison and set the prisoners free, eleven years

before Bastille Day. Many in London devoutly hoped that the Amer-

ican revolution might spread to England. Blake saw this in his

mind's eye because thirteen years later in his poem, 'America',

he imaginatively described it.

 

 

WEEPING BABE

First posted Dec 2010

Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar wrote a book, Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat, to explain the concepts of the new physics in the context of classical science. This quote crosses the dividing line between physics and cosmology:

"In Quantum Field Theory, things existing in the universe are conceived of as patterns of dynamic energy. The ground state of energy in the universe, the lowest possible state, is known as the quantum vacuum. It is called a vacuum because it cannot be measured directly; it is empty of "things." When we try to perceive the vacuum directly we are confronted with a "void", a background without features that therefore seems to be empty. In fact the vacuum is filled with every potentiality of everything in the universe. 

"...Unseen and not directly measurable, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence, like water pushing on things immersed in it . ... It is as though all surface things are in constant interaction with a tenuous background of evanescent reality. ...The universe is not "filled" with the vacuum. Rather it is "written on" it or emerges out of it."

______________________________Illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost

The following passages scattered through Blake's writing give the impression that the 'weeping babe' or 'weeping infant' is man in his potential form holding all possibilities. Like the Quantum Vacuum mentioned above the babe does not contain but 'allows the patterns of dynamic energy' to take form. The babe cannot be measured or defined but awaits 'fill[ing] with every potentiality of everything in the universe.' Into this babe we become immersed and become expressed through his potential.

The Pickering Manuscript, The Crystal Cabinet, (E 488)
"I strove to sieze the inmost Form
With ardor fierce & hands of flame
But burst the Crystal Cabinet
And like a Weeping Babe became

A weeping Babe upon the wild
And Weeping Woman pale reclind
And in the outward air again
I filld with woes the passing Wind"

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 214)
"And Jehovah stood in the Gates of the Victim, & he appeared
A weeping Infant in the Gates of Birth in the midst of Heaven"

Jerusalem, Plate 63, (E 214)
"The Cities & Villages of Albion became Rock & Sand Unhumanized
The Druid Sons of Albion & the Heavens a Void around unfathomable
No Human Form but Sexual & a little weeping Infant pale reflected
Multitudinous in the Looking Glass of Enitharmon, on all sides
Around in the clouds of the Female, on Albions Cliffs of the Dead"

Jerusalem, Plate 81, (E 239)
"Humanity is become
A weeping Infant in ruind lovely Jerusalems folding Cloud:
In Heaven Love begets Love! but Fear is the Parent of Earthly
Love!"
------------
Plate 82, (E 239)
"the mighty Hyle is become a weeping infant;
Soon shall the Spectres of the Dead follow my weaving threads."
------------
Plate 82, (E 240)
"She drew aside her Veil from Mam-Tor to Dovedale
Discovering her own perfect beauty to the Daughters of Albion
And Hyle a winding Worm beneath [her Loom upon the scales.
Hyle was become a winding Worm:] & not a weeping Infant.
Trembling & pitying she screamd & fled upon the wind:
Hyle was a winding Worm and herself perfect in beauty:
The desarts tremble at his wrath: they shrink themselves in fear."

Four Zoas, PAGE 27, (E 317)
"And I commanded the Great deep to hide her in his hand
Till she became a little weeping Infant a span long
I carried her in my bosom as a man carries a lamb
I loved her I gave her all my soul & my delight
I hid her in soft gardens & in secret bowers of Summer
Weaving mazes of delight along the sunny Paradise
Inextricable labyrinths, She bore me sons & daughters
And they have taken her away & hid her from my sight"

Thel, Plate 4, (E 6)
"Then Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed.

Art thou a Worm? image of weakness. art thou but a Worm?
I see thee like an infant wrapped in the Lillys leaf:
Ah weep not little voice, thou can'st not speak. but thou can'st
weep;
Is this a Worm? I see thee lay helpless & naked: weeping,
And none to answer, none to cherish thee with mothers smiles.

The Clod of Clay heard the Worms voice, & raisd her pitying head;
She bowd over the weeping infant, and her life exhal'd
In milky fondness, then on Thel she fix'd her humble eyes.

O beauty of the vales of Har. we live not for ourselves,
Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed;
My bosom of itself is cold. and of itself is dark,"

Four Zoas, PAGE 35, (E 324)
"The deep lifts up his rugged head
And lost in infinite hum[m]ing wings vanishes with a cry
The living voice is ever living in its inmost joy

Arise you little glancing wings & sing your infant joy
Arise & drink your bliss
For every thing that lives is holy for the source of life
Descends to be a weeping babe
For the Earthworm renews the moisture of the sandy plain" 

 

THE TIME RETURNS

First posted Dec 2011

 Blake's familiar hymn from plate 1 of Milton uses the symbols of Jerusalem to represent the ideal spiritual condition, and England to represent the fallen, material condition.

