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atom," for he is reduced to become the fabric of the universe. He is

"A Nothing, left in darkness," yet he is "an identity."

Therefore, Tharmas and Enion establish the basis of the finite universe. He falls to become the atomic fabric of matter while she falls into generation. Their dynamic interaction symbolizes the inversion of the regenerative cycle of the infinite to the generative cycle of the finite.

By contrast, Blake presents the regenerative cycle of the infinite:

In [Beulah del.] Eden, Females sleep the winter in soft

silken veils

65 Woven by their own hands to hide them in the darksom grave;

But Males immortal live renew'd by female deaths; in soft

Delight they die, & they revive in spring with music & songs. (K. I. 64-67)

In the infinite the life/death impulse is not a cycle of pain, but one of Joy in regenerate, reciprocal harmony. The veil symbolism, in con­trast to Enion¹s shroud, is part of a fruitful cycle in which the feminine and masculine energies are regenerated in a cycle of delight. The waking experience of the feminine energies in the infinite is of spring and summer. They sleep through winter and wake "in spring with music & songs" to their dawn. This harmony is unlike the laboured separation of flower and seed in the finite.

Thus, Enion's words "Farewell, I die," and "I hide from thy searching eyes" (K. I. 68), take on considerable irony. Her death will not renew Tharmas, neither will the fabric she weaves prepare her for a spring of eternal regeneration. Significantly, her words "hide" and "searching eyes" reinforce the metaphors of secrecy and introversion introduced earlier. The 'shroud' woven by Enion for her finite 'tomb' is of "sinewy threads" in contrast with the "soft silken veils" of the females in Eden: