The First Book of Urizen by William Blake

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Part one of the First Book of Euryzon. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Dennis Sayers. The First Book of Euryzon by

(00:27):
William Blake. Preludium to the First Book of Euryzon. Of
the primeval priests assumed power when Eternals spurned back his
religion and gave him a place in the north. Obscure,

(00:47):
shadowy void, solitary Eternals, I hear your call, gladly dictate
swift winged words, and fear not to unfold your dark
visions of torment Chapter one one lo, A shadow of

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horror is risen in eternity, unknown, unprolific, self clos'd all
repelling What demon has form'd this abominable void, this soul's
shuddering vacuum. Some said it is your horizon, but unknown, abstracted,

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brooding secret, the dark power hid two times on times
he divided and measur'd space by space in his ninefoll darkness, unseen,
unknown changes appeared in his desolate mountains, rifted furious by

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the black winds, of perturbation. Three for he strove in
battle's dire, in unseen conflictions with shapes bred from his
forsaken wilderness of beast, bird, fish, serpent, and element, combustion, blast, vapor,

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and cloud. Four dark, revolving in silent activity, unseen, in
tormenting passions, and activity unknown and horrible, a self contemplating
shadow in enormous labors occupied. Five but eternals beheld his

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vast forests, age on ages, he lay closed, unknown, brooding,
shut in the deep, all avoid the petrific, abominable chaos.
Six His cold horrors, silent, dark horizon prepared. His ten

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thousands of thunders, ranged in gloomed array, stretch out across
the dread world, and the rolling of wheels, as of
swelling seas. Sound in his clouds, in his hills of
stored snows, in his mountains of hail and ice, voices

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of terror are heard like thunders of autumn, when the
cloud blazes over the harvests.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Two.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
One Earth was not nor globes of attraction. The will
of the immortal expanded or contracted his all flexible senses.
Death was not but eternal life sprung. Two The sound

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of a trumpet with heavens awoke and vast clouds of
blood rolled round the dim rocks of horizon, so named
that solitary one in immensity, three shrill, the trumpet and
myriads of eternity muster around the bleak deserts now filled

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with clouds, darkness, and waters that rolled, perplexed, laboring, and
uttered words articulate, bursting in thunder that rolled on the
tops of his mountains. Four From the depths of dark solitude,

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from the eternal abode, in my holiness, hidden apart in
my stern councils, reserved for the days of futurity. I
have sought for a joy without pain, for a solid
without fluctuation. Why will you die, o eternals? Why live

(05:32):
in unquenchable burnings?

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Five?

Speaker 1 (05:38):
I fought with the fire, consumed inwards into a deep
world within avoid immense, wild, dark and deep, where nothing
was Nature's wide womb and self balanced. Stretched over the void,

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I alone an eye. The winds, merciless, bound but condensing
in torrents, they fall and fall strong. I repelled the
vast waves and arose on the waters, a wide world
of solid obstruction. Six Here alone, I in books formed

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of metals have written the secrets of wisdom, the secrets
of dark contemplation, by fightings and conflicts, dire with terrible monsters,
sin bread, which the bosoms of all inhabit, seven deadly
sins of the soul. Seven lo I unfold my darkness,

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and on this rock, placed with strong hand the book
of eternal brass, written my solitude. Eight laws of peace,
of love, of unity, of pity, compassion, forgiveness. Let each

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choose one habitation his ancient infinite mansion. One command, one joy,
one desire, one curse, one weight, one measure, one king,
one god, one law. Chapter three one. The voice ended.

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They saw his pale visage emerge from the darkness, his
hand on the rock of eternity, on clasping the book
of brass, rage seized the strong. Two Rage, Fury, intense indignation,

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in cataracts of fire, blood, and gall in whirlwinds of
sulfurous smoke and enormous forms of energy, all the seven
deadly sins of the soul, in living creations appeared in
the flames of eternal fury. Three sundering, darkening, thundering, rent

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away with a terrible crash, Eternity rolled wide apart, wide asunder,
rolling mountainous all around, departing, departing, departing, leaving ruinous fragments
of life, hanging frowning cliffs, and all between, an ocean

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of voidness, unfathomable. Four. The roaring fires ran o'er the heavens,
in whirlwinds and cataracts of blood, and o'er the dark
deserts of horizon. Fires pour through the void on all sides,

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on you horizons, self begotten armies. Five, But no light
from the fires. All was darkness in the flames of
eternal fury.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Six.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
In fierce, anguish and quenchless flames, to the deserts and rocks,
he ran, raging to hide, but he could not. Combining,
he dug mountains and hills in vast strength. He piled
them in incessant labor, in howlings and pangs and fierce madness,

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long periods in burning fires, laboring till hoary and age
broke and aged in despair, and the shadows of death. Seven,
And a roof vast petrific around on all sides he

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framed like a womb, where thousands of rivers in veins
of blood poured down the mountains to cool the eternal
fires beating without from eternals, and like a black globe
viewed by suns of Eternity, standing on the shore of

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the infinite ocean, like a human heart, struggling and beating,
the vast world of Horizon appeared. Eight, and Loos round
the dark globe of Horizon, kept watch for Eternals to
confine the obscure separation alone, for Eternity stood wide apart

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as the stars are apart from the Earth. Nine. Los wept,
howling around the dark demon and cursing his lot, for
in anguish Erizon was rent from his side, and a
fathomless void for his feet, and intense fires for his dwelling. Ten.

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But Euryzon laid in a stony sleep, unorganized, rent from eternity. Eleven,
The eternal said, what is this death? Eurrizon is a
clod of clay. Twelve. Los howled in a dismal stupor, groaning, gnashing, groaning,

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till the wrenching apart was healed. Thirteen, But the wrenching
of the horizon healed, not cold, featureless flesh or clay,
rifted with direful changes. He lay in a dreamless night.

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Fourteen till Los roused his fires, affrighted at the formless,
unmeasurable death. Chapter four A. One Los smitten with astonishment,

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frightened at the hurling bones, two and at the surging, sulfurious, perturbed,
immortal mad raging three in whirlwinds and pitch and nitre
round the furious limbs of Los. Four, and Los formed

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nets and gins, and through the nets round about five
he watched, in shuddering fear, the dark changes, and bound
every change with rivets of iron and brass.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Six.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
And these were the changes of you, Horizon. Chapter four B. One,
Ages on Ages rolled over him in stony sleep, Ages
rolled over him like a dark wate, stretching, changeable by earthquakes, riven, eulching,

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sullen fires on Ages rolled ages in ghastly sick torment
around him in whirlwinds of darkness. The eternal prophet howled,
beating still on his rivets of iron, pouring sodder of iron,

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dividing the horrible night into watches two and horizon. So
his eternal name, his prolific delight, obscured more and more
in dark secrecy, hiding and surging, so furious fluid his

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fantasies the eternal prophet heaved the dark bellows and turned restless,
the tongs and the hammer incessant beat, forging chains new
and new, numbering with links, hours, days, and years. Three

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the eternal mind bounded, began to roll eddies of wrath, ceaseless,
round and round, and the sulfurious foam surging thick, settled
a lake bright and shining, clear, white as the snow
on the mountains cold. Four forgetfulness, dumbness, necessity in chains

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of the mind, locked up like fetters of ice, shrinking together, disorganized,
rent from eternity, loose, beat on his fetters of iron,
and heated his furnaces and poured iron solder and solder
of brass. Five restless, turned the immortal chained, heaving, dolorous, anguished, unbearable,

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till a roof shaggy, wild inclosed in an orb his
fountain of thought. Six in a horrible, dreamful slumber, like
the linked infernal chain, A vast spine writhed in torment

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upon the winds, shooting pained ribs like a bending cavern,
and bones of solidness froze over all his nerves of
joy and first age passed over, and a state of
dismal woe. Seven from the caverns of his jointed spine down,

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sunk with fright, a red round globe, hot, burning deep
deep down into the abyss, panting, conglobing, trembling, shooting out
ten thousand branches around his solid bones, and a second

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age passed over, and the state of dismal woe. Eight.
In the harrowing fear rolling round his nervous brain, shot
branches round the branches of his heart on high into
two little orbs and fixed in two little caves, hiding

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carefully from the wind, his eyes beheld the deep, and
a third age passed over, and a state of dismal woe. Nine.
The pangs of hope began in heav pane, striving, struggling,

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two ears in close volutions from beneath his orbs of
vision shot, spiring out and petrified as they grew, and
a fourth age passed in a state of dismal woe.
Ten in ghastly torment, sick hanging upon the wind, two

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nostrils bent down to the deep, and a fifth age
passed over, and a state of dismal woe. Eleven in
ghastly torment, sick within his ribs bloated round a craving,

