The Scoffers -- William Blake (1790)

 

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau,             

            Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain;

You throw the sand against the wind

            And the wind blows it back again.

 

And every sand becomes a gem

Reflected in the beams divine;

Blown back, they blind the mocking eye,

But still in Israel's paths they shine.

 

The atoms of Democritus                                

And Newton's particles of light

Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,

Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

 

 

(from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)