,libraries47          ,,william ,,blake3
 ,,the ,,man     ,all ,rights ,reserved 
,illustration3 ,,the ,,burial ,,of      
,,moses4  ,reproduced by kind permission
 of ,mr ,sydney ,morse4       ,,william 
,,blake   ,,the ,,man     ,,by ,,charles
 ,,gardner    ,,author ,,of ,,vision    
,,and ,,vesture1   ,,the ,,redemption   
,,of ,,religion1 ,,etc4     ,the men    
that were with me saw not the vision    
,,daniel     ,,london3 ,j4 ,m4 ,,dent   
,,sons ,,limited   ,,new ,,york3 ,e4 ,p4
 ,,dutton  ,,co4   ,,mcmxix      ,to    
,,monica     ,preface   ,this book is an
 attempt to trace the mental and        
spiritual growth of ,william ,blake as  
disclosed in his works4 ,after          
meditating on these for some years an   
image of the man has risen in my mind4  
,this ,i have tried to present with the 
aid of such biographical details as are 
to be found in ,gilchrist's ,life4 ,my  
warm thanks are due to ,mr and ,mrs     
,sydney ,morse for permission to        
reproduce their beautiful ,prayer of the

 ,infant ,jesus1 and ,the ,burial of    
,moses4 ,the photographs were taken by  
,mr ,albert ,hester4 ,also ,i must thank
 ,mr ,j4 ,m4 ,dent for the two designs  
from an original and invaluable ,job    
series in his possession4 ,the rest of  
the illustrations are from the ,print   
,room of the ,british ,museum4  ,c4 ,g4 
,,contents                              
,,page    ,,title-,,page                
#c    ,,dedication                      
#e    ,,preface                         
#g    ,,contents                        
#i    ,,illustrations                   
#aj    ,,chapter       ,i4 ,,childhood  
,,and ,,apprenticeship                  
#aa      ,,ii4 ,,coming ,,of ,,age ,,and
 ,,marriage                        #ba  
,,iii4 ,,the ,,blue-,,stockings         
#bf      ,,iv4 ,,early ,,married ,,life 
,,and ,,early ,,work                 #cg
       ,v4 ,,wesley1 ,,whitefield1      
,,lavater1 ,,and ,,swedenborg       #df 
,,vi4 ,,the ,,rebels                    
#ha     ,,vii4 ,,action ,,and ,,reaction

                              #ajb      
,,viii4 ,,william ,,hayley              
#aad      ,,ix4 ,,the ,,big ,,prophetic 
,,books                          #aca   
,x4 ,,cromek1 ,,sir ,,joshua1           
,,stothard1 ,,and ,,chaucer        #aec 
,,xi4 ,,the ,,supreme ,,vision          
#afe     ,,xii4 ,,declining ,,years     
,,and ,,death                           
#afi    ,,xiii4 ,,epilogue              
#ahi    ,,index                         
#aie     ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations    
,,the ,,burial ,,of ,,moses             
,frontispiece                           
,,facing ,,page    ,,glad ,,day         
#bd    ,,lavater                        
#ej    ,,the ,,ancient ,,of ,,days      
#ajj    ,,urizen ,,in ,,chains          
#ajf    ,,los                           
#ajh    ,,mirth ,,and ,,her ,,companions
                               #abd     
,,albion                                
#add    ,,the ,,prayer ,,of ,,the       
,,infant ,,jesus                        
#aff    ,,job ,,series1 ,,design ,v     

#ahb    ,,job ,,series1 ,,design ,,xiv  
#ahd    ,,from ,,dante ,,series         
#ahf     ,,william ,,blake3 ,,the ,,man 
,,chapter ,i  ,,childhood ,,and         
,,apprenticeship   ,william ,blake was  
born on ,november #bhth1 #ageg1 at #bh  
,broad ,street1 ,carnaby ,market1       
,golden ,square4  ,to-day a large house 
stands in ,broad ,street numbered #bh1  
to which is attached a blue disk        
announcing that ,william ,blake1 ,poet  
and ,artist1 was born there4 ,the house 
looks old and shabby1 and may well have 
stood a hundred years2 but on inquiry   
one finds that it is a recent erection1 
and that of ,blake's actual house not   
one stone has been left upon another4   
,one walks through ,broad ,street and   
its neighbouring streets hoping to see  
at least one group of buildings as      
,blake saw them4 ,but all has changed1  
and except for a block of houses on one 
side of ,golden ,square1 there is       
nothing to remind one of the sharp      
transitions that a few years can effect4

 ,even the sounds have changed4 ,from   
the doors and windows of ,number #bh is 
heard day and night the whir of         
machinery ceaselessly at work to supply 
the inhabitants of ,pall ,mall and ,st  
,james's with electric light4 ,carnaby  
,market has vanished1 and its glowing   
colours have reappeared in ,berwick     
,street1 where fruits are displayed on  
public stalls1 and where from time to   
time titled ladies are known to explore 
in search of a pair of boots1 or some   
other indispensable article of clothing4
 ,great ugly buildings--a brewery1 an   
infirmary given up during the war to    
,belgian refugees1 warehouses--afflict  
the eye at every turn2 and through the  
open windows of the upper stories the   
social regenerator may detect the       
countless bent backs and expert fingers 
of tailor hands turning out perfect     
equipments for noblemen all over the    
country who come to ,regent ,street1    
,maddox ,street1 and ,conduit ,street to
 be measured and fitted and tried4  ,in 

,blake's day the transitions in ,broad  
,street were more clearly defined4 ,it  
had been a fashionable quarter1 and     
still retained a vivid memory of its    
past glory4 ,the new buildings were     
shops of a good solid kind1 which struck
 the eye like vivid green paint as they 
sprang up side by side with the older   
private houses that time had softened   
and mellowed4  ,blake's father was a    
hosier4 ,his name was ,james1 he was    
married to ,catherine1 and they had five
 children1 ,william being the second4   
,james was a dissenter1 but1 like so    
many dissenters1 he liked such important
 functions as baptism1 marriage1 and    
burial to be performed by the ,church of
 ,england1 that there might be no       
mistake about them4 ,accordingly1       
,william was taken on ,december #aath1  
when he was a fortnight old1 to be      
christened at ,st ,james's ,church in a 
,grinling ,gibbons font1 the highly     
ornate character of which was           
fortunately not observed by the tender  

recipient of baptismal grace4  ,william 
was a solitary1 imaginative boy4 ,his   
imagination was first stimulated and    
nourished by town4 ,his father's home1  
in sharp contrast with the older houses 
in the neighbourhood1 made him perceive 
that there was a meaning ,past as well  
as a so-far unmeaning ,present3 and the 
moment his imagination escaped into the 
past it tended to abstraction1 but knew 
no bounds4  ,very soon in his solitary  
walks he found his way into the country1
 emerging from ,london on the south side
 and exploring as far as ,peckham ,rye1 
,dulwich1 ,streatham1 and ,sydenham4    
,his first glimpse of the country was to
 him as our first trip abroad to us4    
,the trees1 the hills1 the grass and the
 cattle spoke obliquely to an           
imagination that already had a bias4 ,he
 loved them--with discretion4 ,to him   
,london was older than the country4     
,nature has a way of disguising her     
great age in an ever renewed youthful   
present4 ,london's present drives one to

 the past4 ,nature bewitches her        
children and will not allow them to     
transcend her4 ,a great city with its   
pulsing life carries the exuberant      
spirit in its mighty rhythm1 and yet    
drives it back to the ancient primeval  
sources concealed in the eternal kingdom
 of the imagination4 ,wordsworth1       
,nature's lover1 soothes and lulls our  
restlessness and pain1 but fails to     
carry us into the promised land4 ,blake1
 the inspired citizen1 pierces with his 
sword through ,nature1 and will not rest
 until in ,england's green and pleasant 
land he has built ,jerusalem1 wherein we
 may feast as comrades and be satisfied 
with the wine of eternity4  ,little     
,william ,blake was not like other      
children1 or he might have romped with  
his three brothers1 ,john1 ,james1 and  
,robert1 and his sister1 ,catherine4    
,but from the first he was peculiar1    
sensitive1 and liable to visions4 ,his  
first recorded vision was in ,peckham   
,rye4 ,there he saw a tree filled with  

angels4 ,he was neither startled nor    
surprised4 ,it seemed entirely natural1 
and1 childlike1 he told his vision to   
his parents when he reached home4       
,visions were not in his father's line  
of business4 ,in the dark days of popish
 supremacy there had been idle monks who
 thrashed and starved themselves till   
they saw visions4 ,even the reformed    
,church of ,england knew better than    
that1 and a dissenter of the eighteenth 
century who spent his spare hours from  
the shop in reading knew precisely what 
were the things from which he dissented4
 ,he must nip ,william's visions in the 
bud1 and he would thrash him4 ,happily1 
,mrs4 ,blake stepped between4 ,it was a 
jarring shock to an over-sensitive child
 that a heavy penalty awaited the       
mention of visions4 ,he continued to see
 them1 but he kept them to himself4 ,his
 brothers and sister were like his      
father4 ,robert1 who in after years     
would have understood1 was in the middle
 of his teething1 and it did not yet    

appear what he would be4 ,hence all     
things worked together to separate      
,william from his family and to thrust  
him into the world of imagination4  ,at 
this time--he was about nine years      
old--he became a devourer of books4 ,his
 mental bias was sufficiently strong to 
draw to him the books that would nourish
 him4 ,percy's ,reliques1 which was sure
 to be among his father's books1 was    
entirely congenial to him1 as later to  
little ,walter ,scott4 ,also            
,shakespeare and some of the            
,elizabethans1 of whom ,ben ,jonson was 
certainly one1 were absorbed into his   
being4 ,spencer's ,faery ,queen and     
later poets of his own time--,rowley1   
,thomson1 ,chatterton--were his daily   
companions3 and above all he adored with
 passionate idolatry the then famous    
,ossian of ,macpherson4  ,swinburne has 
expressed astonishment that the child   
,blake could admire such lank and       
lamentable counterfeits of the poetical 
style as ,macpherson supplied to an     

undiscerning generation4 ,we must       
remember that in spite of the ,highland 
,society1 then meeting in ,london1      
,blake had no easy access to the times  
of ,fingal and ,ossian1 such as we have 
to-day4 ,there was something in his     
genius which made him crave for the     
society of the ,celtic heroes and gods4 
,if ,macpherson's poetic stream was     
muddy1 ,blake's thirst was too consuming
 to allow of criticism4 ,what is        
disconcerting is that the mature ,blake 
should retain his admiration of         
,macpherson and bracket him with the    
greatest poets of any age4 ,we can only 
say that what we have loved with our    
whole heart in childhood1 and has       
entered for better or worse into the    
very tissue of our being1 we cannot     
criticize2 and simple1 trustful ,blake  
to the end of his days would have       
reckoned himself guilty of impious      
disloyalty if he had admitted even to   
himself that there were spots in his    
sun4  ,blake's reading had effected an  

invaluable service for him--it peopled  
his world of imagination4 ,there was    
terror in his first approach on the     
threshold1 a terror never forgotten and 
often reproduced in his designs4 ,but   
when he was pushed beyond the threshold 
and its covering shadow1 he gradually   
grew accustomed to the changed lights1  
and he began to discern its forms and   
its outlines and its colours4 ,these in 
their turn reacted on the outer world   
until he saw it not as a hard           
unsurpassable fact1 but a mirror of the 
inner things which in reality were the  
substance1 the form1 and the foundation4
 ,henceforth he valued the forms and    
outlines of things because they were a  
sign and pledge to him of the inner     
resplendent ,city which was not only    
built on an eternal foundation but was  
actually the home of his spirit4 ,as    
soon as he apprehended the significance 
of outline he developed an ardent desire
 to draw4  ,this impulse was quickly    
observed by his father and encouraged by

 him4 ,william was sent to learn drawing
 from a ,mr ,pars1 who kept a           
drawing-school in the ,strand4 ,here he 
copied plaster casts and odd-and-end    
plaster bits of the human body1 the body
 itself being left severely alone4 ,a   
certain amount of technical facility was
 thus acquired1 but his education in art
 advanced more surely from his desultory
 wanderings in sale-rooms and in the    
private galleries of munificent         
noblemen4 ,at the sale-rooms he bought  
prints often for a few pence1 and his   
little store of prints was added to by  
gifts from his father1 who also         
presented him with models of the        
,gladiator1 ,hercules1 ,venus of        
,medici4 ,in this way he gained his     
first enthusiastic knowledge of         
,raphael1 ,michael ,angelo1 ,martin     
,hemskerck1 ,albert ,duerer and ,julio  
,romano1 who were exactly the right     
teachers for him4 ,michael ,angelo and  
the ,florentine ,school believed that   
drawing was the foundation of all great 

art4 ,albert ,duerer and his great      
,german successors were of the same     
opinion4 ,william ,blake1 the little    
citizen of the heavenly ,jerusalem1 had 
known the horror of indefiniteness1 and 
worked through his apprenticeship to joy
 only when he discovered that the       
blessed ,city stood four-square1 and was
 bounded by great walls on its four     
sides4 ,hence his selection of prints   
was instinctive4 ,he knew without being 
told what helped him to find himself1   
and he escaped once for all1 while still
 a child1 the seductive elegance of his 
own age4  ,these were happy years4 ,his 
mind was already stored with            
unfashionable knowledge1 gleaned chiefly
 from the robust ,elizabethan age1 and  
his spirit1 like a mirror1 reflected the
 things he saw with his spiritual eye4  
,his happiness was creative1 and he     
burst into song when he was only eleven 
in strains that savoured of ,ben        
,jonson1 but were wholly fresh and      
captivating because they were inspired  

by the first fresh vision of his        
childhood4 ,there is surely nothing in  
any language written by a boy of eleven 
to touch the song3 ,how sweet ,i roam'd 
from field to field4 ,it is a sudden    
spring of sparkling water that can never
 lose its purity4  ,blake remained four 
years with ,pars1 and then his father1  
willing that his son should become an   
artist1 apprenticed him in #agga to     
,basire in ,great ,queen ,street1       
,lincoln's ,inn ,fields4  ,we who stand 
far apart from ,blake's day can see that
 this was the best thing that could have
 happened4 ,had his father been a rich  
man1 able to pay a heavy premium that   
his son might be taught by one of the   
popular engravers of the day1 we should 
have had the distressing picture of     
,blake moulded different and moulded    
wrong by a ,woollett1 a ,bartolozzi1 or 
an ,angelica ,kaufmann1 and his whole   
soul in rebellious and ineffectual      
protest4 ,as it was1 ,basire was master 
of the technical part of his craft1 he  

believed in accurate1 definite outline1 
and not being a man of genius1 did not  
think it necessary that his pupils      
should turn out servile copies of       
himself4 ,blake learnt to handle his    
tools1 to lay a good foundation1 and    
technical proficiency4 ,in after years1 
when engraving was to be a chief means  
of expressing his own original vision1  
he was saved from the painful necessity 
of having to unlearn much or all of his 
master's teaching4  ,after two quiet    
years with ,basire a providential thing 
happened4 ,two more apprentices were    
taken on by him4 ,these were wholly     
products of the time1 and ,blake found  
himself in violent collision with them  
in aims1 methods1 and tastes4 ,to keep  
the peace1 ,blake was separated from    
them and sent to draw in ,westminster   
,abbey4  ,gothic architecture was as    
intoxicating a revelation to ,blake as  
the discovery of ,michael ,angelo and   
,albert ,duerer in the sale-rooms of    
,christie and ,langford4 ,the ,chapel of

 ,edward the ,confessor1 recently piled 
up with sand-bags to protect it from the
 desecration of ,german bombs1 became to
 ,blake a little sanctuary4 ,here his   
thoughts travelled without fatigue many 
hundred years back1 and the dim         
background of the ,chapel became a fit  
setting for his bright visions of the   
past4 ,he copied with silent intensity  
the monuments of the ,confessor1 ,henry 
,,iii1 ,queen ,elinor1 ,philippa1 and   
the beautiful work of ,aymer de         
,valence4 ,these days were decisive for 
his lifetime4 ,gothic architecture was  
germane to his own soul4 ,its spirit    
sank inwards and appeared again and     
again in the architectural fragments of 
his own designs4 ,there remained for him
 one more great formative heritage from 
the past1 and then1 with his roots well 
set1 he was to reach forward to the     
future and prophesy in rhythmic words   
that are meat and drink to us in the    
twentieth century4  ,blake remained with
 ,basire for seven years4 ,during these 

years he had glimpses of a world        
different from the one in which his     
family moved4 ,oliver ,goldsmith1 with  
his fine head1 came as a shining        
messenger1 and actually walked into     
,basire's4 ,oh6 that he might grow up to
 have such a head6 ,woollett was a      
visitor1 and a sufficiently frequent one
 to cease to be dazzling even to an     
overtrustful and enthusiastic           
apprentice4 ,one of the most ignorant   
fellows ,i ever met1 he wrote of him who
 never at any time could have been      
congenial to his spirit4 ,many others   
appeared there also--silently marked and
 measured in a way that would have      
astonished them had they been worthy to 
know4  ,blake's time was not wholly     
spent in copying the works of others4   
,in his spare hours he threw off songs  
and designs of his own4 ,these latter   
were sometimes partly copies of a       
much-loved master4 ,thus1 ,joseph of    
,arimathea among the ,rocks of ,albion  
was suggested by ,michael ,angelo's     

,crucifixion of ,st ,peter in the       
,vatican1 and the figure of ,joseph is a
 copy4#a ,blake himself had written     
engraved by ,w4 ,blake1 #aggc1 from an  
old ,italian ,drawing2 ,michael ,angelo1
 ,pinxit4 ,but already there is more of 
,blake in this design than of his       
master4 ,he wrote between the lines1    
,this is one of the ,gothic ,artists who
 built the ,cathedrals in what we call  
the ,dark ,ages1 wandering about in     
sheep-skins and goat-skins2 of whom the 
,world was not worthy4 ,such were the   
,christians in all ages4 ,from which we 
may gather that ,blake was fully        
conscious that his being a              
,christian--and his ,art was inseparable
 from his ,christianity--had already    
consigned him to a solitary life in     
which he might expect persecutions1 but 
certainly not a resting-place4  ,blake's
 apprenticeship with ,basire came to a  
peaceful end in #aggh1 when he was      
twenty-one years old4 ,he was now a man1
 peering forward into a dim and cloudy  

future1 looking backward on a childhood 
of clearest visions that were already   
passing1 and as it was1 according to all
 precedent1 had overstayed their time4  
,one thing was entirely clear--he must  
earn his own living4 ,another thing he  
was conscious of was that he was slowly 
and surely leaving the past behind4 ,yet
 so far1 seated amidst the ruins of the 
,old ,world1 he knew not whither his    
religious aspirations would lead him4   
,he had fine memories1 he had religious 
and art instincts that refused to be    
separated1 he was finding himself daily 
in opposition to the admired            
religionists and artists of his time1   
and he felt within the strength of      
immense passion which would surely drive
 him to the building of the heavenly    
,jerusalem if he could but get his      
vision clear again1 and know the path   
which ,god had before marked out for him
 to walk in4 ,his vision was to clear   
after many years4 ,meanwhile there were 
tempests and storms to be endured that  

would reduce still more effectually to  
wreckage the last remains of the ,old   
,world4 ,that ,world had spoken with    
dignity and power through the lips of   
,dr ,johnson1 who was himself breaking  
up and died in #aghd4 ,with the death of
 ,johnson the ,old ,world died1 to      
reappear only in a kind of after-mirage2
 and young ,blake was struggling through
 the tempestuous years of his passionate
 youth1 turning with pain his eyes from 
the ,past to the ,future1 and wistfully 
hoping that the mighty creative power   
that was already astir in him might     
fashion a new order in which he and his 
fellows could live at peace4            
,,chapter ,,ii  ,,coming ,,of ,,age     
,,and ,,marriage   ,the ,royal ,academy 
is a ,british ,institution which we all 
patronize once a year1 and then abuse   
that we may keep our self-respect4 ,we  
go1 impelled by a sense of high duty2   
but we presently relax and take our     
pleasure in ,bond ,street4 ,in #aggh    
,bond ,street did not lay itself out to 

encourage revolutionary artists1 and    
,burlington ,house was not yet finished4
 ,the ,royal ,academy was turned out of 
,somerset ,palace and was still waiting 
to turn into its new quarters4  ,blake1 
on leaving ,basire1 immediately joined  
the ,academy and studied in the ,antique
 ,school under ,mr ,moser4 ,this was not
 an auspicious beginning4 ,moser had    
scant respect for ,michael ,angelo and  
,raphael1 while he extolled to the skies
 the more fleshly works of ,le ,brun and
 ,rubens4 ,some of us may wish that     
,moser had taught ,blake to admire      
,rubens4 ,but an angel from ,heaven     
could not have done that4 ,clear outline
 was a necessity to keep him sane2      
blurred outline always gave him         
nightmare4 ,only the mystic who loves   
the flesh can rejoice in the roly-poly  
curves and tints of ,rubens' fat        
,venuses4 ,moser did his best1 and being
 an old man of seventy-three1 felt he   
might advise a young man in his art     
studies4 ,but ,blake had now known for  

some years what he really liked1 and his
 impetuosity led him to speak to ,moser 
as if their positions were reversed4    
,blake drew at the ,academy not only    
from the antique but from living models4
 ,this was distasteful to him1 because  
it was never his aim to reproduce exact 
portraits of outward things4 ,always his
 imagination must pierce through and    
illumine the object before him1 and he  
found the posed model baffled him in    
this attempt1 and made him scent death  
rather than life4  ,these were crowded  
days for ,blake4 ,he could not continue 
to live under his father's roof in      
,broad ,street without contributing     
towards the household expenses1 and     
therefore he must do work of marketable 
value4 ,to this end he received orders  
for engraving from ,johnson and other   
booksellers4 ,it was drudging work1 and 
,blake was not without his full share of
 drudgery4 ,to engrave after ,stothard  
was to set a lion to speak in a         
monstrous little voice4 ,but ,stothard  

had his uses for ,blake4 ,through a     
fellow-engraver ,blake was introduced to
 ,stothard1 who1 still young1 was making
 a guinea a piece for his contributions 
to the ,novelist's ,magazine4 ,broad    
,street was in the thick of the ,artists
 and ,royal ,academicians4 ,once ,blake 
had pierced the magic circle and could  
meet them on equal terms1 instead of    
merely watching their exits and their   
entrances through the doors of ,broad   
,street1 ,poland ,street1 and ,golden   
,square1 they might prove of value to   
him1 not by teaching him to paint as    
they painted1 but by helping him to get 
customers for his own productions4      
,stothard had lately made the           
acquaintance of ,flaxman1 who had sought
 him out1 and he introduced ,blake to   
,flaxman1 who in #agha took a house at  
#bg ,wardour ,street and became ,blake's
 close friend and neighbour4  ,at this  
time1 in #aghj1 ,blake threw off one of 
his very own magnificent designs known  
as ,morning1 or ,glad ,day4 ,it is the  

real ,blake with only one foot on earth1
 his head in a flood of light1 and the  
symbols of his grub state--caterpillar  
and moth--at his feet4 ,the rays of the 
light are darting north and south and   
east and west4 ,blake had weary years   
before him to work out his salvation to 
,glad ,day4 ,this design makes it       
certain that he already had had his     
glimpse of the end1 and we shall find   
that he was not disobedient to the      
heavenly vision4  ,london was not       
without its excitements4 ,lord ,george  
,gordon headed the ,no-,popery ,riots in
 #aghj1 and through the unruly violence 
of the mob1 ,london was in a panic for a
 week4 ,lord ,george was arrested and   
imprisoned in the ,tower1 where he was  
visited by the ubiquitous ,john ,wesley1
 who found him well instructed in the   
,bible and not disposed to complain4    
,it is impossible to trace accurately   
what books ,blake read at this time4 ,it
 is evident that he observed ,wesley and
 ,whitefield and admired much that he   

saw in them4 ,but his own religious     
genius was far removed from theirs1 and 
sought nourishment elsewhere4 ,it is    
probable that he read ,boehme1          
,paracelsus1 ,fludd1 ,madame ,guyon1 and
 ,st ,theresa in his spare hours4  ,but 
there were other imperious needs surging
 up in him4 ,the creative passion of    
love was driving him hither and thither4
 ,with his tendency to view all things  
in the light of eternity1 he was        
passionately in love with the eternal   
feminine1 into which any pair of bright 
eyes would serve as windows4 ,the       
particular pair of eyes that captivated 
him belonged to a lively little girl    
called ,polly ,wood1 with whom he kept  
company for a while4 ,polly's           
conversation was probably no more       
suitable as a permanent entertainment to
 ,blake than that of a modern flapper4  
,fortunately1 she understood little     
affairs of the heart much better than he
 did1 not taking them more seriously    
than they deserved2 and when she saw    

symptoms of tremendously earnest        
love-making threatening to engulf her1  
she quickly shook him off with a sharp  
stroke1 ,are you a fool8 and left him   
feeling very lacerated and sorry for    
himself4  ,blake had not long to wait   
for another manifestation of the eternal
 feminine4 ,recovering from an illness  
at ,kew1 where he was staying at the    
house of a market-gardener named        
,boucher1 he told his grief to the      
gardener's daughter ,catherine1 who     
declared that she pitied him from the   
heart4 ,there was the authentic voice of
 the eternal feminine4 ,do you pity me8 
he gasped4 ,yes6 ,i do most sincerely   
the voice continued4 ,then ,i love you6 
and his fate was sealed4 ,william ,blake
 and ,catherine ,boucher were married   
quietly at ,st ,mary's ,church1         
,battersea1 on ,august #ahth1 #aghb1 and
 the happy pair1 leaving their parental 
nests1 made their first little home     
together in lodgings at #bc ,green      
,street1 ,leicester ,fields4  ,blake's  

worldly goods with all of which he      
endowed his bride were not plentiful4 ,a
 portfolio of prints which had been     
growing in bulk during fifteen years was
 his darling treasure4 ,money he had    
none4 ,but he had immense capacity for  
sustained application and work4 ,his    
engravings made small but sure returns1 
and for the last four years he had      
turned his attention to water-colour1   
and in #aghj had even exhibited in the  
,royal ,academy4 ,and he was making     
friends4 ,friend ,flaxman lived near in 
,wardour ,street1 friend ,fuseli in     
,broad ,street4 ,stothard was kind4 ,a  
young man with sanguine temperament like
 ,blake might expect anything to turn   
up4  ,his wife brought no gold with her2
 but she brought a faithful maternal    
heart1 unlimited faith in her husband1 a
 teachable spirit1 and a willingness to 
turn her hand to all that was necessary 
to make and keep a little home for the  
man-child of her heart4 ,she had made   
her mark in the marriage register of ,st

 ,mary's ,church4 ,a woman with such    
endowments1 unspoilt by education1 was  
virgin soil that would yield whatever   
her husband willed4 ,it was no long time
 before she learnt of him to write1     
draw1 and engrave1 all of which         
acquirements she placed in perfect      
loyalty at his disposal4                
,illustration3 ,,glad ,,day4   ,we have 
seen that ,blake's circle of            
acquaintances widened much from the day 
he became a student at the ,royal       
,academy4 ,but artists are not          
necessarily in ,society1 and if one can 
believe what everyone says they are apt 
to be bohemian4 ,now that ,blake was a  
married man1 he could not be indifferent
 to the grades of the social ladder2 and
 when ,flaxman introduced him to the    
elegant and cultured ,mrs ,mathew at #bg
 ,rathbone ,place1 he not only had hopes
 of a useful patron for himself1 but    
also that the accomplished lady might be
 a kind friend to his wife4 ,she had    
been truly kind to ,flaxman for many    

years1 and it is reasonable to suppose  
that while benefiting him she had       
herself benefited by his pure classicism
 and romanticism combined4 ,thus        
equipped1 she needed only to extend her 
sympathies towards mysticism1 and then  
she might include even ,blake himself   
among her good works4 ,but she and her  
sister ,blue-stockings deserve a chapter
 to themselves4     ,,chapter ,,iii     
,,the ,,blue-,,stockings   ,posterity is
 spiteful towards those who do not make 
good their claim to immortality2 and for
 a long time the ,blue-stockings have   
been the butt of the superior modern4   
,yet they were remarkable women1 and by 
their dash to capture for themselves    
some of the treasures of man's learning 
they helped to open up a new way for the
 modern woman4  ,we can dispense no     
doubt with ,mrs ,montagu's ,essay1 in   
which she defends ,shakespeare against  
the rash onslaught of ,voltaire4 ,we may
 even forget her three ,dialogues of the
 ,dead1 although ,mrs ,modish speaks    

with the genuine accent of the polite   
world3 ,indeed1 ,mr ,mercury1 ,i cannot 
have the pleasure of waiting upon you   
now1 ,i am engaged1 absolutely engaged4 
7,there was a fourth ,dialogue returned 
to her by ,lord ,lyttelton in which     
,cleopatra tells ,berenice only what    
every woman knows47 ,but we cannot forgo
 without loss to ourselves her letters  
to the ,duchess of ,portland and many   
other friends1 which are lively1 witty1 
and entertaining1 and second in her time
 only to those of that prince of        
letter-writers1 ,horace ,walpole4  ,mrs 
,montagu's friends did their best to    
turn her head4 ,mrs ,carter writes to   
her of the elegant brilliancy of my     
dearest ,mrs ,montagu1 and not content  
with prose as a medium of praise1 sends 
her an ode which leads up by a strong   
crescendo to these two verses3    ,o    
blest with ev'ry talent1 ev'ry ,grace   
,which native ,fire1 or happy ,art      
supplies1   ,how short a ,period1 how   
confined a ,space1   ,must bound thy    

shining ,course below the ,skies6       
,for wider ,glories1 for immortal ,fame1
   ,were all those talents1 all those   
,graces given3   ,and may thy life      
pursue that noblest aim1   ,the final   
plaudit of approving ,heav'n4  ,mrs     
,carter thought that ,dr ,johnson's     
preface to ,shakespeare was very        
defective1 and she adds to ,mrs         
,montagu1 certain that her ,latin will  
be understood without the aid of a      
dictionary3 ,res integra tibi           
reservatur4 ,elsewhere she writes3 you1 
who have proved yourself the most       
accurate and judicious of all his       
commentators4 ,this opinion was shared  
by the entire circle of ,blue-stockings1
 and even outside that charmed circle   
the ,reverend ,montagu ,pennington1     
nephew of ,mrs ,carter and godson of    
,mrs ,montagu1 felt that she was guilty 
of something like mortal sin in omitting
 to defend the ,british ,public against 
the pernicious influence of ,lord       
,chesterfield's ,letters to his ,son4   

,mrs ,carter1 loaded with languages1 and
 much addicted to snuff and green tea1  
was scarcely inferior to ,mrs ,montagu4 
,she was modest and almost apologetic   
for her much learning4 ,she and the rest
 of the heady sisterhood were not       
without misgivings that in pursuing     
man's studies they might become manly1  
and therefore they never ceased to      
express in season and out of season     
pious female sentiments4 ,indeed1 ,mrs  
,carter protested against being thought 
of as a walking tripod1 and was what    
used to be called a sweet woman4 ,thus  
she writes of the infernal composition  
of deadly weeds made up by ,voltaire4   
,candide was so horrid in all respects4 
,werther she detested4 ,she is relieved 
to hear that ,pascal is very            
respectable1 for she considered him a   
dangerous author to all kinds of        
readers4 ,rousseau quite sunk her       
spirits4 ,of course her spirits were    
liable to the same shock during her     
extensive readings among the ancients1  

and1 indeed1 she said that ,quintilian's
 impiety was quite shocking2 but very   
justly she considered that they were to 
be excused because they had not the     
light of revelation1 while ,voltaire and
 ,rousseau were sinning against that    
light4  ,mrs ,carter and ,mrs ,montagu  
fully agreed in their admiration for    
,mrs ,vesey1 whom they familiarly called
 our ,sylph4 ,hannah ,more in her ,bas  
,bleu seems to reckon her the first of  
the ,blues1 and specially commends her  
for the skill she displayed in breaking 
the formidable circle that ,mrs         
,montagu's guests were forced to make4  
,her lively ,irish nature was refreshing
 to ,mrs ,carter1 her head full and     
aching after a strenuous tussle with    
,aristotle's ,ethics4 ,she wrote to ,mrs
 ,montagu3 ,as little of the turbulent  
as there is in her 7our ,sylph's7       
composition1 the uproar of a mighty sea 
is as much adapted to the sublime of her
 imagination1 as the soft murmurs of a  
gliding stream to the gentleness of her 

temper4  ,the conversaziones of the     
,blue-stockings were as successful as   
might be4 ,there was always a difficulty
 in procuring men4 ,dr ,johnson could be
 baited from time to time4 ,horace      
,walpole1 driven by curiosity1 appeared 
and disappeared4 ,at ,mrs ,ord's1 #ce   
,queen ,anne ,street1 where ,fanny      
,burney met everything delectable in the
 ,blue way1 one catches a glimpse of ,mr
 ,smelt1 ,captain ,phillips1 ,dr        
,burney1 ,lord ,mulgrave1 ,sir ,lucas   
,pepys1 and the ,bishop of ,london4 ,the
 kindness and patronage of ,lord ,bath  
and ,lord ,lyttelton could always be    
relied upon4 ,yet there was no full and 
easy interchange of ideas with men4 ,the
 time had not yet come4 ,in ,france it  
had been accomplished by the ladies who 
were willing to step beyond the bounds  
of strict propriety1 but the pious      
,english ,blues were the last to wish to
 follow the example of their ,french    
sisters4 ,and so their best chance of   
getting a man was to catch one young and

 struggling whom they might patronize   
and be kind to4  ,in this way all the   
luck fell to ,mrs ,mathew1 of #bg       
,rathbone ,place4 ,if ,mrs ,montagu had 
the advantage of a rich and indulgent   
husband1 ,mrs ,mathew excelled all in   
the respectability of hers4 ,the        
,reverend ,henry ,mathew was incumbent  
of ,percy ,chapel1 ,charlotte ,street1  
and afternoon preacher at ,st           
,martin's-in-the-,fields4 ,the latter   
church alone is sufficient to make a    
man's reputation2 but ,mr ,mathew had   
already made his both by his piety and  
his taste4  ,no one has such            
opportunities as one of the priesthood  
for discovering promising young men4 ,mr
 ,mathew's first find was little        
,flaxman struggling with a ,latin book4 
,learning the nature of the book1 he    
promised him a better and invited him to
 his house4 ,mrs ,mathew herself was    
well read in ,latin and ,greek1 and here
 was a boy of genius thrown into her    
very lap4 ,rising to the great occasion1

 she taught him1 read to him while he   
sketched1 and by her treatment of him   
alone made more than amends for being a 
,blue4  ,when ,flaxman was full grown he
 did all in his power to show his       
gratitude4 ,mrs ,mathew was desirous to 
turn her back parlour into a ,gothic    
chamber4 ,here was an opportunity4      
,flaxman modelled little figures of sand
 and putty and placed them in niches4   
,another protege1 ,oram1 son of old     
,oram and ,loutherbourg's assistant1    
painted the windows1 and between them   
they made the book-cases1 tables1 and   
chairs to match4 ,with such a room1 ,mrs
 ,mathew might ask whom she would and   
not be ashamed4 ,to her tea parties came
 ,mrs ,montagu1 ,mrs ,carter when       
staying in ,clarges ,street1 ,mrs       
,barbauld1 ,mrs ,chapone1 ,mrs ,brooke1 
and many others4  ,blake and ,flaxman   
first met in #aghj and soon became      
friends4 ,flaxman1 by native bent and   
,mrs ,mathew's teaching1 was steeped in 
,greek4 ,by this time he had shown      

himself wonderful alike in his designs  
and sculptures1 and already held a high 
place in what has been called the       
,second ,renaissance4  ,blake was a     
romantic rather than a ,greek1 but as a 
later ,greek1 ,goethe1 has assured us   
that there is no antagonism between a   
true romantic and a true ,greek1 it is  
not surprising that the two men found a 
deep congeniality of spirit4 ,there was 
an even deeper fellowship1 which became 
explicit later on when both concurred in
 admiring ,swedenborg4  ,flaxman1       
generously anxious that his friend      
should get on1 introduced him1 in #aghb1
 to ,mr and ,mrs ,mathew1 who asked him 
and ,mrs ,blake to their evenings4 ,and 
so at last we see rebel ,blake and his  
illiterate wife in the midst of a       
charmed circle of ,blues who were       
mistresses of everything that was       
learned1 cultured1 elegant1 decorous1   
and du bon ton4  ,our first glimpse of  
,blake in ,society we owe to ,john      
,thomas ,smith1 ,keeper of the ,prints  

at the ,british ,museum and frequent    
visitor at ,mrs ,mathew's4 ,he says in  
his ,book for a ,rainy ,day3 ,at ,mrs   
,mathew's most agreeable conversaziones 
,i first met the late ,william ,blake1  
the artist1 to whom she and ,mr ,flaxman
 had been truly kind4 ,there ,i have    
often heard him read and sing several of
 his poems4 ,he was listened to by the  
company with profound silence1 and      
allowed by most of the visitors to      
possess original and extraordinary      
merit4  ,that is a pleasant picture4    
,would that we had been there6 ,but as  
time went on several things became clear
 to ,blake and likewise to the company1 
only their interpretation of the        
situation differed4 ,mrs ,blake proved a
 touchstone to the other ladies4 ,they  
of course could see at once that she was
 not a lady1 but that they must be kind 
to her4 ,she1 not having read ,mrs      
,chapone on the improvement of the mind 
or practised the elegancies1 was quite  
unable to imitate their manners and     

catch their tone4 ,she was throughout a 
simple1 direct1 noble woman set down in 
the midst of an artificial society1 and 
she was made to suffer accordingly4     
,these things sank deep into ,blake1 to 
reappear again as poems in his ,ideas of
 ,good and ,evil4 ,many times he himself
 felt the same discomfort both at ,mrs  
,mathew's and later at ,mr ,hayley's4   
,the words he puts into ,mary's         
7,catherine's7 lips he speaks in his own
 person in lines that he afterwards     
addressed to ,flaxman3    ,oh1 why was  
,i born with a different face8   ,why   
was ,i not born like this envious race8 
,why did ,heaven adorn me with bountiful
 hand1   ,and then set me down in an    
envious land8  ,still ,blake was allowed
 by most of the visitors to possess     
original and extraordinary merit4 ,the  
songs he sang were inspired by his      
reading of the ,elizabethans1 whom the  
,blues could appreciate4 ,the ,poetical 
,sketches came within the purview of    
professed admirers of ,ben ,jonson and  

,spenser2 and therefore ,mrs ,mathew    
could genuinely agree with ,flaxman that
 it was worth helping ,blake to get them
 published4 ,the ,poetical ,sketches    
were gathered together and printed at   
the expense of ,flaxman and the         
,mathews1 ,mr ,mathew himself writing an
 apologetic ,advertisement which would  
save his skin and lack of discernment if
 the pieces were unapproved by the great
 ,public4 ,since it is short1 ,i will   
quote it entire3  ,the following        
sketches were the production of         
untutored youth1 commenced in his       
twelfth1 and occasionally resumed by the
 author till his twentieth year2 since  
which time1 his talents having been     
wholly directed to the attainment of    
excellence in his profession1 he has    
been deprived of the leisure requisite  
to such a revisal of these sheets as    
might have rendered them less unfit to  
meet the public eye4 ,conscious of the  
irregularities and defects to be found  
in almost every page1 his friends have  

still believed that they possessed a    
poetical originality1 which merited some
 respite from oblivion4 ,these their    
opinions remain1 however1 to be now     
reproved or confirmed by a less partial 
public4  ,it was hardly want of leisure 
that had prevented ,blake from polishing
 his verses4 ,mr ,mathew had argued with
 him on the necessity1 and he had proved
 tiresomely obstinate1 and1 what is     
worse1 remained of the same opinion     
eight years afterwards when he wrote in 
,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell3    
,improvement makes strait roads1 but the
 crooked roads without ,improvement are 
roads of ,genius4  ,mr ,mathew was but  
one of those ,bunglers that can never   
see perfection1 but in the journeyman's 
labour4 ,however1 he saved his name for 
his generation and lost it for          
posterity4  ,blake's ,poetical ,sketches
 were printed but not published4 ,the   
copies were handed over to him to give  
or sell1 but they brought him neither   
fame nor money4  ,it is long since      

anyone doubted the worth of the         
,poetical ,sketches4 ,the twentieth     
century wholly endorses the glowing and 
just criticism that ,swinburne wrote    
fifty years ago4 ,it must have startled 
the stolid bookish people of the        
'sixties to be told that the best of    
,blake's ,poetical ,sketches--,to       
,spring1 ,to ,memory1 ,to the ,muses1   
,to the ,evening ,star--were comparable 
to the world's best in any age4         
,swinburne frequently exaggerated in his
 excitement2 but here was no            
exaggeration1 and the poems which were  
once thought by a partial friend to     
merit some respite from oblivion are now
 reckoned among the chief pearls of     
great price in ,england's rich treasury 
of ,songs4  ,there remains little more  
for the critic to say1 but the          
biographer turns to these ,sketches for 
any intimation of ,blake's spiritual and
 mental growth4  ,we must not be misled 
by the scent and sound of ,elizabethan  
times that is upon them4 ,it is of      

course interesting to the literary mind 
to discover ,ben ,jonson in ,how sweet  
,i roamed1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher in   
,my ,silks and fine ,array1 ,webster in 
the ,mad ,song1 and ,shakespeare in     
,king ,edward the ,third2 but these     
intimations of kinship are only such as 
are found in original geniuses of the   
same age4 ,that which gives life and    
immortality and irresistible sweetness  
to the songs is ,blake's own            
child-spirit seeing with wide-eyed      
simplicity the simple commonplace things
 of this world that ,god made1 and that 
are to the pure in heart the immediate  
revelation of ,him4 ,if in fashioning   
into ,song the things that he saw ,blake
 refuses the artifice of his time and   
catches the scent and sound of a more   
robust age1 yet the prime inspiration   
was entirely his own2 and we can only   
wonder that such inspiration should have
 come to him while still a mere boy4    
,the other pieces in the collection1    
though of much less importance1 have    

their interest4 ,fair ,elinor with the  
silent tower1 the castle gate1 the      
dreary vaults1 and sickly smells1 like  
,horace ,walpole's ,mysterious ,mother  
and ,castle of ,otranto1 is not of the  
time but anticipatory of the romantic   
horrors that ,mrs ,radcliffe was to make
 entirely her own4 ,gwen ,king of       
,norway and ,king ,edward the ,third are
 remarkable for their martial language4 
,this was no accident4 ,blake was a born
 fighter4 ,the heroic side of ,war      
stirred his spirit1 even though    ,the 
,god of ,war is drunk with blood2   ,the
 ,earth doth faint and fail3   ,the     
stench of blood makes sick the ,heav'ns2
   ,ghosts glut the throat of ,hell6    
,his feeling for ,england recalls old   
,john of ,gaunt's speech3    ,lord      
,percy cannot mean that we should suffer
   ,this disgrace3 if so1 we are not    
sovereigns   ,of the sea--our right1    
that ,heaven gave   ,to ,england1 when  
at the birth of nature   ,she was seated
 in the deep2 the ,ocean ceas'd   ,his  

mighty roar1 and fawning play'd around  
,her snowy feet1 and own'd his awful    
,queen4  ,grim ,war is a means to       
glorious liberty3    ,then let the      
clarion of ,war begin2   ,i'll fight and
 weep1 'tis in my country's cause2      
,i'll weep and shout for glorious       
liberty4   ,grim ,war shall laugh and   
shout1 decked in tears1   ,and blood    
shall flow like streams across the      
meadows1   ,that murmur down their      
pebbly channels1 and   ,spend their     
sweet lives to do their country service3
   ,then shall ,england's verdure shoot1
 her fields shall smile1   ,her ships   
shall sing across the foaming sea1      
,her mariners shall use the flute and   
viol1   ,and rattling guns1 and black   
and dreary war1   ,shall be no more4    
,later on the ,war spirit in him1       
without diminishing1 underwent a change4
 ,it is still ,england's green and      
pleasant fields that he loves1 and he   
still longs for glorious liberty4 ,this 
shall be effected by the building of    

,jerusalem4 ,but as the root of the evil
 is in man1 the weapons of his warfare  
become spiritual4 ,casting aside the    
rattling guns1 he shouts3    ,bring me  
my bow of burning gold1   ,bring me my  
arrows of desire2   ,bring me my spear2 
,o clouds unfold6   ,bring me my chariot
 of fire6    ,i will not cease from     
mental fight   ,nor shall my sword sleep
 in my hand1   ,till we have built      
,jerusalem   ,in ,england's green and   
pleasant land4  ,for ,war breeds hate   
and every evil thing4 ,until we arouse  
ourselves and fight like warriors the   
evil that is in ourselves1 there can be 
no glorious liberty1 whether for        
,england or any other nation of the     
world4  ,the ,poetical ,sketches were a 
failure4 ,mrs ,mathew had generously    
tried to help1 but her influence was not
 wide4  ,a magnificent opportunity had  
come to the ,blue-stockings1 and to ,mrs
 ,montagu in particular1 who with all   
her money and wide influence1 which she 
was always ready to use for her needy   

friends1 might have helped quite        
incalculably when ,blake most needed it1
 and earned our undying gratitude4 ,yet 
we must be just and not blame them for  
their lost opportunity4 ,their          
significance lies in the fact that they 
objected to being perfect dunces like   
the rest of their ,english sisters1 and 
so they made a bold dash to understand  
the things that men understand4 ,they   
were not the first learned women the    
world had seen4 ,the ladies of the      
,italian ,renaissance could have given  
them points all round4 ,their work was  
that of restoration and not revolution1 
and that was more than sufficient to    
occupy their thoughts and energies      
without their peering into the new world
 that was at work in ,blake4 ,when      
whiffs of the new spirit blew on them   
from ,voltaire1 ,rousseau1 ,goethe1 and 
,hume1 they were chilled and shocked1   
and thanked ,heaven that in ,dr ,johnson
 there was a champion who knew all about
 the new and stoutly maintained the old4

 ,that was sufficient for them4         
,unfortunately they lived at a time when
 ,society was more than usually         
artificial and woman suppressed1 and the
 odd contrast between them and their    
sisters made them appear to men somewhat
 as monsters1 like singing mice or      
performing pigs4 ,the charge of being a 
,blue-stocking must always brand with a 
stigma1 but happily now that women are  
establishing their right to meet men on 
an equality1 the charge need never be   
made again4     ,,chapter ,,iv  ,,early 
,,married ,,life ,,and ,,early ,,work   
,we saw that ,william and ,catherine    
,blake after their marriage settled at  
#bc ,green ,street1 ,leicester ,fields4 
,this was in #aghb4 ,here they remained 
for two years1 learning1 not without    
pain1 to adjust themselves to each      
other4 ,mrs ,blake's love was maternal  
and whole-hearted4 ,hers was not a      
nature to question why love should      
involve the accepting of immeasurable   
cares4 ,the cares came one by one and   

not always singly1 and she meekly and   
bravely accepted them1 contented to live
 her life in her husband's life1 and    
happy when she perceived that she could 
smooth his path and shelter him from    
rough blasts4  ,blake at this time was  
an extraordinarily difficult man to live
 with4 ,he was by turns vehement1       
passionate1 wildly self-assertive and   
submissive to others far inferior to    
himself4 ,his visions were less bright  
than they had been1 and his mind was    
choked with theories about the elemental
 things of life that every woman        
understands by instinct4 ,he was        
conscious of his own genius and of the  
shortcomings of his successful          
contemporaries4 ,his rampant egotism    
sowed his consciousness with resentments
 that poisoned his blood and bred       
bitterness4 ,he made frantic efforts to 
grasp the liberty he had seen from afar1
 but he only succeeded in confounding   
liberty with licence1 and peremptorily  
demanding the latter with his wife in a 

way that was bound to give her pain4 ,i 
will not attempt to lift further the    
veil of their early married life4 ,we   
have no right to pry4 ,mr ,ellis has    
constructed this period as far as is    
possible from the poems of ,blake1 and  
to his ,real ,blake ,i must refer the   
curious reader2 but for my own part ,i  
am content to note the signs of trouble 
in the various poems and not to probe   
deeper into the secret things which no  
right-minded person can ever wish to be 
proclaimed on the house-top4 ,suffice it
 to say that ,mrs ,blake's              
self-forgetful love won the day1 and    
when the early storms had passed1 and   
the adjustments been made1 they were    
united by a bond which1 untouched by the
 fickleness of the flesh1 could defy all
 shocks and changes because it was      
founded on the enduring reality of the  
spirit4  ,in the early years of married 
life ,blake continued with his wife's   
company the long walks which had been an
 early habit4 ,nothing could have been  

better for him4 ,walking till he was    
tired1 rhythmic swing of his arms1      
unchecked sweating1 did more than all   
else to cleanse his whole being and to  
cause that uprise of the spirit which   
was eventually to bring unity and peace 
to his chaotic and divided self4  ,his  
marriage had disturbed another elemental
 relationship of life4 ,his father      
disapproved of it1 and this led to an   
estrangement4 ,we must admit that the   
father had not acquitted himself badly  
of his paternal duties4 ,it is true he  
had foolishly wished to thrash him for  
reporting his visions1 believing that   
the boy lied2 but he had helped him to  
be an artist1 and had never really      
opposed him when a boy4 ,no one can     
reasonably demand more of a father4     
,nature has no superstitions about      
parent birds when their young have left 
the home nest4 ,gratitude and reverence 
to parents is still a beautiful thing1  
and would doubtless be given            
spontaneously to them if they could     

learn not to interfere when their       
children have grown up4  ,it has often  
been affirmed that the old man was a    
student of ,swedenborg4 ,if so1 there   
had been at once a bond of sympathy     
between father and son4 ,but the truth  
is that he had not read much of         
,swedenborg for the simple reason that  
he died four years before any           
theological work of importance by       
,swedenborg was translated into         
,english4 ,everything shows that the    
father could not understand the son1 who
 must have appeared to him eccentric1   
headlong1 and obstinate4 ,when ,william 
heard on ,july #dth1 #aghd1 of his      
father's death1 he paid all due respect 
to his memory1 but he was not moved by  
any violent grief4  ,we do not suppose  
that ,mr ,blake made his fortune by     
hosiery1 but he left a little money     
which was divided among the sons4 ,james
 took on the business and the mother    
lived with him4 ,william1 assisted by   
,mrs ,mathew 7if we may trust the       

testimony of ,j4 ,t4 ,smith71 took the  
house ,number #bg1 next door to his     
brother1 and there he opened a print    
shop in partnership with ,parker1 who   
had been a fellow-pupil at ,basire's4   
,robert1 who was teething when we last  
saw him1 was now grown up and proved    
understanding and sympathetic of        
,william's visionary point of view4 ,it 
was agreed that ,robert should live with
 ,william at ,number #bg and become his 
apprentice4  ,once more ,blake was all  
mixed up with his immediate kith and    
kin4 ,when one remembers that he had no 
illusions about fathers and saw clearly 
that the father of one's flesh might be 
the enemy of one's spirit1 it seems     
incredible that he should have planted  
himself and his wife next door to a     
brother who was1 he knew1 an enemy to   
his spirit1 and to a mother who would   
hardly approve of the young wife1 and   
who would not be behindhand with her    
advice2 but ,blake was not strong in    
common sense1 nor could he keep his neck

 out of a noose until it had first      
nearly strangled him4  ,robert was a    
comfort to him1 but he can only have    
added to ,mrs ,blake's cares4 ,for at   
this time ,william was passionately     
devoted to ,robert1 and his feeling to  
his wife had not yet quite resolved     
itself into that enduring comradeship   
which was to be his priceless treasure  
to the end of his days4 ,the            
oft-repeated tale of ,mrs ,blake's      
obedience when her husband said         
peremptorily3 ,kneel down and beg       
,robert's pardon directly1 or you will  
never see my face again1 throws a       
searchlight on the whole situation4 ,one
 sees ,william's peril and ,catherine's 
care1 and how her self-forgetful love   
was the one thing that could bring these
 discordant elements into a lasting     
harmony4  ,this arrangement lasted for  
two and a half years1 when ,robert fell 
desperately ill4 ,william nursed him    
tenderly1 and during the last fortnight 
sat with him day and night4 ,at the end 

he saw ,robert's soul rise from his     
body1 clapping its hands for joy as it  
ascended to its perfect life of liberty4
 ,then ,william1 tired out1 went to     
sleep1 and did not wake up till after   
three days and three nights4  ,the print
 shop was not successful4 ,blake lacked 
the necessary business quality1 and the 
failure was aggravated by disagreements 
with ,parker4 ,the partnership was      
dissolved1 ,parker going his own way1   
and engraving chiefly after ,stothard1  
and ,blake closing the shop and retiring
 with his wife to the other end of      
,poland ,street1 which joins ,broad     
,street with ,oxford ,street4 ,there at 
,number #bh 7now pulled down and        
replaced7 the two1 having lost          
everything1 set about in a nearer       
fellowship to retrieve their fortunes   
and face the unknown future with as much
 courage as might be4  ,here it is      
necessary to review briefly ,blake's    
works in engraving and design4 ,we have 
seen that his instinct when a boy led   

him directly to the ,masters of the     
,past who could guide him best until he 
came to himself4 ,the greatest of these 
were ,michael ,angelo and ,albert       
,duerer4 ,he did not at first study     
these demigods and then adopt their     
principles4 ,he formulated his          
principles from his immediate experience
 of ,reality1 and then rejoiced to find 
that the men he worshipped produced     
splendid examples of his principles4    
,first among these was the value of     
outline4 ,his spiritual eye being opened
 at a very early age1 it was always     
self-evident to him that the outer world
 was a vegetable mirror of the inner1   
and corresponded with it even in the    
minutest details4 ,if he saw in the     
outer colour and form1 he immediately   
looked at the inner for the reality of  
both2 and to his inexpressible joy he   
not only found what he sought1 but also 
that they so far transcended the outer  
things that he who saw only the outer   
could have only the dimmest idea of the 

wondrous beauty and glory of the        
archetypes4 ,hence1 with his eye on the 
eternal outline1 he declared            
consistently all his life that the      
essence of a body is in its form1 and   
that no man can be a great artist who   
does not build up his art on the        
foundation of good drawing4 ,oil as a   
medium blurred the outline1 and         
therefore he preferred to work in       
water-colour4 ,but engraving even better
 than water-colour1 enabled him to apply
 his principle4 ,it was simply          
incredible to him that any engraver     
could undervalue drawing4 ,if engraving 
lost drawing1 it lost all character and 
expression1 and therefore his           
indignation was aroused with the        
,woolletts and ,bartolozzis1 who in this
 respect were mortal sinners4 ,we can   
see that such a principle was a         
necessity for ,blake with his peculiar  
mind1 and was even a safeguard to its   
sanity2 but we have a perfect right to  
observe that whatever obscures the      

outlines of things1 as twilight1 also   
removes the barriers that hinder our    
approach to the unseen1 and therefore we
 may enunciate another principle1 that  
one property of a body is its           
contribution to atmosphere1 with its    
power to evoke our subjective selves4   
,holding this as a correlative to       
,blake's axiom1 we can do full justice  
not only to ,michael ,angelo1 ,albert   
,duerer1 ,raphael1 and ,blake1 but also 
to ,titian1 ,rubens1 and ,rembrandt1    
whom ,blake despised4 ,unfortunately1   
,blake held to his principle so rigidly 
that it was apt to lead him into false  
admirations4 ,we have seen how unduly he
 admired ,macpherson1 and here we have  
to note further that whomsoever of his  
contemporaries drew the human figure    
correctly he immediately extolled to the
 skies1 and always with oblique         
reference of disdain to others whom we  
have come to think were intrinsically   
better artists4 ,hence he admired       
,mortimer1 whom we just remember as the 

illustrator of ,fanny ,burney's         
,evelina1 whose substantial immortality 
gives him vicarious and ghostly         
existence4 ,he also admired ,hamilton4  
,in the violent alternations of his mood
 we have seen how submissive and meek he
 could be4 ,in such a mood he allowed   
,mortimer and ,hamilton to influence him
 to such a degree that he actually      
distrusted the genius in himself which  
could inspire ,glad ,day1 and produced  
such lifeless imitations of ,mortimer's 
historical style as the ,penance of     
,jane ,shore 7#aggh71 ,king ,edward and 
,queen ,elinor 7#aghj71 and ,earl       
,godwin 7#aghj74  ,blake's deferences   
were not always thus unfortunate4 ,he   
appreciated ,hogarth for his intrinsic  
value at a time when respectable people 
patronized him for pictured moralities4 
,we cannot imagine a greater contrast   
than ,blake the frugal seer and ,hogarth
 the typical carnivorous ,englishman4   
,outline was their meeting-ground4      
,hogarth saw1 we may say detected1 in   

the scenes that marked the progresses of
 the ,rake and the ,harlot1 a full      
pulsing life and an unexpected beauty4  
,when he would express what he saw1 with
 a mighty stretch he shook off all      
foreign influences and set about to     
express himself naturally and in his own
 way4 ,his hand appropriated to its use 
the power of the line1 more particularly
 the vitality of the curved line1 with  
the amazing result that the moment we   
forget his moralities1 we see in him an 
exuberant artist of the beautiful4      
,blake was wholly with him in all this4 
,we rejoice for the seeing eye that     
,blake and ,hogarth cast on the shady   
side of life1 but our wonder and        
amazement pass into worship when we     
perceive that this was included in the  
vision of ,him who was called in        
derision the ,friend of ,publicans and  
,sinners1 but was contented to speak of 
,himself as the ,son of ,man4  ,blake   
affirmed that ,hogarth's execution could
 not be copied or improved4 ,he borrowed

 from his ,satan1 ,sin and ,death at    
,hell's ,gate1 which is hardly one of   
,hogarth's masterpieces1 for a          
water-colour of the same subject1 and he
 engraved1 after ,hogarth1 ,when my     
,hero in ,court ,appears in the         
,beggar's ,opera 7#agij74  ,blake       
produced two water-colours in #aghd     
which show that his thoughts on war were
 already undergoing a change4 ,these are
 ,war unchained by an ,angel--,fire1    
,pestilence and ,famine following1 and  
,a ,breach in a ,city--the ,morning     
after a ,battle4  ,blake had been       
watching closely the course of affairs  
on the other side of the ,atlantic4     
,while men's minds were becoming more   
and more inflamed with the thought of   
war1 he was criticizing it with the     
searching rays of his spiritual vision  
and finding himself compelled to revise 
his ideas1 which he had taken without   
question from ,shakespeare1 and had     
expressed in the ,poetical ,sketches4   
,then1 in spite of seas of blood1 he    

glorified war2 now1 as he began to      
consider the abominations that it lets  
loose on overburdened mankind--,fire1   
,pestilence and ,famine--he included it 
in the abominations as a thing          
altogether useless and despicable4 ,he  
felt a peculiar joy when peace was this 
year signed with the ,north ,american   
,states4  ,during these years 7#aggc-hd7
 ,blake accomplished an immense amount  
of engraving1 chiefly after ,stothard4  
,these engravings must come as a        
surprise to those who only know his own 
sublime designs1 that reveal might1     
power1 terror1 and immense energy1 and  
not the softer things that we associate 
with grace4 ,it is sufficient to mention
 those plates that ,blake engraved after
 ,stothard in ,ritson's ,english ,songs 
to show that he1 like ,michael ,angelo  
and ,milton1 could do not only the works
 that call for massive power1 but also  
the graceful and lovely things that can 
be done by genius not quite so rare4    
,but ,i must leave the consideration of 

,blake's relation1 personal and         
artistic1 to ,stothard to a later       
chapter1 when ,i come to speak about the
 ,canterbury ,pilgrims4  ,blake's songs1
 poems1 and designs came to birth side  
by side4 ,where the engravings were not 
after his own designs1 but after other  
artists1 he knew exactly what to do with
 them4 ,but sooner or later1 as his own 
productions of wedded poem and design   
grew under his hands1 the anxious       
question of publication arose1 and by   
this time it was perplexingly clear to  
him that his spiritual productions were 
not for every taste1 and that it would  
be difficult to find anyone who would   
run the risk of being his publisher4    
,his ,poetical ,sketches were printed1  
though not published1 through the       
kindness of ,mrs ,mathew1 but there was 
no likelihood that any of the           
,blue-stockings would be kind in a      
helpful way to him again4  ,while       
pondering this difficulty day and night1
 and increasingly urged by poverty1 his 

brother ,robert came to him and directed
 him what he was to do4 ,he told him to 
write his poems and designs on copper   
with an ineffaceable liquid1 and with   
aquafortis to eat away the remainder of 
the plate until the writing and designs 
were left in clear relief4 ,then he     
might take as many copies as he liked1  
and just touch them up by hand4         
,according to ,gilchrist1 ,mr and ,mrs  
,blake possessed just half-a-crown1 with
 which ,mrs ,blake went out and bought  
the necessary materials1 returning with 
eightpence change in her pocket4 ,at    
once they set to work1 the wife proving 
an apt pupil1 and thus1 with the        
exception of ,the ,french ,revolution1  
,blake engraved and published his own   
creations1 experiencing the rare joy of 
being at once both the creator and the  
handicraftsman of his works4  ,robert   
visited ,william continually to the end 
of his life1 bringing him consolation   
and encouragement during times of       
anxiety and stress4  ,these supernatural

 happenings in the life of ,blake read  
as simply and naturally as the beautiful
 stories of ,st ,francis converting     
brother ,wolf or receiving the sacred   
stigmata4 ,there was nothing of the     
modern spiritualist's paraphernalia--no 
medium1 no trance1 no tappings4 ,blake  
was born with his inner spiritual eye   
open1 his outer bodily eye1 contrary to 
general custom1 proving sluggish4 ,hence
 he was able to keep a natural          
simplicity amidst things which are too  
apt to stir only the thaumaturgic       
appetite of other people4     ,,chapter 
,v  ,,wesley1 ,,whitefield1 ,,lavater1  
,,and ,,swedenborg   ,blake's manifold  
nature lacked1 so far1 a co-ordinating  
principle4 ,from his earliest years     
religion had been a reality to him1 and 
so had art1 music1 literature1 but not  
one of these was so dominant over the   
rest as to make them subservient4 ,each 
lived its separate life and was likely  
to continue to do so1 unless his        
religion could become forceful and      

definite enough to penetrate the others 
and bind them into a higher unity4  ,his
 religion had been fed by vision4 ,his  
visions came to him so naturally that it
 never occurred to him that others might
 regard them as symptoms of abnormality 
or insanity4 ,the thrashing that his    
father gave him when he told at home    
what he had seen at ,peckham ,rye was a 
memorable occasion1 like conversion to  
some people1 only it opened his outer   
eye and not his inner4  ,the visions    
made several things clear to his        
understanding4 ,he early distinguished  
between inner and outer vision1         
supernatural and natural religion4      
,religion was never a matter of opinion1
 always of experience4 ,christ's        
language was also his own1 ,we speak    
that we do know1 and testify that we    
have seen4 ,he felt the same mild       
surprise at hearing religion denied as  
he would at the denial of the sun by a  
blind man4 ,but the reason of such      
blindness was also quite clear to him4  

,spiritual things are spiritually       
discerned4 ,the spiritual man sought no 
other evidence than that of his         
spiritual discernment4 ,if the natural  
man were ever to arrive at spiritual    
vision1 it must be by a new birth of the
 ,spirit4 ,thus ,blake knew from the    
beginning the inward meaning of         
,christ's words to ,nicodemus1 ,verily1 
verily1 ,i say unto you1 ,except a man  
be born again1 he cannot see the        
,kingdom of ,heaven4444 ,that which is  
born of the flesh is flesh1 that which  
is born of the ,spirit is spirit4 ,blake
 was never in danger at any time in his 
life of becoming enmeshed in natural    
religion4 ,his escape was more          
instinctive if less effectual than that 
of his philosophical contemporary who   
sought to combat his difficulties by    
working out an elaborate analogy between
 natural and revealed religion4  ,the   
man who knows by experience what it is  
to be born again knows also how         
clamorous the new life within is for    

nourishment4 ,blake was driven to the   
mystics for food4 ,we know by his       
repeated references in his long poems   
that ,st ,theresa1 ,madame ,guyon1      
,paracelsus and ,jacob ,boehme fed his  
supersensual life4 ,but besides         
appealing to the past1 he looked around 
to listen to what his contemporaries had
 to say to him4 ,it is evident that he  
would listen only to those who were as  
clear as himself on the experience of   
the new birth4  ,it is not surprising   
that the high church divines of the     
eighteenth century had little to say for
 him4 ,they were more eager to show to  
the leaders of the enthusiastic         
methodist party that regeneration took  
place in ,holy ,baptism than to make    
sure that they had exhausted its meaning
 in their experience4 ,their views might
 be extremely correct2 but anything more
 dull and uninspiring than their sermons
 and collected works could hardly be    
found4 ,blake had no need to examine    
them particularly1 for the best high    

churchman of the time was ,dr ,johnson1 
and he already had his eye on him4  ,dr 
,johnson to the end was a particular    
kind of grand schoolmaster4 ,he believed
 in the ,christian revelation fervently1
 and he believed1 also with fervour1 in 
the rod1 in ,latin1 in scholarship1 and 
in the drastic repression of the young4 
,he who declared that he would never    
disgrace the walls of the ,abbey by     
writing for it an epitaph in ,english1  
could hardly have seen anything worth   
his notice in the ignorant ,blake and   
his still more ignorant wife2 and ,blake
 in his turn1 unnoticed and unknown1    
living a severely abstemious life1 was  
too apt to ruminate on ,johnson's       
gluttony and pension1 and to conclude   
that the latter was a reward for barren 
learning4  ,it is as well that ,johnson 
and ,blake never met4 ,neither could    
have worked through his prejudices4     
,they lived in a different world1 and   
moved from a different centre4 ,johnson 
viewed the wreckage of the ,old ,world1 

and then with undaunted courage and     
indomitable will set himself to build   
out of the wreckage a covering for      
himself and his friends4 ,blake1        
conscious that dawn was stirring on the 
wreckage of the dark night1 was         
straining his vision to catch the       
outline of the new emerging world4      
,johnson's was a superb mind working    
within too narrow bounds4 ,blake's was  
so far the promise of an unimagined     
type4 ,we who look backward over the    
lapse of a hundred years can reverence  
both men1 but it is ,blake who is the   
more inspiring and fruitful4  ,one other
 high church divine1 ,william ,law1     
,blake should have read1 but strangely  
makes no mention of4 ,law's ,serious    
,call to a ,devout and ,holy ,life and  
his ,christian ,perfection were more    
likely to appeal to ,johnson than to    
,blake1 but the later books1 ,the       
,spirit of ,prayer and ,the ,spirit of  
,love1 written after he had come under  
the influence of ,boehme1 while         

estranging him from ,johnson and        
,wesley1 might have brought him and     
,blake face to face4 ,both books are    
more beautiful than anything written by 
,wesley1 ,whitefield1 or ,swedenborg4   
,perhaps1 as ,blake already had read    
something of ,boehme1 he found that ,law
 had nothing to add to his knowledge4   
,there is ample evidence that ,blake    
turned his full attention on to ,wesley1
 ,whitefield1 and ,hervey1 and watched  
them with sympathy4 ,these men were     
proclaiming everywhere the need of being
 born again4 ,no one met ,blake so      
definitely on what he had always seen   
clearly1 with large1 childlike vision4  
,when ,samuel ,foote1 representative of 
a thousand others1 carelessly threw the 
epithet hypocrite at ,whitefield's head1
 ,blake was indignant1 and accurately   
designated the actor as the hypocrite4  
,with perfect justice he pointed out    
that if ,whitefield confessed his sins  
before all the world1 and never         
pretended to be free from the passions  

that burn in other men1 he was certainly
 an honest and sincere man4 ,to pounce  
on a ,christian who inadvertently falls1
 and call him a hypocrite1 is as usual  
now as in ,blake's day1 but it comes    
with astonishing gracelessness from the 
lips of those who have spent their      
youthful passions in wanton waste1 and1 
wearied and bored1 are bidding for a    
respectable middle age4  ,whitefield had
 pungent things to say to respectable   
moralists4 ,he had no milder term than  
filthy rags for their dull moralities4  
,if he sought to cover his nakedness    
with the garment of ,christ's           
righteousness1 ,blake1 while using a    
different phrase1 perfectly understood  
him and sympathized4 ,but then came the 
divergence4 ,whitefield's doctrine of   
the new birth was inextricably bound up 
with crude doctrines of ,christ's       
substitutionary death and imputed       
righteousness1 and ,blake1 who had      
experienced the new birth quite apart   
from faith in these particular          

,calvinist dogmas1 felt no need to cling
 to what his instinctive feeling        
rejected2 and1 what with him was final1 
he found that ,whitefield not only left 
his aesthetic faculties starved1 but    
actually believed that as the arts came 
from ,tubal and ,tubal-cain1 and they   
were descended from ,cain1 who had been 
cursed1 they must necessarily have their
 origin from hell4  ,hervey carried     
,blake as far as ,whitefield1 and no    
farther4 ,some years later1 when ,blake 
had diverged widely from ,whitefield and
 ,hervey1 he still remembered them with 
tenderness and affection2 and placing   
them with ,fenelon1 ,madame ,guyon1 ,st 
,theresa 7an odd assortment671 saw them 
at ,los' ,south ,gate1 with all the     
gentle souls who guide the great        
,wine-press of ,love4#b  ,blake found   
that he could keep company with ,wesley 
for a longer time4 ,wesley had no rigid 
,calvinism1 and he was not content      
unless imputed righteousness should pass
 by a second blessing into imparted     

holiness4 ,here also ,blake's language  
was wholly different from ,wesley's1 but
 the thing he arrived at--the           
unification of all his powers under the 
inspiration and creative force of his   
imagination--led him along a path very  
like that trodden by ,wesley and his    
methodists as they pressed towards the  
goal of entire sanctification4 ,it is   
important to go behind words to things1 
but it is equally important to come back
 to a form of sound words4 ,the         
methodists have been imprisoned by their
 wordy formulae1 while ,blake by his    
vision of the things behind words not   
only preserved his freedom1 but also1 by
 freeing his imagination1 was enabled to
 create beautiful rhythmic words which  
invoke instead of imprison4             
,illustration3 ,,john ,,gaspar          
,,lavater4  ,engraved by ,blake4        
,among his contemporaries ,blake        
discovered a deeper kinship with        
,lavater than with any of these4        
,whitefield and ,wesley had succeeded in

 reviving in themselves the first glow  
and enthusiasm of protestantism4        
,lavater is once removed from his       
zealous protestant forefathers1 and the 
things that they had repressed were     
making their reappearance in him4 ,among
 these was the feeling for the          
beautiful1 which1 as he welcomed and    
nourished it1 deepened his sympathies   
and enlarged his outlook4 ,what he lost 
in fiery zeal he gained in geniality4   
,he had a constant perception of the    
truth that outward things are an index  
to inner conditions and correspond with 
them4 ,this prompted him to observe the 
faces of his fellow-creatures and to    
attempt a system of physiognomy4 ,his   
instinctive reading of faces was often  
astonishingly correct2 but his makeshift
 system has no value4 ,more to the point
 are his aphorisms1 which were read and 
annotated by ,blake1 and these are      
sufficient both to reveal ,lavater and  
bring certain lasting convictions of    
,blake's into a clear light4 ,i will    

take a few of the more important4  ,sin 
and destruction of order are the same4  
,blake comments3 ,a golden sentence4 ,he
 had felt for many years that all       
repression was futile4 ,what is         
repressed comes out again in the wrong  
place4 ,the last state of the repressed 
man is worse than his first4 ,blake was 
not yet quite clear about what was the  
alternative to repression1 but he was   
sure that sin was disorder4 ,how he     
resolved the disorder we shall see later
 on4  ,as the interest of man1 so his   
,god4 ,as his ,god1 so he4  ,blake3 ,all
 gold4  ,he preferred the word will to  
interest4 ,will is identical with       
,swedenborg's affection and ,boehme's   
desire4 ,no one has worked out the      
correspondence of the heart with the    
will so effectually as ,swedenborg4     
,blake knew that to discover the will   
was to discover the man4 ,a man can     
change only as he changes the object of 
his will4 ,when his will is towards     
,god1 his powers fall into order and he 

becomes a saint4  ,the greatest of      
characters no doubt would be he who1    
free of all trifling accidental helps1  
could see objects through one grand     
immutable medium always at hand and     
proof against illusion and time1        
reflecting every object in its true     
shape and colour1 through all the       
fluctuation of things4  ,blake3 ,this   
was ,christ4  ,he knew both as an artist
 and a mystic that the appearance of    
objects is according to the state of the
 beholder4 ,this is true of the objects 
not only of the outer world but also of 
the inner1 and therefore only the       
witness of a perfect man is trustworthy4
 ,the visions of all others must be     
corrected by the vision of the ,christ4 
,who has witnessed one free and         
unrestrained act of yours has witnessed 
all4  ,underlined by ,blake4  ,strained 
action was an abhorrence to ,blake4     
,only those acts are beautiful that are 
impulsive1 and they are they that reveal
 the man4  ,between the best and the    

worst there are1 you say1 innumerable   
degrees--and you are right4 ,but admit  
that ,i am right too in saying that the 
best and the worst differ only in one   
thing--in the object of their love4     
,blake3 ,would to ,god that every one   
would consider this4  ,it was considered
 and maintained by ,swedenborg1 ,boehme1
 ,fenelon1 and constantly by ,st        
,catherine of ,siena1 who to the ,god is
 ,love of ,st ,john added ,man is love  
also4  ,keep him at least three paces   
distant who hates bread1 music1 and the 
laugh of a child4  ,blake3 ,the best in 
the book4  ,he who adores an impersonal 
,god has none1 and without guide or     
rudder launches on an immense abyss that
 first absorbs his powers and next      
himself4  ,blake3 ,most superlatively   
beautiful1 and most affectionately holy 
and pure4 ,would to ,god that all men   
would consider it4  ,his faith in a     
personal ,god was his lifelong          
inspiration in religion and art4 ,this  
must guard him against the charge of    

pantheism made against him by the       
,swedenborgian ,garth ,wilkinson and our
 fleshly poet ,swinburne4 ,yet he never 
thought out his position clear of       
pantheism4 ,swedenborg worshipped a     
personal ,god and regarded man and      
nature as emanations from ,god removed  
by varying degrees4 ,but no matter how  
many degrees1 continuous or discrete1   
one removes ultimates from ,god1 yet if 
they are essentially emanations from    
,him1 they must be of the same          
substance1 and this is pantheism4       
,catholic theology has grappled far more
 effectually with this ancient          
difficulty than either ,swedenborg or   
,blake4  ,all abstraction is temporary  
folly4  ,blake3 ,i once thought         
otherwise1 but now ,i know it is truth4 
,let those who confound mysticism with  
abstraction note this4  ,blake perceived
 in ,lavater the innocence of a child1  
and loved him accordingly2 but he had   
already surpassed him1 and thus was able
 to criticize him with true discernment4

 ,he said that ,lavater made everything 
originate in its accident4 ,but a man's 
sins are accidents and not a part of his
 real nature4 ,they are a denial of his 
real man1 and therefore are negative4   
,hence he says3 ,vice is a great        
negation4 ,every man's leading          
propensity ought to be called his       
leading ,virtue and his good ,angel4    
,this last sentence contains ,nietzsche4
 ,every positive act is virtue4 ,murder1
 theft1 backbiting1 undermining1        
circumventing1 are vicious because they 
are not positive acts1 but prevent them 
in the perpetrator and the victim4 ,he  
put his finger on ,lavater's other      
mistake1 which was also shared by his   
contemporaries4 ,they suppose that      
,woman's ,love is ,sin4 ,in consequence1
 all the loves and graces1 with them1   
are sins4 ,blake not only here outstrips
 his contemporaries1 but at a leap      
reaches what are the conclusions of the 
twentieth century4 ,in the nineteenth1  
men and women racked their brains over  

the irreconcilable dualism of art and   
religion1 and they chose one or the     
other1 with baneful results4 ,blake     
reconciled the two when he saw that the 
new man in us1 unveiled by regeneration1
 worked by direct vision 7religion71 and
 that the new man's prime quality was   
imagination 7art74 ,once he grasped     
this1 the problem ceased for him4  ,here
 we get at the reason why ,lavater has  
ever failed to keep his lovers4 ,moses  
,mendelssohn1 disciplined in the severe 
scholastic methods of ,maimonides1      
easily vanquished him in religious      
controversy2 but men who were less      
directly concerned with his religion1   
like ,goethe1 began by exaggerating his 
qualities and ended by quietly dropping 
him4 ,it is clear to us that ,lavater   
could keep our allegiance only if he had
 taken a big step forward in the same   
direction as ,blake4 ,this was          
impossible1 and so we find ourselves    
obliged to follow ,goethe's example4    
,swedenborg's influence was the greatest

 and most lasting on ,blake's mind4  ,it
 is not clear when ,blake first took to 
reading ,swedenborg4 ,there is no trace 
of his influence until ,the ,songs of   
,innocence and ,experience4 ,some of    
,swedenborg's early scientific works had
 been translated into ,english4 ,but of 
his theological works only one volume   
out of twelve of the ,arcana ,celestia  
was published in ,english2 and1 for the 
rest1 those who could not read ,latin   
had to be content with samples4 ,since  
,swedenborg bulked so largely in        
,blake's life1 it is necessary to give  
here some details of his mental and     
spiritual development4  ,swedenborg's   
father was a ,lutheran ,bishop4 ,thus   
the son1 in his most impressionable     
years1 was thrown among ,lutherans1 who 
maintained a strenuous protest against  
the errors of the papacy1 and fed or    
starved their souls with dreary         
doctrines of justification by faith     
only1 imputed righteousness1 and other  
forensic privileges that came to them   

through the substitutionary death and   
merits of ,christ4 ,in all these dogmas 
the young ,swedenborg was well drilled4 
,but his first bent was in quite another
 direction4 ,while still a boy he       
manifested a scientific mind of immense 
energy and curiosity that peered        
searchingly into all the sciences of his
 time1 and won for himself a wonderful  
knowledge of anatomy1 astronomy1        
mathematics1 mechanics1 chemistry1      
mineralogy1 and led him to make         
interesting experiments in invention1   
such as water-clocks and flying         
machines4 ,he wrote many books on these 
subjects1 the best known of which in    
,england is ,the ,animal ,kingdom4 ,here
 his interest is greatly stirred by     
things physical and psychological1 and  
he is fired with the ambition to unite  
the two4 ,not1 however1 till he was     
fifty-four did his first interest pass  
over to the things of the soul4 ,when   
this transition took place1 he peered   
with the same intense scrutiny into     

supersensual things1 and brought to bear
 on them a mind formed and informed by  
science and scientific methods4  ,he    
took up the ,lutheran tenets precisely  
where he had left them1 but1 no longer a
 child1 he was forced to criticize what 
he had once felt1 and he set himself to 
rationalize ,lutheran theology and such 
elements of catholic theology as had    
survived through ,luther4 ,in this he   
was not always so successful as he      
imagined4 ,his doctrine of the ,trinity1
 that ,jesus ,christ is the ,one ,god   
and that the ,trinity is in ,him1 gets  
over an arithmetical difficulty1 but    
finally leaves the imagination baffled1 
trying to make out how ,jesus carried on
 the government of the universe while   
,he lay a helpless infant in the manger 
or ,his mother's arms4 ,his reaction    
against all outside views of ,christ's  
death1 imputed righteousness1 and faith 
only1 was more successful1 but not new1 
since in this the quakers in ,england   
and ,jacob ,boehme were before him4 ,nor

 was his contention that love was the   
supreme good new to those who had read  
through the ,new ,testament4 ,his       
doctrine of uses was merely a           
theological variation of that           
utilitarianism which is inseparable from
 rationalism1 and which casts over      
everything a drab veil that only the    
artist can remove4 ,he is really at his 
best when he expatiates on love and     
wisdom4 ,love corresponds with the      
heart1 wisdom with the lungs4 ,as the   
heart sends the blood to the lungs1     
where it is purified by the oxygen1 so  
love feeds the understanding1 and is in 
turn purified by it4 ,swedenborg's      
perception of wisdom begotten of love   
inspired his best passages and gave them
 their authentic import4  ,swedenborg   
gazed inwards so intently that after an 
initial period of unrest1 terrors1 and  
nightmares his inner eye opened1 and he 
saw into the realities of the inner     
world4 ,for the moment ,i take his word 
for it1 and will question later on4 ,his

 open eye saw into heaven and hell1     
gazed into the faces of angels and of   
,god1 and his opened ear heard the      
angels speaking things he could         
understand and utter4 ,at once he       
rationalized4 ,he stripped even the     
celestial angels of all mystery as well 
as of garments1 and traced them back to 
an earthly pedigree4 ,angels are men1   
and when they talk they are no more     
interesting than the elders of a        
,lutheran congregation4 ,god also is a  
man--not1 be it observed1 the ,man of a 
crude anthropomorphism1 but infinite1   
omnipotent ,man1 from ,whom each man1   
created in ,his image 7will7 and        
likeness 7understanding71 draws his real
 manhood4 ,he carried this doctrine into
 his rationalized version of the        
,incarnation4 ,christ assumed human     
nature in the womb of the ,virgin1 and  
by ,his conquering life put it off1     
replacing it by the ,divine ,humanity4  
,the last phrase has accomplished yeasty
 work in modern religious thought4 ,how 

many are aware of its origin8           
,swedenborg throws out many suggestive  
remarks about hell4 ,certainly it was   
high time that it was looked into1 for  
the protestant hell was as horrible and 
revolting as the catholic4 ,he began by 
lifting himself out of space and time4  
,he was soon brought by necessity to    
perceive that when these no longer      
exist1 then all appearances depend upon 
a man's state1 and therefore state      
governs the perceptions whether of the  
angels in heaven or the devils in hell4 
,hell1 like heaven1 is peopled entirely 
from earth4 ,no one goes there but by   
his own choice1 and he chooses because  
he finds there exactly what is congenial
 to his own condition4 ,swedenborg      
eliminated anything arbitrary in man's  
destiny4 ,fitness decides by an         
inexorable law that ,god could evade    
only by ceasing to be ,god4             
,swedenborg's hell is a filthy and      
insanitary place1 but the filthy        
inhabitants are no more disturbed by    

that than rats in a sewer4 ,he further  
declared that heaven and hell were born 
together1 and that they are contraries  
necessary to each other's existence4    
,blake underlined and commented on this 
in his copy of the ,angelic ,wisdom     
concerning the ,divine ,love4 ,how the  
suggestion worked in him we shall see   
later on4  ,swedenborg's hell is filthy 
and his heaven dull4 ,there are further 
surprises when we through his mediumship
 glimpse their inhabitants4 ,the angels1
 of course1 are all sound               
,swedenborgians1 and are attractive or  
repellent according to ,swedenborg's    
attraction or repulsion for us4 ,but the
 devils1 not being ,swedenborgians1 can 
command an audience of the majority of  
,christians who agree with them in their
 non-allegiance4 ,what ,blake discovered
 in them was a wonderful energy and     
exuberance which made them not only more
 attractive than the angels1 but also1  
except for the stenches1 might almost   
have transformed their hell into heaven4

  ,by this time ,swedenborg had explored
 many kingdoms--mineral1 vegetable1     
animal1 human1 divine1 hellish2 and his 
knowledge of the kingdoms informed him  
of universal correspondences1 the law of
 which came to him thus freshly from his
 own observation4 ,it was probably this 
which made him assert so often that he  
was announcing something new1 for with  
his culture he must have known that     
,paracelsus had perceived the same law  
like hundreds before him1 and that      
,boehme wrote a treatise on the         
,signatures of all things4  ,perhaps    
,swedenborg's most fruitful apprehension
 was that of the ,divine ,influx4 ,all  
creatures live as they receive out of   
the ,divine fullness4 ,they have no     
inherent or self-existent life of their 
own4 ,the ,lord alone is self-existent1 
and they live by a derived life4 ,this  
happens to be catholic theology too1 and
 it kept ,swedenborg away from a misty  
pantheism4 ,men and angels live1 move1  
and have their being in ,god4 ,they are 

immersed in an ocean of life and light  
which pours forth from the ,lord of the 
,universe4 ,the moment they feel their  
need and are humble enough to turn to   
the ,lord they become receptive4 ,filled
 with the spirit of life and light1 they
 love and understand1 and remain full so
 long as they humbly abide in ,him4     
,perhaps no modern has grasped this     
truth so completely as ,swedenborg4 ,it 
almost made him a mystic4 ,almost1 yet  
not quite1 for his fundamental desire   
was to bring all the mysteries of the   
faith down to the level of man's        
understanding4 ,he eschewed a faith that
 rested on what could not be understood4
 ,he did not see that in tearing away   
veil after veil he turned heaven along  
with earth into a laboratory4 ,the true 
mystic loves to know that all things1   
including his faith1 run up into        
mystery2 and if an angel succeeded in   
laying bare the last mystery1 the mystic
 would find himself in hell4            
,swedenborg attempted to bring reason   

and order into things spiritual1 and he 
believed that he had succeeded2 but what
 really happened was that he confounded 
the workings of his own subliminal mind 
with the action of the ,lord's1 and in  
#agge1 when he had effected reason and  
order in the intermediate world of      
spirits to his own satisfaction1 he     
declared that the last judgment had     
taken place1 that the ,new ,jerusalem   
had descended down out of ,heaven1 and  
that he was the divinely appointed      
prophet of the ,new ,church4  ,he was   
not long publishing the doctrine of the 
,new ,church concerning the ,sacred     
,scriptures4 ,he knew as well as any    
modern critic what are the difficulties 
in the way of accepting the doctrine of 
verbal inspiration1 yet he affirmed it4 
,there is a further difficulty that we  
feel more acutely than he in the        
protestant dogma the ,bible and the     
,bible only4 ,if we are cut off from    
memory or tradition1 and are obliged to 
form our image of the historical ,jesus 

from the ,bible only1 it is next to     
impossible to make that image shine     
forth with clear1 sharp outlines4 ,the  
difficulty is still further increased   
when protestantism1 pushed to its       
logical extreme1 eliminates the         
supernatural element1 and tries to piece
 together the character of ,jesus from  
the fragments that remain4  ,the ,bible 
imperiously demands a theory that shall 
make its heterogeneous contents cohere4 
,the four evangelists presuppose a      
knowledge of ,jesus that they aim at    
making more perfect4 ,these are         
difficulties that protestantism was     
destined to feel acutely from the day it
 proudly rejected tradition4 ,no doubt1 
if ,providence had so intended1 the     
portrait of ,jesus would have been drawn
 so completely that without the aid of  
memory we could have gained a knowledge 
of ,him such as we have of no other man 
that ever lived4 ,but the fact remains  
that ,jesus wrote no book and no        
letters1 and ,he founded nothing but a  

handful of illiterate disciples to      
preach ,his gospel and perpetuate ,his  
memory4 ,these were so confident that   
,israel would repent and believe the    
,gospel1 and so make possible the       
immediate return of their ,lord1 that   
they never thought of taking to their   
pens2 and it was only when they grew    
alarmed at the increasing thinness of   
the apostolic ranks that they committed 
their memories to wise scribes or to    
parchment4 ,thus we owe the ,gospel     
accounts not to the express commands of 
,jesus1 but to the first bitter         
disappointment of the apostolic band4   
,the simple truth1 of course1 is that   
the ,new ,testament ,scriptures cannot  
be understood apart from the ,catholic  
,faith that gave them birth1 and        
therefore when the faith is not         
confessed a theory must be found to take
 its place4  ,the history of higher     
criticism is the history of a succession
 of theories4 ,dr ,paulus1 forgotten    
father of ,german critics1 supplied a   

rational one1 for which he was obliged  
to make a super-historical use of the   
,essenes4 ,it has reappeared in ,george 
,moore's ,brook ,kerith4  ,renan1       
pantheist1 artist and sceptic1 tried to 
supply a subjective artistic explanation
 which soothed the subject1 but turned  
the ,object into a ,frenchman4 ,strauss1
 ,keim and ,bousset1 learned and        
painstaking1 with hardly less success   
made ,him into a dreamy cosmopolitan    
,german of a now obsolete type4         
,schweitzer1 better informed of the     
apocalyptic and eschatological medium   
through which the mind of ,jesus worked1
 comes nearer to the apostolic mind that
 drew the picture of ,jesus1 yet1 for   
want of the key1 portrays ,jesus as the 
tragic victim of the illusory           
time-spirit4  ,swedenborg never gave any
 serious consideration to the catholic  
theory1 but supplied its place out of   
the store of his supersensual           
revelations4 ,loaded with these1 and    
with a vague memory of the gnostic      

teaching of the threefold meaning of the
 ,scriptures1 he was able to evade every
 literal difficulty by turning to the   
spiritual meaning1 and if need be to the
 celestial1 which could be reached only 
through his own specific revelation4 ,it
 is true that he tried to bring a       
steadying factor into his subjective    
interpretation by introducing his       
doctrine of correspondences2 but as he  
has never been able to convince any but 
his elect followers that his            
correspondences1 beyond some obvious    
ones1 are other than arbitrary1 he has  
succeeded only in making his            
commentaries on ,genesis1 ,exodus1 and  
the ,apocalypse unreadable to the vast  
majority of ,christians4  ,i have said  
enough about ,swedenborg to make it     
clear that there was some affinity      
between him and ,blake4  ,blake's       
imperfect knowledge of him was much     
deepened in #aghh1 when he read his     
,angelic ,wisdom concerning the ,divine 
,love and concerning the ,divine        

,wisdom4 ,this he marked and annotated1 
and so we are able to trace the affinity
 in considerable detail4  ,on the whole 
,blake gives almost passionate approval 
to ,the ,angelic ,wisdom4 ,only in rare 
instances does he differ4 ,swedenborg's 
doctrine of state made explicit what    
,blake had vaguely perceived all his    
life4 ,it also helped him to formulate a
 theoretic explanation of his own       
supersensual vision4 ,this is so        
important that ,i must quote an entire  
paragraph from ,the ,angelic ,wisdom1   
for the sake of ,blake's comment and the
 reader's understanding4  #fi4 ,,the    
,,divine ,,fills ,,all ,,the ,,spaces   
,,of ,,the ,,universe ,,apart ,,from    
,,space4 ,there are two things proper to
 nature1 ,,space and ,,time4 ,out of    
these man in the natural world forms the
 ideas of his thought and therefore his 
understanding4 ,if he remains in these  
ideas and does not raise his mind above 
them he is nowise able to perceive      
anything spiritual and ,divine1 for he  

involves them in ideas which derive from
 space and time2 and in proportion as he
 does this1 the light--the lumen--of his
 understanding becomes merely natural4  
,to think from the lumen in reasoning   
about spiritual and ,divine things1 is  
like thinking from the thick darkness of
 night concerning the things which      
appear only in the light of day4 ,this  
is the origin of naturalism4 ,but he who
 knows how to raise his mind above the  
ideas of thought which derive from space
 and time1 passes from thick darkness   
into light1 and apprehends spiritual and
 ,divine things1 and1 at last1 sees     
those things which are in them and from 
them1 and then by virtue of that light  
he disperses the thick darkness of the  
natural lumen1 and relegates its        
fallacies from the middle to the sides4 
,every man with an understanding is able
 to think1 and actually does think1     
above those properties of nature2 and   
then he affirms and sees that the       
,divine1 being omnipresent1 is not in   

space4 ,he is also able to affirm and to
 see those things which have been       
adduced above4 ,but if he denies the    
,divine ,omnipresence and ascribes all  
things to nature1 then he is not willing
 to be elevated1 although he is able4   
,in the above ,blake changed the word   
middle into centre1 and sides into      
circumference1 commenting3 ,when the    
fallacies of darkness are in the        
circumference they cast a bound about   
the infinite4 ,in paragraph #gj1        
,swedenborg adds what is a corollary to 
the above3 ,angels do not comprehend    
when we say that the divine fills       
spaces1 for they do not know what spaces
 are1 but they understand when we say   
that the divine fills all things4 ,on   
this ,blake makes the comment           
,excellent4  ,since the inhabitants of  
heaven have no idea of space and time1  
their perceptions and modes of thought  
are entirely governed by their state4   
,this is true also of the visionary1 and
 it decides what he reports of the other

 world4 ,everyone will easily perceive  
from this of what paramount importance  
his state is in assigning the right     
value to his visions4 ,as ,swedenborg   
says3 ,spaces and times in spiritual    
life have relation to states of love and
 are mutable with these4  ,blake fully  
approved of ,swedenborg's doctrine that 
the heart and lungs correspond to the   
will and understanding4 ,those who would
 understand ,blake must remember this   
while reading the prophetic books4  ,but
 there are signs of disagreements that  
deepened with time4  ,swedenborg wrote  
7#bcg73 ,man at birth comes first into  
the natural degree1 and this increases  
in him by continuity1 according to his  
various knowledge 444 until he reaches  
the highest point of the understanding  
which is called the rational4 ,but still
 the second degree1 which is the        
spiritual1 is not opened by this means4 
,this is opened by love towards the     
neighbour 444 the third degree by love  
towards the ,lord4  ,with all ,blake's  

devout admiration for ,swedenborg this  
was too much for him4 ,a child born     
solely into the natural degree6 ,that6  
after all ,blake knew1 and all ,christ  
had said about little children6 ,heaven 
save us all1 especially ,swedenborg6    
,blake's comment is important4 ,note    
that even when he is differing from his 
teacher1 his language is ,swedenborgian4
 ,he says3  ,study science till you are 
blind4 ,study intellectuals until you   
are cold4 ,yet science cannot teach     
intellect4 ,much less can intellect     
teach affection4 ,how foolish it is then
 to assert that man is born in only one 
degree1 when that one degree is         
receptive of the three degrees3 two of  
which he must destroy or close up or    
they will descend4 ,if he closes up the 
two superior1 then he is not truly in   
the third but descends out of it into   
mere ,nature or ,hell4 ,is it not also  
evident that one degree will not open   
the other1 and that science will not    
open intellect1 but that they are       

discrete and not continuous so as to    
explain each other1 except by           
correspondence1 which has nothing to do 
with demonstration1 for you cannot      
demonstrate one degree by the other1 for
 how can science be brought to          
demonstrate intellect without making    
them continuous and not discrete8       
,there are three comments in which      
,blake introduces an element lacking in 
the voluminous writings of ,swedenborg4 
,on ,swedenborg's statement3 ,a         
spiritual idea does not derive anything 
from space1 but it derives its all from 
state1 he remarks3 ,poetic idea2 on     
paragraph #aj1 ,blake comments3 ,he who 
loves feels love descend into him1 and  
if he is wise1 may perceive it from the 
,poetic ,genius1 which is the ,lord2 on 
,swedenborg's phrase3 ,the negation of  
,god constitutes hell1 he remarks3 ,the 
negation of the ,poetic ,genius4  ,here 
we get a hint of a small seed of        
difference which when fully grown was to
 sever ,blake from ,swedenborg for ever4

  ,i must give one more1 very pregnant1 
passage from ,the ,angelic ,wisdom4     
#fh4 ,man out of his hereditary evil    
reacts against ,god4 ,but if he believes
 that all his life is from ,god1 and all
 good of life from the action of ,god1  
and all evil of life from the reaction  
of man1 then reaction becomes the       
offspring of action1 and man acts with  
,god as from himself4 ,the equilibrium  
of all things is from action and joint  
reaction1 and everything must be in     
equilibrium4  ,the last sentence makes  
hell an eternal necessity to preserve   
the equilibrium of heaven4 ,strictly it 
makes also the devil an eternal         
counterweight to ,god1 and what else    
follows we may learn by studying        
,zoroastrian dualism4 ,blake's comment  
was3  ,god and evil are here both good1 
and the two contraries married4  ,blake 
was early occupied with the marriage of 
contraries4 ,swedenborg's word was a    
sanguine seed in prepared soil1 and when
 it brought forth fruit a hundredfold1  

the rich return was not the logical     
outcome of ,swedenborg's dualism1 but a 
marriage of heaven and hell1 of religion
 and art1 which is showing a fertile    
capacity for endless reproduction4  ,so 
far1 then1 ,swedenborg's attraction for 
,blake far exceeded his repulsion1 and  
he embraced him with impetuous          
affection4 ,here was a teacher who could
 understand by experience both the new  
birth and vision4 ,by his help he       
disentangled himself from the particular
 explanation and theory of the atonement
 as given by ,whitefield and ,wesley4   
,here was a visionary who could not only
 understand his own visions1 but who    
could give a reasonable explanation of  
the working of the visionary faculty4   
,swedenborg brought order1 reason1 and  
system into ,blake's chaotic mind4      
,isolated from the churches1 yet        
ardently desiring fellowship as the     
substance of his faith and wisdom1 it   
appeared to him that there was nothing  
else to do but join the ,new ,church of 

,swedenborg1 and accordingly1 in #aghh1 
he and ,catherine signed their names in 
token of membership and assent to the   
distinctive doctrines of the ,new       
,church4 ,the curious may find this     
reported in the ,minutes of the first   
,seven ,sessions of the ,general        
,conference of the ,new ,church1        
published by ,james ,speirs1 #cf        
,bloomsbury ,street1 #ahhe4  ,let us    
turn to ,blake's two poems1 ,tiriel1    
#aghh1 and ,thel1 #aghi1 which have     
special interest as they were written   
about this time that he subscribed to   
the ,swedenborgian ,church and          
,swedenborg's influence was paramount4  
,tiriel--old1 bald1 and blind--is       
related to ,urizen1 but ,urizen in      
,blake's completed mythology is the     
symbol not only of the law with its     
prohibitive commandments1 but of the    
reason formed by the five senses1 and   
therefore ever ready to stamp out       
imagination and inspiration1 which      
derive their source from beyond the     

senses4 ,tiriel is the product of the   
law1 and is the antithesis of love4     
,swedenborg's natural man was justified 
and saved by love1 ,luther's faith not  
being sufficient1 and so in ,blake's    
,tiriel there is besides ,st ,paul's law
 the ,lutheran's pharisaism1 and just a 
suggestion of that contempt for the     
beautiful which was to make ,urizen such
 a terrible figure1 and was eventually  
to lead to ,blake's estrangement from   
,swedenborg4  ,tiriel at the hour of his
 death realized why his paradise was    
fallen1 and he had found nought but the 
drear sandy plain4 ,his description of  
his own upbringing1 shocking as it is1  
is that of the great bulk of mankind4   
,the instant a child is born1 the dull1 
blind father stands ready to form the   
infant head2 and if the child1 like     
,blake1 has vision1 the father1 like ,mr
 ,blake1 uses the whip to rouse the     
sluggish senses to act and to scourge   
off all youthful fancies4    ,then walks
 the weak infant in sorrow1 compelled to

 number footsteps   ,upon the sand4 ,and
 when the drone has reached his crawling
 length1   ,black berries appear that   
poison all round him4 ,such was ,tiriel 
,compelled to pray repugnant1 and to    
humble the immortal spirit2   ,till ,i  
am subtle as a serpent in a paradise1   
,consuming all1 both flowers and fruits1
 insects and warbling birds4  ,blake was
 thinking of his father and his own     
early whippings4 ,but really fathers are
 not absolutely necessary1 for the      
mother1 the nurse1 the elder sister1 and
 the public school1 can do the job a    
great deal more effectually4 ,the other 
poem1 ,the ,book of ,thel1 #aghi1 is    
,swedenborgian throughout4 ,thel1       
youngest daughter of the ,seraphim1     
bewails the transitoriness of life and  
all beautiful things1 herself included4 
,then the humble ,lily of the ,valley1 a
 little ,cloud1 a ,worm1 and a ,clod of 
,clay1 all in their respective ways     
preach to her that ,everything that     
lives1 lives not alone nor for itself4  

