Блейк-Словарь (Деймон)/Альбион

ALBION is a common poetical name for England. When the Trojans land on the rocky shore of Albion, they call it “mother” (PS, King Edward the Third vi:14). Thereafter, through the minor prophecies, Blake used “Albion” simply as the name for England, without reference to gender. About 1793, he added a couple of lines to his engraving, the so-called “Glad Day,” in which he gave the name of Albion to the dancing youth who symbolizes the politically awakened England. See ALBION’S DANCE, below. Eventually Blake learned that “Albion” was the name of the aboriginal giant who conquered the island and renamed it for himself. Neither Geoffrey of Monmouth nor Milton mentions him, but Holinshed does (Chronicles, 1577), confusing the classical Albion (a son of Neptune who was killed by Hercules) with the local giant, who was killed by Brut. Camden (Britannia, 1586) refers to him, and Camden’s admirer Spenser devoted a couple of stanzas to him (FQ II.x.11; IV.xi.15–16). Meanwhile Blake had come to believe that fallen Man is sleeping with his “faded head” laid down “on the rock of eternity, where the eternal lion and eagle remain to devour” (FR 96). In The Four Zoas he gave the name Albion to the hitherto nameless “Eternal Man” or “Fallen Man” (FZ i:477, 485, etc.). Albion is the father of all mankind (FZ ii:43). “He is Albion, our Ancestor, patriarch of the Atlantic Continent, whose History Preceded that of the Hebrews & in whose Sleep, or Chaos, Creation began” (LJ, K 609; DesC V, K 578, where he is identified with Atlas). But nothing of his history came from the legends of Holinshed and the others. He corresponds instead to Swedenborg’s Grand Man and the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalists. Albion’s wife is Brittannia (LJ, K 609; J 94:20, 26). When the Zoas changed their situations in the Universal Man, Brittannia “divided into Jerusalem & Vala” ( J 36:28). Jerusalem is called the daughter of the two (LJ, K 609), but she is usually known as Albion’s Emanation ( J t.p.). Jesus took her as his bride, giving Vala to Albion as his bride ( J 20:40; 63:7; 64:19; 65:71). This allocation of Emanations indicates the close bonds between God and Man. But the jealous Albion hid Jerusalem from the Saviour (J 4:33) and turned his back on the Divine Vision (FZ i:290, 558; ii:2; J 4:22, etc.), sinking into his deadly sleep. This loss of the Divine Vision had terrible consequences. Albion’s Emotions (Luvah) usurped the place of his Reason (Urizen) when those two Zoas were fighting over Albion’s body sleeping in the holy tent (FZ i:484–544). Urizen left Luvah to pour his fury on Albion (FZ i:540). Luvah did this when Albion worshipped the “Shadow from his wearied intellect” (FZ iii:50). Luvah smote him with boils (FZ iii:82), whereupon Albion dismissed him, limiting his senses (iii:83). Albion’s sleep is also a wandering (FZ i:478; v:221). “Now Man was come to the Palm tree & the Oak of Weeping which stand upon the edge of Beulah, & he sunk down from the supporting arms of the Eternal Saviour, who dispos’d the pale limbs of his Eternal Individuality upon the Rock of Ages, Watching over him with Love & Care” (FZ i:464). See ROCK OF AGES. Here Albion remains until the Last Judgment. Meanwhile Jesus (the Divine Council) elects the seven Eyes of God to protect the Man, whose inward eyes are “closing from the Divine vision, & all his children wandering outside, from his bosom fleeing away” (FZ i:553–59; cf. ii:43). “Turning his Eyes outward to Self, losing the Divine Vision” (FZ ii:2), Albion, in a last effort on his couch of death, delivers his sovereignty to Urizen (FZ ii:5). In The Four Zoas, Albion does not reappear until the beginning of Night viii, when the Council of God (Jesus) meets “upon the Limit of Contraction to create the fallen Man” (viii:3), who lies upon the Rock, dreaming horrible dreams. “The limit of Contraction now was fix’d & Man began to wake upon the Couch of Death; he sneezed seven times [thus clearing his brain]; a tear of blood dropped from either eye; again he repos’d in the Saviour’s arms, in the arms of tender mercy & loving kindness” (viii: 16). Later, Enion reports that Man is “collecting up the scatter’d portions of his immortal body into the Elemental forms of every thing that grows. . . . wherever a grass grows or a leaf buds, The Eternal Man is seen, is heard, is felt, and all his sorrows, till he reassumes his ancient bliss” (viii:562, 581). The Last Judgment follows immediately upon the death of the physical body. Albion wakes and laments his fallen state (ix:95–122). He then sits up and calls upon Urizen, to whom he had given his sovereignty when he fell asleep; but Urizen, now the Dragon, cannot answer (ix:123–35). Enraged, Albion blames Urizen as the cause of all the trouble, and threatens to cast him into the Indefinite forever (ix:136–61). Urizen repents, renouncing his attempts to control the other Zoas in fear of futurity, and is instantly rejuvenated (ix:162–93). Albion then tells Urizen of the Incarnation, and of the revolving seasons in Eden (ix:204–25). When the Lamb appears, Albion beholds again the Vision of God (ix:286), upon which long ago he had turned his back. He rises from the Rock and goes with Urizen to meet the Lord coming to Judgment, “but the flames repell’d them still to the Rock; in vain they strove to Enter the Consummation together, for the Redeem’d Man could not enter the Consummation” (ix:286–90). There is work to be done first. The First Day, of Urizen’s plowing and sowing, ends with the evening feast. “The Eternal Man also sat down upon the Couches of Beulah, sorrowful that he could not put off his new risen body in mental flames; the flames refus’d, they drove him back to Beulah. His body was redeem’d to be permanent thro’ Mercy Divine” (ix:354). Orc has now burned out; Albion gives Luvah and Vala into the hands of Urizen (ix:358). After Urizen’s reaping on the Second Day, “the Regenerate Man sat at the feast rejoicing” (ix:587). On the Third Day, Tharmas and Enion are rejuvenated and reunited. “The Eternal Man arose. He welcom’d them to the Feast. . . . And Many Eternal Men sat at the golden feast to see the female form now separate. They shudder’d at the horrible thing” (ix:617–22). These other Eternals “embrac’d the New born Man, calling him Brother, image of the Eternal Father” (ix:643). At the feast after the Fourth Day, the Eternal Man directs Luvah to gather the grapes (ix:693), but at the pressing he “darken’d with sorrow” and summoned Tharmas and Urthona to do their part (ix:693, 772). When Luvah and Vala had slept from exhaustion, they woke and “wept to one another & they reascended to the Eternal Man in woe: he cast them wailing into the world of shadows, thro’ the air, till winter is over & gone” (ix:796). On the Sabbath of the Seventh Day, “Man walks forth from midst of the fires: the evil is all consum’d. . . . The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds! . . . He walks upon the Eternal Mountains, raising his heavenly voice, conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day . . . in the Vales around the Eternal Man’s bright tent, the little Children play among the wooly flocks. . . .” (ix:827–40). In Milton, Albion-Britain is waked from his deadly sleep by the association of the revolutionist Milton with Blake. As he descends, “First Milton saw Albion upon the Rock of Ages, deadly pale outstretch’d and snowy cold, storm cover’d, a Giant form of perfect beauty outstretch’d on the rock in solemn death: the Sea of Time & Space thunder’d aloud against the rock” (15:36–40). Then Milton “fell thro’ Albion’s heart, travelling outside of Humanity” (20:41). “Albion’s sleeping Humanity began to turn upon his Couch, feeling the electric flame of Milton’s awful precipitate descent” (20:25). Los calls: “Awake, thou sleeper on the Rock of Eternity! Albion awake! The trumpet of Judgment hath twice sounded [in the American and French Revolutions]: all Nations are awake, but thou art still heavy and dull. Awake, Albion awake! Lo, Orc arises on the Atlantic. Lo, his blood and fire glow on America’s shore. Albion turns upon his Couch: he listens to the sounds of War, astonished and confounded: he weeps into the Atlantic deep, yet still in dismal dreams unwaken’d, and the Covering Cherub advances from the East” (23: 3–10). Satan, the Covering Cherub, is Albion’s Spectre (32:12; 37:45). The seven Eyes trumpet: “Awake, Albion awake! reclaim thy Reasoning Spectre. Subdue him to the Divine Mercy. Cast him down into the Lake of Los that ever burneth with fire ever & ever, Amen! Let the Four Zoas awake from Slumbers of Six Thousand Years” (39:10). When Satan appears in his true form, “Then Albion rose up in the Night of Beulah on his Couch of dread repose seen by the visionary eye: his face is toward the east, toward Jerusalem’s Gates.” His body covers the British Isles: his right hand covers Wales, his right elbow leans on Ireland, his left foot reaches from Windsor to Holloway, his right foot stretches to the Dover cliffs, with the heel “on Canterbury’s ruins,” and London is between his knees. But his strength fails, “ & down with dreadful groans he sunk upon his Couch in moony Beulah” (39:32–52). However, in the mystical moment, “Jesus wept & walked forth from Felpham’s Vale clothed in Clouds of blood, to enter into Albion’s Bosom, the bosom of death” (42:19). In Jerusalem, the fall and resurrection of Albion are studied in much more detail. The poem opens as Jesus calls on him to return (4:10), but Albion has turned away and in jealousy hidden his Emanation Jerusalem from her divine bridegroom. Blake sees “the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep and its fallen Emanation, The Spectre & its cruel Shadow” (15:6), and he implores the Divine Spirit to sustain him “that I may awake Albion from his long & cold repose” (15:10). “All his Affections [his Sons] now appear withoutside” (19:17). “Albion’s Circumference was clos’d: his Center began dark’ning into the Night of Beulah” (19:36). He flees inward and finds Jerusalem “soft repos’d in the arms of Vala” (19:40). In the colloquy that follows, it is told how Albion embraced Vala, rending her Veil; but although the Lamb gives Vala to Albion as bride, and takes Jerusalem for his own, both Albion and Vala are overwhelmed with guilt. His children and his whole universe are driven forth and separated from him by his disease of shame. “All is Eternal Death unless you can weave a chaste Body over an unchaste Mind!” (21:11). Therefore Albion commits himself to the materialism of the Moral Law, which is Vala’s Veil. “He recoil’d: he rush’d outwards: he bore the Veil whole away. . . . He drew the Veil of Moral Virtue, woven for Cruel Laws, and cast it into the Atlantic Deep to catch the Souls of the Dead. He stood between the Palm tree & the Oak of weeping which stand upon the edge of Beulah, and there Albion sunk down in sick pallid languor” (23:20–26). His last words are his curse: “May God, who dwells in this dark Ulro & voidness, vengeance take” (23:38). But his lamentations are stopped suddenly by the appearance of the Saviour. “Dost thou appear before me, who liest dead in Luvah’s Sepulcher? Dost thou forgive me, thou who wast Dead & art Alive? Look not so merciful upon me, O thou Slain Lamb of God! I die! I die in thy arms, tho’ Hope is banish’d from me” (24:57). Hereafter, all that ensues before Albion’s resurrection takes place in his dreams. When the second chapter opens, the Moral Law is established. “Every ornament of perfection and every labour of love in all the Garden of Eden & in all the golden mountains was become an envied horror and a remembrance of jealousy, and every Act a Crime, and Albion the punisher & judge. . . . All these ornaments are crimes, they are made by the labours of loves, of unnatural consanguinities and friendships horrid to think of when enquired deeply into; and all these hills & valleys are accursed witnesses of Sin. I therefore condense them into solid rocks, stedfast, a foundation and certainty and demonstrative truth, that Man be separate from Man” (28:1–12). “He sat by Tyburn’s brook [the gallows], and underneath his heel shot up a deadly Tree: he nam’d it Moral Virtue and the Law of God who dwells in Chaos hidden from the human sight” (28:14). “From willing sacrifice of Self, to sacrifice of (miscall’d) Enemies for Atonement, Albion began to erect twelve Altars . . . He nam’d them Justice and Truth” (28:20–23). In the rearranged version, Plates 33–37 follow Plate 28, so that Albion’s Spectre and Vala appear immediately after Albion sets himself up as Judge. “Turning his back to the Divine Vision, his Spectrous Chaos before his face appear’d, an Unformed Memory” (33:1). The Spectre announces: “I am your Rational Power, O Albion, & that Human Form you call Divine is but a Worm seventy inches long” (33:5). Vala then announces the supremacy of woman (33:48–34:1). While Los tries to get Reuben into the Promised Land, “the Divine hand found the Two Limits, Satan and Adam, in Albion’s bosom” (35:1). Los calls on Albion to rouse himself; “Albion fled more indignant, revengeful covering his face and bosom with petrific hardness, and his hands and feet, lest any should enter his bosom & embrace his hidden heart” (37:12–38:3); yet the Saviour follows him, declaring the Universal Family of men in Jesus (38:10–26). Albion flees through the Gate of Los. “Seeing Albion had turn’d his back against the Divine Vision, Los said to Albion: ‘Whither fleest thou?’ Albion reply’d: ‘I die! I go to Eternal Death! . . . God hath forsaken me . . .’” (39:11–23). Los (now the Spectre of Urthona) and Enitharmon escape fromAlbion’s darkening locks and report how Albion worshipped his own Shadow and cast forth Luvah, who had smitten him with boils (29:28–84; cf. FZ iii:44–104). When Los shows his labors to Albion, Albion sees that his would-be victims are his own affections. Furious, he orders Hand and Hyle to bring Los to justice. “And as Albion built his frozen Altars, Los built the Mundane Shell” (42:78). The Twenty-eight Cathedral Cities kneel round Albion’s Couch of Death (41:24); “with one accord in love sublime, & as on Cherubs’ wings, they Albion surround with kindest violence to bear him back against his will thro’ Los’s Gate to Eden. . . . but Albion dark, repugnant, roll’d his Wheels backward into Non-Entity” (44:1–6). War breaks out; again Albion utters his last words: “‘Hope is banish’d from me.’ These were his last words; and the merciful Saviour in his arms reciev’d him, in the arms of tender mercy, and repos’d the pale limbs of his Eternal Individuality upon the Rock of Ages” (47:18–48:4). In Chapter iii, Los builds Golgonooza “in the midst of the rocks of the Altars of Albion” (53:17). “But Albion fell down, a Rocky fragment from Eternity hurl’d by his own Spectre, who is the Reasoning Power in every Man, into his own Chaos, which is the Memory between Man & Man. The silent broodings of deadly revenge, springing from the all powerful parental affection, fills Albion from head to foot” (54:6). “Then Albion drew England [Brittannia] into his bosom in groans & tears, but she stretch’d out her starry Night in Spaces against him” (54:27). The Seven Eyes are established (55:30); the Plowing of the Nations begins (55:54). “But Albion fled from the Divine Vision; with the Plow of Nations enflaming, the Living Creatures madden’d, and Albion fell into the Furrow; and the Plow went over him & the Living was Plowed in among the Dead. But his Spectre rose over the starry Plow. Albion fled beneath the Plow till he came to the Rock of Ages, & he took his Seat upon the Rock” (57:12). War impends. “The clouds of Albion’s Druid Temples rage in the eastern heaven while Los sat terrified beholding Albion’s Spectre, who is Luvah [France], spreading in bloody veins in torments over Europe & Asia, not yet formed” (60:1). War breaks out: “Luvah’s Cloud reddening above burst forth in streams of blood upon the heavens” (62:30). In the confusion that follows, Albion takes no part until his final awakening. “Albion cold lays on his Rock . . . England [Brittannia], a Female Shadow . . . lays upon his bosom heavy . . . And the Body of Albion was closed apart from all Nations. . . . Time was Finished! The breath Divine Breathed over Albion beneath the Furnaces & starry Wheels and in the Immortal Tomb. And England, who is Brittannia, awoke from Death on Albion’s bosom” (94:1–20). She laments that she has murdered her husband “in Dreams of Chastity & Moral Law . . . with the Knife of the Druid. . . . O all ye Nations of the Earth, behold ye the Jealous Wife!” (94:22–26). Her voice wakes Albion; he rises in wrath and grasps his bow, compelling the Zoas to their proper tasks (95:1–18). Brittannia enters his bosom rejoicing (95:22; 96:2). Then Jesus appears standing