| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. | | | | Selections from ‘Jerusalem’ | | [The Holiness of Minute Particulars] |
| | (Jerusalem, f. 55, ll. 48–53, 60–6.)
AND many conversèd on these things as they labour’d at the furrow, | |
| Saying: ‘It is better to prevent misery than to release from misery; | |
| It is better to prevent error than to forgive the criminal. | |
| Labour well the Minute Particulars: attend to the Little Ones; | |
| And those who are in misery cannot remain so long, | 5 |
| If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth.… | |
| He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars. | |
| General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer; | |
| For Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars, | |
| And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power: | 10 |
| The Infinite alone resides in Definite and Determinate Identity. | |
| Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falsehood continually, | |
| On Circumcision, not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion! | | | | |
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