,when she has reached the utter         
selflessness of a ,clod of ,clay1 then  
only will she be able to behold         
steadfastly the seeming transitoriness  
of youth and beautiful things2 seeming1 
for like the lowly lily they melt to    
flourish in eternal vales4  ,here ,blake
 endorses the ,swedenborgian            
selflessness1 and extols the            
,swedenborgian lowliness1 modesty1 and  
humility4 ,swedenborg believed in no    
doctrine of self-realization4 ,to him   
the self was always an evil till lost in
 the ,lord4 ,it was the remains in him  
of ,german mysticism4 ,blake slowly and 
surely came to set a high value on the  
true self4 ,but unlike the more modern  
preacher of self-realization1 he        
believed that a man found his real self 
only after he had given himself         
passionately to ,jesus the eternal life 
and the eternal imagination4 ,then he   
was no longer to value the humility and 
modesty attached to selflessness4 ,their
 place was to be taken by a new kind of 

humility and a new kind of modesty of   
such flaming quality1 that he wished to 
drop the old names and find others that 
more nearly described their sovereign   
reality4  ,thel is finally invited by   
the matron ,clay to enter her house1    
with the assurance that she may return4 
,immediately the terrific ,porter of the
 ,eternal ,gates lifted the northern    
bar4  ,this is a well-known gate1 among 
,swedenborgians1 into the unseen world4 
,but it is very terrible4 ,according to 
,garth ,wilkinson it was the only gate  
that ,blake knew1 and he accounts by    
this means for ,blake's apotheosis of   
the self and the passions4 ,at this time
 ,blake saw through this gate what      
,swedenborg saw2 but later1 when he had 
shaken him off and changed his state1   
his vision changed accordingly1 and the 
objects were stripped of their horror4  
,he was also to know all the four gates 
leading into the unseen4  ,thel1        
entering1 wandered in the land of clouds
 through valleys dark1 list'ning dolours

 and lamentations till she came even to 
her own grave-plot4 ,through such a gate
 it matters not whether one views this  
world or the other4 ,both must appear   
sad and joyless in the extreme1 and     
enmesh the beholder in blackest         
pessimism4 ,thel1 hearing a voice       
wailing like the ecclesiastic dirge of  
the disillusioned ,king1 shrieked with  
terror1 and fled back unhindered into   
the vales of ,har4  ,thel is sweet1 even
 heavenly in the ,swedenborgian sense4  
,but its sweetness cloys4 ,christ1 like 
the ,law before ,him1 made a sparing use
 of honey1 preferring the more          
indispensable salt1 which ,he enjoined  
,his disciples to have in themselves at 
all times4 ,blake was to recover        
plentiful salt1 but not until he had    
drawn ,swedenborg's line between heaven 
and hell in a wholly different place4   
,swedenborg's influence is pleasantly   
found at work in the ,songs of          
,innocence4 ,innocence was a favourite  
word1 and ,swedenborg saw the celestial 

angels both innocent and naked4 ,there  
is nothing more innocent than a lamb1   
and therefore ,blake by a sure instinct 
and in childlike joy piped his song     
about the lamb1 satisfying at once his  
feeling for the lamb1 the child1 and the
 ,maker of the lamb who was called the  
,lamb of ,god4  ,the song called ,the   
,divine ,image shows ,swedenborg's      
influence at its best4 ,so many men with
 ,blake's mystic proclivities rush into 
vague abstractions4 ,to-day we hear of  
,infinite ,love and ,infinite ,wisdom1  
,infinite ,life1 and all personality    
denied to ,god4 ,yet these are mere     
high-sounding abstractions1 and are     
quite meaningless apart from concrete   
personality4 ,swedenborg was clear as   
day here1 and it was he who taught      
,blake the pure wisdom contained in his 
verses3    ,for ,mercy1 ,pity1 ,peace1  
and ,love   ,is ,god1 our ,father dear1 
,and ,mercy1 ,pity1 ,peace1 and ,love   
,is man1 ,his child and care4    ,for   
,mercy has a human heart1   ,pity a     

human face1   ,and ,love1 the human form
 divine1   ,and ,peace1 the human dress4
  ,swedenborg's teaching continues in   
,the ,songs of ,experience1 but with a  
question mark4  ,blake sings to the     
,fly3    ,am not ,i   ,a fly like thee8 
,or art not thou   ,a man like me8  ,to 
see humanity in a fly is ,swedenborgian2
 and ,blake answered his question in the
 affirmative4  ,in the next song there  
are many questions2 and it cannot be    
doubted that ,blake's answers would have
 been the exact contrary to             
,swedenborg's4  ,swedenborg1 like his   
theosophical predecessors1 had a way of 
denying that ,god created the particular
 animals that man finds inconvenient4   
,tigers1 wolves1 rats1 bats1 and moths  
are so obnoxious1 that it soothes man's 
vanity to suppose that they are         
embodiments of evil exhaled from hell4  
,they have served as restful homes for  
vampires and other creations of ,old    
,night4 ,and so ,swedenborg1 governed by
 mental habits of reason and use as     

measured by man1 drew a sharp line      
between animals of a heavenly and       
hellish origin4 ,when ,blake saw the    
tiger he saw differently4 ,his aesthetic
 eye instantly marvelled at its fearful 
symmetry1 the fire of its eyes1 the     
sinews of its heart2 and he cried1 ,did 
,he who made the ,lamb make thee8 ,he   
gives no answer4 ,but there was no need4
 ,in what distant deeps or skies the    
tiger had his origin had no further     
perplexity for him once he had married  
hell to heaven4  ,the ,little ,vagabond1
 though hardly within the ken of        
,swedenborg1 contains what every        
vagabond knows4 ,blake was able to      
rescue vagabonds as well as tigers from 
an exclusively hellish origin4  ,blake  
remained an orthodox ,swedenborgian for 
nearly two years1 and then came reaction
 and rebellion1 not without resentment  
and bitterness4 ,what was the cause of  
,blake's permanent repudiation of       
,swedenborg8 ,various reasons are given 
by ,swedenborgians to prove that ,blake 

was wholly in the wrong4 ,mr ,morris    
gives a beautifully simple explanation4 
,quoting ,blake's saying that he had two
 different states1 one in which he liked
 ,swedenborg's writings and one in which
 he disliked them1 he says1 ,the latter 
was a state of pride in himself1 and    
then they were distasteful to him1 but  
afterwards he knew that he had not been 
wise and sane4 ,that is the way that we 
all at some time in our life account for
 the obstinacy of those who will not    
worship at our altar4  ,mr ,garth       
,wilkinson1 who of ,swedenborgians most 
deserves to be heard1 wrote in the      
preface of his edition of ,the ,songs of
 ,innocence and ,experience1 #ahci1 that
 ,blake entered the invisible world     
through the terrific porter of its      
northern gate4 ,like ,shelley1 he verged
 towards pantheism1 not a spiritual     
pantheism1 but a natural spiritualism or
 ego-theism4 ,his genius entered into   
and inhabited the ,egyptian and ,asiatic
 perversions of an ancient and true     

religion1 and thus found a home in the  
ruins of ,ancient and consummated       
,churches4 ,wilkinson discovered a great
 deal of the ego and of hell in ,blake4 
,all of this criticism1 which is        
ingenious1 ,i cannot accept4 ,to begin  
with the ego4 ,swedenborg believed that 
every man in his own proprium was       
consumed with self-love1 and that only  
love to the ,lord could enable him      
entirely to overcome his love of self4  
,blake believed that the real self was  
made in the image of ,god1 and therefore
 it must be loved1 reverenced1 and      
obeyed4 ,the recognition of the same    
divine principle in others enables one  
to love one's neighbour as oneself4 ,all
 ,german mystical talk of hatred to self
 and death to self was repudiated by    
,blake as artificial and unreal4  ,it is
 true that ,blake came nearer to        
pantheism than ,swedenborg did4 ,he had 
come1 through his teacher1 to regard the
 universe as an emanation from ,god1 and
 in working from this doctrine to its   

logical outcome in pantheism he was more
 consistent than ,swedenborg1 who tried 
to evade the consequences of his own    
theory4  ,that ,blake found a home in an
 ancient and consummated ,church is true
 only if ,swedenborg's ,new ,church is  
really the ,new ,jerusalem predicted by 
,st ,john6 ,for the rest1 we hail with  
joy the element of hell in ,blake4      
,blake himself makes some short incisive
 remarks on ,swedenborg1 which will     
carry us a little farther to an         
understanding4 ,swedenborg has not      
written one new truth4 ,he has written  
all the old falsehoods4 ,blake had      
ardently welcomed ,swedenborg as a new  
teacher with a new message4 ,in these   
sentences he betrays disappointment1    
anger1 and resentment4 ,any man of      
mechanical talents may1 from the        
writings of ,paracelsus or ,jacob       
,behmen1 produce ten thousand volumes of
 equal value with ,swedenborg's1 and    
from those of ,dante or ,shakespeare an 
infinite number4 ,if ,blake had had a   

wider culture1 he would have known this 
when a boy1 and blown off his fumes at  
the proper season4 ,we shall encounter  
again and again his lack of grace when  
dealing with his successful             
contemporaries4  ,we see1 so far1 that  
,blake reckoned that ,swedenborg had    
failed him1 and that anything of value  
he found in him1 he could find in the   
old masters4 ,but there was something he
 could find in them--a spirit of beauty 
and a beauty of form--that was wholly   
lacking in ,swedenborg1 and an energy   
and exuberance that appeared only in    
,swedenborg's hell4 ,that this should be
 the net result of ,blake's expectations
 and ,swedenborg's pretensions was too  
much for ,blake's patience2 hence the   
violence of his reaction4  ,blake must  
have felt vaguely all along the lack of 
the aesthetic faculty in ,swedenborg4   
,it was ,swedenborg who helped him      
finally to understand the exact value of
 his visions and thus to place him4  ,we
 have seen that ,swedenborg1 by         

abstraction from space and time1 arrived
 at a doctrine of state which takes     
their place in heaven and hell4 ,from   
this it follows that man's vision is    
wholly dependent on his state1 and also 
that a man's visions cannot be trusted  
unless he has a perfect organ of vision 
resting on a sound state4 ,it is always 
fatuous for a religious teacher to      
appeal to his visions to enforce his    
doctrines1 since they depend on the man 
himself1 and we must form our judgment  
of him apart from his visions4 ,to      
appeal to a vision for the truth of a   
doctrine1 and to the doctrine for the   
truth of a vision1 is merely to whirl   
oneself round in a vicious circle2 and  
therefore ,swedenborg's whole           
make-up--will and understanding--must be
 laid bare and measured by some standard
 with which we may try the spirits and  
the prophets before we can begin to     
approach his visions and gauge their    
value4  ,swedenborg's state was a state 
of reason1 whether he viewed this world 

or the other4 ,his early scientific     
studies1 unbalanced by any real         
appreciation of art1 moulded his mind   
into a rigid state which was impervious 
to any outside stimulus4 ,when he turned
 to religion1 he made the barren attempt
 to trim the mysteries of the ,faith    
until they came wholly within the grasp 
of the understanding4 ,this is a        
rationalizing process4 ,swedenborgians  
may object to hear their master called a
 rationalist4 ,it is true that that term
 is usually applied to those who have no
 supersensual vision1 and even deny its 
existence4 ,swedenborg is1 of course1   
sharply distinguished from all such1 but
 he has with them the same fundamental  
trust of reason1 which in their case is 
used to gauge the things of this world1 
in his the things of the other4 ,hence  
when he has raised our expectations to a
 dizzy height1 as he is about to report 
on things seen and heard in heaven and  
hell1 there is a ludicrous anticlimax   
when we find that the angels are simply 

religious and talk theology             
everlastingly1 that heaven is like a    
well arranged ,dutch tulip field1 and   
excepting one or two phases of hell the 
whole is just as exciting as a problem  
in ,euclid and as dull as a sanitary    
report4 ,hell alone stirred some        
interest because its inmates had energy 
and blood4 ,and therefore one           
sympathizes with those spirits who1     
allowed to peep into heaven1 immediately
 chose to plunge themselves head-first  
into hell4  ,now ,blake1 being a        
visionary1 knew that vision depended on 
will1 and he learnt further from        
,swedenborg that it depended also on    
state1 and so1 as a man's state changed1
 his vision changed also4 ,blake's state
 was the imagination of the poetic      
genius 7,los71 ,swedenborg's the dry    
logical faculty of the unassisted reason
 7,urizen71 and as ,blake looked at     
,swedenborg's heaven and hell1 he saw   
them approaching one to the other and   
finally with an impetuous rush locked in

 a marital embrace4  ,this is the most  
significant vision of modern times1     
after which it is easy to judge         
,swedenborg4 ,he had given for life1    
theology2 for beauty1 ashes2 and instead
 of emancipating the modern world he    
condemned it to the appalling tedium of 
an everlasting ,sunday ,school4 ,the    
doctrine of the ,new ,jerusalem was not 
half so beautiful as that of the ,old   
,jerusalem4 ,christ come again in ,glory
 was stripped of that beauty that men   
had perceived in ,his first lowly       
coming4 ,blake's indictment of          
,swedenborg was severe4 ,it was also an 
indictment of the whole of protestant   
theology4 ,the magnificent fruit of     
,swedenborg's action and reaction1      
attraction and repulsion for ,blake was 
,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell4    
,blake was fresh from reading           
,swedenborg's ,heaven and ,hell1 and    
this and not the ecclesiastical was     
continually in his thought as he wrote4 
,at the same time it is necessary to    

remember that ,blake was not merely     
criticizing ,swedenborg4 ,swedenborg    
gave a rationalized version of the      
,lutheran doctrine1 and therefore to    
reject him involved a rejection of much 
of ,luther's teaching and of the        
protestantism that has flowed from him4 
,heaven1 then1 consists of the passive  
obeyers of reason1 the religious1 the   
good2 hell of the active obeyers of     
,energy1 the irreligious1 the evil4     
,here let it be well marked and         
remembered that by the religious ,blake 
always meant those who repress their    
energies or passions until they become  
passive enough for them to obey reason4 
,hell's prime quality is passion or     
energy or desire4 ,this in itself is    
neither good nor evil in the abstract   
sense in which these words are generally
 understood1 but considered absolutely  
it is good1 for it is the native energy 
of the man made in ,god's image and     
likeness4 ,energy works according to the
 object of desire4 ,if a man's object is

 the flesh1 he becomes an adulterer2 if 
things of beauty and delight1 an artist2
 if ,god1 a saint4 ,religious people1   
frightened and mistrustful of their     
desires1 restrain them until they are   
passive1 and in doing so they are       
destroying the motive power of their    
lives4 ,they are wholly successful when 
they become dead souls1 and it is then1 
strictly speaking1 that they are fit1   
not for heaven1 but for hell4 ,the      
stronger the desire1 the greater the    
man4 ,once direct the energy by fixing  
its desire on ,god1 it will drive the   
man to greatness4 ,thus the typical     
restrainer or devil is the priest1 the  
typical man of passion or energy is the 
artist4 ,those who restrain their       
energies in the name of ,christ have    
identified ,him with the reason1 and    
they have never caught so much as a     
glimpse of ,him as ,he is4 ,swedenborg  
and ,milton worshipped a rational       
,christ1 and therefore in ,blake's eyes1
 as also in the catholic's1 they were   

heretics4 ,the ,book of ,job and        
,shakespeare see inspiration and        
imagination working with energy as the  
highest good4 ,the restrainer in the    
,book of ,job is called ,satan4 ,blake  
alone in his time saw ,christ as the    
supreme symbol of the                   
passionate-imaginative life4  ,those who
 have followed ,blake thus far will at  
once understand the ,proverbs of ,hell1 
and perceive in them the glorification  
of energy and all things belonging to   
it4 ,excess1 pride1 lust and wrath are  
evidences of great energy4 ,therefore   
the road of excess leads to the palace  
of wisdom1 the pride of the peacock is  
the glory of ,god1 the lust of the goat 
is the bounty of ,god the wrath of the  
lion is the wisdom of ,god4 ,generosity1
 prodigality1 open-handedness1 impulse1 
show a rich full nature4 ,prudence1     
number1 measure1 weight1 betray poverty 
and are fit in a year of death4 ,the    
animals of abounding energy are the     
noblest1 like the lion1 tiger1 eagle4   

,the animals lacking great energy take  
refuge in cunning1 like the fox and the 
crow4 7,blake no longer questions who   
made the tiger47 ,blake extols          
fountains1 not cisterns or standing     
water1 courage not cunning1 exuberance  
not reason-broken passion4 ,even an     
energetic damn braces1 while a pious    
blessing induces a flabby relaxation4   
,man's most valuable gift of ,god is    
passion4 ,what a man makes of his life  
will depend on how he regards his       
passion1 and into what channels he      
directs its course4  ,thus ,blake unites
 contraries4 ,but just as all is going  
merry as a marriage bell1 he suddenly   
declares that there are some contraries 
that can never be married4 ,the modern  
immanentist world is trying to unite    
good and evil1 beauty and ugliness1 with
 baneful results4 ,we are told that     
there is nothing ugly to the discerning 
eye1 and one wonders why one should take
 pains to improve ones crude daubs4     
,blake says that religious people are   

always trying to make these false       
matches4 ,he gives as a typical example 
the prolific and devourer--the active   
and passive4 ,each is necessary to the  
other's existence4 ,union destroys both4
 ,it is easy to multiply examples4      
,black and white produce grey1 beautiful
 in art1 but depressing in life4 ,dark  
and light1 twilight1 beautiful1 but sad 
and lowering4 ,cold and heat1           
lukewarmness1 which is hateful4 ,hard   
and soft1 slush1 which abounds in modern
 thought4 ,hate and love1 unctuousness  
or slime1 which is particularly         
obnoxious in some religious people4     
,blake hated these mashes4 ,he had no   
faith in the love that could not hate4  
,just as he seemed on the brink of      
sweeping away hell like an amiable      
modern1 he discovered that though he had
 made quick work of the ,swedenborgian  
and protestant hell1 yet hell as ,christ
 thought of it remained and must remain4
 ,note4--,jesus ,christ did not wish to 
unite1 but to separate them1 as in the  

,parable of sheep and goats4 ,and ,he   
says1 ',i come not to send ,peace1 but a
 ,sword4' ,thus ,blake kept his         
perception clear and sharp4 ,in         
following his own mental energy he was  
able to shake off all pantheistic       
distortions of good and evil1 and to see
 that though with the majority these are
 mere abstractions1 yet there is        
ultimately an eternal distinction       
between them1 and therefore heaven and  
earth may pass away1 but ,jesus         
,christ's word concerning heaven and    
hell will abide for ever4  ,christians  
have thought of heaven and hell too much
 as of future places4 ,blake thought of 
them primarily as present states4 ,here 
a man's state is obscured by its        
intermingling with conditions of space  
and time4 ,hereafter the state creates  
the environment4 ,the man in a state of 
hell1 and therefore in hell1 is the one 
whose energy or vital fire is dead4 ,the
 man in a state of ,heaven is the one   
who lives the more abundant life in     

which his religion1 art1 and philosophy 
have become one4 ,the real hell and the 
real heaven can never be married1 for   
any attempt to marry them results in    
moral loss4 ,but a man can pass from a  
state of hell into a state of heaven1   
and the way to do it is the old way of  
repentance and faith--repentance which  
changes heart and mind by giving them a 
new object1 and faith that takes and    
receives the glad tidings of the        
,kingdom of ,god4  ,blake gave a curious
 illustration of his doctrine of state4 
,a ,swedenborgian angel came to him1 and
 condoled with him because of the hot1  
burning dungeon that he was preparing   
for himself to all eternity4 ,the angel 
at his request undertook to show him his
 place in hell4 ,truly it was horrible1 
and ,blake describes the ideal          
,swedenborgian hell with a power and    
vividness to which ,swedenborg could    
never attain4 ,the angel1 not enjoying  
the sight1 decamped2 but no sooner was  
,blake alone than the horrible vision   

vanished1 and he found himself on a     
pleasant bank beside a river1 by        
moonlight1 hearing a harper1 who sung to
 the harp4 ,the angel had drawn him into
 his state1 and he saw what the angel   
saw4 ,when he regained his real state1  
the vision was pleasant enough4         
,afterwards he rejoined the angel and   
undertook to show him his lot4 ,an angel
 is necessarily above the modes of space
 and time4 ,this one being religious1   
and therefore repressed to passivity1   
was shown a timeless1 spaceless void1   
which was an eternal nightmare more     
unutterably fearful than anything in    
,swedenborg's filthy sewer4  ,finally   
,blake overheard a marvellously rich and
 splendid bit of conversation between a 
devil in a flame of fire and an angel   
seated on a cloud4  ,the devil pointed  
out how ,jesus ,christ was obedient to  
impulse1 and how ,his obedience to ,his 
passionate energies--to the ,voice of   
,god within ,him--made ,him the ,great  
,rebel and ,law ,breaker1 mocking the   

sabbath and the sabbath's ,god1 guilty  
of the blood of ,his martyrs1           
exonerating the woman taken in adultery1
 living on the labour and sweat of      
wage-slaves1 acquiescing in a false     
witness by ,his silence1 coveting the   
best gifts for ,his disciples4 ,it was a
 ,pharisee who said1 ,all these laws    
have ,i kept from my youth1 and he      
became a dead soul4 ,jesus on the cross 
looked back on a pathway strewn with the
 corpses of the religious people ,he had
 killed in ,his fiery impetuous course1 
and instead of a death-repentance1 ,he  
uttered the audacious word1 ,father1    
into ,thy ,hands ,i commend ,my ,spirit4
  ,the angel was converted4 ,embracing  
the flame of fire he was consumed1 and  
rose again as ,elijah--the prophet of   
spirit and fire4  ,and thus ,blake took 
his leave of ,swedenborg4 ,he had       
expected too much of him and was        
disappointed4 ,it was more than enough  
to hear his name on the lips of his     
pious1 commonplace brother4 ,he was     

indignant that he had not fulfilled his 
high-sounding pretensions1 and the voice
 of honest indignation1 he wrote1 is the
 voice of ,god4 ,but we who calmly look 
on can detect the voice of resentment   
too1 which robs his departure of grace4 
,but for ,swedenborg ,the ,marriage of  
,heaven and ,hell had never been        
written4 ,swedenborg was the ,goliath1  
strong in reason1 logic1 system1        
science1 intellect1 slain by the stone  
from ,david's sling4 ,blake and not     
,swedenborg was the true ,samson shorn  
by the ,churches4     ,,chapter ,,vi    
,,the ,,rebels   ,blake was thirty-three
 when in #agij he wrote ,the ,marriage  
of ,heaven and ,hell4  ,it marked a     
crisis in his life4 ,hitherto1 with all 
the generous exuberance of youth1 he was
 striving to leave the past behind1 and 
reach forth to something new that by    
sheer glory and beauty should sweep up  
in its course the youth of the ages to  
come4  ,for a time he believed that     
,swedenborg could supply him with the   

fire to fashion and direct his own      
genius2 but after poring long over his  
pages1 he began reluctantly to discover 
that the fire of his imagination had    
either never been kindled or it was long
 since extinct4 ,whatever else remained 
in ,swedenborg--and there were          
undeniably many good things--was        
impotent for the supreme task of        
supplying the creative spark4  ,blake   
was disappointed and disillusioned4     
,never again did he make an impetuous   
rush to embrace any man1 however        
dazzling his gifts4 ,but not yet had he 
learnt the vital value of the past4 ,if 
no new prophet arrived1 there was still 
himself1 and if he trusted himself with 
passionate faith1 he might yet          
accomplish the desired thing4  ,in #agia
 the outer events of his life ran a new 
course4 ,some time previously1 ,fuseli  
had introduced him to a bookseller and  
publisher named ,johnson1 living at #gb 
,st ,paul's ,churchyard4  ,this ,johnson
 was a remarkable man4 ,his sympathies  

were with rebels1 whom he detected1     
welcomed1 and encouraged4 ,but he had   
none of the hard narrowness of advanced 
liberals1 and his eye and heart were    
quick also to discover and cheer such a 
shy1 diffident1 conservative genius as  
,cowper4 ,he was a friend to the authors
 whose works he published2 and in a     
little upper chamber he gave weekly     
dinner parties1 to which were bidden    
,william ,godwin1 ,mary ,wollstonecraft1
 ,tom ,paine1 ,dr ,price and ,dr        
,priestley1 and now ,blake himself4 ,in 
the 'eighties ,blake had moved among    
elegant ,blue-stockings who were above  
all things anxious to show themselves   
true daughters of ,sarah3 now in the    
'nineties he was one of a party of      
rebels who despised the past1 and were  
hailing the ,french ,revolution1        
believing that after a few more of such 
upheavals a millennium would surely come
 in which man would be perfected4       
,foremost among the rebels was ,william 
,godwin4 ,ten years younger1 ,blake     

might have been captivated by ,godwin1  
as later on ,shelley1 ,coleridge1 and   
,bulwer ,lytton were to be4 ,there was  
always something clean and fresh about  
,godwin1 and his hopes and aspirations  
for mankind were generous4 ,brought up  
in the narrowest sect of ,calvinism1 and
 believing while still a boy that he was
 assuredly one of the elect1 he         
rebounded in later life to a liberal    
humanism1 and retained little of his    
,calvinism except an unshaken belief in 
his own election4 ,the first edition of 
his ,enquiry concerning ,political      
,justice appeared in #agic1 which he    
stated all his first principles4 ,these 
can be summarized briefly3  ,the        
characters of men originate in their    
external circumstances1 and therefore   
man has no innate ideas or principles1  
and no instincts of right action apart  
from reasoning4 ,heredity counts for    
almost nothing4 ,it is impression makes 
the man4 ,the voluntary actions of men  
originate in their opinions4  ,man is   

perfectible4  ,man has negative rights  
but no positive rights4  ,nothing       
further is requisite1 but the           
improvement of his reasoning faculty1 to
 make him virtuous and happy4 ,freedom  
of will is a curse4 ,it is not free or  
independent of understanding1 and       
therefore it follows understanding1 and 
fortunately is not free to resist it4   
,man becomes free as he obeys it4 ,it   
follows that our disapprobation of vice 
will be of the same nature as our       
disapprobation of an infectious         
distemper4  ,a scheme of self-love is   
incompatible with virtue4  ,the only    
means by which truth enters is through  
the inlet of the senses4  ,intellect is 
the creature of sensation1 we have no   
other inlet of knowledge4  ,government  
is in all cases an evil1 and it ought to
 be introduced as sparingly as possible4
  ,give a state but liberty enough1 and 
it is impossible that vice should exist 
in it4  ,thus ,godwin was rationalist1  
altruist1 anarchist1 and non-resister4  

,it is not probable that ,blake ever    
read ,political ,justice1 his patience  
not being equal to the task4 ,while     
ardently desiring political justice and 
liberty1 it was soon plain to him from  
his personal knowledge of ,godwin that  
all his first principles were false4 ,it
 was not true that man's character      
originates in his external              
circumstances1 although these do act on 
him4 ,the differences between men are   
traceable to a fundamental inequality4  
,one man turns everything he touches    
into dross1 another into gold4 ,why8    
,blake had no need to argue4 ,being a   
mystic1 he knew that man's innate       
principles1 ideas1 and instincts        
differed1 that heredity could not be    
ignored1 that beyond the five inlets of 
the senses which reason alone           
recognizes1 there are a thousand inlets 
for the man whose spiritual             
understanding is awakened4  ,he shivered
 at the thought of what the world would 
become if the rationalist had his way2  

for though he would sweep away          
superstitions1 injustices1 cruelties1   
yet from his invariable lack of         
discrimination he would crush with these
 the flowers and fruits of imagination1 
intuition1 and inspiration4 ,besides1   
whether ,state or no ,state1 what sort  
of life would man's be when his         
fundamental instincts and passions were 
allowed no expression8 ,blake had not   
the statesman's power of looking at men 
in the mass1 but he knew that the       
individual was of extreme importance in 
any community1 and also that the        
individual's value lay in his power of  
passion1 and therefore ,godwin's calm1  
reasoned1 doctrinaire scheme for        
bringing the ,millennium made no appeal 
to him whatever1 and the two men went   
their separate courses4  ,it is         
interesting to note later that ,shelley 
attained to liberty and song just so far
 as he shook off ,godwin4 ,when he      
talked with exaggerated nonsense about  
kings and priests1 he was but repeating 

what he imbibed from ,godwin in his     
early undiscriminating youth4  ,mary    
,wollstonecraft was something quite new 
in the feminine way4 ,suffering in youth
 all the torments of a repressed and    
restricted woman-child1 and possessing a
 full1 passionate nature1 she rebelled4 
,everywhere she turned she saw woman set
 in an utterly false position1 and1 as a
 consequence1 silly1 affected1 degraded4
 ,even those who made a bid for some    
solid knowledge simpered1 and too often1
 like ,mrs ,piozzi1 repeated by rote1   
and in ,johnsonian periods1 what they   
did not understand4 ,mary never doubted 
for a moment that woman enfranchised    
economically would rise to great things4
 ,unerringly1 she detected the true     
cause of woman's failure4 ,it is vain to
 expect virtue from women till they are 
in some degree independent of men4      
,women must have a civil existence in   
the ,state4 ,poor ,mary was terribly    
alone1 and had to work out her new faith
 in woman without any human assistance4 

,fearlessly she exposed the delicate    
immorality of ,dr ,gregory's ,legacy to 
his ,daughters1 the most sentimental    
rant of ,dr ,george ,fordyce1 the       
oriental despotism of ,rousseau2 and not
 content with such small game1 she      
entered the lists against the           
arch-conservator ,edmund ,burke1 for    
which ,walpole named her a hyena in     
petticoats1 and ,burke himself reckoned 
her with the viragoes and poissardes4   
,mary's wide sympathies were not only   
for women4 ,her knowledge of children   
had convinced her that they too had     
rights1 and she had an irresistible     
faith that with tyranny put down and    
political liberty won1 the oppressed    
peoples of the world would prove        
themselves capable of the highest       
things4 ,and therefore she flung herself
 into the cause of the ,french          
,revolution1 and made that her bone of  
contention with ,burke4  ,there is no   
finer contrast than ,fanny ,burney for  
bringing into relief the special        

characteristics of ,mary ,wollstonecraft
 as a type of new woman4 ,fanny welcomed
 with breathless interest the ,french   
emigrants as they arrived one by one at 
,juniper ,hall1 and listened with horror
 as ,talleyrand1 ,m4 d',arblay1 ,m4 de  
,narbonne recounted the atrocities of   
the people4 ,mary took a room in ,paris 
and watched their progress through her  
window4 ,fanny was completely overcome  
at the news of ,louis ,,xvi's martyrdom4
 ,mary watched him go to his death1 and 
would not allow a momentary pity to make
 her forget the down-trodden poor4      
,fanny was a slave to conventions4 ,mary
 followed her own nature4 ,fanny refused
 to correspond with ,madame de ,genlis1 
and asked ,queen ,charlotte whether she 
had not done right1 and at her father's 
bidding dropped ,madame de ,stael1 to   
whom she was attracted4 ,mary consulted 
no one about her friendships1 and in    
defiance of legal bonds was willing to  
be the mother of ,charles ,imlay's child
 because she loved him4  ,alas6 ,charles

 ,imlay was faithless2 and when ,mary   
returned to ,england with little ,fanny 
,imlay1 alone and broken in spirit1 it  
was bookseller ,johnson who befriended  
her as he had our lonely ,blake4        
,obviously there was much in common     
between her and ,blake4 ,he was with her
 in her hope for women1 and children1   
and the poor4 ,she had found herself in 
spite of mistakes1 and her character and
 her works were informed with vital     
passion4 ,had ,blake been single1 and   
she drawn into friendship with him1 she 
would have become the perfect type of   
new woman1 imaginative1 understanding1  
impassioned1 inspired2 as it happened1  
it was into ,godwin's arms she fell1 and
 not ,blake's1 and while ,godwin took   
her in like a wandering dove1 and gave  
her shelter and sympathy1 yet the slight
 chill of his marital deportment and    
reasoned ways would have hindered her1  
had she lived1 from bringing her fine   
character to full fruition4  ,tom ,paine
 presents another type of rebel with    

whom ,blake came into contact4 ,he had  
already made for himself fast friends   
and bitter enemies by aiding and        
abetting the ,american ,rebellion4 ,the 
thirteen colonies1 though irritated by  
the ,stamp ,act1 were not at once       
inclined to rebel1 and even after       
,charles ,townshend's proposal of       
tea-duty1 ,south ,carolina1             
,pennsylvania1 ,new ,york1 and ,delaware
 still held back4 ,paine could wield a  
powerful pen1 and by this means he kept 
the flame of discontent alive1 and urged
 the ,states on till ,jefferson composed
 a ,declaration of ,independence to     
which the four backward ,states were    
brought reluctantly to agree1 and on    
,july #dth1 #aggf1 the ,american ,united
 ,colonies declared themselves ,free and
 ,independent ,states4  ,after this     
success ,paine felt that his pen was    
equal to any task4 ,having returned to  
,england and fallen in with the ,godwin 
set1 he of course shared with them in   
their sympathies for the ,french        

,revolution1 and in addition declared   
himself a deist1 and set himself1 in his
 ,age of ,reason1 to discredit the      
,bible4 ,it was all very well when he   
was doing the rough work of fanning     
rebellion1 but he was ludicrously unfit 
for the fine work of criticizing the    
,bible4 ,its poetry and mysticism and   
manifold wisdom were not even suspected 
by him4 ,he stolidly read through the   
sublime chapters of ,isaiah1 and thought
 them worse than the production of a    
schoolboy2 and when he came to the      
stories of the ,nativity1 which1 whether
 fact or poetry1 are marvellously       
beautiful1 he became so grossly indecent
 that one is bound to relegate him to   
the vulgarest order of ,bible-smashers4 
,his deism was a symptom of the times4  
,dr ,priestley1 who also attended       
,johnson's dinners1 was a polished      
ornament of the sect4 ,they persuaded   
themselves that ,god1 having set the    
universe agog1 remained ,himself wholly 
outside of it4 ,it was well that ,blake 

should come into personal touch with    
these rebel deists4 ,they could never   
appeal to him even for a moment1 for he 
was penetrated all his life with the    
belief that ,god dwelt inside of ,his   
creation2 and since all theological     
rebellion tended more and more in the   
direction of a mechanical deism1 he     
began to suspect that he must look      
elsewhere to discover the wisdom that   
should crown his years4  ,yet there was 
something in ,paine that appealed to    
,blake4 ,they were both worshippers of  
liberty1 and while they could not meet  
on theological ground1 they were stirred
 alike by the portentous and successive 
crises on the other side of the         
,channel4 ,paine felt that he still had 
work to do4 ,he had served his          
apprenticeship in ,america1 he would now
 put forth his whole strength in his    
,rights of ,man1 and help forward the   
sacred cause of ,liberte1 ,egalite1     
,fraternite4  ,there were other         
rebels--,holcroft1 playwright and       

translator1 friend of ,godwin1          
afterwards to be sent to ,newgate2      
,hardy and ,thelwall2 ,horne ,tooke1 who
 raised subscriptions for the relief of 
,americans and spoke of the transactions
 at ,lexington and ,concord as inhuman  
murders4 ,he was to be tried along with 
,holcroft and sentenced to twelve       
months' imprisonment4  ,now ,blake      
sympathized with all these rebels in    
their political aspirations2 but whereas
 their watchword was reason1 and their  
revolt was in the name of reason1 he    
believed that reason carried one very   
little way1 and that the elemental deeps
 of life and passion that lie far under 
reason must be stirred and aroused if   
the work of rebellion was to bring forth
 lasting fruit4 ,in any case1 the       
reason-bound men had little to teach    
him4 ,he had looked to ,swedenborg1 he  
had taken knowledge of his advanced     
contemporaries4 ,godwin rebelled for    
political liberty1 ,mary ,wollstonecraft
 for liberty of women and children1 ,tom

