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“The Argument” by William Blake 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (28 Nov 1757 – 12 Aug 1827)
Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air,
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
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Once meek, and in a perilous path
The just man kept his course along
The Vale of Death.
Roses are planted where thorns grow,
And on the barren heath
Sing the honey bees.
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Then the perilous path was planted,
And a river and a spring
On every cliff and tomb;
And on the bleached bones
Red clay brought forth:
Till the villain left the paths of ease
To walk in perilous paths, and drive
The just man into barren climes.
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Now the sneaking serpent walks
In mild humility;
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.
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Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air,
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
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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.