Los

“ For Los said: When the Individual appropriates Universality
He divides into Male & Female: & when the Male & Female,
Appropriate Individuality, they become an Eternal Death.
55 Hermaphroditic worshippers of a God of cruelty & law!
Your Slaves & Captives; you compell to worship a God of Mercy.
These are the Demonstrations of Los, & the blows of my mighty Hammer
So Los spoke. ”

“ And Los wept and suffered, for though he is Time as seen by mortals, he is Eternity in himself, and all the self-hoods that are rent from Eternity are rent from his side. Urizen was so rent. He became darkness, blood, experience, mortality, all that is not imagination and inspiration. He became as the Feminine principle, without its lovable emotional symplicity. He became jealousy, which is always female uninstinctive, unmaternal made for destruction, even when it is the jealousy of God. ”

“ And his fall having done its first work, changes to an oblique motion, and presently his head that had been downwards (for when the bodily man enters into activity of the loins, the spiritual man within him is reversed in all its regions, its head is in the bodily loins, its loins in the bodily lie id) . This moment corresponds in the story of Los to that of the third stanza of the fourth chapter of "Urizen," where the eddies of his wrath settle to a lake. ”

“ At its close she fairly broke out:
“Yes, I did have a relative of that name, and the family have always suspected that he was murdered in Spain.”
A dead silence fell upon the company; and, as a matter of course, every lady present was transformed into an ardent believer. ”

“ Their claims to consideration as a class, existing—albeit by mere sufferance—in every city, village, and rural corner throughout the length and breadth of our wide domain, seem to have been crowded out and lost in the confusion and dust upwhirled by our great social vehicle in its onward sweep toward an imaginary and unattainable El Dorado. ”

“ One of the wisest things ever said by one of the profoundest philosophers of all time was the warning to the seeker after truth to beware of the influence of the ‘idols (or illusions) of the tribe’ by which he meant that body of traditional prejudices which every sect, family, nation, and neighbourhood has clinging to it, and in the midst of which and at the mercy of which every human being grows up. ”

“ Still with pertinacity they held on, each rejoicing in his own turn at the top, not only on his own account, but in the satisfaction of seeing the others beneath him. In their wild merry-go-round they seem to have lost sight of the value of the position itself, which made the object of their revolutions. ”

“ The streets were filled with bands of men who, at nightfall, carried lighted torches. There were Vivas in favour of Morelos, Independence, and the new Electors, all Americans, all men whose fidelity was suspected, and many of them positive rebels! Death was denounced against all Europeans, and their Governments. ”

“ Las Casas, who loved sinners as much as he loathed sin, observed this motley population with a more tolerant eye and affirmed that even amongst those who had lost their ears, he still found sufficiently honest men ”

“ These two bodies of civilians, whose profession has been so unjustly attacked by Quevedo, Torres, and other writers, manifested by their conduct, that probity, philosophy, and heroism even, are indifferent characteristics, accessible to all the conditions of society. ”

“ Deprived of their chief, the people lost heart; but to avoid the destruction of the city, they were allowed to depart, carrying with them nothing but their sins—the men in their breeches and the women in their chemises—and the place was occupied without further struggle. ”

“ These lost souls, the spirits of those divinely damned, must still frequent the earthly forests, or perhaps ally themselves with the spirits of evil and wander down the holes in the earth to join the legions of the nether world. ”

“ The tragic circumstances depicted in this sanguinary tale were used by the priests to 'point a moral.' The immolation of this unhappy youth was expounded to the people as a type of human destiny, which, brilliant in its beginning, often closes in sorrow and disaster. ”

“ The priest explained the mysteries of the faith 'by signs,' for the saving of the savages; thus compensating them with possible possessions in Heaven for the certain ones on earth which they had just been robbed of. And also, by signs, La Salle drew from these simple children of the forest acknowledgments of fealty to Louis the Putrid, over the water. Nobody smiled at these colossal ironies. ”

“ The rush to California, for instance, and the attitude, not merely of merchants, but of philosophers and prophets, so called, in relation to it, reflect the greatest disgrace on mankind. That so many are ready to live by luck, and so get the means of commanding the labor of others less lucky, without contributing any value to society! ”

“ I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! ”

“ Yes, indeed, I have often thought with a bitter joy that these riches, which would make the wealth of a dozen families, will be forever lost to those men who persecute me. This idea was one of vengeance to me, and I tasted it slowly in the night of my dungeon and the despair of my captivity. ”

“ After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my father lost health and spirits. ”

“ Where the shy bulbul plaintive mourns her love,
Shalt thou uplift thy blossoms to the sky,
Or wave them o'er the waters rippling by;
No more thy fruit shall stud with jewels red
The leafy crown thou fashionedst for thy head. ”

“ Leaving thy fragrance in her tawny bosom.
Thou still dost hold it. Nothing may avail
To rob thee of the odorous memory
Thou sweetly bearest of the cherry-grove,
Where blossoms bloom and lovers tell their love. ”

“ The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets—
Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth—
Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears
When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.
And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,
Green cowbind and the moonlight-colour'd May,
And cherry-blossoms, and white cups whose wine
Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day;
And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,
With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray;
And flowers, azure, black, and streak'd with gold,
Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold. ”

“ Freed from the exactions of a despotic master, absolved by the bounty of nature from the stern, ceaseless struggle for physical life, stirred no longer by the warlike spirit of the conquerors, the Latin races in America seemed for a time to have fallen into a condition of hopeless lethargy. ”