 ,paine for liberty of man4 ,what was   
left for ,blake8 ,the sex question had  
never been dragged out into the light4  
,the subject was unclean4 ,sexual       
morality consisted in repression4       
,nowhere as here does repression breed  
such poisonous fruits4 ,was not sex a   
part of that vital fire and passion in  
which ,blake believed with his whole    
heart8 ,was it not true that whatsoever 
lives is holy8 ,must not there be       
liberty for the sexual instinct if it   
was to be kept clean8 ,for the next ten 
years ,blake became the advocate of     
bodily liberty1 indistinguishable from  
free-love4 ,this was to be the recurring
 theme again and again in his prophetic 
books4 ,this was to be his contribution 
towards the new kind of man or superman 
for whom he was groping4 ,afterwards1   
when he had given substance and form in 
his prophecies to the vague and         
indefinite thoughts that lay in him1 he 
was to learn how to estimate and place  
them4 ,not until he had walked the road 

of mental excess was he to arrive at the
 palace of wisdom4 ,once there1 he was  
to revise even his ideas on rebellion4  
,keeping these persons and things       
steadily in view1 let us now follow in  
order and detail the works of ,blake's  
most rebellious period4  ,as was        
fitting1 ,blake sounded the note of     
rebellion in a poem on the ,french      
,revolution4  ,at this                  
stage--#agij-ia--the ,revolution had not
 advanced far4 ,the ,reign of ,terror   
and the execution of ,louis ,,xvi and   
,marie ,antoinette were still in the    
future4 ,but the ,bastille had fallen1  
and the noise of its fall set the nerves
 of the overstrung ,english liberals    
vibrating4 ,the battle in prose was     
waged by ,paine1 ,mackintosh1 and ,mary 
,wollstonecraft against ,burke1 and     
their names came at once into notoriety4
 ,blake was as outspoken1 and even more 
fearless1 for he wore publicly the      
bonnet rouge as the outward and visible 
sign of his faith1 but fortunately for  

him1 his natural medium of expression   
was poetry1 and that of a kind hitherto 
unknown1 and so1 say what he would1 no  
one paid him the smallest attention4    
,what came doubtlessly as a surprise to 
himself was that his poem found a       
publisher2 and the first ,book1 with the
 promise that the remaining ,books of   
the ,poem1 which were finished1 should  
be published in their order1 was        
announced to the world by bookseller    
,johnson in #agia1 at the modest price  
of one shilling4  ,blake has a strange  
allegorical method of dealing with the  
,revolution which can only irritate     
those who are not accustomed to his     
ways4 ,thus he speaks of the seven dark 
and sickly towers of the ,bastille4 ,to 
these he gives the descriptive names of 
,horror1 ,darkness1 ,bloody1 ,religion1 
,order1 ,destiny1 the ,tower of ,god1   
and he gives descriptions of the        
prisoners in the towers corresponding to
 their names4 ,all these were imprisoned
 because in some form or other they had 

bidden for liberty4 ,one was the author 
of a writing prophetic2 another1 a      
woman1 refused to be whore to the       
,minister and with a knife smote him2   
another had raised a pulpit in the city 
of ,paris and taught wonders to darkened
 souls4 ,the horror of their condition  
is described with great power1 although 
with too congested an accumulation of   
baneful images4 ,thus3 ,in the tower    
named ,darkness was a man pinioned down 
to the stone floor1 his strong bones    
scarce covered with sinews2 the iron    
rings were forged smaller as the flesh  
decayed4 ,that is a ,dantesque touch4   
,but when one reads farther down of an  
old man1 whose white beard covered the  
stone floor like weeds on margin of the 
sea1 shrivelled up by heat of day and   
cold of night2 his den was short and    
narrow as a grave dug for a child1 with 
spiders' webs wove and with slime of    
ancient horrors covered1 for snakes and 
scorpions are his companions1 then the  
piled-up details prevent a clear image1 

and detract from the value of what has  
gone before4 ,in contrast to the        
wretched inhabitants of the ,bastille1  
we are presented with the ,king and his 
nobles4 ,here are names1 but no         
portraits4 ,the ,king stands for the    
spirit of kingship in all ages and his  
nobles are those who uphold this        
marble-built heaven1 and all this great 
starry harvest of six thousand years4   
,they must resist to the death the      
crooked sickle stretched out over       
fertile ,france till our purple and     
crimson is faded to russet1 and the     
,kingdoms of earth bound in sheaves1 and
 the ancient forests of chivalry hewn1  
and the joys of the combat burnt for    
fuel4 7,as ,blake penned these fine     
words something of his early            
,elizabethan passion must have stirred  
in him47 ,the ,king1 through whom the   
spirits of ancient ,kings speak1 peers  
through the darkness and clouds1 and    
involuntarily sees the truth3 ,we are   
not numbered among the living4 ,life is 

with the prisoners who have burst their 
dens4 ,let ,kings shivering over their  
bleached bones hide in the dust6 and    
plague and wrath and tempest shall      
cease4  ,the ,archbishop of ,paris1     
symbol of traditional religion1 arises  
and addresses the ,king4 ,for him       
revolution can only mean atheism4 ,god  
so long worshipped departs as a lamp    
without oil4444 ,the sound of prayer    
fails from lips of flesh1 and the holy  
hymn from thickened tongues4  ,clergy as
 well as nobles vanish1 mitre as well as
 crown4 ,the sound of the bell1 and     
voice of the sabbath1 and singing of the
 holy choir is turned into songs of the 
harlot in day1 and cries of the virgin  
in night4 ,they shall drop at the plough
 and faint at the harrow1 unredeemed1   
unconfessed1 unpardoned2 the priest rot 
in his surplice by the lawless lover1   
the holy beside the accursed1 the ,king1
 frowning in purple1 beside the grey    
ploughman1 and their worms embrace      
together4  ,this1 fine as it is1 calls  

out a still finer speech from ,orleans4 
,can nobles be bound when the people are
 free1 or ,god weep when ,his children  
are happy8 ,then to the ,archbishop he  
cries3 ,go1 thou cold recluse1 into the 
fires of another's high flaming rich    
bosom1 and return unconsumed1 and write 
laws4 ,if thou canst not do this1 doubt 
thy theories1 learn to consider all men 
as thy equals1 thy brethren1 and not as 
thy foot or thy hand1 unless thou first 
fearest to hurt them4  ,finally the     
voice of the people is heard rising from
 valley and hill4 ,what though the      
husbandman weeps at blights of the fife1
 and blastings of trumpets consume the  
souls of mild ,france1 and the pale     
mother nourishes her child to deadly    
slaughter1 yet when the will of the     
people is accomplished1 then shall the  
soldier throw down his sword and musket 
and run and embrace the meek peasant 444
 the saw and the hammer1 the chisel1 the
 pencil1 the pen1 and the instruments of
 heavenly song sound in the wilds once  

forbidden 444 and the happy earth sing  
in its course1 the mild peaceable       
nations be opened to heaven1 and men    
walk with their fathers in bliss4  ,this
 and much more is what the capture of   
the ,bastille symbolized for ,blake4 ,we
 see that his hopes ran high4 ,the      
,revolution was to rectify no temporary 
disorder4 ,it was to set the people free
 for the first time in the world's      
history1 and so effect a ,kingdom of    
,god on earth which had been the        
passionate yearning of imprisoned souls 
in all ages4 ,the ,kingdom was to come  
by passion and not intellect1 by fire   
and not snow4 ,and so to cold           
doctrinaire ,godwin and such-like1 he   
would have said as ,orleans to the      
,archbishop in the poem3 ,go1 thou cold 
recluse1 into the fires of another's    
high flaming rich bosom4 ,godwin was to 
go1 as we know1 into ,mary's flaming    
rich bosom1 and to warm as he chilled   
her2 but even ,mary could not bring him 
to the flaming point which burned in the

 bosom of ,william ,blake as it had in  
the bosom of ,jesus ,christ4  ,blake's  
obscurity protected him from the        
persecution that was pursuing its       
victims in the ,johnson circle4  ,on    
,july #adth1 #agij1 ,dr ,priestley had  
arranged a dinner party in ,birmingham  
to commemorate the capture of the       
,bastille1 for which he was mobbed1 and 
his house1 containing a fine library1   
philosophical instruments1 and laborious
 manuscripts1 was destroyed4 ,in #agib  
,tom ,paine was marked out by the ,home 
,office as another victim2 but while he 
was reporting at ,johnson's his public  
speech of the preceding evening1 ,blake 
advised him to decamp at once to ,france
 or he was a dead man2 and he1 taking   
the hint1 escaped safely to ,calais1 and
 was ready to take his part in the      
,national ,convention1 to which the     
,department of ,calais had appointed    
him4 ,paine never returned to ,england1 
but he was to encounter many perils     
during the ,reign of ,terror1 and to    

write the ,age of ,reason1 in which he  
attacked at once the ,bible and ,french 
atheism4  ,blake1 still fired by        
liberty1 wrote his ,song of ,liberty    
according to ,dr ,sampson about #agib4  
,liberty was the new-born terror1 fire1 
and wonder1 brought forth by the eternal
 ,female4 ,under its inspiration        
,england was to be healed1 ,america     
renewed1 ,spain to burst the barriers of
 old ,rome1 and ,rome herself to cast   
her keys deep down into eternity4 ,but  
liberty has a dire conflict with        
,urizen1 here called the jealous ,king  
and the gloomy ,king1 who with his      
grey-browed counsellors1 thunderous     
warriors1 curled veterans1 and ten      
commands1 makes a fight for life4       
,liberty stamps the stony law to dust   
till ,empire is no more1 and is         
confident that the lion and wolf shall  
cease4 ,the sons of liberty are sons of 
joy1 and counting that everything that  
lives is holy1 proceed to act whenever  
they will4  ,thus ,blake stumbles again 

on the vexed subject of sex1 and it was 
to remain something of an obsession with
 him for many years4  ,his main thoughts
 can be gathered from ,the ,visions of  
the ,daughters of ,albion1 which he     
engraved and printed in #agic4 ,the     
heroine ,oothoon1 a ,blakean ,tess1     
loves and is beloved by ,theotormon4    
,but ,bromion1 forcibly conveying her to
 his stormy bed1 tears her virgin mantle
 in twain4 ,satiated1 he cries to       
,theotormon3 ,now thou mayst marry      
,bromion's harlot1 and protect the child
 of ,bromion's rage1 that ,oothoon shall
 put forth in nine moons' time4         
,theotormon refused4 ,consumed with     
jealousy1 and reckoning ,oothoon a      
defiled thing1 he cannot receive her1   
and the two1 loving1 remain apart1      
consuming their days in misery and      
tears4  ,oothoon calls on ,theotormon's 
eagles to rend away her defiled bosom1  
that she may reflect the image of       
,theotormon on her pure transparent     
breast4 ,the eagles rend their bleeding 

prey1 at which ,theotormon1 considering 
that ,oothoon suffers what she deserves1
 severely smiles4 ,she1 with no touch of
 resentment at his self-righteous       
cruelty1 which in truth she is too      
self-effacing to perceive1 reflects the 
smile1 and as the clear spring1 muddied 
with feet of beasts1 grows pure and     
smiles4 ,it is plain that1 whatever her 
past acts1 she is a pure living soul1   
and ,theotormon with his conventional   
morality is neither clean nor alive4    
,she is a new-washed lamb tinged with   
the village smoke1 or a bright swan by  
the red earth of our immortal river1 but
 she has only to bathe her wings1 and   
she is white and pure to hover round    
,theotormon's breast4  ,with the        
cleansing of her breast comes the       
clearing of her vision4 ,she is no      
longer enclosed by her five senses1 nor 
her infinite brain into a narrow circle1
 but she sees through nature1 and comes 
to see ,theotormon as he really is4 ,he 
was only a selfish devourer4 ,but she   

cries3    ,can that be ,love1 that      
drinks another as a sponge drinks water1
   ,that clouds with jealousy his       
nights1 with weepings all the day1   ,to
 spin a web of age around him1 grey and 
hoary and dark2   ,till his eyes sicken 
at the fruit that hangs before his      
sight8  ,then she names it aright3      
,such is self-love that envies all1 a   
creeping skeleton1   ,with lamplike eyes
 watching around the frozen marriage    
bed6  ,her own love has risen far above 
such selfishness4 ,she will even lie by 
his side on a bank1 and view him without
 jealousy as he takes his delight with  
girls of mild silver1 or of furious     
gold1 and into the heaven of generous   
love she will bring no selfish          
blightings4 ,then with these lovely     
words she concludes her golden speech3  
,arise1 you little glancing wings1 and  
sing your infant joy6   ,arise1 and     
drink your bliss1 for everything that   
lives is holy4  ,here we get in poetry1 
as later in the ,epipsychidion of       

,shelley1 a beautiful conception of love
 and sexual morality4 ,it is what all   
with any touch of poetical feeling have 
at times felt since the days of         
,shelley1 and it has appeared in many   
modern novels and plays4 ,but we must   
keep in mind that man's deepest feelings
 and thoughts are revealed by his acts  
and not his words1 however beautiful    
they may be4 ,blake was to push his     
mental liberty to its utmost extent1 and
 advocate a freedom that should satisfy 
the exorbitant demands of the most      
modern eroto-maniac2 but the fact       
remains that in his own life he         
fulfilled to the letter the requirements
 of traditional morality1 not because   
his wandering fancy was inactive1 but   
because1 things being as they are1 it is
 not always possible to translate poetry
 into act1 and the old morality is the  
only thing that reckons with the        
disabilities of this tiresome old world4
  ,in this same year ,blake wrote and   
engraved ,america1 ,a ,prophecy4  ,we   

have already seen his interest in the   
,french ,revolution1 and his excited    
hope that it would lead to the          
regeneration of ,europe and the world4  
,he now works backwards to the ,american
 ,war of ,independence1 and considers   
that the ,demon's 7,orc's7 light that   
,france received had first been kindled 
when the thirteen ,states of ,north     
,america struck for liberty4  ,he       
expected much from ,america4 ,believing 
at this period that rebellion was the   
direct road to liberty and wisdom1 his  
expectation of ,america was great       
because1 being farther removed from     
tradition1 her position predisposed her 
to rebel4  ,england's boast of colonies 
was to him a vain boast1 and her        
watchword ,empire had no magic for him4 
,while the thirteen ,states of ,north   
,america were possessions of ,england1  
and were ruled by thirteen governors of 
,england's choosing1 he believed that   
,america must remain enslaved and       
unfruitful1 and therefore ,earth must   

lose another portion of the ,infinite4  
,to lose a portion1 however small1 of   
the ,infinite is unutterable loss1 and  
so ,blake's fiery impetuous sympathies  
burned towards those men--,washington1  
,franklin1 ,paine1 ,warren--who had     
stirred the ,states to insurrection and 
revolt4 ,his imagination leapt to an    
ensuing liberty in which social evils   
should be left far behind4    ,let the  
enchained soul1 shut up in darkness and 
in sighing1   ,whose face has never seen
 a smile in thirty weary years1   ,rise 
and look out2 his chains are loose1 his 
dungeon doors are open2   ,and let his  
wife and children return from the       
oppressor's scourge4   ,they look behind
 at every step1 and believe it is a     
dream1   ,singing3 ',the sun has left   
his blackness1 and has found a fresher  
morning1   ,and the fair moon rejoices  
in the clear and cloudless night2   ,for
 ,empire is no more1 and now the ,lion  
and ,wolf shall cease4'  ,then all the  
things that religion has repressed      

spring up and flourish4 ,the pristine   
fiery joy1 once perverted to ten        
commands1 burns through all             
obstructions1 and1 as a flame of life1  
leaps to life1 rejoicing in all living  
things1 even in the harlot who remains  
undefiled1 though ravished in her cradle
 night and morn4 ,and man walks amidst  
the lustful fires unconsumed4 ,the fires
 serve to make his feet become like     
brass1 his knees and thighs like silver1
 and his breast and head like gold4     
,blake exulted in his vision and        
proclaimed it in unfaltering tones      
because he knew that the soul of sweet  
delight can never be defiled4 ,here he  
adds a touch or two to his vision of sex
 in ,the ,vision of the ,daughters of   
,albion1 and he reaches its heart4 ,the 
soul of sweet delight is eternally      
clean4 ,once a man has grasped this     
truth1 and it may cost him much mental  
fight to reach it1 then he is able to   
think and speak cleanly of the passion  
of love1 he can go naked1 like ,adam in 

,eden1 and the angels of the highest    
heaven1 and know no touch of shame4     
,there is much in modern literature and 
art that ,blake would have detested1 but
 he would have loved the soul of ,sonia 
the undefiled harlot that ,dostoieffski 
has revealed with such wonderful power  
in his ,crime and ,punishment4  ,blake  
followed the ,american conflict until   
the ,british soldiers through the       
,thirteen ,states sent up a howl of     
anguish and threw their swords and      
muskets to the earth4 ,they were unable 
to stand before the flames of ,orc2 and 
since those flames had now reached to   
,france1 ,blake dreamed that nothing    
could withstand their hungry course till
 the regeneration of the world should   
come4  ,all this and much more is said  
in ,blake's symbolical way4 ,here1 as in
 ,the ,french ,revolution1 there are no 
portraits4 ,the rebels of the ,states1  
and even ,paine1 are mere names1 and    
much less real than the angels of the   
,states who carry on the real business4 

,these angels lived in an ancient palace
 built on the ,atlantean hills between  
,america and ,england4 ,it is           
interesting to note these things1       
because the angels of the ,states are   
suggested by the angels of the ,kingdoms
 in the apocalyptic book of ,daniel1    
which ,blake loved and instinctively    
understood1 and the ,atlanteans have    
always had an irresistible attraction   
for men of a theosophical turn of mind4 
,blake was a close student of the       
apocalyptic books of the ,bible all his 
life2 his knowledge of the ,atlanteans  
probably came to him through his        
,rosicrucian readings4  ,america lets us
 see the profound admiration ,blake felt
 towards ,paine for his action in the   
,american ,war4 ,later on we shall find 
him criticizing with some asperity the  
deism that his friend confessed4  ,i    
must pass over ,blake's other writings  
of this year1 and merely recount that he
 again changed his residence1 and went  
to live in ,lambeth at #ac ,hercules    

,buildings4 ,dr ,samson says that it is 
now numbered #bc1 but authorities cannot
 agree whether it was this house or the 
next4  ,in #agid ,blake engraved his    
,europe3 ,a ,prophecy1 which is the last
 of his poems dealing with              
contemporaneous political events4       
,europe stood for ,blake in his         
rebellious mood as the symbol of        
tradition1 authority1 science1 religion4
 ,it was the dead past4 ,enitharmon     
slept eighteen hundred years4 ,man was a
 dream1 the night of ,nature and their  
harps unstrung4 ,europe1 during this    
long sleep1 was without vision1         
inspiration1 art1 and true nature4 ,her 
religion1 divorced from art1 was        
repressive1 and existed by trading on   
men's fears4 ,falling under the tyranny 
of the five senses1 she believed only so
 much as the senses could testify of2   
hence she was rational1 utilitarian1    
unimaginative1 and joyless4 ,she        
squinted so abominably with such eyes as
 she had that she saw nothing as it was4

 ,god1 man1 nature1 became creations of 
man's perverted reason1 and ,god was    
used as an efficient policeman to keep  
insurrectionary nations in subjection   
and vital men in order4  ,but ,blake    
believed that he had already seen the   
morning star that heralded the full     
blaze of the ,sun4 ,already the         
invisible powers who control nations and
 men were stirring and preparing for    
their last fearful conflict1 which      
should result in new heavens and a new  
earth4 ,the angels were at war4 ,urizen 
and his many sons were tightening their 
sinews for the last life-and-death grip2
 against them was ,orc1 the horrent     
demon1 already a kindled and quenchless 
fire1 ,los1 the spirit of inspiration   
far more nearly allied with fiery       
passion 7,orc7 than with cold           
intellectual reason 7,urizen71 ,los'    
wife ,enitharmon and their many sons and
 daughters1 ,rintrah1 ,palamabron1      
,elynittria and ,ocalythron4 ,these     
,ossianic and ,miltonic principalities  

and powers were waging huge and terrific
 war in the heavenly places1 and already
 on earth was kindled in ,france the    
earthly counterpart and shadow of the   
invisible horrible conflict4  ,the work 
of regeneration1 once begun1 could not  
be arrested4 ,passion1 fire1 energy1 all
 the irresistible things pent up in     
hell1 were let loose2 and they would    
involve ,europe and the world in an     
ocean of blood4 ,the whole cosmos1      
inward in the heavens1 outward in the   
sun1 moon1 stars1 and earth1 was dyed in
 crimson1 until the tribulation such as 
was not since the world began should    
work up to the grinding pains of labour1
 and in infinite pain there should come 
to the birth the new age of which the   
prophets and poets had dreamed in all   
ages4    ,the ,sun glow'd fiery red6    
,the furious ,terrors flew around   ,on 
golden chariots1 raging with red wheels1
 dropping with blood6   ,the ,lions lash
 their wrathful tails6   ,the ,tigers   
couch upon the prey and suck the ruddy  

tide2   ,and ,enitharmon groans and     
cries in anguish and dismay4    ,then   
,los arose3 his head he reared1 in snaky
 thunders clad2   ,and with a cry that  
shook all ,nature to the utmost pole1   
,called all his sons to the strife of   
blood4  ,blake was very sanguine4 ,he   
had endured the rude shock of the ,reign
 of ,terror1 and though he had thrown   
aside the red cap1 he was determined to 
see in these horrors nothing but the    
grim accompaniments of every            
regenerating process4 ,enitharmon1 once 
awake after her long sleep1 would call  
together the sweet ministers of         
melodious songs4 ,ethinthus1 ,queen of  
,waters1 ,manatha-,varcyon on her golden
 wings1 ,leutha1 soft soul of flowers1  
,antamon1 ,prince of the ,pearly ,dew1  
all were forth at sport beneath the     
solemn moon1 waking the stars of ,urizen
 with their immortal songs2 that ,nature
 felt thro' all her pores the enormous  
revelry1 till ,morning opened the       
eastern gates4   ,illustration3 ,,the   

,,ancient ,,of ,,days4  ,frontispiece to
 ,europe4   ,europe has for frontispiece
 one of ,blake's most famous            
designs--,the ,ancient of ,days4 ,the   
vision was seen against the dark gloom  
of the upper story of his ,lambeth      
house4 ,its real ground lay in the ,book
 of ,proverbs4 ,wisdom says3 ,when ,he  
prepared the heavens1 ,i was there3 when
 ,he set a compass upon the face of the 
depth 444 then ,i was by ,him1 as one   
brought up with ,him4#c  ,the author of 
the ,proverbs looks back to the first   
creation1 which ,god saw to be very     
good4 ,blake looks forward to the new4  
,what if all around are dark clouds8    
,yet the ,ancient of ,days is in an orb 
of light1 and ,he is stooping down and  
measuring the deep with ,his compasses4 
,nothing can stay ,his hand4 ,the       
upheaval of ,europe1 involving the      
world1 is the prelude to the new        
creation when the ,almighty's vision for
 ,his universe shall be fulfilled4      
,europe touches the limit of ,blake's   

rebellion4 ,during the next thirty years
 history was to comment on the ,french  
,revolution in a way that was not his in
 his impetuous prophetic books4 ,he was 
to learn that rebellion is a road to    
wisdom because it is a species of       
excess4 ,excess teaches a man to know   
what is enough1 and when ,blake knew the
 exact value of rebellion he was        
prepared to read the ,past afresh1 and  
find that its treasury contained        
priceless jewels that he never even     
suspected1 while he was passionately    
searching for some new thing4           
,,chapter ,,vii  ,,action ,,and         
,,reaction   ,in ,europe ,blake reached 
the boundary of his rebellious mood4    
,the impetus of his rebellion might by  
its own strength have carried him       
further down the stream2 but the ,reign 
of ,terror was a rude check1 and among  
other things it enabled him to climb on 
to the bank and view the course of      
events with some degree of detachment4  
,he found that he could no longer refuse

 to listen to another voice that had    
been sounding more or less loudly for   
some years--the voice of his own        
experience1 and1 that which inevitably  
follows1 the voice of the experience of 
mankind4 ,his thought flew backwards and
 forwards1 backwards to ,eden and       
innocent ,adam1 followed by the         
wilderness and the curse1 forwards to   
some more years of travail1 and then the
 crimson dawn glowing on the gathered   
fruits of experience4  ,would experience
 eventually restore the innocence that  
was lost with ,eden8 ,were they even    
things of the same kind8 ,no2 ,blake was
 sure that they were contraries1        
contrary as ,swedenborg's heaven and    
hell1 contrary states of the human soul4
 ,but many contraries can be married4   
,innocence married to experience must   
vanish as innocence1 but rise again in a
 new form in the more fruitful married  
relation4 ,it appears that with most men
 innocence lost never returns4 ,blake   
never lost his4 ,it is seen in all its  

infantine simplicity in ,the ,songs of  
,innocence1 and it could show itself at 
any time during his long life4 ,but this
 divine element is sadly rare even in   
the poets1 and it is its irresistible   
presence in ,blake that makes him       
wellnigh unique4 ,in ourselves we find  
from experience knowledge of good and   
evil1 complicated views on philosophy   
and theology1 puzzled brains1 and a     
frightfully murky atmosphere1 and it    
seems ,utopian to imagine that it will  
ever be otherwise4  ,blake maintained1  
and so had the ,saints1 that when       
experience had effected its work and    
disposed of its dirt1 smoke1 and mud1 a 
glorious something would emerge which   
innocence could never know1 but which   
will include the innocence that we see  
in lambs and babies and buttercups and  
saints4 ,between what we are and what we
 shall be is a sandy desert2 and1 since 
,eden is lost1 all1 even the ,christ1   
have to pass through the desert to gain 
the promised land4 ,the words of ,christ

 are not the words of one who has lived 
only in ,eden4 ,they are crystalline    
clear1 flaming1 simple1 deep1 and       
infinitely wise1 we should almost say   
innocent1 but as to create a flower is  
the labour of ages1 so when we look     
behind the words of ,christ1 and seize  
their implications1 we discover not only
 the sorrow and joy1 labour and triumph 
of ,his own experience1 but that of the 
past labouring ages2 and until we know  
something of present living experience  
added to that of the past1 we shall     
never have an inkling of even the       
simplest words that lie on the face of  
the gospel4  ,it was fitting that in    
#agid1 when ,blake uttered his prophecy 
of things to come in ,europe1 he should 
also gather together his ,songs of      
,experience1 and engrave them for the   
joy of posterity4  ,the ,little ,girl   
,lost and ,the ,little ,girl ,found     
bring together better than any perhaps  
the two contrary states of innocence and
 experience4  ,lyca1 being innocent and 

only seven summers old1 wandered1       
allured by the wild birds' song4 ,she is
 lost but not dismayed4 ,falling asleep1
 the beasts of prey come around her and 
minister to her1 and finally convey her 
tenderly to a cave4  ,then her parents1 
experienced but not innocent1 arise and 
seek her4 ,they pass through all the    
sufferings1 sorrows1 sighings1 of this  
waste howling wilderness1 buying the    
experience that almost kills them1 till 
in terror they find ,lyca among the wild
 beasts4 ,but beholding ,lyca they learn
 her secret1 and    ,to this day they   
dwell   ,in a lonely dell3   ,nor fear  
the wolfish howl   ,nor the lion's      
growl4  ,the ,clod and the ,pebble give 
the two contrary states of love4 ,the   
clod proclaims the love that forgets    
itself in ministering to others2 the    
pebble the love that would bind and     
devour all others1 making them          
contribute to its own delight4  ,a      
,poison ,tree shows how repressed things
 secrete poison4    ,i was angry with my

 friend3   ,i told my wrath1 my wrath   
did end4   ,i was angry with my foe3    
,i told it not1 my wrath did grow4  ,the
 repressed anger ended in murder4 ,blake
 was sure that any passion repressed was
 equally fatal4  ,the ,schoolboy gives  
the miserable experience that is thrust 
upon us all through the blind cruelty of
 those who would educate us4 ,this      
experience is so contrary that nothing  
could be more calculated to crush native
 innocence1 joy1 and spring4    ,o6     
father and mother1 if buds are nipped   
,and blossoms blown away1   ,and if the 
tender plants are stripped   ,of their  
joy in the springing day1   ,by sorrow  
and care's dismay1   ,how shall the     
summer arise in joy1   ,or the summer   
fruits appear8   ,or how shall we gather
 what griefs destroy1   ,or bless the   
mellowing year1   ,when the blasts of   
winter appear8  ,how indeed8 ,the       
question is to parents1 schoolmasters1  
professors1 priests4 ,the conditions for
 young lives are created by those who   

would strangle life4 ,yet when          
experience has been its most contrary1  
even nailing its victim to a cross1 just
 there is deliverance4    ,whate'er is  
born of mortal birth   ,must be consumed
 with the earth1   ,to rise from        
generation free4  ,it was ,blake's      
supreme experience that he had been set 
free from generation4 ,it was by a      
re-generation1 and that had come to him 
through the death of ,jesus4    ,the    
death of ,jesus set me free4  ,the same 
year #agid saw ,blake spinning fast the 
special mythological web with which he  
was to clothe or strangle his vision4   
,he had separated from all his spiritual
 teachers2 but ,swedenborg lived on in  
him much more than he owned or even     
recognized1 and ,ossian and ,milton     
still governed his imagination4         
,milton's huge figures were imitated in 
the mythological figures which were to  
stalk about his universe to the end2    
,ossian's fantastic names1 which always 
fascinated him1 provoked others still   

more fantastic4 ,by means of these      
uncouth daemons he determined to set    
forth his own particular view of the    
cosmos1 which1 starting with eternity1  
was to fall into creation1 and finally1 
after lightning1 thunder1 rolling       
clouds1 and a sea of blood1 accompanied 
by roarings1 shrieks1 and howlings1 was 
to attain to salvation by a return to   
the divine order4  ,the return is       
treated of with great fullness in the   
,jerusalem3 the fall is hardly more than
 sketched in the fragmentary ,books of  
,urizen1 ,los1 and ,ahania4 ,but as the 
process of return is the exact reverse  
to that of the fall1 an understanding of
 the one enables one to fill in the gaps
 of the other4 ,if there were other     
books dealing with the fall more in     
detail1 ,i for one can contemplate the  
loss with equanimity4  ,the ,book of    
,urizen is supposed to be the account of
 the creation1 and those who endorse    
this view proceed to identify ,urizen   
with the ,jehovah of the ,old           

,testament1 which is as false as to     
identify him with the ,jesus of the     
,new1 although it is only too true that 
scores of ,christians worship ,urizen   
under the names of ,jehovah and ,jesus4 
,in strict truth1 ,blake gives no       
account of the creation at all4 ,to     
create can only mean that which the     
,catholic ,church affirms that it does  
mean1 to make something out of nothing4 
,to reject this leaves two              
alternatives--either that ,god made the 
universe out of something outside of    
,himself1 which is dualism1 or out of   
something inside of ,himself1 which is  
pantheism4 ,blake1 like ,swedenborg1    
adopted the last1 but whereas           
,swedenborg tried to evade the          
pantheistic conclusion by his doctrine  
of discrete degrees1 ,blake swam in the 
pantheistic sea1 and was saved from     
drowning by clinging to the rocks which 
he discerned standing out in bold       
outline1 and a perception of the        
ultimate irreconcilable antinomy of good

 and evil1 of sheep and goats1 which is 
a direct contradiction of pantheism1 and
 fits in only with the catholic         
doctrine4 ,there are other such         
contradictions in ,blake1 which did not 
in the least trouble him4 ,with his     
passion for contraries he harboured them
 all1 marrying them when he could1 and  
just leaving them when they absolutely  
refused to unite4 ,he had not the       
requisite talent for building a coherent
 system4   ,illustration3 ,,urizen ,,in 
,,chains4  ,from ,the ,first ,book of   
,urizen4   ,what is called1 then1       
,blake's account of the creation is     
really his account of the fall of the   
universe out of eternity into time and  
space1 and the consequent appearance of 
man in his contracted and sense-bound   
condition4 ,urizen is the agent in the  
fall2 but he must not be identified with
 ,satan any more than with ,jehovah4    
,he1 as nearly as possible1 represents  
reason4 ,when he stands in the eternal  
order working on those things supplied  

him by ,los 7imagination71 he is a      
fountain of light1 intellect1 and joy2  
when he is rent from ,los' side1 he     
becomes self-closed1 all repelling1 shut
 up in an abominable void and           
soul-shuddering vacuum1 and his         
intellect becomes dark and cold because 
his reason has nothing to work upon     
except what is supplied by the narrow   
inlet of the senses4  ,thus shut in the 
deep1 he broods until his thoughts take 
outward shape and form1 and there arises
 a wide ,world of solid obstruction4 ,he
 then proceeds to write his books of    
wisdom4 ,but his vision being quenched1 
he is confined to that which his still  
all-flexible senses provide4 ,he knows  
much about the terrible monsters that   
inhabit the bosoms of all--the seven    
deadly sins of the soul4 ,from his      
prolonged fightings and conflicts with  
them there is distilled a kind of       
wisdom1 which he gathers into his books2
 but it is joyless wisdom1 negative     
rather than positive1 restrictive1      

retributive1 censorious1 jealous1 cruel1
 penal1 and is best solidified in the   
decalogue with its reiterated ,thou     
shalt not4  ,eternity1 which is present 
and within1 rolled wide apart1 leaving  
ruinous fragments of life4 ,rent from   
eternity1 ,urizen becomes a clod of     
clay1 and ,los1 beholding him1 becomes  
like him1 and is compelled to continue  
the work of creation in constricted     
forms4 ,with his hammer he forges links 
of hours1 days1 and years4 ,man with his
 head1 spine1 heart1 appears2 then are  
formed his eyes1 ears1 nostrils1 throat1
 tongue1 feet--little members that hide 
from him eternity1 and cause him to see 
the things that are within as though    
they were without1 like the stars of    
night seen through a great telescope4   
,after the man the woman appears1 whom  
the ,eternal myriads named ,pity4 ,she  
is an emanation from ,los1 and is named 
by ,blake ,enitharmon4 ,los embraces    
her1 and she begets a child in her own  
image--a ,human ,shadow1 who is named   

,orc 7passion74  ,thus grows up a world 
of men1 women1 children1 with their     
various hungers and needs4 ,the         
,eternals try to provide for these needs
 by science and religion2 but as they   
can build their science and religion    
only from their experience and          
observation of the contracted universe1 
the science is sand1 and religion a web1
 and earth's wretched children remain   
under the cruel rule and curse of       
,urizen and his sons1 calling his laws  
of ,prudence the ,eternal ,laws of ,god4
  ,the ,song of ,los 7engraved #agie7   
adds many interesting particulars of the
 process by which the world1 with its   
philosophies and religions1 has become  
what it is4  ,los1 the ,eternal         
,prophet1 is the father of all systems  
of thought1 but it does not follow that 
all are equally true4 ,for ,los is out  
of the divine order1 and therefore the  
systems inspired by him and his many    
sons1 while containing streaks of the   
eternal truths1 are all out of focus4   

,illustration3 ,,los4  ,from ,the ,first
 ,book of ,urizen4   ,thus ,rintrah gave
 ,abstract ,philosophy to ,brahma in the
 ,east1 and it is defective because it  
is abstract4 ,the same applies to all   
modern theosophical revivals of ,hindoo 
religion4 ,an abstraction for ,blake was
 a falling away from concrete reality1  
and he found his deliverance in the     
,christian doctrine of ,god4            
,palamabron1 another son of ,los1 gave  
abstract ,law to ,trismegistus1         
,pythagoras1 ,socrates1 and ,plato4     
,abstract ,law is also negative1 and    
therefore ,orc 7passion7 finds himself  
chained down with the chain of          
,jealousy1 and howls in impotent rage4  
,sotho teaches ,odin a ,code of ,war    
which at any time may become the        
philosophy of a nation4  ,all these1    
abstract philosophy1 abstract law1 the  
,mahometan ,bible1 ,codes of ,war1 with 
the ,churches1 ,hospitals1 ,castles1    
,palaces1 which they involve1 while     
seeking to catch the joys of eternity1  

serve in reality to obliterate and erase
 eternity altogether1 and the children  
of men schooled in these philosophies   
behold the vast of ,nature shrunk before
 their shrunken eyes4 ,after the        
shrinkage there can only arise a        
philosophy of the five senses1 and then 
,newton and ,locke1 especially ,locke1  
,rousseau and ,voltaire1 have it all    
their own way4  ,from all this ,blake   
looked for deliverance to the           
thought-creating fires of ,orc1 which   
had flared up in ,france1 and might be  
expected to spread over ,europe1 and set
 even ,asia in a conflagration4 ,the    
,kings of ,asia1 snug in their ancient  
woven dens1 are startled into           
self-exertion1 and emerging uneasily    
from their dens1 call on kings1 priests1
 counsellors and privy admonishers of   
men to use their immemorial rights to   
teach the ,mortal ,worms1 and keep them 
in the paths of slavery4 ,happily1      
,orc's fires are insatiable4 ,raging in 
,european darkness1 he arose like a     

pillar of fire above the ,alps1 and1    
while milk and blood and glandous wine  
in rivers rush1 led the wild dance on   
mountain1 dale1 and plain1 till the     
sullen earth shrunk away1 and there     
dawned the eternal day4  ,the ,book of  
,los 7engraved #agie7 begins with the   
lament of ,eno1 aged ,mother1 as she    
recalls the ,times remote1 when love and
 joy were adoration and none impure were
 deemed4 ,for now1 alas6 ,los1 who alone
 could teach joy and liberty1 is bound  
in a chain and compelled to watch       
,urizen's shadow4 ,yet he cannot be     
bound for ever4 ,maddened by hard       
bondage1 he rends asunder the vast      
,solid that has bound him1 only to fall 
through the horrible void of            
error--,truth has bounds1 ,error        
none--till his contemplative thoughts   
arise and throw out some sort of        
standing-ground amidst the dire vacuity4
 ,urizen by his contemplative thoughts1 
it will be remembered1 had created a    
wide ,world of solid obstruction4 ,now  

the two daemons become rivals1 and the  
grim conflict of the ages is waged      
incessantly4 ,los with hammer and tongs 
organizes lungs 7understanding1 see     
,swedenborg71 and some ,light even      
appears2 but the book closes with no    
sign of the ultimate triumph of ,los1   
for ,los and ,urizen are here rivals3   
there can be no victory until they cease
 to be rivals1 and re-enter into the    
union of the eternal order4  ,the ,book 
of ,ahania 7engraved #agie7 gives the   
story of ,fuzon1 ,urizen's most fiery   
son1 and therefore the one most         
obnoxious to his curse4 ,he is mortally 
wounded by a poisoned rock hurled at his
 bosom from his father's bow1 and his   
corse is nailed to the topmost stem of  
the ,tree of ,mystery1 which is         
religion4 ,then follows the sad and     
beautiful lament of ,ahania--the wife   
and emanation of ,urizen1 and mother of 
the murdered ,fuzon4 ,she recalls1 like 
,eno1 the former days1 when ,urizen     
stood in the divine order1 and she1 his 

lover and wife1 joyed in the transports 
of love1 when her heart leaped at the   
lovely sound of his footsteps1 and she  
kissed the place whereon his bright feet
 had trod2 when she knew the thrilling  
joys of motherhood1 and nursed her      
,babes of bliss on her full breasts4    
,these things were now but a memory4    
,urizen with stern jealous cruelty had  
put her away1 compelling her to walk    
weeping over rocks and dens1 through    
valleys of death1 a shadow upon the     
void1 and on the verge of nonentity1 a  
deep ,abyss dividing her from her       
eternal love4 ,thus she weeps and       
laments1 wearing a sorrow's crown of    
sorrows1 the remembering happier things4
  ,these short prophetic books1 though  
entirely congenial to the author1 were  
written in a tongue unknown to the      
public1 general or particular4 ,there   
was every sign that ,blake would        
continue to produce more works1 and even
 on a much larger scale1 in this        
particular kind of composition1 and the 

signs were equally clear that he must   
look to something else to procure the   
wherewithal that would enable him and   
his wife to live4  ,this something was1 
of course1 engraving1 but even the      
demand for his engraving was growing    
less1 and the grim spectre of poverty   
made his unwelcomed and uncalled-for    
appearance along with the spectres whom 
,blake could command4 ,over this        
oppressive and grinding spectre he had  
no command at all4  ,in #agif he was    
asked by ,miller1 a publisher in ,old   
,bond ,street1 to make three            
illustrations to be engraved by ,perry  
for ,stanley's ,english paraphrase of   
,buerger's ,lenore4 ,the elements of    
romance and weird horror in ,buerger's  
work were quite in keeping with a side  
of ,blake's nature that had shown itself
 in ,elinor1 and so the illustrations   
were accomplished with marked power and 
success4  ,the same year he was engaged 
on designs for ,young's ,night          
,thoughts1 intended to illustrate a new 

and expensive edition of what was then  
considered one of ,england's great      
classics4 ,the work was to be published 
by ,edwards1 of ,new ,bond ,street4     
,blake was less free and happy          
illustrating ,young than ,buerger4      
,young has since been slain by ,george  
,eliot1 but even if she had not killed  
him1 his popularity must have waned in  
another generation or two4 ,for there   
was very little healthy human blood in  
his veins4 ,he was other-worldly1 and so
 was ,blake2 but whereas ,blake saw in  
the other world a world of transcendent 
beauty of which this world was the      
vegetable mirror1 ,young saw in it only 
a reflection of his own particular      
world4 ,hence ,blake was a mystic1 and  
,young an egotist4 ,blake forgot himself
 in the magnificence of eternity1       
,young's religion was egotism turned    
heavenwards4  ,this is probably the     
reason why ,blake's designs for ,young  
were among the least powerful and       
interesting things that he did4 ,give   

him the ,book of ,job1 or ,dante1 and he
 transcends himself1 but with ,young or 
,blair to work upon1 though he does     
remarkable work1 yet it somehow falls   
short of his best4  ,mr ,frederick      
,shields1 who covered the walls of the  
,chapel of the ,ascension with strange  
pinks and ten thousand hands1 has       
analysed all the more important of      
,blake's designs1 which amounted to five
 hundred and thirty-seven4 ,of these    
only forty-three were published4 ,the   
,night ,thoughts was to appear in parts3
 only one part was published1 and ,young
 was handed over to ,stothard in #ahjb  
before he was to be1 in an elaborate    
dress1 a complete success4  ,the        
following year 7#agig7 ,blake was at    
work on ,the ,four ,zoas1 or ,the ,death
 and ,judgment of the ,ancient ,man4 ,he
 revised this work a few years later at 
the time he was planning the ,milton and
 ,jerusalem4 ,i shall have something to 
say about it when dealing with          
,jerusalem4 ,i will only say just now   

that the minor prophetic books were     
preliminary trials to his big flights1  
and when here1 as in ,jerusalem1 a big  
flight is made1 it is found that        
,blake's mythology has received its     
completion1 and that all the things     
fermenting in him and striving for      
utterance do1 in these long poems1 come 
to the surface4 ,anyone who would know  
him intimately must not be discouraged  
by their extraordinary appearance1 but  
struggle with them1 as with a foreign   
language1 until they yield the last     
secrets of their mystic author4         
,,chapter ,,viii  ,,william ,,hayley    
,william ,hayley1 the poet1 as he       
delighted to call himself1 enjoyed a    
wide reputation as the author of ,the   
,triumphs of ,temper1 which appeared in 
#aghj and was intended as a poetical and
 pleasing guide to young ladies how to  
behave under the provocation of testy   
fathers and sour aunts1 with the promise
 of a peerless husband if their tempers 
were triumphant4  ,for us the poem is   

pleasantly incongruous and stirs to     
laughter in the wrong places4 ,the      
perfect heroine ,serena1 set down in the
 midst of artificial society by day1 is 
transported to infernal and supernal    
regions by night4 ,in the ,inferno she  
sees all the wicked vices in action1 and
 in the ,paradise the graces attending  
on their queen ,sensibility4 ,hayley    
humbly hoped to emulate ,pope's satire  
in treating of ,serena's days1 and      
,dante's sublimities in her nights4 ,he 
was singularly fortunate in the artists 
he found to embellish his darling       
offspring4 ,stothard and ,maria         
,flaxman1 in turn1 supplied charming    
designs1 and even ,romney was induced to
 present the divine ,emma as            
,sensibility with her pot of mimosa1 to 
whom ,stothard had already done more    
than justice4  ,hayley had been a close 
student all his life1 having mastered   
,greek and ,latin and the more important
 modern languages4 ,he had read         
extensively the world's best literature4

 ,taught by ,meyer1 he had taken up     
miniature portrait painting till he     
excelled his master and his eyes failed4
 ,he wrote plays which ,garrick nearly  
liked1 but which the undiscerning public
 never liked at all4 ,he reckoned       
himself not merely a connoisseur in art1
 music1 architecture1 and sculpture1 but
 also as one who might have             
distinguished himself in any one of     
these difficult arts had envious time   
permitted4 ,confident that ,heaven had  
bestowed on him her best gift of poetry1
 he felt it his duty to renounce his    
opportunity to excel in so many arts and
 devote himself to that which all       
discerning people acknowledged to be the
 highest4  ,the ,triumphs of ,temper was
 his first great success1 and the many  
highly flattering things said to him by 
artists and famous literary men         
confirmed him in the faith1 though he   
had never really doubted1 that he was a 
man of genius4 ,that was the opinion of 
elegant ,mrs ,opie1 feeling ,anna       

,seward1 diffident ,romney1 copious     
,hannah ,more1 and portentously learned 
,edward ,gibbon4 ,yet time has been     
pitiless with the bard of ,sussex1 and  
instead of discovering a steady or even 
a flickering light shining in the gross 
darkness of his times1 we of the        
twentieth century can see in him1 if we 
take the trouble to see at all1 nothing 
but an amusingly solemn specimen of a   
male ,blue-stocking4  ,with so assured a
 position and never a shadow of         
self-doubt1 he was able to live with    
himself on most cordial terms of good   
temper and serenity1 and1 like others of
 his type1 extend his self-esteem to his
 fellows1 particularly if they were     
publicly admired4 ,to these he generally
 effected an acquaintance by a polite   
little letter of self-introduction4     
,his most important catch was ,romney1  
to whom he was introduced by ,meyer in  
the autumn of #aggf4 ,hayley possessed  
accidental advantages over ,romney in   
good birth and education4 ,romney was   

sufficiently impressed through          
self-conscious lack of these1 and when  
in addition he found that his diffidence
 was met by ,hayley's confidence1 his   
depression by serenity1 he allowed him  
to gain that ascendancy over him which  
was out of all proportion to his        
intrinsic merit1 and which has irritated
 all biographers of the artist against  
the poet4 ,yet if ,hayley contrived to  
get possession of ,romney and his       
pictures1 he also helped him for a      
considerable time to fight against his  
melancholy4 ,let us in fairness remember
 that4  ,another important friend was   
,cowper1 whom ,hayley caught            
considerably later in life4 ,visits were
 exchanged1 and ,hayley set himself with
 much good will to combat the ghastly   
melancholia that was getting its        
death-grip on him4 ,after ,cowper's     
death there was some friendly wrangling 
between ,hayley and ,lady ,hesketh about
 who should write his ,life4 ,hayley was
 easily persuaded to undertake it1 and  

by its accomplishment won for himself a 
latter rain of gratifying applause just 
when his popularity seemed to be on the 
decline4  ,hayley lived till #ahbj1     
which was actually long enough to       
outlive his public4 ,his ,life of       
,romney was not a success4 ,he and his  
works would have died together but for  
his unfortunate habit of fastening      
himself on to great men4 ,his cancerian 
grip of them has given him vicarious    
immortality1 and made him obnoxious to  
the kicks of those who write the lives  
of ,romney1 or ,cowper1 or ,blake4  ,the
 particular friend of ,hayley who most  
concerns us here was ,flaxman4 ,he      
introduced ,blake to ,hayley from       
motives of pure kindness1 knowing       
,blake's struggle to live1 and believing
 that ,hayley was just the man to help  
him4  ,flaxman had drawn ,hayley's      
attention to ,blake in a letter written 
as early as #aghd1 in which he quotes   
,romney as saying that ,blake's         
historical drawings rank with those of  

,michael ,angelo4 ,but not until #ahjj  
did the two men meet4 ,early in that    
year--,may #fth--,blake wrote to ,hayley
 to condole with him on the loss of his 
son ,thomas ,alphonso1 who had been     
studying sculpture with ,flaxman4 ,by   
,september it was settled that ,mr and  
,mrs ,blake should leave ,lambeth and go
 and settle at ,felpham1 where ,blake   
would be only a stone's-throw from      
,hayley1 and ready to help him in his   
poetical and biographical works by      
engraving for them suitable designs4    
,blake was destined to stay three years 
at ,felpham1 and he always regarded this
 period as marking a most important     
crisis in his life4 ,since the          
publication of his ,poetical ,sketches  
in #aghc he was conscious of being under
 a cloud4 ,his visions that had been so 
bright and inspired him to songs of such
 divine simplicity had not vanished1 but
 they had lost their crystalline        
clearness4 ,his cloudy vision appeared  
in uncertain art4 ,it is true that his  

allegiance to the linear schools never  
wavered1 and ,michael ,angelo remained  
the supreme master in his eyes1 but for 
a time he was fascinated by the luscious
 ornament and colour of the ,venetian   
school1 and with his passion for uniting
 contraries believed that he might marry
 ,florence and ,venice4 ,the same       
uncertainty appeared in his spiritual   
life4 ,we have followed him through     
various stages of rebellion1 and seen   
how his faith in rebellion received a   
rude shock from the ,reign of ,terror4  
,since then he was learning more and    
more to explore the riches of the past1 
but he had not gone far enough to place 
his rebellion and to see it and that of 
his rebel contemporaries in its proper  
historical perspective4 ,he was         
disturbed also by a restless ambition of
 worldly success4 ,many men whose gifts 
were much inferior to his own were      
famous and rich4 ,sir ,joshua did all   
that a spiritually blind man could do1  
and was reckoned with the giants4       

,romney1 whose art ,blake much preferred
 to ,reynolds's 7he was decidedly of the
 ,romney faction71 on account of its    
greater simplicity and more scrupulous  
regard to outline1 was sufficiently     
famous and remunerated2 but ,blake1     
whose gifts were rarer than any1 had    
scant recognition and scant money1 and  
he still hoped that with an influential 
patron he might take his place in       
contemporary fame1 and incidentally make
 enough money to relieve him of all     
anxiety for the future4 ,for he was     
being ground by poverty4 ,his wants were
 simple enough--food1 clothing1         
materials of work--but when the supply  
falls even a little below the want1 then
 the grinding process begins and carries
 on its inexorable work until the spirit
 breaks4 ,but now friend ,flaxman had   
introduced him to poet ,hayley1 who was 
not only famous for his literary work1  
but also for a remarkable and untiring  
zeal in the service of those he reckoned
 his friends4  ,blake's hopes rose high1

 and his spirits overflowed4 ,he wrote  
an enthusiastic letter to ,flaxman      
attributing to him all his present      
happiness1 and enclosing lines in which 
he recalls his successive friends in the
 heavens--,milton1 ,ezra1 ,isaiah1      
,shakespeare1 ,paracelsus1 ,boehme--and 
concludes by affirming that he has seen 
such visions of the ,american ,war and  
the ,french ,revolution that he could   
not subsist on the earth1 but by        
conjunction with ,flaxman1 who knows to 
forgive nervous fear4 ,flaxman had      
studied ,swedenborg1 and could perfectly
 understand such language4  ,on         
,september #bast1 #ahjj1 ,sunday        
morning1 he writes to the dear ,sculptor
 of ,eternity that he has arrived at    
their cottage with ,mrs ,blake and his  
sister ,catherine1 and that ,mr ,hayley 
has received them with his usual        
brotherly affection4  ,he found ,felpham
 a sweet place for study4 ,the quiet1   
cleanness1 sweetness1 and spiritual     
atmosphere of the place stirred his     

cosmic consciousness and gave him quick 
access to the great memory reaching back
 far beyond his mortal life1 and enabled
 him to recall his works in eternity    
that were yet to be produced in time4   
,and ,hayley was excessively kind4      
,still under a cloud1 shaken in         
self-confidence1 ,blake's consequent    
diffidence united with his instinctive  
trust of men1 and for a month he        
believed that ,hayley was a prince4     
,hayley was busy decorating his marine  
villa1 to which he had lately come from 
,eartham4 ,flaxman had already been     
drawn in to help1 much as ,mrs ,mathew  
had used him at an earlier date2 and now
 ,blake was bidden to paint a set of    
heads of the poets which were to form a 
frieze to ,hayley's library4 ,hayley was
 at work on some ballads1 ,little ,tom  
the ,sailor and others1 to which ,blake 
was to contribute designs4 ,little ,tom 
was for the benefit of a ,widow ,spicer 
at ,folkestone and her orphans1 as      
,blake understood1 and also for the     

emolument of ,blake1 as we learn from a 
letter of ,hayley's to the ,reverend    
,john ,johnson4  ,hayley always loved to
 teach his friends4 ,he had been anxious
 to improve ,romney's epistolary style2 
and now it occurred to him that he might
 teach ,blake miniature portrait        
painting4 ,as usual1 his purpose was    
thoroughly kind4 ,he did not think that 
,blake's work had much marketable value2
 but he believed that if he proved an   
apt pupil he could procure him plenty of
 sitters from among his neighbours who  
would pay well1 and thus ,blake would   
become a real success4  ,in this ,hayley
 showed himself a wise child of this    
world1 but hardly a child of light4     
,blake's genius did not lie in drawing  
portraits4 ,a face for him immediately  
became a symbol1 and lost its time      
traits as it gained in eternal          
significance4 ,it is often said that    
,enitharmon was ,mrs ,blake2 but if this
 were so1 she was ,mrs ,blake as no one 
but ,blake could ever see her4 ,in      

reality he possessed the faculty which  
was pre-eminent in the authors of the   
,book of ,genesis and ,st ,john's       
,gospel4 ,as the characters of ,abraham1
 ,isaac1 and ,jacob1 of ,peter1 ,james1 
and ,john were seen and portrayed in an 
eternal light1 so likewise ,blake would 
have striven to present his opulent     
sitters1 but the result would not have  
been that for which they would have been
 willing to pay their money4  ,blake    
took kindly and without question to the 
new task4 ,miniature1 he says1 has      
become a goddess in my eyes4444 ,i have 
a great many orders1 and they multiply4 
,hayley was glowing with satisfaction4  
,but ,blake1 in one little month1 after 
repeated efforts of self-deception1     
could no longer hide from himself that  
he saw ,hayley as he really was4 ,he was
 learned1 of course1 and genteel1 and   
kind1 and admired with gush what it was 
correct to admire4 ,but of insight there
 was none4 ,he was born under a watery  
sign and not a fiery4 ,he was really a  

crab ambling around his enclosed garden 
with his lame leg1 and getting his claws
 into the tender skin of those who1 he  
had been told1 were really men of fire4 
,blake's disappointment was bitter4 ,his
 patron was blind to his real genius1 to
 which he must at all costs be faithful4
 ,hayley was1 and continued to be1 very 
much a corporeal friend1 but he was a   
spiritual enemy4 ,blake's fond hopes    
were dashed4 ,he tottered on the verge  
of a horror of great darkness1 and      
escaped the darkness only by falling    
into a mild and pleasant slumber1 lulled
 by ,hayley's amazing amiability1       
mildness1 and crooning serenity4 ,from  
this slumber he might--who knows8--never
 have awakened1 but for the discernment 
of his real friends--,flaxman and       
,butts--whose faith finally aroused him 
and drew him away from the enchanted    
ground4  ,but though he saw1 he said    
nothing4 ,his spiritual friends 7on the 
other side7 commanded him to bear all   
and be silent1 and to go through all    

without murmuring1 and1 in fine1 hope1  
till his three years shall be           
accomplished4 ,when ,hayley was more    
than usually exasperating1 ,blake vented
 himself in an epigram1 and1 much       
relieved1 went on quietly4  ,thus1 when 
,blake was convinced that ,providence   
did not mean him to paint miniatures1 he
 wrote3    ,when ,hayley finds out what 
you cannot do1   ,that is the very thing
 he'll set you to do4  ,again1 ,blake   
discovered that ,hayley's virtues and   
faults were both of the feminine order4 
,it was a feminine instinct that had    
prompted him to write ,the ,triumphs of 
,temper and the ,essay on ,old ,maids4  
,a brilliant epigram of ,blake's        
accounts for this odd psychic twist1 and
 flashes ,hayley before us3    ,of      
,hayley's birth this was the happy lot3 
,his mother on his father him begot4    
,that was the true state of affairs4    
,but ,blake obeyed his spiritual        
friends1 and for a long time no sign    
appeared in his letters that there was  

anything the matter4  ,hayley was also  
anxious to teach ,blake ,greek4 ,like   
most men of his times1 he believed that 
no man could attain to the highest      
degree of excellence who had not        
mastered ,greek and ,latin4 ,he probably
 thought that a knowledge of ,greek     
would at least correct some of ,blake's 
vagaries4 ,blake was quick at languages1
 and soon ,hayley was able to write to  
,johnson3 ,blake is just become a       
,grecian1 and literally learning the    
language4444 ,the new ,grecian greets   
you affectionately4  ,blake1 however1   
never attained to his teacher's         
proficiency2 he learnt just enough to be
 able to formulate to himself the nature
 of the ,greek genius1 and to see it in 
relation to his own4 ,the ,muses were   
the ,daughters of ,memory4 ,the         
inspiration of the ,bible was from a    
higher source than ,memory4 ,memory is  
the indelible record of experience4     
,inspiration is always a breaking into  
experience to the creation of something 

new4 ,then only is the new creation     
handed over to ,memory4 ,thus           
,inspiration feeds ,memory1 but is not  
its fruit4 ,imagination is the true     
instrument of ,inspiration4 ,when ,blake
 saw all this clearly1 he wrote in the  
,preface to ,milton3 ,we do not want    
either ,greek or ,roman ,models if we   
are just and true to our own            
,imaginations4 ,greek and ,latin have   
their abiding place in ,memory1 and     
,blake was about to write fine things   
about ,memory1 which he calls the ,halls
 of ,los2 but for himself they did not  
stimulate his imagination4 ,to master   
them would add to his culture2 but mere 
culture is always barren4  ,hayley's    
last attempt to teach ,blake was in     
,march #ahje1 the month in which        
,klopstock died4 ,he translated parts of
 ,klopstock's ,messiah aloud for        
,blake's benefit4 ,certain lines by     
,blake with big gaps have been          
preserved1 which are hard for us to     
understand4 ,the only thing we are quite

 sure about them is that they were      
written after too much ,klopstock4      
,there was one great name that held     
,hayley and ,blake alike at this time4  
,we know that ,blake had always admired 
,milton's superb gifts1 while he        
disliked his theology4 ,blake's special 
friends had also been preoccupied with  
,milton4 ,fuseli1 for example1 not only 
disagreed with ,dr ,johnson's strictures
 on the poet1 but he had been inspired  
by his ardent imagination to paint a    
series of pictures illustrating the     
poet's works1 and these had been on     
public view at a ,milton ,gallery opened
 on ,may #bjth1 #agii1 and reopened     
,march #bast1 #ahjj4  ,while ,blake was 
with ,hayley he naturally heard much of 
,milton from his latest biographer2 and 
again their united interest in ,cowper  
led them back to ,milton1 because of    
,cowper's cherished desire to edit      
,milton1 with notes and translations4   
,in #agij1 when ,boydell's ,shakespeare 
,gallery was a success1 bookseller      

,johnson was fired with the idea of     
bringing out a magnificent ,milton      
,gallery1 surpassing any work that had  
appeared in ,england4 ,it was to contain
 ,cowper's notes and translations and   
,fuseli's illustrations1 for which the  
best engravers were to be found4 ,the   
services of ,sharpe and ,bartolozzi were
 enlisted1 and ,blake was asked to      
engrave ,adam and ,eve observed by      
,satan4 ,the project fell through owing 
to ,cowper's mental indisposition2 but  
when ,hayley was engaged on the ,life of
 ,cowper and ,blake on its engravings1  
,cowper's ,milton came uppermost again  
in their minds1 and it occurred to      
,hayley that it would be a good plan to 
bring out a fine edition of the delayed 
work1 with engravings after designs by  
,romney1 ,flaxman1 and ,blake4 ,the     
profits of the work were to be          
appropriated to erect a monument to the 
memory of ,cowper in ,st ,paul's or     
,westminster ,abbey4 ,to this work was  
to be added ,hayley's ,life of ,milton1 

so that the whole necessarily would     
spread out to three quarto volumes4 ,the
 project was abandoned4 ,instead of the 
three volumes1 one volume with ,cowper's
 notes finally appeared in #ahjh1 and   
instead of the proceeds going to a      
monument in ,st ,paul's1 they were given
 for the emolument of an orphan godson  
of the ,sussex ,bard4  ,thus ,blake's   
thought and time were fully occupied4   
,besides the designs for ,hayley's      
ballads1 engravings were required for   
the ,cowper ,life4 ,butts was to be kept
 supplied with a fresh picture as fast  
as ,blake could paint it2 and his own   
more secret thought was ruminating over 
,milton1 and his stay at ,felpham1 and  
his dreams for the future4 ,these were  
to take form in his longest poetical    
works--,milton1 ,the ,four ,zoas1 and   
,jerusalem2 but as they are of extreme  
importance for understanding ,blake1    
they must be kept over to another       
chapter4  ,blake was thoroughly         
interested in this work1 for he admired 

,cowper1 and considered that his letters
 were the very best letters that were   
ever published4 ,it is necessary to     
remember his reverence for ,cowper1 as  
also for ,wesley and ,whitefield1       
because in the poems there are many     
vigorous attacks made on religion1 and  
some of ,blake's modern imitators follow
 him in the attack4 ,the moderns for the
 most part are irreligious1 but ,blake  
professed to love true religion and true
 science4 ,what he hated above all      
things was religion divorced from life  
and art4 ,such religion becomes very    
intense1 as in the ,pharisees1 and when 
great decisions are called for1 as in   
the trial of ,christ1 it invariably     
utters its voice on the wrong side4     
,blake's engravings for the ,cowper     
,life were after designs by other       
artists1 the most important being the   
head of ,cowper by ,romney4 ,to engrave 
after another is irksome1 and there was 
further irritation when he found that   
,hayley was as ready to instruct him how

 to engrave as to paint miniatures4     
,illustration3 ,,mirth ,,and ,,her      
,,companions4   ,since ,hayley could    
never disguise his inmost thoughts1     
,blake soon perceived that he intended  
to keep him strictly to the graver1 as  
he had no opinion of his original works1
 whether in poetry or design4 ,blake    
found relief in painting for ,thomas    
,butts1 who was his friend and patron   
for over thirty years1 and to whom he   
sent exquisite pictures1 and some       
letters priceless for their revelation  
of the writer4  ,from these we learn the
 nature of ,blake's spiritual crisis at 
,felpham4  ,miniature portrait painting 
drove home to him the vast difference   
between historical designing and        
portrait painting4 ,portrait requires   
nature before the painter's eye1        
historical designing depends on         
imagination4 ,nature and imagination    
were as antithetical in ,blake's eye as 
nature and grace in the theologian's1   
and just here he kept as far away from  

pantheism as he could in his obstinate  
determination to keep nature and        
imagination as separate as the sheep and
 the goats4 ,while agreeing with ,blake 
in keeping them apart1 ,i suppose most  
of us would say that the finest portrait
 painting depended on imagination no    
less than historical designing4  ,the   
atmosphere of ,felpham induced in ,blake
 long fits of abstraction and brooding1 
and he pushed his thoughts on miniature 
forwards to the recollecting of all his 
scattered thoughts on art4 ,he          
determined to discontinue all attempts  
at eclecticism4 ,venetian finesse and   
,flemish picturesque were excellencies  
of an inferior order and incompatible   
with the grand style4 ,he was convinced 
that the reverse of this--uniformity of 
colour and long continuation of         
lines--produces grandeur4 ,so said ,sir 
,joshua1 who did not always practise    
what he preached in his discourses2 so  
said ,michael ,angelo1 whose profession 
and practice were one2 so said ,blake1  

who was decided1 while adhering to the  
principles of the great ,florentine1 to 
be true to his own genius1 so that his  
work should be as distinct from ,michael
 ,angelo's as ,caracci's from           
,correggio's1 or ,correggio's from      
,raphael's4  ,here was strength for     
,blake in knowing his own mind about his
 art and methods1 and following it4 ,it 
helped him out of his paralysing        
diffidence1 which ,hayley fostered1 and 
made more clear the real issue between  
him and his patron4 ,he strove to see   
the situation in the largest light      
possible4 ,the old question of ,god's   
providence exercised him4 ,did ,god     
bring him to ,felpham8 ,did ,god keep   
him there8 ,if so1 it must be because it
 was not fit for him at present to be   
employed in greater things4 ,that       
thought kept him patient4 ,when it is   
proper his talents will be properly     
exercised in public4 ,but ,god guides by
 cleansing man's understanding and      
pushing him forwards to a decision4 ,he 

understood his art1 yet ,hayley objected
 to his doing anything but the mere     
drudgery of business4 ,he trusted his   
art1 and he saw how he must work4 ,let  
him trust himself1 and then8 ,he saw all
 clearly now1 as he had seen it in the  
first month1 although he had stifled his
 apprehensions4 ,god had given him a    
great talent4 ,it would be affected     
humility to deny it4 ,if he stayed with 
,hayley he would paint miniatures1 make 
money1 and make his beloved ,kate       
comfortable for life2 but he would sell 
his divine birthright4 ,if he obeyed    
,god by following the gifts ,he had     
bestowed on him1 then farewell to       
,hayley and lovely ,felpham3 he must    
return without delay to ,london1 and    
once more he and ,kate together must    
face the grinding life of poverty4      
,anyone who knows ,blake must know what 
decision he would make4 ,he made it     
silently1 irrevocably4 ,by the beginning
 of ,october #ahjc he and ,kate were    
back again in ,london1 lodging in ,south

 ,molton ,street1 with a sense of escape
 and liberty which more than compensated
 for the uncertain prospect of the      
future4  ,blake had not quite finished  
with ,felpham4 ,before leaving he had   
had a disagreeable affair with a private
 in ,captain ,leathe's troop of #ast or 
,royal ,dragoons4 ,from a letter of     
,blake's to ,mr ,butts1 dated ,august   
#afth1 #ahjc1 we learn that this man was
 found by him in the garden1 invited to 
assist by the gardener without his      
knowledge4 ,he desired him politely to  
go away2 and on his refusal1 again      
repeated his request4 ,the man then     
threatened to knock out his eyes1 and   
made some contemptuous remarks about his
 person4 ,blake thereupon1 his pride    
being affronted1 took the man by the    
elbows and pushed him before him down   
the road for about fifty yards4 ,in     
revenge1 the soldier charged ,blake with
 uttering sedition and damning the      
,king4 ,blake had no difficulties in    
gathering witnesses for his defence4 ,he

 was summoned before a bench of justices
 at ,chichester and forced to find bail4
 ,hayley kindly came forward with ,l#ej1
 ,mr ,seagrave1 printer at ,chichester1 
and protege of ,hayley's1 with another  
,l#ej1 and himself bound in ,l#ajj for  
his appearance at the ,quarter ,sessions
 after ,michaelmas4 ,the trial came off 
at ,chichester on ,january #aath1 #ahjd4
 ,the ,duke of ,richmond presided as    
magistrate4 ,hayley had procured for the
 defence ,samuel ,rose 7,cowper's       
friend71 and between them they had no   
difficulty in releasing ,blake4  ,there 
would have been no need to repeat this  
story1 except that the event made a deep
 impression on ,blake4 ,skofield1 the   
soldier's name1 became in his mind an   
abiding symbol1 and the soldier's       
contempt for his person decided him to  
change his deportment4  ,blake's humble 
birth and childlike trust of his fellows
 had united to produce in him a too     
passive and docile manner4 ,there was   
plenty of fire within1 and the lamb knew

 how to roar2 but he judged that his    
roar need not be provoked if his        
appearance somehow warded people off    
from taking a liberty with him4         
,diffidence is not a virtue4 ,blake's   
too passive deportment changed as he    
gradually became more self-confident4   
,hence the ,skofield episode left a     
lasting mark on both his mind and body4 
,blake's decisive step in leaving       
,hayley and following his own will      
immediately preceded the noonday glory  
of his genius4 ,hayley must have thought
 that ,blake was extremely ungrateful   
after the invariable kindness that he   
had shown him2 and if ,hayley liked to  
call his neighbouring friends around him
 and put his case to them1 probably all1
 without a single dissentient voice1    
would have agreed that he had shown     
himself a ,christian and a gentleman1   
and that charity itself could not demand
 of him to trouble himself any further  
about such a crazed visionary as ,blake4
 ,blake not only thought otherwise1 but 

turning to the ,gospel as he was wont to
 do1 he found a word of ,christ that    
convinced him that ,christ was on his   
side4 ,he who is not with me is against 
me4 ,there were a thousand evidences    
that ,hayley was not with the real      
,blake that was striving to manifest    
himself in time1 and therefore he was   
against him1 and an enemy to his genius4
 ,blake went to ,felpham shaken in      
himself and diffident4 ,when there is   
diffidence 7dispersal of faith7 there is
 a lamentable waste of precious energy4 
,blake left ,felpham reassured that the 
light he had seen in his youth was the  
true light1 and confident 7confidence is
 concentration of faith7 that if he     
remained faithful to his real self1 he  
would also be found on the side of      
,christ1 and that this true             
self-confidence must result in beautiful
 work of the creative order4 ,that was  
the supreme hour in his life4 ,the full 
vision must come4 ,like ,habakkuk1 he   
was on his tower1 assured that though it

 tarry it would come and not tarry4 ,he 
was not impatient4 ,the just shall live 
by his faith4 ,blake had faith1 and he  
asked no more2 but he gained a          
thousandfold more1 and the full vision  
came to him in a way that must seem odd 
to a child of the world1 but wonderfully
 appropriate to one who understands what
 is the nature of the fire that sustains
 and consumes the artist's soul4        
,during the months of #ahjc-d a certain 
,count ,truchsess1 who owned a valuable 
collection of pictures1 exhibited them  
at a gallery in the ,new ,road1 opposite
 ,portland ,place1 ,london4 ,the        
pictures were by ,german1 ,dutch1       
,flemish1 ,italian1 ,spanish1 and       
,french masters4 ,the masters included  
,albert ,duerer1 ,hans ,holbein senior1 
,breughel1 ,vandyck1 ,michael ,angelo1  
,leonardo da ,vinci1 ,bourdon1 ,watteau4
  ,blake went to see the pictures1 and  
must have been unusually excited and    
thrilled at seeing works by ,michael    
,angelo and ,albert ,duerer directly1   

and not through the blurred medium of   
poor engravings4 ,the divine frenzy     
stirred in his soul4 ,the next day1     
suddenly1 he was enlightened with the   
light he enjoyed in his youth4 ,the     
cloud that had hung over him for twenty 
years vanished1 the grim spectre        
7reason7 who had haunted his ways and   
checked his inspiration fled with the   
cloud4 ,blake was drunk with            
intellectual vision1 and in his drunken 
hilarity came to himself1 knew what was 
his proper work1 and once for all gave  
himself with passionate surrender to    
that which his whole and undivided being
 saw to be good4  ,it will take us the  
rest of our time gathering some of the  
fruits of ,blake's richly matured       
genius4  ,blake wrote an enthusiastic   
account of his mystic experience to     
,hayley1 of all men--,hayley who had so 
exasperated him1 and made him sore1 and1
 in his soreness1 say biting things4    
,now he was thoroughly at peace with    
himself1 and could regard ,hayley with  

