85

35 "To feed them with intoxication from the wine

presses of Luvah

"Till the Divine Vision & Fruition is quite obliterated.

(K. III. 27-36)

Ahania points out that after the fall the mundane, component energy of Luvah replaced Divine passion. Urizen's "steeds of light" became intoxicated by Luvah's passions, and Urizen was forced "To forge the curbs of iron & brass" and "to build the iron mangers" to control them.

This leaves Urizen surrounded by paradox. On the one hand, the `chariot' of his energies, his "steeds of light," require the energizing power of passion; hence, Urizen is dependent on Luvah. On the other, the energies of Luvah intoxicate; hence, Luvah brings anarchy. Ahania sees only two alternatives for Urizen: he can either "Resume" his "fields of Light" and "Leave all futurity" to the infinite, or he can continue to fail to control Luvah's mundane energies. Consequently, Urizen's choice is rhetorical. The causality of the cycle of The Four Zoas determines Urizen's activity. He is "compell'd" to draw upon Luvah's energies until "the Divine Vision & Fruition" seems to be "quite obliterated" by the mundane and component passion of Luvah. The consequences of this conflict between Urizen and Luvah are intoxication and repression:

"They call thy lions to the field of blood; they

rouze thy tygers

"Out of the halls of justice, till these dens thy

wisdom fram'd

"Golden beautiful, but 0 how unlike those sweet

fields of bliss

40 "Where liberty was justice, & eternal science was

mercy.

"Then, 0 my dear lord, listen to Ahania, listen to

the vision,

"The vision of Ahania in the slumbers of Urizen

"When Urizen slept in the porch &, the Ancient

Man was smitten.

(K. III. 37-43)