| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. | | | | Selections from ‘Milton’ | | [The Nature of Infinity] |
| | (Milton, f. 14, ll. 21–35.)
THE NATURE of Infinity is this: That every thing has its | |
| Own Vortex; and when once a traveller thro’ Eternity | |
| Has pass’d that Vortex, he perceives it roll backward behind | |
| His path, into a Globe itself enfolding, like a sun, | |
| Or like a moon, or like a universe of starry majesty, | 5 |
| While he keeps onwards in his wondrous journey on the Earth, | |
| Or like a human form, a friend with whom he liv’d benevolent. | |
| As the eye of man views both the East and West, encompassing | |
| Its vortex, and the North and South with all their starry host, | |
| Also the rising sun and setting moon he views, surrounding | 10 |
| His corn-fields and his valleys of five hundred acres square. | |
| Thus is the Earth one infinite plane, and not as apparent | |
| To the weak traveller confin’d beneath the moony shade. | |
| Thus is the Heaven a Vortex pass’d already, and the Earth | |
| A Vortex not yet pass’d by the traveller thro’ Eternity. | 15 | | | |
|
|