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hungry cavern. Thence arose his channeled throat, and like a
red flame, a tongue of thirst and of hunger appear'd,
and a sixth age passed over, and a state of
dismal woe. Twelve Enraged and stifled with torment, he threw

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his right arm to the north and his left arm
to the south, shooting out in anguish, deep, and his
feet stamped the nether abyss in trembling and howling and dismay,
And a seventh age passed over, and a state of

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dismal woe. End of Part one of the First Book
of Eurzon.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
The First Book of Vieurism by William Blake, read by
David Andres. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to
find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
This is part two of a two part recording. Chapter

(20:31):
five in Terror's Loss, shrunk from this task, his great
hammer fell from his hand, His fires beheld and sickening
hid their strong limbs, and smoke for with noises, ruinous loud,
with hurtlings and clashings and groans. The immortal endured his chains,

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though bound in a deadly sleep. All the myriads of eternity,
all the wisdom and joy of life, roll like a
sea around him, except what his little orbs of sight
by degrees unfold. And now his eternal life, like a dream,

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was obliterated. Shuddering, the eternal Prophet smote with a stroke
from his north to south region. The bellows and hammer
are silent, now, a nerveless silence. His prophetic voice seized
the cold solitude and dark void. The eternal Prophet and

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ursenclosed ages on ages rolled over them, cut off from
life and light, frozen into horrible forms of deformity. Loss
suffered his fires to decay. Then he looked back with
anxious desire, but the space undivided by existence struck horror

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into his soul. Los wept, obscured with mourning. His bosom
earthquaked with sighs. He saw yours in deadly black in
his chains, bound, and pity began in anguish dividing and dividing,
for pity divides the soul impang's eternity on eternity, life

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in cataracts poured down his cliffs. The void shrunk the
lymph into nerves, wandering wide on the bosom of night,
and left a round globe of blood trembling upon the void.
Thus the eternal prophet was divided before the death image

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of eurism for changeable clouds and darkness. In a winterly night,
beneath the abyss of loss stretched immense and now seen,
now obscured to the eyes of eternals, the visions remote
of the dark separation appeared as glasses discover worlds, the

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endless abyss of space. So the expanding eyes of immortals
beheld the dark visions of Los and the globe of
life blood trembling. The globe of life blood trembled, branching
out into roots, fibrus, writhing upon the winds, fibers of blood,

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milk and tears, impangs Eternity on Eternity at length, in
tears and cries, embodied a female form, trembling and pale
waves before his deadly face. All Eternity shuddered at sight
of the first female, now separate, pale as a cloud

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of snow waving before the face of Los. Wonder ah, fear, astonishment, petrify,
the eternal myriads at the first female form, now separate,
they called her pity and fled. Spread a tent with

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strong curtains around them. Let chords and stakes bind in
the void, that eternals may no more behold them. They
began to weave curtains of darkness. They erected large pillars
round the void, with golden hooks fastened in the pillars.
With infinite labor, the eternals a wolf wove and called

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its science Chapter six. But Los saw the female unpitied.
He embraced her. She wept, she refused in perverse and
cruel delight. She fled from his arms, yet he followed.

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Eternity shuddered when they saw man begetting his likeness on
his own divided image. A time passed over. The eternals
began to erect the tent. When an Etharmond sick felt
a worm within her womb. Yet helpless, it lay like

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a worm in the trembling womb to be molded into existence.
All day, the worm lay on her bosom all night.
Within her womb, the worm lay till it grew to
a serpent, with dolorous hissings and poisons. Round an Etharmon's

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loins folding coiled within an Etharmuon's womb, the serpent grew,
casting its scales with sharp pangs. That hissings began to
change to a grating cry. Many sorrows and dismal throes.
Many forms of fish, bird, and beast brought forth an

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infant form. Where was a word before the eternals their
tent finished, alarmed with these gloomy visions. When an etharmungroaning
produced a man child to the light, a shriek ran
through eternity, and a paralytic stroke at the birth of

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the human shadow, delving earth in his resistless way, howling
the child with fierce flames issued from Enitharmon. The Eternals
closed the tent. They beat down the stakes, the cords
stretched for a work of eternity. No more loose beheld

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eternity in his hands. He seized the infant, He bathed
him in springs of sorrow. He gave him to Nitharmin.
Chapter seven. They named the child Orc. He grew fed

