the orphan charity children going to church, as it would appear to the
ordinary onlooker.

The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands.

* * * * *

Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

But in short, scathing words and significant change of metre he reverses
the picture to show his view of it, when, in the companion song of
"Experience," he asks--

Is this a holy thing to see
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduc'd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?

It is owing to a false idea that we can bear to see this so-called
"charity" at all, for we--

reduce the man to want a gift, and then give with pomp.

The real evil is that we can suffer the need of the crust of bread to
exist. This is a view which is gradually beginning to be realised
to-day.

Blake is peculiarly daring and original in his use of the mystical