Milton, Plate 1, (E 95)
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land."

In Galatians Paul uses the symbols of Abraham's two sons to represent the same dichotomy of spirit and flesh: one by a freewoman and one by a bondwoman. Paul presents this as allegory of the two covenants; the one of bondage the other of freedom. He calls the condition of freedom Jerusalem but specifies that he speaks of the Jerusalem which is above: the mother of all.

The same desire that Blake has for building Jerusalem in England is expressed as Paul's desire that Christ be formed in those he addresses as little children. Paul calls the children of the freewoman the children of promise.

Galations 4
[ 19] My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
[20] I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
[21] Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
[22] For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
[23] But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
[24] Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
[25] For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
[26] But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
[27] For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
[28] Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
[29] But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
[30] Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
[31] So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Blake on plate 77 of Jerusalem seems to have written a continuation of the poem in Milton. In it Blake has Jerusalem call to her sister England to awake. He again recalls the ancient time of joy and love which can return if the Lamb of God but be received.


Jerusalem, PLATE 77, (E 231)
"England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy Sister calls!
Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death?
And close her from thy ancient walls.

Thy hills & valleys felt her feet,
Gently upon their bosoms move:
Thy gates beheld sweet Zions ways;
Then was a time of joy and love.

And now the time returns again:
Our souls exult & Londons towers,
Recieve the Lamb of God to dwell
In Englands green & pleasant bowers. "


Image from Blake's illustrations for Milton's Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity.
Painted for Thomas Butts in 1815.

 

Two Great Lights

First posted  Dec 2012

In Genesis 1:16 we read about the 'two great lights'.  Blake used the Sun and the Moon and inserted into them a world of meanings

[16] And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
[17] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
[18] And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
[19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

Like all natural phenomena Blake used the Sun and the Moon to express many things. He found two kinds of Sun, a natural sun and an eternal Sun:

(Erdman 465-6)
"What it will be Questiond When the Sun rises do you not  see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty"
From Auguries of Innocence (Erdman 490)
"If the sun and moon should doubt,
they'd immediately go out."

Penseroso and L' Allegro Plate 3

 From  MILTON'S L'ALLEGRO III
 Blake states: 
"The Great Sun is represented clothed in Flames 
Surrounded by the Clouds in their Liveries, in their 
various Offices at the Eastern Gate. beneath in Small 
Figures Milton walking by Elms on Hillocks green The 
Plowman. The Milkmaid The Mower whetting his Scythe. 
& The Shepherd & his Lass under a Hawthorn in the Dale"

The Great Sun is the Spiritual Sun, the source of light not measured in wavelengths and frequencies. The spiritual sun is the source of true existence which partakes of the eternal and infinite energy of life. It announces its presence by increased clarity of perception expressed in truth, mercy and grace.

Blake used the Lark as the symbol of the messenger of Los; he uses the symbol of the sun as Los himself as both the message and the source of the message. In this picture Blake uses scale as one of the means to distinguish between the natural world and the Eternal world. 

In the third illustration to L'Allegro Blake follows the text he is illustrating but changes the emphasis by using most of the page to present the sun at his eastern gate. The occupants of the mundane world, including Milton, appear at the bottom of the page as small easily overlooked figures. 

Four levels of existence can be distinguished in the image. The pastoral level of this earth is represented in the strip at the bottom of the page. Surrounding the sun is the level of Beulah as dominated by the feminine. Within the disc of the sun is the fiery transformative level. The primary figure which overlaps the other three layers is the Great Sun in his Human or Divine form.

 

HYMN JERUSALEM

British Museum

Milton

Plate 2 - Preface

Hymn Jerusalem

In the USA the first Monday in September is celebrated as Labor Day in honor of the workers who supply us with the physical necessities of living. For most a last picnic or excursion of the summer season represents the activity of the day. Labor Day began as a serious effort to recognize the Labor Movement which grew out of the need to protect the rights of those whose labor has often been unrecognized and undervalued. The movement had developed in order to safeguard workers and to reward them with wages commensurate with their work.

In the UK the Labour Party was an outgrowth of the efforts to prevent the exploitation of laborers when the industrial age became established. William Blake was concerned with the plight of the poor when their traditional employment was replaced with factory jobs. But he also envisioned his native land restored to a pristine condition suitable for the Lamb of God to walk upon its pastures green.

Milton, Plate 1, (E 95)

 "And did those feet in ancient time,
     Walk upon Englands mountains green:
     And was the holy Lamb of God,
     On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

     And did the Countenance Divine,             
     Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
     And was Jerusalem builded here,
     Among these dark Satanic Mills?

     Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
     Bring me my Arrows of desire:                     
     Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
     Bring me my Chariot of fire!

     I will not cease from Mental Fight,
     Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
     Till we have built Jerusalem,                     
     In Englands green & pleasant Land.

