He sung it to four harps1， at the tables of Eternity2，
In heart-formd Africa.
Urizen faded！ Ariston shudder'd！
And thus the Song began；
Adam stood in the garden of Eden，
And Noah on the mountains of Ararat；
They saw Urizen give his Laws to the Nations
By the hands of the children of Los.
Adam shudder'd！ Noah faded！ Black grew the sunny African
When Rintrah gave Abstract Philosophy to Brahma in the East.
（Night spoke3 to the Cloud：
`Lo！ these Human-form'd spirits， in smiling hypocrisy4， war
Against one another； so let them war on， slaves to the eternal elements.'）
Noah shrunk beneath the waters，
Abram fled in fires from Chaldaea；
Moses beheld5 upon Mount Sinai forms of dark delusion6.
To Trismegistus， Palamabron gave an abstract Law；
To Pythagoras， Socrates， and Plato.
Times rolld on o'er all the sons of Har： time after time
Orc on Mount Atlas7 howl'd， chain'd down with the Chain of Jealousy8；
Then Oothoon hover'd over Judah and Jerusalem，
And Jesus heard her voice a Man of Sorrows！ He receiv'd
A Gospel from wretched Theotormon.
The human race began to wither9； for the healthy built
Secluded10 places， fearing the joys of Love，
And the diseasd only propagated.
So Antamon call'd up Leutha from her valleys of delight，
And to Mahomet a loose Bible gave；
But in the North， to Odin， Sotha gave a Code of War，
Because of Diralada， thinking to reclaim11 his joy.
These were the Churches， Hospitals， Castles， Palaces，
Like nets and gins and traps， to catch the joys of Eternity，
And all the rest a desert；
Till， like a dream， Eternity was obliterated12 and erasd，
Since that dread13 day when Har and Heva fled，
Because their brethren and sisters liv'd in War and Lust14；
And， as they fled， they shrunk
Into two narrow doleful forms，
Creeping in reptile15 flesh upon
The bosom16 of the ground；
And all the vast of Nature shrunk
Before their shrunken eyes.
Thus the terrible race of Los and Enitharmon gave
Laws and Religions to the sons of Har， binding17 them more
And more to Earth， closing and restraining；
Till a Philosophy of Five Senses was complete：
Urizen wept， and gave it into the hands of Newton and Locke.
Clouds roll heavy upon the Alps round Rousseau and Voltaire，
And on the mountains of Lebanon round the deceasd Gods
Of Asia， and on the deserts of Africa round the Fallen Angels.
The Guardian18 Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent.