Jerusalem

Extract From Jerusalem Plate 31.

And saw every Minute Particular of Albion degraded & murder'd,

But saw not by whom; they were hidden within in the minute particulars

Of which they had possess'd themselves; and there they take up

The articulations of a man's soul and laughing throw it down

Into the frame, then knock it out upon the plank, & souls are bak'd

In bricks to build the pyramids of Heber & Terah. But Los

Search'd in vain; clos'd from the minutia he walk'd difficult.

He came down from Highgate thro' Hackney & Holloway towards London

Till he came to old Stratford, & thence to Stepney & the Isle

Of Leutha's Dogs, thence thro' the narrows of the River's side,

And saw every minute particular, the jewels of Albion, running down

The kennels of the street & lanes as if they were abhorr'd.

Every Universal Form was become barren mountains of Moral

Virtue, and every Minute Particular harden'd into grains of sand,

And all the tendernesses of the soul cast forth as filth & mire,

Among the winding places of the deep contemplation intricate,

To where the Tower of London frown'd dreadful over Jerusalem,

A building of Luvah, builded in Jerusalem's eastern gate to be

His secluded Court. Thence to Bethlehem, where was builded

Dens of despair in the house of bread; enquiring in vain

Of stones and rocks he took his way, for human form was none;

And thus he spoke, looking on Albion's City with many tears:

'What shall I do ? what could I do, if I could find these Criminals?

I could not dare to take vengeance for all things are so constructed

And builded by the Divine hand that the sinner shall always escape,

And he who takes vengeance alone is a criminal of providence.

If I should dare to lay my finger on a grain of sand

In way of vengeance, I punish the already punish'd. O whom

Should I pity if I pity not the sinner who is gone astray?

O Albion, if thou takest vengeance, if thou revengest thy wrongs,

Thou are forever lost! What can I do to hinder the Sons

Of Albion from taking vengeance? or how shall I them perswade?'

So spoke Los, travelling thro' darkness & horrid solitude.

And he beheld Jerusalem in Westminster & Marybone

Among the ruins of the Temple, and Vala who is her Shadow,

Jerusalem's Shadow bent northward over the Island white.