by Albion; they converse; the cloud of the Covering Cherub, who is Albion’s Self (96:13), divides them (96:29); but Albion sacrifices himself for Jesus (96:35). Instantly all the terrors are a dream; the Zoas enter Albion’s bosom (96:41); and Albion stands by Jesus in heaven, “Fourfold among the Visions of God in Eternity” (96:43). With his fourfold bow he annihilates the Druid Spectre (98:6), and Eternity is achieved in the mystical union of all things. ALBION’S DANCE (often called “Glad Day”) exists in two versions: a line engraving (ca. 1790) and a color print (ca. 1793). The engraving is signed “W. B. 1780,” doubtless the date of Blake’s original design. Albion, a nude irradiant youth with arms outspread, stands on a high eminence, rising above a black downpour from clouds in the background. Between his feet, a moth flies free of its chrysalis, signifying the new birth. In some copies, beneath is written: “Albion rose from where he labour’d at the Mill with Slaves: Giving himself for the Nations he danc’d the dance of Eternal Death.” The subject is political: England rises spiritually above the Industrial Revolution and works for all nations. “Eternal Death” signifies complete self-sacrifice, and Albion’s arms are in the position of the crucifixion. In the color print, the initials, date, month, and inscription cannot be seen. From Albion expands a glory of primary colors. In 1938 Anthony Blunt identified Albion’s posture as that of the “Vitruvian Man.” Vitruvius ( De architectura, iii) had remarked that man’s body is a model of proportion because with arms and legs extended it fits into the perfect geometrical forms, the square and the circle. The Renaissance artists made many attempts to fit the human body into these forms. The earliest known appears in the Trattato d’architettura by Francesco di Giorgio (1439–1502). The best known is that of Leonardo. The nearest to Blake’s is in Scamozzi’s Dell’ idea dell’ architettura universale (1615). Blake could well have been impressed with the idea that Man thus represented the Microcosm; however, he disliked geometry, and omitted the geometrical forms from his picture. Later Blunt (The Art of William Blake, New York, 1959, p. 33 and plates) made a very convincing case that Blake was also influenced by a Roman bronze of a dancing faun. The sunburst effect of the picture gave it early the title of “Glad Day,” on the erroneous assumption that it was inspired by lines in Romeo and Juliet (III.v.9–10): “Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day | Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.” But there are no candles and no mist, nor does the figure stand on tiptoe. ALBION’S DAUGHTERS, in the Visions of the Daughters of Albion, are simply Englishwomen, enslaved in the social mores of their time, who weep over their sorrows and long for the freedom of the body, or “America” (VDA 1:1–2). They hear Oothoon’s woes “ & eccho back her sighs” (2: 20; 5:2; 8:13). In the three major prophecies, however, the Daughters are twelve; they have names, personalities, and functions. They are listed first in an insertion in The Four Zoas (ii:61): Gwendolen, Ragan, Sabrina, Gonorill, Mehetabel, Cordella, Boadicea, Conwenna, Estrild, Gwinefrid, Ignoge, and Cambel, but are not mentioned again in the epic. A revised list appears in Jerusalem (5:40–44): Cambel, Gwendolen, Conwenna, Cordella, Ignoge, Gwiniverra, Gwinefred, Gonorill, Sabrina, Estrild, Mehetabel, and Ragan. Gwiniverra has replaced Boadicea, who is later equated with Cambel (J 71:23). This order is revised again when the Daughters are paired with the Sons (J 71:10–49). The names, “names anciently remember’d, but now contemn’d as fictions” (J 5:38), are derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s legendary Historia Britonum and Milton’s History of Britain. Gwinefred alone seems to have no source; it is impossible that she could be the virgin martyr, St. Winifred, of the famous well. Mostly, they are a bad lot: queens, leaders of armies, adulteresses and mistresses, jealous wives, faithless daughters, bastard children. “In every bosom they controll our Vegetative powers” ( J 5:39), for they are all aspects of the sexual strife. “And this is