During world war I the “Fight for Right” movement was begun in Great Britain to strengthen people's resolve in desperate conditions. A leader of the organization, Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges, requested that his friend Sir Hubert Parry compose music so that Blake's poem (which is referred to as Jerusalem) could be sung at their meetings. The hymn was later used as a theme for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. It is frequently sung at meetings of the Labour Party in the UK.

Jerusalem, Plate 65, (E 216)

"And all the Arts of Life. they changd into the Arts of Death in Albion.
The hour-glass contemnd because its simple workmanship.
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, & the water wheel,
That raises water into cisterns: broken & burnd with fire:
Because its workmanship. was like the workmanship of the shepherd. 
And in their stead, intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel:
To perplex youth in their outgoings, & to bind to labours in Albion
Of day & night the myriads of eternity that they may grind
And polish brass & iron hour after hour laborious task!
Kept ignorant of its use, that they might spend the days of wisdom
In sorrowful drudgery, to obtain a scanty pittance of bread:
In ignorance to view a small portion & think that All,
And call it Demonstration: blind to all the simple rules of life." 

Song of Los, Plate 6, (E 68)

"Shall not the King call for Famine from the heath?
Nor the Priest, for Pestilence from the fen?            
To restrain! to dismay! to thin!
The inhabitants of mountain and plain;
In the day, of full-feeding prosperity;
And the night of delicious songs.

Shall not the Councellor throw his curb               
Of Poverty on the laborious?
To fix the price of labour;
To invent allegoric riches:

And the privy admonishers of men
Call for fires in the City                           
For heaps of smoking ruins,
In the night of prosperity & wantonness

To turn man from his path,
To restrain the child from the womb,
Plate 7
To cut off the bread from the city,
That the remnant may learn to obey.
              
That the pride of the heart may fail;
That the lust of the eyes may be quench'd:
That the delicate ear in its infancy                             

May be dull'd; and the nostrils clos'd up;
To teach mortal worms the path
That leads from the gates of the Grave."

Four Zoas, Night II, Page 35, (E 325) 

"What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
And in the witherd field where the farmer plows for bread in vain

It is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun
And in the vintage & to sing on the waggon loaded with corn
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer
Page 36 
To listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season
When the red blood is filld with wine & with the marrow of lambs

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan
To see a god on every wind & a blessing on every blast           
To hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies house
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, & the sickness that cuts off his children
While our olive & vine sing & laugh round our door & our children bring fruits & flowers

Then the groan & the dolor are quite forgotten & the slave grinding at the mill
And the captive in chains & the poor in the prison, & the soldier in the field
When the shatterd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!"

RED ORC

New York Public Library

Europe

Plate 14

This is the final plate of Europe showing the flames of Orc behind Los who is rescuing his daughters from the conflagration.

Milton Percival, on page 210 of William Blake's Circle of Destiny states:

"A cold and selfish world, without the principal of change, is the goal of Urizen's endeavor.

The fire force which prevents this eventuality is personified in Orc...Under the repression of a religion of rationalism, such as the unregenerate Los creates, the emotions become a dark and tormenting fire with both the will and the power to destroy the forces that harass them. Luvah appears in the fiery form of Orc. With his birth the Generative world begins - the Generative world out of which regeneration is to come...Every time a religion, a philosophy, or a created form of any sort is demolished, human passion, as symbolized by Orc, provides the destructive power...

As the principle of revolt in the fallen world, Orc is the 'evil' of the orthodox, struggling with the passivity and the negation which they impose...In him is all the anguish of self-righteous man in a struggle with his own self-righteousness. His is the torment of a man who believes himself a sinner and his God the principle of wrath against which he revolts, only to see himself in his revolt as a blasphemer against his God. He is that something in man which endures the torment, the cause of which he cannot define because it is hidden deep within himself."

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Europe, Plate 14, (E 66)

"Arise and please the horrent fiend with your melodious songs.
Still all your thunders golden hoofd, & bind your horses black.
Orc! smile upon my children!
Smile son of my afflictions.                                     
Arise O Orc and give our mountains joy of thy red light.

She ceas'd, for All were forth at sport beneath the solemn moon 
Waking the stars of Urizen with their immortal songs,
That nature felt thro' all her pores the enormous revelry,
Till morning ope'd the eastern gate.                             
Then every one fled to his station, & Enitharmon wept.

But terrible Orc, when he beheld the morning in the east,
Plate 15
Shot from the heights of Enitharmon;                
And in the vineyards of red France appear'd the light of his  fury.

The sun glow'd fiery red!
The furious terrors flew around!
On golden chariots raging, with red wheels dropping with blood;  
The Lions lash their wrathful tails!
The Tigers couch upon the prey & suck the ruddy tide:
And Enitharmon groans & cries in anguish and dismay.

Then Los arose his head he reard in snaky thunders clad:
And with a cry that shook all nature to the utmost pole,         
Call'd all his sons to the strife of blood.
                 FINIS"

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