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with milk of Anytharmon loos awoke here, oh sorrow and pain.
A tightening girdle grew around his bosom in sobbings. He
burst the girdle in twain, But still another girdle oppressed
his bosom in sobbings. Again he burst it. Again, another

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girdle succeeds. The girdle was formed by day by night
was burst in twain. These falling down on the rock
into an iron chain, each other link by link locked.
They took hawk to the top of a mountain. Oh,

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how anith arman wept. They chained his young limbs to
the rock with the chain of jealousy. Beneath yours In's
dreadful shadow, the dead heard the voice of the child
and began to awake from sleep. All things heard the
voice of the child and began to awake to life,

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and yours in craving with hunger, stung with the odors
of nature, explored his dens. Around he formed a line
and a plummet to divide the abyss. Beneath, he formed
a dividing rule. He formed scales to way, he formed
massy weights, He formed a brazen quadrant. He formed golden compasses,

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and began to explore the abyss. And he planted a
garden of fruits, but los encircled Antharmen with fires of
prophecy from the sight of yours In an orc, and
she bore an enormous race. Chapter eight, yours In explored

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his dens, mountain, moor, and wilderness, with a globe of
fire lighting his journey, a fearful journey, annoyed by cruel enormities.
Forms of life on his forsaken mountains, and his world
seemed vast enormities, frightening, faithless, fawning portions of life, similitudes

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of a fo or a hand, or a head, or
a heart or an eye. They swam, mischievous, dread terrors,
delighting in blood. Most yours In sickened to see his
eternal creations appear, sons and daughters of sorrow on mountains, weeping, wailing.

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First Thuriel appeared, astonished at his own existence, like a
man from a cloud, born and Utha from the waters,
emerging laments, Grodner rent the deep earth, howling, amazed his
heaven's immense cracks, like the ground parched with heat. Then

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Fusan flamed out, first begotten, last born, all his eternal
sons in like manner, his daughters from green herbs, and cattle,
from monsters and worms of the pit. He In darkness closed,
viewed all his race, and his soul sickened. He cursed

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both sons and daughters, for he saw that no flesh
nor spirit could keep his iron laws one moment, for
he saw that life lived upon death. The ox in
the slaughter house moans the dog at the wintry door,

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and he wept, and he called it pity, and his
tears flowed down on the winds cold. He wandered on
high over their cities, in weeping and pain and woe.
And wherever he wandered in sorrows upon the aged heavens,
a cold shadow followed behind him like a spider's web, moist,

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cold and dim, drawing out from his sorrowing soul, the
dungeon like heaven, dividing wherever the st footsteps of euris
in walked over the cities in sorrow to the web,
dark and cold throughout all the tormented element stretched from

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the sorrows of yours in soul. And the web is
a female in embryo. None could break the web, no
wings of fire. So twisted the cords and so nodded
the meshes twisted like to the human brain, and all
called it the net of religion. Chapter nine. Then the

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inhabitants of those cities fell, their nerves change into marrow,
and hardening bones began in swift diseases and torments, in
throbbings and shootings and grindings through all the coasts, till weakened.
The senses inward rushed, shrinking beneath the dark net of infection,

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till the shrunken eyes, clouded over, discerned not the woven hypocrisy,
but the streaky slime. In their heavens, brought together by
narrowing perceptions, appeared transparent air. For their eyes grew small
like the eyes of a man, and in reptile forms,

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shrinking together of seven feet stature, they remained six days
they shrunk up from existence, and on the seventh day
they rested, and they blessed the seventh day in sick hope,
and forgot. They returned life, and their thirty cities divided

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in form of a human heart. No more could they
rise at will in the infinite void, but bound down
to Earth by their narrowing perceptions. They lived a period
of years, then left a noisome body to the jaws
of devouring darkness, and their children wept and built tombs

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in the desolate places, and formed laws of prudence, and
called them the eternal laws of God. And the thirty
cities remained surrounded by salt floods. Now called Africa, its
name was then Egypt. The remaining sons of Urisin beheld

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their brethren shrinked together beneath the net of Eurism. Persuasion
was in vain for the years of the inhabitants were
withered and deafened and cold, and their eyes could not
discern their brethren of other cities. So Fusin called all

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together the remaining children of Eurisin, and they left the
pendulous earth. They called it Egypt, and left it, and
the salt ocean rolled and globed. End of the Book

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of Eurysin