the manner of the Daughters of Albion in their beauty. Every one is threefold in Head & Heart & Reins, & every one has three Gates into the Three Heavens of Beulah, which shine translucent in their Foreheads & their Bosoms & their Loins surrounded with fires unapproachable: but whom they please they take up into their Heavens in intoxicating delight” (Mil 5:5–10). Five of them are under Tirzah: Cambel (the “Venus pudica”), Gwendolen, Conwenna, Cordella, and Ignoge; the other seven are under Rahab ( J 5:40–44). They set up as Female Wills; they torture men; with their charms they infuriate the warriors to battle. “They are the beautiful Emanations of the Twelve Sons of Albion” ( J 5:45). When Albion is disintegrating they escape from him after the Sons (J 21:7). They come from the four Emanations of the Zoas (J 14:11). Albion is horrified when he learns that their childhood was not so innocent as he supposed (J 21:19–27). As men communicate with others by means of their Emanations, the Twelve Daughters in their ideal state often work together and even produce each other. Hand and Hyle share Cambel and Gwendolen (J 71:23); Coban’s Ignoge adjoins with Gwantoke’s children and becomes the mother of Gwantoke’s Cordella (J 71:28); Breretun’s Ragan adjoins to Slade and produces Slade’s Gonorill ( J 71:33); Kox’s Estrild joins with Gwantoke’s Cordella ( J 71:43); and Kotope’s Sabrina joins with Peachey’s Mehetabel (J 71:45). In the apocalypse, “All the Sons & Daughters of Albion [rise] on soft clouds, waking from Sleep” (J 96:39). For details, see BOADICEA, CAMBEL, CONWENNA, CORDELLA, ESTRILD, GONORILL, GWENDOLEN, GWINEFRED, GWINIVERRA, IGNOGE, MEHETABEL, RAGAN, SABRINA. See also ALBION’S SONS below. ALBION’S SONS escape from his Bosom when he falls into his deadly sleep (J 32:10). They are his affections (J 19:17), or the States of his Center, or Heart (J 71:9). Their twelve names are Hand, Hyle, Coban, Guantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slade, Hutton, Scofield, Kox, Kotope, and Bowen. As eight of these names were derived from those connected with Blake’s trial for treason (Hayley, Quantock, Peachey, Brereton, Hutton, Scofield, Cock, and Bowen), it may be assumed that the other four were also involved, although they have not been identified. The last four are separated from the others in the first listing (J 5:27); they are “one” in Scofield, Blake’s accuser (J 7:47); and they are the only Sons assigned compass points (J 71:40, 43, 45, 48). They are the Accusers; from which fact one might assume that the first four are the Executioners (and Hand is certainly that), and the middle four are the Judges. However, this classification is not satisfactory. The first three (Hand, Hyle, and Coban) are grouped together six times (Mil 19:58; 23:15; J 8:41; 9:21; 18:41; 36:15), and are evidently the Head, Heart, and Loins. The next three (Guantok, Peachey, and Brereton) have been identified as three of Blake’s judges. This leaves Slade and Hutton unclassified. There is a further complication in the fact that the Twelve Tribes are the spiritual equivalents of the Twelve Sons. “And above Albion’s Land was seen the Heavenly Canaan as the Substance is to the Shadow, and above Albion’s Twelve Sons were seen Jerusalem’s Sons and all the Twelve Tribes spreading over Albion. As the Soul is to the Body, so Jerusalem’s Sons are to the Sons of Albion” ( J 71:1). Hand, the first of Albion’s Sons, cuts the fibres of Reuben, the first of the Tribes ( J 90:25); similarly Bowen, the last of the Sons, cuts the fibres from Benjamin, the last Tribe (J 90:15). But the allocation of counties to the Sons and the Tribes do not correspond. Further attempts to equate the two lists seem futile. In their state of Innocence, the “Sons came to Jerusalem with gifts; she sent them away with blessings on their hands & on their feet, blessings of gold and pearl & diamond” (J 24:38). This perfect state, when they dwell in the various Cathedral Cities with their Emanations, is described at length (J 71:10–49). But when they become separate from Albion, they rage to devour his sleeping Humanity (J 5:30; 78:2); they renounce their father and declare war against him (J 18:13, 21), also against the Saviour (J 18:37), the Imagination (J 5:58), Golgonooza and Los’s Furnaces (J 5:29), Jerusalem (J 18:11), and Erin (J 78:12). See ERIN. They are Spectres (J 65:56; 66:15; 78:1), having petrified their Emanations (J 8:43; 9:1). They have constructed an Abstract Philosophy to war against the Imagination (J 5:58). “And this is the manner of the Sons of Albion in their strength: they take the Two Contraries which are call’d Qualities, with which Every Substance is clothed: they name them Good & Evil; from them they make an Abstract, which is a Negation not only of the Substance from which it is derived, a murderer of its own Body, but also a murderer of every Divine Member: it is the Reasoning Power, an Abstract objecting power that Negatives every thing” (J 10:7). “The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man, & when separated from Imagination and closing itself as in steel in a Ratio of the Things of Memory, It thence frames Laws & Moralities to destroy Imagination, the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars” (J 74:10). When Albion establishes his Law, they flee, being the first Transgressors ( J 28:23; 48:61), “trembling victims of his Moral Justice” (J 23:34). They assume the Providence of God and “slay” him (J 24:56), and lay him on a golden couch round which they rear “their Druid Patriarchal rocky Temples” ( J 32:14), preaching Vengeance and “planting these Oaken Groves, Erecting these Dragon Temples” (J 25:4). Although they began by crucifying Vala, whom Nimrod released ( J 22:2), they soon hail her as their Goddess Virgin-Mother (J 18:29), crowning her with gold and giving her power over the Earth, “even to the stars exalting her Throne, to build beyond the Throne of God and the Lamb” (J 78:15– 20). “Furious in pride of Selfhood [they] rear their dark Rocks among the Stars of God” (J 58:48). They build the druid Stonehenge as Vala’s temple, “Natural Religion & its Altars Natural Morality” (J 66:2, 8). They corrupt the Twenty-four Cathedral Cities, “raging against their Human natures, rav’ning to gormandize the Human majesty and beauty of the Twenty-four, condensing them into solid rocks with cruelty and abhorrence, suspition & revenge” (J 19:23; 42:48). However, when the Cities try to save man, they can still curb their Spectres severely (J 42:67), which “rage within” (J 41:25) and “cry out from the deeps beneath” (J 42:57). The Sons become the twelve pagan gods (Mil 37:34; J 74:22). They are murderous towards their Emanations, “the infant Loves & Graces . . . infant thoughts & desires,” which they petrify (J 8:44; 9:2). But Los builds Golgonooza to protect them (J 53:23); he dashes in pieces the Sons’ “Self-righteousnesses . . . lest they destroy the Feminine Affections” ( J 78:6–8); and he bids the Daughters of Beulah to “separate Albion’s Sons gently from their Emanations” (J 83:49). This separation is necessary because the Emanations have become Female Wills and the Sons’ enemies. The two chief Emanations, “Cambel & Gwendolen wove webs of war & of religion to involve all Albion’s sons, and when they had involv’d Eight, their webs roll’d outwards into darkness” (J 7:44). Their machinations are described at length later (J 80:37–82:79). The Starry Wheels are the Sons’. See WHEELS. The twelve become “as Three Immense Wheels” (J 18:8; 8:34) which as they turn rend a way into Albion’s loins ( J 18:43). These form the “Satanic Mill” of the Industrial Revolution (J 19:19); here the Sons grind the living and the dead “for bread of the Sons of Albion” (J 43:50). But Los fixes their systems “permanent, by mathematic power, giving a body to Fals[e]hood that it may be cast off for ever” (J 12:12). The Twelve Sons are “enrooted into every Nation, a mighty Polypus growing fromAlbion over the whole Earth” (J 15:4). Soon Hand, the selfish Head, absorbs them all (J 8:43), and becomes the Polypus. See POLYPUS. “From these Twelve all the Families of England spread abroad” (J 5:33). In the apocalpyse, “All the Sons & Daughters of Albion [rise] on soft clouds, waking from Sleep” (J 96:39). For further details, see ALBION’S DAUGHTERS, above; also BOWEN, BRERETON, COBAN, GUANTOK, HAND, HUTTON, HYLE, KOTOPE, KOX, PEACHEY, SCOFIELD, SLADE.