And to allay his freezing Age, 57
The Poor Man takes her in his arms;
The Cottage fades before his sight,
The Garden and its lovely Charms.
The Guests are scatter'd thro' the land, 61
For the Eye altering alters all;
The Senses roll themselves in fear.
And the flat Earth becomes a Ball;
The Stars, Sun, Moon, all shrink away, 65
A desart vast without a bound.
And nothing left to eat or drink.
And a dark desart all around.
The honey of her Infant lips, 69
The bread & wine of her sweet smile,
The wild game of her roving Eye,
Does him to Infancy beguile;
62 Cp. Jerusalem, f. 34, l. 55:—
'If Perceptive Organs vary, Objects of Perception seem to vary.'
64 Blake, in several passages, refers to the 'flat earth' becoming 'a ball' as a delusion of the modern scientific spirit.Cp. Milton, f. 28, ll. 4-20: —
'The Sky is an immortal Tent built by the Sons of Los;
And every Space that a Man views around his dwelling-place
Standing on his own roof, or in his garden on a mount
Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his Universe:
And on its verge the Sun rises & sets, the Clouds bow
To meet the flat Earth & the Sea in such an order'd Space:
The Starry heavens reach no further but here bend and set
On all sides & the two Poles turn on their valves of gold.
And if he move his dwelling-place his heavens also move
Where'er he goes & all his neighbourhood bewail his loss.
Such are the Spaces called Earth & such its dimension.
As to that false appearance which appears to the reasoner
As of a Globe rolling thro' Voidness, it is a delusion of Ulro.
The Microscope knows not of this nor the Telescope, they alter
The ratio of the Spectator's Organs but leave Objects untouch'd;
For every Space larger than a red Globule of Man's blood
Is visionary.'
See also Jerusalem, f. 77:—
'By it [the wheel of religion] the Sun was roll'd into an orb,
By it the Moon faded into a globe
Travelling thro' the night.'
65 Cp. Jerusalem, f. 66, ll. 50, 51.The . . . Moon] Stars, moon and sun EY.72 Does] Do all edd. except Shep.
