68

In sevens & tens & fifties, hundred, thousands,

Number'd all

270 According to their various powers, subordinate

to Urizen

And to his sons in their degrees & to his

beauteous daughters,

Travelling in silent majesty along their order'd

ways

In right lined paths outmeasur'd by proportions

of [weight & measure del.] number, weight

And measure, mathematic motion wondrous along the

deep,

27S In fiery pyramid, or Cube, or unomamented pillar

square

Of fire, far shining, travelling along even to its

destin'd end;

Then falling down a terrible space, recovering in

winter dire

Its wasted strength, it back returns upon a nether

course,

Till fir'd with ardour fresh recruited in its humble

[spring del.] season,

280 It rises up on high all summer, till its wearied

course

Turns into autumn. Such the period of many worlds. .

Others triangular, [their del.] right angled course

maintain. Others obtuse,

Acute [& Oblong del.]. Scalene, in simple paths;

but others move

In intricate ways, biquadrate. Trapeziums, Rhombs,

Rhomboids,

285 Paralellograms triple & quadruple, polygonic

In their amazing (fructifying del.] hard subdu'd

course in the vast deep.

(K. II. 266-286)

A series of emendations lend still more support to the argument that Blake saw Urizen's work as Pythagorean, for these emendations indicate that Blake changed his basic metaphor from that of a circle, or globe, to that of a cube, or pyramid. The cube is Plato's corpuscle of earth, the pyramid his corpuscle of fire.

The ores melted in the furnaces of Urizen were moulded into "massy Globes" [emended to "massy Cubes" (K. II. 144)] and weighed. The "soft clouds & exhalations" of Urizen's palace were related to "sunny orbs " [emended to "sunny Cubes" (K. II. 2543] of "light & heat."