“ Plastering new log-huts 'mid her branches gray;
But when the Autumn southward turns away,
Then in her veins burns most the blood of Spring,
And every leaf, intensely blossoming,
Makes the year's sunset pale the set of day. ”

“ The warm and humming air is filled with insect sounds, ranging from the murmur of invisible gnats and midges, to the impetuous whirring of the great Libellulae, large almost as swallows, and hawking high in air for their food. Swift butterflies glance by, moths flutter, flies buzz, grasshoppers and katydids pipe their shrill notes, sharp as the edges of the sunbeams. Busy bees go humming past, straight as arrows, express-freight-trains from one blossoming copse to another. ”

“ In their drawing-room home they roll themselves up and sleep as dormice do in cold weather, but with warmth and sunlight they expand their petal-like tentacles, and as flies in summer air, now float on the surface of the water, now gem the fronds of the sea-blooms, hang like blossoms from a spray, or deck the brown rock with life and beauty. ”

“ Shall I swear to keep my comrades in exile, and let the shame of fear rest on the chieftain of their clan?
DEIRDRE—Can they not go? Are we not enough for each other, for surely to me thou art hearth and home, and where thou art there the dream ends, and beyond it. There is no other dream. [A voice is heard without, more clearly calling.] ”

“ Such the ungentle sport that oft invites The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain: Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights In vengeance, gloating on another's pain. What private feuds the troubled village stain! Though now one phalanxed host should meet the foe, Enough, alas, in humble homes remain, To meditate 'gainst friends the secret blow, For some slight cause of wrath, whence life's warm stream must flow. ”

“ All being arranged, we prayed in a low voice, not to be heard by the Spaniards, and set out by the moonlight, two hundred men of us, through this country of rocks, woods, and frightful precipices, where we went leaping and climbing, our feet seeming to be much less use to us than our hands and knees.
On the 14th, at the break of day, when we had already gained a great height, and were climbing on in profound silence, with the Spanish intrenchments to our left, we saw a sentry party, which, thanks to the fog—always thick in. this country till ten o'clock in the morning—did not discover us. ”

“ But if the man Who dies for freedom, loving all things less, Against world-legions, mustering his poor clan; The weak, the wronged, the miserable, to send Their death-cry's protest through the ages' span— If such an one be worthy, ye shall lend Eternal thanks to him, eternal praise. Nobler the conquered than the conqueror's end! 1492. Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate, Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword, The children of the prophets of the Lord, Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate. ”

“ I shall therefore write little more at present on the subject of the revolution, which now that we have lived some time in Mexico, and have formed friendships there, fills us with feelings entirely different from those which the last produced; with personal sentiments of regret, private fears and hopes for the future, and presentiments of evil which owe more than half their sadness to individual feelings. ”

“ The patience with which the savage would lie in the covert of the thicket, perhaps for one or several days, to watch the husbandman who might pass to his field or clearing, made the whole space around a settlement, and long reaches between the settlements, haunted as with imps of mischief. The savages, soon learning of the Sunday habits of the English in their rude temples, would steal upon the cabins, where only infants and the infirm were left, and ply the tomahawk, the scalping-knife, and the torch. ”

“ For myself, though but one man follow me, yet will I descend to that plain, walk through that multitude, and marshalling an hundred thousand Tlascalans, after I have rested me a little, return, by the same path we are now treading, to the gates of Mexico, to revenge upon such as yonder scum, the death of my brothers, who are in heaven, as well as to lay claim to those rich lands and mines of gold, which are our right, and which it is yet our destiny to overmaster. ”

“ The same to-day as yesterday
The Loom of Fate weaves death for the Boy's father.
The exodus after a time of waiting. Forced to seek employment elsewhere, many victims of the Jenkins' aspirations go to the great city nearby—the Boy among them.
¶ A friendless one—alone—as the result of the strike.
¶ So too, the Dear One—and her father.
¶ Fate leads them all to the same district.
¶ The Boy unable to find work—at last—
¶ And again in Babylon. ”

“ Out beyond the purple bulwarks of the Sierras, far off, the great, grim world went clashing through its grooves—the world that now they were to know, the world that called to them, and woke them, and roused them. ”

“ Lord, I submit myself to Thee and eke to Fate, Content, if so Thou please, to suffer and to wait.
My enemies oppress and torture me full sore: But Paradise at last, belike, shall compensate.
Though Fate press hard on me, I trust in the Elect, [1] The Accepted One of God, to be my advocate.
With this the King turned to him and said, ‘O youth, after having rid me of one trouble, thou addest another to me: but tell me, where is thy wife and where is the wounded slave?’ ‘The slave lies in the tomb under the dome,’ answered the youth, ‘and she is in the chamber over against the gate. ”

“ But we had no time to be particular, and climbed in amidst bows and handshakings, and prophecies of breaking down and of being robbed by a band of forçats headed by a Spaniard, who are said to be scouring the country; who are said to be, for just now, seeing is believing, and few reports are worth attending to. ”

“ And so, sweeping over the country, carrying fear and frenzy with him, scouting life and mercy, and crushing alike the guilty and innocent, he came one Sabbath to a rocky crest of the Sierras—the last tattered and frayed and soiled fringe of civilization on the opened tract of a great highway. ”

“ A very sad business is life. I cannot think how any one can care to live.”
“Remember Luis, and our father, and Jack, and Thomas, and our dear mother, who this morning stood between us and Fray Ignatius. Will you let this priest turn the sky black above you?”
“And also, men will fight. What for? Who can tell? The Americans want so much of everything. Naturally they do not get all they want. What do they do? Fight, and get killed. Then they go into the next world, and complain of people. As for Luis, I do not expect to see him again.” ”