the kindness and tolerance that before  
had been impossible4 ,for a while he    
continued to correspond with him while  
he was occupied with his ,life of       
,romney4 ,blake engraved a portrait of  
the artist for the frontispiece which   
never appeared1 and a fine engraving of 
,romney's ,shipwreck1 which appeared    
along with the other engravings by      
,caroline ,watson4 ,the ,life of ,romney
 was a dreary performance4 ,like the    
,life of ,cowper1 it revealed its       
subject only when it gave his letters4  
,for the rest1 it abounds in a welter of
 elegant eighteenth-century words and   
phrases which assure us that the poet   
never saw even ,romney and ,cowper as   
they really were1 and therefore it is   
not surprising that he saw in ,blake    
merely a mild and harmless visionary who
 might do paying work if only he would  
listen to the wise counsel that he was  
always ready to give4  ,peace be with   
,hayley6 ,among those that appear before
 ,peter's ,gate1 we cannot help thinking

 that he will be more readily admitted  
than the vast crowd of                  
eighteenth-century squires who will     
knock at the gate1 and stamp and fume if
 it is not opened to them on the        
instant4     ,,chapter ,,ix  ,,the ,,big
 ,,prophetic ,,books   ,blake's three   
years' slumber1 as he called it1        
hypnotized1 ,i presume1 by ,hayley's    
lulling kindness1 were amongst the most 
important in his life4 ,if he slumbered1
 yet his dreams were unusually active2  
and1 since feelings are more intense in 
dreams than when wide-awake1 it is not  
surprising that ,blake's inner life was 
in a violent commotion4 ,any stirring of
 his feeling immediately set his        
supersensual faculty vigorously to work4
 ,visible persons and things were       
tracked back to invisible principalities
 and powers1 his cosmic consciousness   
quickened1 the need to create possessed 
him1 and he found relief only in giving 
rhythmic expression to his spiritual    
reading of mundane things4  ,this was   

the mental process that we saw at work  
in his ,french ,revolution and ,america4
 ,now it was moving among the persons   
and things connected with his own life2 
but it is not less important1 for the   
same mighty agencies govern individuals 
and nations alike1 and link them up     
together1 so that they are              
interchangeable manifestations of       
eternal laws and states4  ,the practical
 outcome was ,milton1 ,jerusalem1 and a 
revision of ,the ,four ,zoas1 begun some
 time about #agie4 ,these claim our     
close attention1 for they contain1 for  
those who have patience to probe their  
forbidding exterior1 the treasure of one
 who had run the road of excess1 not of 
profligacy but rebellion1 and now       
reached the palace of wisdom4  ,on      
,april #beth1 #ahjc1 ,blake wrote to    
,thomas ,butts3 ,i have written this    
poem 7,milton7 from immediate dictation4
 ,later in the same year 7,july #fth71  
he writes3 ,i can praise it1 since ,i   
dare not pretend to be any other than   

the secretary2 the authors are in       
,eternity4 ,i consider it the grandest  
,poem that this world contains4         
,allegory addressed to the intellectual 
powers1 while it is altogether hidden   
from the corporeal understanding1 is my 
definition of the most sublime ,poetry4 
,in the ,preface to ,milton ,blake      
asserts1 in effect1 that ,shakespeare   
and ,milton were shackled by the        
,daughters of ,memory1 who must become  
the ,daughters of ,inspiration before   
work of the highest creative order can  
be produced4 ,here he regards ,memory as
 a hindrance1 and comparing the ,preface
 with the above quotations1 we learn    
that he strove to put ,memory aside     
while the authors in ,eternity were     
dictating to him4  ,but in the          
,jerusalem there are1 scattered         
throughout1 references to what he calls 
the ,halls of ,los1 familiar to readers 
of mystical literature as the ,akashic  
or ,etheric records1 and called by      
,yeats the great ,memory4  ,all things  

acted on ,earth are seen in the bright  
,sculptures of ,los's ,halls1 and every 
,age renews its powers from these       
,works4#d  ,here ,memory serves to renew
 an age1 and then becomes the recipient 
of the age's inspired works4  ,these    
passages1 taken together1 open up again 
the great questions of ,inspiration1    
,memory1 ,creation1 ,mechanism1 and     
since each one of these words is now    
made to stand for differing conceptions1
 they are ambiguous1 and we may not use 
them without first defining sharply what
 we mean4 ,we speak of the true poet    
like ,shakespeare1 the true mystic like 
,blake1 the true saint like ,catherine  
of ,siena1 and the true ,book like the  
,bible as all being inspired1 yet in    
each case the inspiration is of a       
different order4 ,the common element    
which justifies the one word is         
originality4 ,shakespeare's inspiration 
depends on the great ,memory1 on his own
 complex nature1 and his consuming      
spirit of observation2 but at the moment

 of his inspiration1 all these things   
seem in abeyance1 and the words well up 
as if a spirit not himself had given    
them to him4 ,his originality consists  
in the unique impression that his rich  
understanding gives of the elements     
supplied by the ,past and ,present1 but 
not in the creation of a new element4   
,the same may be said of ,dante1        
,milton1 ,shelley4  ,the inspiration of 
the ,bible contains all these elements1 
which constitute its purely human side1 
but there is something else which has   
given it its supreme power in all ages4 
,the writers of the ,bible remember and 
observe and think1 but they also utter  
themselves as they are moved by the     
,holy ,ghost4 ,it is this last          
mysterious happening that inspires the  
creative element4 ,the inspired poet has
 aided his observation and experience by
 drawing on the great ,memory1 the      
inspired ,bible has added to the great  
,memory something that was not in it    
before4 ,the poet can renew us1 yet     

keeps us within the circle of the cosmic
 consciousness4 ,the ,bible can inspire 
us and lift us out of the circle far    
above the seven heavens of the cosmos4  
,and that is our rescue from that       
nightmare of eternal recurrence which   
set ,nietzsche's fine brain tottering   
down to its foundations4  ,the          
inspiration of the poet is general1 and 
that of the ,bible unique2 but there    
still remains a special kind to which   
,blake1 like many other mystics1 laid   
claim4  ,when ,blake was perplexed at   
,felpham1 he referred to his spiritual  
guides1 who were in their turn subject  
to ,god4 ,they1 according to him1 were  
the real authors and inspirers of his   
prophetic books4 ,this sort of language 
was rare in the eighteenth century1 but 
is quite familiar to readers of         
theosophical books1 ancient or modern4  
,they teach that there are seven planes 
of consciousness from the physical to   
the mahaparanirvanic1 which together    
make up the cosmos4 ,the two highest    

planes are beyond the reach of human    
conception2 but there are not a few     
to-day who claim to have attained to the
 fifth nirvanic plane4 ,here the        
consciousness is so finely developed1   
and its vibrations respond so readily1  
that the subject comes into touch with  
other intelligences1 and often submits  
to them entirely for guidance4  ,in ,st 
,paul's day this teaching was familiar  
at ,ephesus in the form of gnosticism4  
,he did not disbelieve in the reality of
 the seven planes1 but he disagreed with
 the gnostics in their blind faith in   
the trustworthiness of the guides4 ,he  
believed that many of them were so evil 
that when ,christians became conscious  
of them1 they needed the whole armour of
 ,god to protect them against their     
wiles4 ,here is the difference between  
the ,christian and pantheistic teaching4
 ,the pantheist thinks that because a   
thing is spiritual it is therefore holy 
and good2 ,christianity believes in     
fallen spiritual beings4 ,the pantheist 

believes that to reach the nirvanic     
plane is to attain to holiness2         
,christianity says that all the planes  
of the cosmos are tainted1 and if one   
reached even the seventh1 one would     
still have need of cleansing4 ,theosophy
 keeps one for ever within the cosmic   
circle2 ,christianity lifts one beyond  
the circle into the ascended ,christ1   
and teaches that one is safe on the     
different subtle planes of consciousness
 only while one abides in ,him4         
,doubtless there are good guides1 but   
the danger is great because it is so    
difficult to try the spirits4  ,blake   
here as elsewhere wavers between the two
 views4 ,with certain reservations he   
dips on the ,christian side4 ,he travels
 round the cosmos1 but in a spiral2 and 
the top of his spiral--his ,jacob's     
,ladder--reaches not to the seventh     
plane but to the ,throne of ,god1 which 
is far above the charmed circle4 ,hence 
man is able to climb beyond the defiled 
cosmos into the pure heaven of ,god4    

,that is his redemption4  ,blake's      
vision1 then1 ranging freely among the  
planes of consciousness1 gives him      
access to the great ,memory which is    
within the cosmos2 and at rare moments  
he goes beyond the cosmos1 and then his 
words proceed from the highest          
inspiration4  ,in appraising the value  
of ,blake's defamation of the ,greeks'  
inspiration1 one must remember that he  
was not a profound ,grecian4 ,his       
studies with ,hayley cannot have carried
 him into the heart of the ,greek       
genius4 ,when he limits its inspiration 
to ,memory1 there is no scholar1 ,i     
imagine1 that would agree with him4 ,the
 ,greeks did make an invaluable         
contribution to the world's memory2 and 
while one source of their inspiration   
came from the past1 we must further     
admit that it was the past wedded to the
 present which actually produced        
something new1 that is1 of the creative 
order4  ,blake's own inspiration when it
 came from his spiritual guides is not  

of such a high order as the ,greek's at 
his highest4 ,the so-called guides1 if  
we may trust ,st ,paul1 are inside of   
the cosmos1 like the great ,memory1 and 
their source of wisdom is from this     
world1 which is the arena of the ,church
 in her militant course4 ,it is only by 
watching her that they are able to get  
glimpses of the manifold wisdom of ,god4
 ,hence to place oneself under their    
guidance is a hindrance to receiving    
that highest inspiration that comes     
direct from the ,spirit of ,god4  ,blake
 was wrong1 too1 in his efforts to shut 
off ,memory4 ,of course he could not    
succeed4 ,every page of ,jerusalem shows
 that ,memory was at work though        
shackled4 ,memory alone could have made 
it coherent and a luminous whole1 as it 
had made ,paradise ,lost2 but it was not
 free enough to keep its different      
scenes1 often very beautiful1 from      
flying far apart1 and the imagination   
grows weary in trying to capture the    
complete picture4  ,the one thing in    

these poems that we can positively      
affirm to be new is their symbolism1 and
 that cannot be defended4 ,symbolism is 
beautiful only as it is universal1 or   
can become so4 ,it should be one        
language against many tongues4 ,but     
,blake's is not even the tongue of a    
nation or a tribe4 ,it is his own       
private invention1 and1 incidentally1   
uncouth1 forbidding1 unintelligible1 and
 in actual fact a little insane4 ,it is 
true that we can learn his symbolism    
after much labour2 but a beautiful and  
catholic symbolism is the one thing that
 we have a right to understand1 without 
learning1 through the imagination1 which
 ,blake always affirmed to be divine4   
,blake could not afford to indulge these
 idiosyncrasies4 ,like all mystics1 he  
found it difficult to adjust the inner  
things that were real to him to the     
outer that were but a shadow4 ,since    
most people find the outer things are   
the substantial reality1 they are not   
only moving in a different world from   

that of the mystic1 but they are puzzled
 to know when the letter of his         
statements is to be taken4  ,ezekiel    
says that he ate his meat baked with    
cow's dung2 ,blake1 that ,hayley1 when  
he could not act upon his wife1 hired a 
villain to bereave his life4 ,we know   
sufficient of ,blake's relation to      
,hayley to understand that ,hayley's    
murderous purpose was towards ,blake's  
spiritual life1 not his corporeal1 and  
that he tried to prevail on ,blake      
through his wife4 ,we may hope also that
 ,ezekiel did not really eat abominable 
flesh1 or lie for a preposterously long 
time on his left side4 ,we mention the  
mystic's hazy treatment of external     
actions1 to explain ,blake2 but we hope 
the mystic of the future will be more   
considerate of what his words are likely
 to convey to others1 and then clear    
them of all ambiguity4  ,blake should   
have guarded himself perpetually here1  
but was too proud or wilful to do so4   
,hence with his merging of inward and   

outward things1 and using the same      
language for both1 added to his private 
symbolism1 what should have been his    
greatest poems have become submerged    
continents in which you may discover    
endless treasures only if you dare to   
dive1 and can hold your breath under    
water4  ,let us dive for the sake of    
understanding the growth of ,blake's    
mind4  ,i will take ,milton separately1 
and ,the ,four ,zoas and ,jerusalem     
together4  ,blake's feelings towards    
,milton had always been divided4 ,he saw
 in him the highest order of poetic     
genius1 but also1 ominously present1 the
 spirit of reason 7,urizen7 enthroned in
 the wrong place1 and a servile love of 
the classics that placed him under the  
heel of the ,daughters of ,memory4 ,to  
change the metaphor1 ,milton's ,pegasus 
was ridden by ,urizen4  ,blake's final  
criticism of ,swedenborg was that he    
drew the line in the wrong place between
 heaven and hell2 and his amendment was 
to take his two contraries and marry    

them4 ,from that time forward his first 
question in trying a man's religion was1
 ,where do you draw the line8 ,popular  
religion always draws it in the wrong   
place4 ,good things are reckoned evil   
and evil things good4 ,but as ,blake    
continued to put his question to the    
world's great spirits1 he counted       
twenty-seven different answers that had 
produced twenty-seven different         
churches1 each church having its own    
particular heaven and corresponding     
hell4 ,he had hoped to unite all these  
contraries as successfully as he had    
,swedenborg's2 but when he came to      
,christ's division1 finding that nothing
 would unite ,his sheep and goats1 and  
,his wheat and tares1 he henceforth took
 ,christ's dividing line as absolute1   
and the line of any other as right only 
when it coincided with ,christ's4       
,applying this test to ,milton1 ,blake  
saw that he wrongly divided heaven and  
hell1 and that this fatal mistake       
necessarily affected the characters of  

his ,messiah and ,satan4 ,messiah1 who  
should have stood for the supreme poetic
 genius1 was the embodiment of          
restrictive reason1 and ,satan1 who by  
immemorial tradition is absolute evil1  
was endowed with a marvellous           
imagination that inevitably brought with
 it certain virtues4 ,when ,blake       
inquired for the root cause of this     
perversion in ,milton1 he traced it to  
the fact that ,reason had largely       
usurped the place of ,imagination4 ,he  
then took one more customary step4 ,he  
set ,milton in his imagination in the   
light of the eternal order4 ,seen in    
this perspective1 the prime fact about  
him appeared that he had fallen in his  
encounter with ,urizen and come under   
his dominion1 and the last was that his 
redemption would be effected only by    
going down into self-annihilation and   
death with ,christ1 and then rising     
again with the life of pure imagination4
 ,once imagination 7,los7 is supreme1   
then reason 7,urizen7 falls into his    

proper place1 and the return into the   
eternal order is accomplished4  ,during 
,blake's stay at ,felpham1 ,milton was  
continually present in the minds of both
 himself and ,hayley4 ,hence he was for 
,blake an actual person in the ,felpham 
drama1 ,mr and ,mrs ,blake and ,hayley  
being with him the chief characters1 and
 ,skofield and his confederates the     
rabble4 ,then passing1 as in ,the       
,french ,revolution1 from actual persons
 and events to the unseen things of     
which they were the temporal            
manifestation1 ,blake saw each person in
 his eternal state1 and as a symbol of  
that state1 and he lost sight of the    
earthly puppets1 as they were merged    
into their monstrous and eternal        
counterparts4 ,the transition made1 the 
poem is no longer intelligible to the   
corporeal understanding1 and ,hayley    
might read it a hundred times without   
suspecting that he was the villain of   
the piece4  ,the characters are ,los1   
,urizen1 ,palamabron and ,rintrah1 sons 

of ,los1 ,satan1 and ,skofield1 who     
keeps his own name4 ,satan for a time is
 ,hayley1 ,palamabron by turns ,blake   
and ,wesley1 ,rintrah1 ,whitefield4     
,this is a seemingly harsh judgment of  
poor ,hayley1 akin to ,michael ,angelo's
 treatment of ,biagio da ,cesena2 but   
the harshness is humorously softened    
when ,satan is discovered decked with   
half the graces4 ,he is kind1 meek1     
humble1 and complains gently when his   
kindness fails to call forth gratitude4 
,he is the personification of ,hayley's 
virtues1 which together make up         
7hypocritic7 holiness4  ,blake had made 
the startling discovery1 which          
,nietzsche has popularized in our time1 
that the graces in wrong places are     
vices4 ,nietzsche went on to make the   
absurd assertions that humility and pity
 are the virtues of the herd and are    
never right in any place4 ,blake        
believed that the graces coupled with   
insight and understanding took on a new 
quality which made them divine4  ,to    

give examples3 ,blake1 while submissive 
to ,hayley1 was humble1 but at the risk 
of his birthright4  ,hayley1 exerting   
himself to find rich neighbours to sit  
for ,blake to paint in miniature1 was   
kind1 but he was suffocating his genius4
  ,to the scribes and ,pharisees1       
,christ meek would have been ,christ    
weak4  ,modesty in one who does not know
 that all things that live are holy is  
prudery4  ,to pity oneself or another   
for the troubles that come through      
slackness is effeminacy4 ,the true      
virtue here is to damn4 ,hence the right
 place for a man clothed from head to   
foot in hypocritic graces is hell1 his  
right name is ,satan4  ,but when a man  
has stripped himself of his virtues1 and
 annihilating himself goes down with    
,christ into death1 then he rises again 
into newness of life and vision1 and the
 graces of the new life1 still called by
 their old names1 but now in their right
 places1 are flaming1 beautiful1        
irresistible4  ,once ,blake saw his man 

in his setting in eternity1 he escaped  
from his initial resentment1 and he     
could write calmly to ,hayley and       
subscribe himself1 ,your devoted ,will  
,blake4  ,i may remark that ,blake did  
not think he had invented new values1   
like ,nietzsche1 in his indictment of   
the virtues4 ,his language was his own1 
but his conclusions were precisely the  
same as those of ,wesley1 ,whitefield1  
,bunyan1 ,st ,paul1 when they1 in       
effect1 speak of man's righteousness as 
filthy rags1 and of his need to be      
clothed with the living righteousness of
 ,christ before his garment can be      
reckoned beautiful and clean4  ,a few   
quotations from ,milton may be given as 
,blake's final word on ,hayley4 ,i will 
write ,hayley for ,satan1 and ,blake for
 ,palamabron4    ,blake1 reddening like 
the ,moon in an eclipse1   ,spoke1      
saying1 ,you know ,hayley's mildness and
 his self-imposition2   ,seeming a      
brother1 being a tyrant1 even thinking  
himself a brother   ,while he is        

murdering the just4    ,how should      
,hayley know the duties of another8     
,hayley wept1   ,and mildly cursing     
,blake1 him accused of crimes himself   
had wrought4    ,so ,los said3          
,henceforth1 ,blake1 let each his own   
station   ,keep2 nor in pity false1 nor 
in officious brotherhood1 where   ,none 
needs be active4    ,but ,hayley1       
returning to his ,mills 7for ,blake had 
served   ,the ,mills of ,hayley as the  
easier task71 found all confusion1      
,and back returned to ,los1 not filled  
with vengeance1 but with tears4         
,himself convinced of ,blake's          
turpitude4    ,blake prayed3   ,o ,god  
protect me from my friends4    ,for     
,hayley1 flaming with ,rintrah's fury   
hidden beneath his own mildness1        
,accused ,blake before the ,assembly of 
ingratitude and malice4    ,when        
,hayley1 making to himself ,laws from   
his own identity1   ,compelled others to
 serve him in moral gratitude and       
submission4    ,leutha said3 ',entering 

the doors of ,hayley's brain night after
 night1   ,like sweet perfumes1 ,i      
stupefied the masculine perceptions1    
,and kept only the feminine awake2 hence
 rose his soft   ,delusory love to      
,blake4'    ,the ,gnomes cursed         
,hayley bitterly1   ,to do unkind thinks
 in kindness1 with power armed2 to say  
,the most irritating things in the midst
 of tears and love--   ,these are the   
stings of the ,serpent6  ,these are     
enough to show ,blake's method1 and his 
remorseless understanding of ,hayley4   
,there is present an irresistible touch 
of humour which preserves them from     
being too bitter4  ,for the rest1 the   
poem narrates ,milton's encounter with  
,urizen2 his going down into            
self-annihilation and death2 his        
judgment1 and final redemption as he    
ascends to the heaven of the            
imagination4 ,milton's heaven is then   
the heaven of ,jesus1 and his hell      
remains its irreconcilable contrary4    
,in this poem ,blake's full-grown       

mythology appears4 ,the mythical        
persons1 places1 states are ominously   
present2 but since they appear with much
 more particularity in ,the ,four ,zoas 
and ,jerusalem1 ,i may pass to them to  
extract what is necessary for           
understanding the mature ,blake4        
,jerusalem and ,the ,four ,zoas should  
be studied together4 ,the latter was    
begun about #agie1 and rewritten at     
,felpham4 ,the early prophetic          
books--,urizen1 ,los--stand as          
preliminary sketches to this large poem4
 ,they are woven into it with scarcely a
 change of word4  ,blake's great scheme 
is mainly in line with historical       
,christianity1 which of course is       
catholicism4 ,he starts with the eternal
 order and unity4 ,without attempting to
 explain the origin of evil1 he narrates
 the fall out of unity and order into   
diversity and disorder1 and how as a    
consequence of the fall creation        
appears4 ,he is obliged to use the word 
creation1 but there is no real creation 

in his cosmogony4 ,there are only three 
possible theories of creation4 ,creation
 from within ,god1 which is pantheism1  
and makes the universe an emanation2    
creation from something outside of ,god1
 which is dualism1 and not likely to be 
accepted in the ,west2 and creation out 
of nothing1 which is catholicism4 ,blake
 learnt from ,swedenborg the emanative  
theory4 ,swedenborg tried to avoid the  
pantheistic conclusion of his foundation
 principle1 and believed that he had    
succeeded4 ,his doctrine of the human   
,god was certainly fine1 and nearly     
catholic4 ,blake sways between the two4 
,his doctrine of creation is            
pantheistic1 but his affirmation that   
,god doth a human form display to those 
that dwell in realms of day is          
splendidly catholic1 and so1 on the     
whole1 is his doctrine of the fall4     
,since ,blake's day the problem has     
become enormously complicated1 because  
we have to take account of the vestiges 
in man's body of an animal ancestry1 and

 the still more infallible signs in his 
soul of a divine origin4 ,perhaps we    
shall eventually all come to believe in 
both evolution and a special creation to
 account for man's unique place in the  
universe4 ,at any rate a denial of the  
fall involves a definite departure from 
historical ,christianity1 and it is     
important to see that it was an integral
 part of ,blake's scheme and without it 
that scheme falls to pieces4 ,not that  
he pressed the letter of the ,adam and  
,eve story4 ,it stood for him as a      
divinely simple witness of an ancient   
simplicity and unity from which man has 
departed by disobedience and the        
assertion of a life and a self          
independent of ,god4 ,his way back into 
unity is by the cross of ,jesus ,christ1
 where the self-hood dies1 and the day  
of judgment1 which finally separates in 
him the gold from the dross1 and        
presents him in his divine humanity     
perfect before the human-divine ,god4   
,between these two stupendous facts--the

 fall and the redemption--,blake finds a
 place to say all that he wishes about  
the manifold things of heaven and earth 
and hell4  ,the unity from which man    
departs is made up of four mighty       
ones--the ,four ,zoas--who are the four 
beasts of the ,apocalypse1 taken from   
the four beasts of ,ezekiel1 who        
probably appropriated four of the many  
monstrous symbolical beasts of ,assyria4
  ,blake invented names for them4 ,of   
these--,urizen1 ,urthona-,los1 ,luvah1  
and ,tharmas--,urizen and ,los are by   
far the clearest conceived figures4     
,perfect unity is maintained so long as 
,los is supreme4 ,reason is important in
 its right place4 ,it becomes an evil   
when it usurps the place of imagination 
and thinks it can see as far4 ,the      
essence of the fall is disorder4        
,redemption restores order1 which is    
unity4 ,science alone breaks down       
because it is built up on observation   
and induction4 ,its observation is      
insufficient1 for it is the observation 

of a shrunk universe4 ,it gathers its   
materials through the five senses4 ,but 
there are other avenues in regenerated  
man4 ,if science were built up on the   
observation or vision of the whole      
instead of a very small part1 it would  
become divine science and coincident    
with religion4  ,religion breaks down   
whether built on nature or experience4  
,if on nature1 it is nature only as seen
 through limited vision2 if on          
experience1 it is the experience of     
fallen man1 and therefore it is of vital
 force only when it transcends nature   
and becomes super-natural1 and rests on 
a revelation not from man's experience1 
however deep1 but from ,god4            
,illustration3 ,,albion4  ,from         
,jerusalem4   ,deism was the particular 
time-heresy of ,blake's day4 ,he came   
into direct contact with it through his 
friend ,tom ,paine4 ,deistic religion1  
to be adequate for man's need1 must rest
 on perfect nature and perfect          
experience4 ,paine1 ,voltaire1 and      

,rousseau1 in order to provide these    
conditions which they saw to be         
necessary1 were driven to make the wild 
statement1 contrary to all experience1  
that man is naturally holy and good1 and
 if he is not so as we know him1 it is  
because he is everywhere perverted by   
artificial civilization4 ,having        
swallowed this baseless assumption1 the 
rest was easy4 ,they had only like      
,godwin to manufacture some scheme of   
political justice1 or like ,rousseau to 
arrange a social contract1 and then the 
,millennium would come4  ,against all   
this ,blake protested1 but without      
personal heat4 ,he was well aware of    
,paine's deism1 when he helped him to   
escape to ,france2 and of ,voltaire he  
wrote justly3 ,he has sinned against the
 ,son of man1 and it shall be forgiven  
him4 ,he protested and he affirmed3 ,man
 is born a ,spectre1 or ,satan1 and is  
altogether an ,evil4 ,in this           
uncompromising affirmation1 taken out of
 the heart of ,jerusalem1 written at the

 mature age of forty-seven1 he cuts     
himself off sharply1 not only from the  
humanitarian deism of his time1 but from
 the pantheism that invaded so many     
phases of his thought2 he goes beyond   
the kindly catholic dogma which allows a
 residuum of original righteousness in  
fallen man2 and1 with ,whitefield and   
the ,calvinists1 denies that he has any 
righteousness left at all4 ,hence the   
utter failure of all empiricism1 and the
 absolute need of ,revelation and a     
supernatural religion4 ,how near he was 
getting to ,dr ,johnson6 ,super-nature1 
of course1 presupposes nature4 ,blake   
was obliged to contemplate ,nature1 and 
meditate on the ancient difficulties    
that she still presents4  ,there are    
many passages in ,the ,four ,zoas to    
show how alive he was to ,nature's      
loveliness and cruelty4 ,her cruelty    
alone convinced him that she could not  
be taken as a basis for religion4 ,a    
natural man building his character on a 
natural religion must be as cruel as his

 mother4 ,the cruelty finds periodic    
vent in the lust of war4  ,yet why there
 is so much cruelty in ,nature remains a
 mystery1 even to the man who has been  
driven by her to supernaturalism4 ,blake
 maintained that there were two ways of 
regarding ,nature4 ,the natural man1    
with only five senses to inform him1    
looks at her and sees a very small      
portion of the infinite1 without ever   
suspecting the infinite4 ,if he sees her
 loveliness it will arrest him and hold 
him fast4 ,the spiritual man1 on the    
contrary1 looks not at but through      
,nature1 to the spiritual world of which
 it is a vegetable mirror4  ,here a     
difficulty presents itself4 ,if ,nature 
be a vegetable mirror of the eternal    
world1 then her cruelties must reflect  
eternal cruelties4 ,the spiritual man   
may see ,nature far differently from the
 natural man1 but that does not mean    
that she is merely the picture thrown by
 man's subjective self on the great     
abyss4 ,if man were altogether          

exterminated her cruelties would still  
continue4 ,since ,blake did not deny all
 existence to ,nature1 he was finally   
obliged to accept the old ,christian    
explanation so finely summed up by ,st  
,paul in the eighth chapter of his      
,epistle to the ,romans4 ,sin and       
disorder originate in the unseen heavens
 of the cosmos1 where the principalities
 and powers dwell4 ,man repeats their   
sins1 and ,nature reflects the disorder 
of their cosmos4 ,hence there is no     
redemption in the cosmic heavens4 ,man  
enters on his redemption only when he   
bows the knee to ,him who was raised    
above all heavens4 ,and though the whole
 creation groaneth and travaileth       
together until now1 yet at the great    
manifestation of the sons of ,god she   
also shall be delivered from the bondage
 of corruption into the glorious liberty
 of the children of ,god4  ,if the fall 
be denied1 then the sufferings of nature
 and man must be referred to evolution1 
which taken alone solves something1 but 

not the whole1 of the ancient and       
baffling mystery4  ,all this explains   
finally why the great ,memory to which  
,blake refers so often in ,jerusalem    
cannot redeem a man4 ,it is shut up in  
the cosmos4 ,memory would keep man in   
the cosmos even though he were          
reincarnated a million times4 ,memory's 
real work1 whether for creative art or  
man's redemption1 is in the fact that   
she gives man standing ground amid the  
horrors of infinity1 until he takes     
strong hold of ,him who overcame the    
world1 and is lifted by ,him into ,his  
ascension glory beyond the maddening    
whir of the cosmic wheels4  ,in these   
poems we get ,blake's final attitude    
towards sex and passion4  ,passion is   
always fire1 and as such it is energy4  
,to-day we are apt to use the word only 
for sex4 ,in the eighteenth century     
passion was of any kind1 and appetite   
stood for sex4 ,with ,blake1 passion is 
man's vital worth4 ,it may flame along  
many forbidden avenues1 but once it has 

mounted to the imagination1 and is      
controlled by spirit1 then it is the    
driving force that makes man's works    
beautiful and his character spontaneous4
  ,the passion of sex is1 no doubt1 the 
strongest of all4 ,in the early         
prophetic books1 when ,blake was in a   
fever of rebellion1 he affirmed that the
 sex passion was holy and should be     
free4 ,now in these later prophecies he 
still maintains1 without wavering1 the  
holiness of sex1 but he no longer       
insists on free-love4 ,he has no place  
for perversions4 ,he steadily           
contemplates the normal impulse1 and    
sees it as the principle of life        
impelling to love and children4  ,each  
man has to solve his own sex problem4   
,blake's nature was exceptionally full  
and passionate4 ,we caught a glimpse of 
him in his early married life panting in
 the whirlwind of sexual desire4 ,it is 
probably true that he even contemplated 
following the patriarchal custom4 ,but  
inconveniently for man's theories he has

 it brought home to him sooner or later 
that no man can live to himself alone4  
,mrs ,blake had her feelings2 and though
 she was the most submissive and loyal  
of wives1 yet she had the instinctive   
and normal objection to sharing her     
husband with others4 ,blake might argue 
that her objection was unreasonable1 and
 that a truly unselfish woman should    
rise above such appropriation4 ,but the 
stubborn fact remains that the woman who
 does so rise is either indifferent to  
her husband or abnormal1 and ,mrs4      
,blake1 at any rate1 both loving and    
unselfish to a heroic degree1 was just  
here inflexible4 ,king ,solomon has sung
 the praises of a virtuous wife4 ,we may
 take it as granted that her price is   
far above rubies4 ,but the man who      
imperils his treasure by putting into   
practice some theory of free-love1      
however good that theory may seem in his
 own eyes1 is worse than a fool2 and if 
he cannot endure some inconvenience for 
the sake of keeping the best gift that  

,heaven can bestow1 he is unworthy to   
receive it4  ,besides these facts1 which
 must have forced their full attention  
on ,blake as the years went by1 time was
 modifying his early notions in other   
ways4 ,he was an indefatigable worker4  
,when one realizes the immense energy   
expended in creative work1 and that     
,blake carried this on day after day1   
one sees that much of the sex energy    
must pass into another channel to supply
 the necessary power4  ,and lastly      
,blake's own spiritual life worked the  
change4 ,as he learnt to see through    
,nature to her antetype1 so he learnt to
 see through physical beauty4 ,a        
beautiful face was a very transitory    
manifestation of eternal beauty4 ,when  
,blake with ,plato had pierced through  
to the unseen fount of beauty1 then he  
was no longer a slave to externals4 ,the
 passion remained1 but transmuted1 and  
legitimate relief was found in the      
continuous creation of beautiful things4
 ,doubtless many will be disappointed   

that ,blake's experience brought him    
back to traditional morality2 but after 
all the terms on which he held it--a    
clean conception of sex1 and            
faithfulness to a woman worthy of all   
faith--were not so very narrow and      
rigorous4 ,they are terms that every man
 ought at once to accept1 if ever he    
should be so fortunate as to have them  
proposed to him4  ,the above ideas are  
culled from ,the ,four ,zoas and        
,jerusalem4 ,i do not propose any       
detailed analysis here4 ,this ,i have   
done at some length in ,vision and      
,vesture4 ,i will merely point out in   
conclusion that although these poems    
seem to ramble all over the universe    
inside and outside without plan or      
order1 there is1 in fact1 a connecting  
link in the figure of ,albion4  ,albion 
is the personification of the divine    
humanity2 but regarded individually he  
is fallen man1 bound with the pale limbs
 of his ,eternal ,individuality upon the
 ,rock of ,ages4 ,his inward eyes are   

closed from the ,divine ,vision1 and so 
he may be reckoned dead in trespasses   
and sin4 ,blake pronounced the natural  
man altogether an evil4 ,but ,albion is 
not an image of total depravity4 ,within
 him are all the divine faculties in    
addition to the five senses without1 but
 they are closed4 ,if he is to be       
redeemed1 there is no need to create new
 spiritual faculties1 but to re-create  
and make operative those that are       
already there4 ,hence ,blake drives back
 of regeneration to the first           
generation1 when man was made in the    
image and likeness of ,god4             
,regeneration is the renewal of the     
ancient image and likeness through the  
cross of ,christ and the breath of the  
,divine ,spirit4  ,albion1 like         
,lazarus1 is sick4 ,he whom ,thou lovest
 is sick4 ,he wanders from his house of 
,eternity4 ,his exteriors are become    
indefinite1 opened to pain1 in a fierce1
 hungry void1 and none can visit his    
regions4  ,pained and impotent1 he      

laments like ,job3    ,oh ,i am nothing 
if ,i enter into judgment with ,thee4   
,if ,thou withdraw ,thy breath ,i die1  
and vanish into ,hades2   ,if ,thou dost
 lay ,thy hand upon me1 behold ,i am    
silent2   ,if ,thou withhold ,thy hand  
,i perish like a leaf2   ,oh ,i am      
nothing1 and to nothing must return     
again4   ,if ,thou withdraw ,thy breath1
 behold ,i am oblivion4    ,eternal     
death haunts all my expectations4 ,rent 
from ,eternal ,brotherhood   we die and 
are no more4  ,and so ,man like a corse 
lay on the ,rock4 ,the ,sea of ,time and
 ,space   ,beat round the rocks in      
mighty waves4  ,even his limbs vegetated
 in monstrous forms of death4  ,he is   
opaque and contracted4 ,yet mercifully  
there is a limit to his opacity and     
contraction1 named by ,blake ,satan and 
,adam2 else he would sleep eternally4   
,the capacity remains to hear the ,voice
 of the ,son of ,god and live1 and until
 that moment he is guarded in tender    
care by the mild and gentle ,saviour4   

,it is ,heaven's purpose to awake him4  
,then all in great ,eternity1 which is  
called the ,council of ,god1   ,met as  
one ,man1 even ,jesus--to awake the     
fallen ,man4   ,the fallen ,man         
stretched like a corse upon the oozy    
rock1   ,washed with the tide1 pale1    
overgrown with the waves1   ,just moved 
with horrible dreams4  ,albion like     
,milton must tread the difficult way of 
self-annihilation and judgment4  ,his   
,day of ,judgment is given with         
marvellous wealth of detail in ,the     
,four ,zoas1 ,night ,,ix4 ,but there are
 still finer passages in ,jerusalem     
which lead ,albion to his final         
beatitude4    ,albion said3 ,o ,lord1   
what can ,i do8 my selfhood cruel       
,marches against ,thee 444   ,i behold  
the visions of my deadly sleep of six   
thousand years1   ,dazzling around ,thy 
skirts like a serpent of precious stones
 and gold2   ,i know it is my self1 ,o  
my ,divine ,creator and ,redeemer4      
,jesus replied3 ,fear not1 ,albion2     

unless ,i die thou canst not live1      
,but if ,i die ,i shall arise again and 
thou with ,me4   ,this is ,friendship   
and ,brotherhood1 without it ,man ,is   
,not4    ,jesus said3 ,thus do ,men in  
,eternity1   ,one for another1 to put   
off by forgiveness every sin4    ,albion
 replied3 ,cannot ,man exist without    
mysterious   ,offering of ,self for     
,another8 is this ,friendship and       
,brotherhood8    ,jesus said3 ,wouldest 
thou love one who never died   ,for     
thee1 or ever die for one who had not   
died for thee8   ,and if ,god dieth not 
for ,man1 and giveth not ,himself       
,eternally for ,man1 ,man could not     
exist1 for ,man is ,love   ,as ,god is  
,love2 every kindness to another is a   
little ,death   ,in the ,divine ,image1 
nor can ,man exist but by ,brotherhood4 
,so saying1 the ,cloud overshadowing    
divided them asunder2   ,albion stood in
 terror1 not for himself but for his    
,friend   ,divine1 and ,self was lost in
 the contemplation of faith   ,and      

wonder at the ,divine ,mercy1 and at    
,los's sublime honour4  ,thus ,blake    
leads man back into his ancient         
simplicity and unity4 ,order is         
restored2 and the four mighty ones that 
warred within to man's distraction1 led 
captive by ,los1 are content each to    
perform his proper function1 and so to  
prevent any further disturbance of the  
peace4  ,that is a fine consummation1   
but it is not ,blake's last word4       
,perfect man must have a perfect ,city  
to dwell in4 ,albion redeemed must build
 ,jerusalem4 ,blake began ,milton with  
the fond contemplation of ,england's    
fields and meadows that he had loved in 
his youth4 ,calling for his weapons of  
war1 he sang3    ,i will not cease from 
,mental ,fight1   ,nor shall my ,sword  
sleep in my ,hand1   ,till we have built
 ,jerusalem   ,in ,england's green and  
pleasant ,land4  ,that vision may seem  
as far off as the vision of the prophet 
who declared1 ,the earth shall be filled
 with the knowledge of the ,lord as the 

waters cover the sea4 ,but the world's  
master-spirits have never been content  
that a man here and there should save   
his soul4  ,plato imagined his          
,republic1 ,christ ,his ,kingdom of ,god
 on earth1 ,st ,john his ,holy ,city1   
,st ,augustine his ,city of ,god4 ,and  
,blake1 whose first dreams had been in  
,london's great city1 still dreamed that
 man would return to his ancient        
simplicity1 and build ,jerusalem in     
,england's green and pleasant land4     
,,chapter ,x  ,,cromek1 ,,sir ,,joshua1 
,,stothard1 ,,and ,,chaucer   ,blake had
 left ,hayley to face poverty again in  
,september #ahjc4 ,he lodged at #ag     
,south ,molton ,street1 and from there  
he continued till ,december #aath1      
#ahje1 to write to the patron who had   
caused him so much inward disturbance4  
,as long as he had thought it was       
possible to be on terms of complete     
friendship with ,hayley he had          
quarrelled with him4 ,now he knew that  
such friendship was impossible4 ,he saw 

,hayley as he was1 and after years of   
self-conflict he saw himself as he was1 
and he recognized that there was no     
fundamental agreement to bridge over    
their differences4 ,the effect of this  
discovery was to put him at peace with  
,hayley1 and also to lower his sanguine 
expectations of a wide fellowship in    
this world4  ,the letters to ,hayley are
 courteous and almost affectionate in   
tone4 ,hayley was occupied with his     
,life of ,romney1 ,blake was hard at    
work on a ,head of ,romney and an       
engraving of the ,shipwreck1 after      
,romney4 ,hence there are many          
references to the artist from which we  
learn how genuine was ,blake's          
admiration for the classic simplicity   
and the skilful massing of the lights   
and shades of ,sir ,joshua's great      
rival4 ,mr and ,mrs ,blake regularly    
send their love to ,hayley and          
solicitations for his health till the   
correspondence gradually lessens1 and   
,hayley1 having no further use for      

,blake1 gently closes it1 and takes     
himself away out of his sight for ever4 
,the severance was inevitable1 and      
,blake could not be surprised4 ,he      
jotted in his note-book3    ,i write the
 rascal thanks till he and ,i   ,with   
thanks and compliments are both drawn   
dry4  ,and so the patron passes4 ,the   
artist who has faced poverty is tasting 
its bitterness1 stirred with the faint  
hope that he may find another patron who
 will be a corporeal friend and not a   
spiritual enemy4 ,the patron in due time
 appeared4 ,robert ,hartley ,cromek was 
his name1 print-jobber1 book-maker1     
publisher1 also an engraver who had     
studied under ,bartolozzi4  ,this last  
fact was not auspicious4 ,blake1 we     
know1 had no regard for ,bartolozzi's   
work1 and a pupil of his might prove as 
little understanding of ,blake's severe 
art as the ,bard of ,sussex4 ,still1    
there was hope4 ,cromek had an admirable
 business capacity4 ,he understood how  
to advertise1 to puff1 to work the      

artist1 and1 what is still more         
materially important1 to work the       
public4 ,he had1 in a word1 all the     
practical qualities that ,blake lacked4 
,blake with his love for uniting        
contraries believed that his art married
 to ,cromek's practice might produce    
fame and money1 and he was sorely in    
need of both4  ,at this time ,blake was 
making designs for ,blair's ,grave1     
which he intended himself to engrave and
 publish4 ,these were seen by ,cromek1  
who admired them1 and whose business    
instinct detected money in them4        
,immediately he proposed to publish a   
new edition of ,the ,grave1 and made a  
verbal agreement with ,blake that he    
should contribute twelve engravings from
 his own designs4 ,but1 inspired by the 
same business instinct1 it occurred to  
him that ,blake's designs would sell    
much better if they were engraved by one
 who was known to be able to meet the   
popular taste4 ,accordingly he went off 
to ,schiavonetti1 who had been a        

fellow-pupil of ,bartolozzi1 and        
proposed to him to do the engravings4   
,the result was satisfactory to everyone
 except ,blake4 ,his illustrations      
appeared in the summer of #ahjh1 and he 
received twenty guineas for his designs1
 but he was naturally furious and       
resentful against ,cromek for playing   
him such a trick4  ,cromek was quite    
right in his judgment that the ,blake   
designs for ,the ,grave would be        
popular4 ,yet this did not arise from   
any affinity between ,blake and the then
 famous author of ,the ,grave4 ,blair   
had been dead for fifty years4 ,his poem
 expressed the strict orthodoxy of his  
day4 ,its fine passages are scarcely    
able to give vitality to the whole4     
,blake can have had no sympathy with the
 long-drawn-out description of the      
damask-cheeked maiden lying in her      
grave1 the food of worms4 ,the real     
genius of ,christianity does not permit 
of such nauseous details of the         
charnel-house4 ,we know how sensitive   

,blake was to the damask cheek of a     
maiden2 but we also know that he had    
come to regard it as the very transitory
 manifestation of the eternal beauty1   
and with his spiritual eye continually  
on the ,inviolable ,rose he did not need
 to remind himself of the mouldering    
relics in the grave4  ,he selected for  
what proved to be one of his finest     
designs ,blair's description of the     
reunion of soul and body on the ,day of 
,judgment4 ,the poem repeats the        
doctrine of the resuscitation of the    
body that has long since returned to    
dust4 ,blake1 of course1 repudiated this
 dogma4 ,he believed that the spiritual 
body is already present in one who has  
been born again of the spirit2 and1     
therefore1 death is the bursting of the 
mortal shell that the spiritual body may
 pass on into its spiritual environment4
 ,yet with his love of marriages he     
depicted the rending of the tomb and the
 passionate reunion of soul and body1   
not because he believed in such a future

 event1 but because that reunion taken  
symbolically was marvellously expressive
 of the rapturous marriage of many pairs
 of contraries that man in his day      
persisted in keeping apart4  ,for the   
rest1 ,blair's poem was sufficiently    
universal in its treatment of death to  
enable ,blake to illustrate him1 and yet
 read his own opinions into the words he
 selected4  ,blake's indignation was hot
 against ,cromek1 as we can all         
understand4 ,but unfortunately his soul 
was torn with the kindred passion of    
resentment1 which he was inclined to    
nurse rather than exterminate4 ,here a  
little reason might have helped him2 but
 his distrust of reason1 and his own    
passivity1 led him to give vent to his  
resentments against successful men that 
strike us as captious and rude4 ,he     
might plead the example of ,christ in   
,his treatment of the ,pharisees1 and he
 did jot down in his note-book words    
that ,i cannot help thinking he applied 
to himself3    ,sir ,joshua praises     

,michael ,angelo4   ',tis ,christian    
mildness when knaves praise a foe2      
,but 'twould be madness1 all the world  
would say1   ,should ,michael ,angelo   
praise ,sir ,joshua--   ,christ used the
 ,pharisees in a rougher way4  ,in      
answer to this we can but say that ,sir 
,joshua was not a ,pharisee1 and that   
,blake was not ,christ4  ,blake's       
resentment against ,sir ,joshua seems to
 have begun at an interview when1 a very
 young man1 he had shown him some       
designs1 and had been recommended to    
work with less extravagance and more    
simplicity1 and to correct his drawings4
 ,that was the sort of advice that he   
never would take at any time4 ,one would
 have thought that if ,sir ,joshua was  
so palpably a ,pharisee1 ,blake would   
not have troubled to ask his advice4    
,as the years passed1 the significant   
facts about ,sir ,joshua and ,blake were
 that the one was famous and rich1 the  
other was unrecognized and poor4        
,blake's vision1 sharpened just here by 

the injustice of fame1 was              
preternaturally quick to discover that  
,sir ,joshua was earthy and of the      
earth1 while his own aim was the so much
 loftier one of piercing to the heavenly
 reality1 and then expressing it by     
clear1 definite1 and sweet outlines1 and
 making the colours1 lights1 and shades 
serve to emphasize the heaven-revealing 
lines4  ,sir ,joshua died ,february     
#bcrd1 #agib4 ,his coffin was carried to
 ,st ,paul's followed by ninety coaches1
 and the most eloquent man of the day1  
,burke1 was bidden to sing his praises4 
,in #ahjh1 when everyone was reading the
 collected ,discourses of ,reynolds1    
,blake too read1 and as his custom was1 
made copious marginal notes4 ,with the  
help of these we are able to relate     
,blake to ,reynolds with a              
dispassionateness to which ,blake could 
never attain4  ,what must strike any    
impartial reader of the ,discourses is  
the extraordinary similarity of the aims
 of art there set forth with ,blake's   

own cherished views4 ,both give the     
supreme place to ,michael ,angelo and   
extol ,raphael4 ,both depreciate the    
,venetian and ,flemish ,schools4 ,both  
reckon good drawing the foundation of   
great art4 ,the difference between them 
is mainly one of emphasis4 ,blake       
believed in impulse and instinct1 and   
,sir ,joshua in theoretical and reasoned
 deliberation4 ,yet the reasonable man  
writes3 ,if we were obliged to enter    
into a theoretical deliberation on every
 occasion1 before we act1 life would be 
at a stand1 and art would be            
impracticable4 ,and again3 ,i mean to   
caution you against 444 an unfounded    
distrust of the imagination and feeling 
in favour of narrow1 partial1 confined1 
argumentative theories4 ,both extol the 
grand style--with a difference4         
,reynolds's conception of the grand     
style is derived from the laborious     
study of the excellencies of many       
masters4 ,when he attains to it1 he is  
an epitome of those excellencies4  ,he  

reaches by this means his ideal1 his    
heaven1 and its contrary immediately    
bounds into view1 which he is too urbane
 to call hell1 and contents himself to  
designate as the real4 ,blake's ideal   
came to him with overmastering force    
from his direct vision of the inward    
reality4 ,hence he had no need of the   
false antithesis of the ideal and the   
real4 ,reynolds extols ,michael ,angelo 
and degrades ,hogarth4 ,blake loves     
both4 ,in conclusion we say1 with only  
the ,discourses#e before us1 the        
differences between the two men are     
negligible in a world where two men can 
never quite see eye to eye4 ,it is when 
we turn from the ,discourses to ,sir    
,joshua's accomplished works that we    
begin to understand what was reasonable 
in ,blake's furious resentment and      
attack4  ,sir ,joshua preached one thing
 and practised another4 ,he sang the    
praises of the ,florentine1 ,roman1 and 
,bolognese ,schools1 and painted for all
 the world as if ,rembrandt were his    

chief master4    ,instead of ',michael  
,angelo'   ,read ',rembrandt1' for it is
 fit   ,to make mere common honesty     
,in all that he has writ4  ,sir ,joshua1
 after years of toil1 painted ,nelly    
,o',brien's petticoat1 and we marvel at 
the consummate workmanship4 ,blake1 in  
spite of his faulty technique and       
impatience of criticism1 lifted the veil
 that hides the heavens1 and inspires   
us4 ,we thank those who make us wonder3 
we owe something deeper than thanks to  
those who inspire us4 ,blake was well   
aware that his art was of a loftier kind
 than that of the ,president of the     
,royal ,academy4 ,the one was reckoned  
the foremost painter of his age1 the    
other was pitied as a madman4 ,and      
,blake felt he did right to be angry4   
,let us return to ,cromek4  ,while      
,blake was at work on his designs for   
,blair's ,grave1 he drew a pencil sketch
 of ,chaucer's ,canterbury ,pilgrims1   
which had always attracted him4 ,cromek1
 hopping in and out to see how the      

,blair designs were progressing1 saw the
 sketch1 and his brain immediately      
swarmed with fertile ideas4 ,he proposed
 that ,blake should engrave his design1 
and he would push it4 ,but on second    
thoughts it occurred to him that the    
subject was admirably suited to         
,stothard's genius4 ,leaving ,blake with
 nothing but a verbal agreement1 he went
 straight off to ,stothard1 and proposed
 that he should make a design on the    
subject1 for which he would pay him     
sixty guineas4 ,cromek undertook to find
 an engraver4 ,blake1 who had been a    
friend of ,stothard for many years1 went
 to visit him1 and found him at work on 
the ,canterbury ,pilgrims4              
,unsuspecting1 he praised the work4     
,afterwards he discovered the part that 
,cromek had played in the seeming       
coincidence4 ,at once he concluded that 
,stothard was privy to the deceit1 and  
he included him in his vehement         
indignation against ,cromek1 and the    
lamb roared4 ,with note-book at hand he 

jotted3    ,a petty sneaking knave ,i   
knew--   ,o6 ,mr4 ,cromek1 how do ye do8
  ,stothard and ,blake had been young   
together4 ,it was he who had introduced 
him to ,flaxman4 ,the friendship1 of    
course1 was not of the closest1 for they
 followed a very different track in art4
  ,flaxman and ,blake had a common      
interest in ,swedenborg as well as a    
supreme regard for outline1 but         
,stothard's was always an outward eye1  
never inward4 ,with a wife and many     
children1 and everlastingly busy        
producing his thousands of designs1 it  
was not to be expected that he should   
dive into inner causes4 ,his            
contemporaries were content1 and we too1
 that he should see the effects in a    
graceful and poetic glow1 and reproduce 
them in soothing and graceful           
compositions4 ,he peered into many times
 and many countries1 but he was happier 
when illustrating his contemporaries1   
happiest when depicting the chequered   
career of ,clarissa ,harlowe4  ,cromek  

was not wrong in thinking that ,stothard
 would make a successful picture of the 
,canterbury ,pilgrims4 ,he was famous at
 grouping1 had an eye for horses1 and   
was willing to drudge at the ,british   
,museum to clothe his figures correctly4
 ,there was some difficulty about the   
engraving1 which ,cromek had first      
intended to entrust to ,bromley4 ,it    
passed successively through the hands of
 ,lewis ,schiavonetti1 ,engleheart1     
,niccolo ,schiavonetti1 and was finally 
done by ,james ,heath4 ,the result      
justified ,cromek's calculations4 ,the  
,pilgrimage to ,canterbury was exhibited
 in all the great towns of ,england1 and
 also in ,edinburgh and ,dublin4 ,it had
 the most extensive sale of anything of 
the kind published within a hundred     
years4 ,everyone bought it and exhibited
 it1 according to ,mrs ,bray1 in their  
front parlour4 ,it was reckoned         
,stothard's masterpiece4 ,and when      
,harlow painted ,stothard's portrait1 he
 placed in the background a curtain just

 sufficiently drawn back to show the    
finest group of a picture in which the  
whole grouping was excellent4           
,meanwhile ,blake1 determined to        
dispense with a professional advertiser1
 engraved his own design1 and put it up 
for sale at #bh ,broad ,street1 the     
house of his birth where his brother    
,james carried on the business4 ,but it 
was not to stand alone4 ,it was         
exhibited together with sixteen         
historical inventions1 eleven frescoes1 
seven drawings4 ,blake wrote a          
prospectus to the ,canterbury ,pilgrims 
and a ,descriptive ,catalogue to the    
whole collection4 ,one or two people1   
notably ,crabb ,robinson1 found their   
way to the room2 and while the praises  
of ,stothard were being sung throughout 
the land for a design that had          
originated from ,blake1 ,blake was      
tasting the bitter mortification of     
knowing that his attempt at             
self-advertisement and appeal to the    
public had failed4  ,although           

comparisons are odious1 we may give     
ourselves the luxury of comparing these 
two rival treatments of a fine subject4 
,stothard's task was the easier of the  
two4 ,his respect for and knowledge of  
,chaucer were much less than ,blake's1  
and from the outset he had no mind to   
burden himself by attempting a servile  
copy of the poet4 ,if the wife of ,bath 
was just enjoying her fifth husband1    
then obviously she was no longer a      
pictorial subject1 and ,stothard took   
off as many years as the lady herself   
could have wished4  ,his treatment of   
the religious types was even less       
faithful4 ,the protestantism of the     
eighteenth century regarded monks1      
friars1 abbesses1 and nuns merely as odd
 curiosities of an odd past4 ,stothard  
had religious feeling1 as is evident in 
his picture ,confirmation1 which        
,landseer admired so much1 but for him a
 friar was the type of laziness1 and the
 monk of gluttony1 and his only idea in 
portraying them was to make the lines of

 their chins and stomachs as rotund as  
possible4  ,the idea of a pilgrimage was
 equally as remote from his mind4 ,it   
was a foolishness to be pardoned only   
because it afforded the artist such     
excellent material for form and colour4 
,but if ,stothard had no wish to        
understand ,chaucer's types and point of
 view1 he was overjoyed at the chance of
 introducing so many horses1 whose      
evolution from the ,middle ,ages was    
negligible4 ,he had an eye for a horse1 
and could not resist the temptation of  
mounting his pilgrims on much finer     
horses than ,chaucer provided1 or they1 
for the most part1 could afford4        
,finally he painted a pleasing          
background which ,mrs ,bray says was the
 ,surrey ,hills1 and ,blake the ,dulwich
 ,hills1 but in either case were not    
passed by the ,pilgrims in their journey
 from the ,tabard ,inn to ,canterbury4  
,the picture1 as ,hoppner said1 is a    
modern one--charming1 even captivating1 
and if it is not ,chaucer1 yet ,stothard

 only took the liberty which ,blake was 
ready to take himself when it suited his
 purpose4  ,blake1 for his part1 was    
enormously attracted by ,chaucer4 ,he   
saw in him a first-rate example of the  
poetic genius that can pierce through to
 the underlying reality of every kind of
 man1 and embrace him with genial       
warmth4 ,he was observer and            
contemplator1 and there was present just
 that element of imagination which      
always produces something original and  
creative4  ,the first happy result of   
,blake's capture by ,chaucer was that he
 forgot for a time his horrid symbolism4
 ,when he illustrated his own poems1 he 
drew his monstrous beasts without check1
 but now that there was no possibility  
of mounting ,urizen and ,los with the   
rest of the ,pilgrims1 he was driven to 
use ,chaucer's symbolism1 which time has
 proved to be universal4  ,blake's      
sympathy here equals that of the elder  
poet4 ,like him he sees the fleshly     
weakness of the monks and friars1 but he

 sees also1 as ,stothard could not1     
their strength and significance4 ,the   
cook1 the manciple1 and the pardoner are
 low and coarse types affording the     
shade1 but the parson1 the knight1 the  
squire1 the abbess1 the ,oxford student1
 and the yeoman are bright types of     
human excellence that appear at all     
times1 even in the eighteenth century1  
as ,blake knew1 though in a different   
dress4  ,the host on his good stout     
horse rightly holds the central place4  
,the knight and squire lead the party as
 they ought4 ,the religious types--monk1
 friar1 abbess1 nun1 three priests--are 
grouped together4 ,the most dignified   
figure is the parson--the person--seated
 on a wretched cob1 for he cannot afford
 a better2 and near him1 happy in his   
company1 are the man of law and the     
yeoman4 ,the wife of ,bath1 the miller1 
and the cook are different studies in   
sensuality4 ,in the rear are the clerk  
of ,oxenford and ,chaucer himself1 the  
philosopher and the poet1 the poet being

 more prominent1 since he with his      
poetic genius means more to us finally  
than the philosopher4 ,last of all comes
 the reeve1 whose position accords with 
his office as steward4  ,hence there is 
a spiritual significance in the picture4
 ,the pilgrims are real ,chaucerian     
people on a real pilgrimage1 grouped by 
a compelling spiritual kinship4 ,the    
artist and poet are wedded4 ,yet the    
artist never loses his individuality1   
because the poet is so universal that he
 allows the artist to read his private  
experience into his own4 ,the picture   
may not at first be so attractive as    
that of ,stothard1 but when one has     
grown accustomed to the exterior charms 
of the two pictures1 there still remains
 in ,blake's a rich field for fertile   
gleaning1 while when the eye has become 
satiated with ,stothard's sweetness     
there remains nothing else as food for  
the spirit4     ,,chapter ,,xi  ,,the   
,,supreme ,,vision   ,blake did well to 
be angry--so he believed4 ,the years    

were slipping by1 and the gleams of     
light that had promised a glad day now  
seldom came4 ,hayley had passed out of  
his life4 ,cromek could make the money  
out of him that he could not make for   
himself4 ,stothard1 he believed1 had    
acted with his eyes open4 ,as he brooded
 on these things1 anger and resentment  
took possession of him4 ,his courage was
 failing4 ,his resentments secreted     
poison that was surely spreading through
 his entire being and threatening to    
turn the once overtrustful ,blake into a
 disillusioned and bitter old man4      
,then he turned to the gospel1 not like 
tens of thousands to find comfort1 but  
to justify himself in his attitude of   
defiance1 and to assure himself that his
 anger was godlike4 ,he fixed his eyes  
on to the figure of ,jesus1 and essayed 
the difficult task of seeing ,him as ,he
 was4  ,there was not much help coming  
even from those contemporaries whom he  
admired4  ,wesley and ,whitefield       
proclaimed incessantly the death of     

,jesus as the one availing sacrifice for
 sin1 but they appeared to contemplate  
the life of ,jesus as little as the     
great ,apostle of the ,gentiles4        
,william ,law1 in a sweat of excitement 
at his finding of ,boehme1 devoted all  
his powers to discovering the riches of 
the mystical indwelling ,christ4  ,since
 ,blake's day the higher critics have   
given their whole lives to carving out a
 human ,jesus from the mass of myth1    
legend1 and tradition4 ,after this      
wholesale rejection of the supernatural1
 it strikes one as comic to hear ,samuel
 ,butler solemnly assuring us that there
 are many gaps in the character of      
,jesus that we may fill up1 as we like1 
from our own ideals4 ,the old dilemma   
was1 ,either ,jesus was divine or ,he   
was not good3 to-day it is1 ,either     
,jesus was falsely reported or ,he was  
mad4  ,to the old orthodoxy ,jesus was  
all gentleness1 meekness1 and mildness4 
,to the new heterodoxy ,he was afraid of
 reality and life1 and in ,his manners  

vehement1 impatient1 and rude4 ,some see
 in ,him the pattern of obedience3      
others the flaunter of all authority4   
,blake1 as we saw1 had reckoned himself 
among the rebels4 ,he pitted the future 
against the past4 ,this was in his      
youth4 ,since then he had been learning 
that the past held endless treasures1   
and now he was forced to consider that  
it held ,jesus4 ,rebellion must go      
beyond ,jesus4 ,blake tried1 but he     
could not pass ,him4 ,he gazed at ,him  
until he was seized by ,him4            
,passionately he contemplated ,him4 ,he 
perceived the energy and force of ,his  
anger and wrath1 which like lightning   
struck the strongholds of evil and      
levelled them4 ,he saw ,him1 ,his       
furious ire bursting forth until it     
became a chariot of fire4 ,then driving 
,his course throughout the land1 cursing
 the scribe and ,pharisee1 trampling    
down hypocrisy1 breaking the ,gates of  
,death till they let in day1 with bright
 scourge in hand scourging the merchant 

,canaanite until3    ,with wrath ,he did
 subdue   ,the serpent bulk of ,nature's
 dross   ,till ,he had nailed it to the 
,cross4   ,illustration3 ,,the ,,prayer 
,,of ,,the ,,infant ,,jesus4            
,reproduced by kind permission of ,mr   
,sydney ,morse4   ,here was what ,blake 
wanted--an anger and fury only greater  
than his own4 ,he proceeded impatiently 
to tear to pieces the conventional      
,jesus4  ,was ,jesus obedient1 or       
gentle1 or humble8 ,there is no simple  
answer4 ,his life was dual--,godward and
 manward4 ,to ,god ,he was obedient and 
humble3 to man disobedient and proud4   
,his life cannot be explained in terms  
of law1 just because it was a life1 and 
life is greater than law or logic4 ,it  
was no more possible for ,him to keep   
the letter of the ten commandments than 
for us4 ,he set aside the ,sabbath1 ,he 
exposed ,his disciples to murder1 ,he   
turned the law from harlots1 ,he lived a
 vagrant life on other people's hard-won
 gains2 ,he coveted the best gifts for  

,his friends2 ,he lived1 not by laws and
 rules1 but by an all-compelling        
instinct and impulse4 ,he became in the 
eyes of ,his contemporaries a criminal  
only deserving of capital punishment4   
,blake read on breathlessly4  ,a woman1 
a sinner taken in the act1 was brought  
to this terrible ,jesus4 ,instantly ,he 
became a lamb4 ,with exquisite          
gentleness1 sweetness1 and tact1 ,he    
spoke words chosen not to wound or shame
 her1 and then sent her away forgiven   
and blest4 ,this was no isolated event4 
,his kindness to outcasts never failed4 
,he was angry with ,pharisees1 yet even 
to them strangely without resentment4   
,there was in ,him a marvellously tender
 compassion1 united with a hot hatred of
 meanness and hypocrisy4 ,all fierce    
extremes met in ,him4 ,here was what    
,blake had been seeking all his         
life--that for which he had been a      
rebel4 ,just here1 in the old gospel1   
looming out of the past1 he gained his  
supreme vision of ,one who satisfied his

 utmost need4 ,he gazed1 and worshipped 
,him in ,his immense energy and         
strength1 ,his lowliness and meekness1  
,who had deserved all that ,his chosen  
people could give ,him1 yet had borne no
 resentment when they despised and      
rejected ,him4 ,slowly ,blake saw his   
life as a mere blot by the side of that 
resplendent life4 ,then all resentment  
died in him4 ,the child spirit returned4
 ,he accepted his earthly lot1          
henceforth content to do his work with  
all his might1 careless whether his     
generation paid the wages due to him or 
not4     ,,chapter ,,xii  ,,declining   
,,years ,,and ,,death   ,blake1 like the
 ,patriarch1 wrestled through his dark  
night till the day dawned4 ,he had      
wrenched the secret out of the angel    
messenger4 ,henceforth he was an        
,israelite indeed--a guileless ,prince  
with ,god1 with a word of ,god on his   
lips for such as had ears to hear4      
,doubtless if we could arrange the      
details of human experience we would    

decree that after such a contact with   
the ,divine a man should for the rest of
 his days sail on a halcyon sea into a  
haven of rest4 ,but though the giants   
are slain1 their ghosts return2 and     
,blake1 like ,jacob1 was still haunted  
by spectres which only did not deter him
 because he had painfully learnt to     
discern between the shadow and the      
substance4  ,the day dawned1 but not in 
the way that most would choose4 ,worldly
 success was farther from him than ever4
 ,instead of himself arising like a     
blaze of light on the ,england that he  
loved1 it was his spirit that was       
secretly illumined by the spiritual sun2
 and while he could live by the memory  
of his resplendent vision of ,christ1   
yet as he moved among men he was merely 
observed to halt on his thigh1 or in    
other words to be touched with that     
frenzy or madness which marks those who 
have rashly gazed on the sun4  ,for the 
next ten years--years of rich spiritual 
maturity--,blake worked incessantly2 but

 his life was so obscure that his       
biographers have been able to glean but 
a handful of facts4  ,immense changes   
were taking place in ,european          
literature and art4 ,the new spirit and 
the old spirit were energetically at    
work side by side4 ,at home1 ,jane      
,austen brought the novel as understood 
and treated by ,fanny ,burney to        
consummate perfection4 ,sir ,walter     
,scott cast a magic glow of romance over
 the past4 ,wordsworth was piercing     
through the sacramental significance of 
nature4 ,coleridge was dreaming weird   
mystical dreams in the open daylight4   
,abroad1 ,goethe was exploring the      
riches of man's fallen nature4          
,beethoven1 bursting away from ,haydn1  
was introducing a world of passion into 
his music4 ,napoleon was a new kind of  
man4  ,did ,blake read the signs of the 
times8 ,and what did he think of them8  
,we know that he admired ,wordsworth1   
but feared lest nature should ensnare   
him4 ,the rest is guess-work4 ,blake    

could hardly have known how to place    
himself among the great moderns4 ,it is 
we1 looking back over the lapse of a    
century1 who can see his deep affinity  
with many that came after him4 ,i would 
say more4 ,he had anticipated much of   
the better side of ,nietzsche's         
teaching1 but had seen it still more    
clearly in the character and teaching of
 ,christ4 ,he is strictly the           
,evangelist to the modern world         
enamoured of art1 strength1 and         
spontaneity1 to bring it back to        
,christ4  ,amidst these changes we can  
just discern a change in ,blake's       
spiritual life which is common to all   
original geniuses4 ,the ,psalmist sang3 
,instead of thy fathers thou shalt have 
children whom thou mayst make princes4  
,blake had hardly had a father1 but he  
had had friends or brothers that were   
too apt to play the part of the heavy   
father4 ,these were passing one by one1 
and their places were being taken by    
young men1 sons who sat at the feet of  

the wise man and gave him the reverence 
that was his due4  ,we cannot say that  
,blake had a genius for friendship4     
,with none of his old friends had he    
been really intimate4 ,he was always    
uncompromising on his convictions1 and  
these were so peculiar that not even    
,swedenborgian ,flaxman could always    
understand him4 ,his feeling for        
,flaxman survived with difficulty4 ,what
 might have grown to a close friendship 
for ,hayley died the moment he saw him  
as he was4 ,stothard had refused his    
offered hand after their quarrel4 ,there
 remained ,fuseli1 of whom he wrote3    
,the only man that e'er ,i knew   ,who  
did not make me almost spew   ,was      
,fuseli4  ,fuseli was a learned man who 
could scamper about the world's history 
with breathless speed4 ,he lectured on  
the different ages of art with all the  
fluency of a ,swiss polyglot waiter4    
,out of the copious flow of his         
eloquence one can1 with long patience1  
fish up such fine things as this on     

,michael ,angelo3 ,a beggar rose from   
his hand the patriarch of poverty1 or   
this on ,rembrandt's ,crucifixion3      
,rembrandt concentrated the tremendous  
moment in one flash of pallid light4 ,it
 breaks on the body of ,christ1 shivers 
down ,his limbs1 and vanishes on the    
armour of a crucifix2 the rest is gloom4
  ,fuseli had shared with ,blake an     
admiration for ,lavater4 ,in an age of  
crude scepticism he openly confessed his
 faith in ,christ4 ,with ,blake he      
reckoned outline the foundation of great
 art4 ,here was much on which the two   
men could meet4 ,but ,fuseli never quite
 dug down to fundamental principles4    
,he declared again and again that our   
ideas are the offspring of our senses1  
and ,blake regarded such damnable       
,lockian heresy as rank atheism2 and    
among his other heresies1 also damnable 
in ,blake's eyes1 was an enthusiasm for 
,titian and ,correggio1 and a summary   
denial that ,albert ,duerer was a man of
 genius4 ,hence1 ,fuseli and ,blake1    

with regard for one another1 were never 
intimate friends4 ,it was about the year
 #ahah that ,blake found himself in the 
midst of a new and younger circle4      
,george ,cumberland1 himself young and  
orthodox on outline1 introduced him to  
,john ,linnell and ,john ,varley4  ,john
 ,varley moved from #b ,harris ,place to
 #e ,broad ,street1 ,golden ,square1    
about #ahjf4 ,his house was shared with 
,william ,mulready1 who married his     
sister4 ,his wife1 ,esther1 was sister  
of ,john ,gisborne1 who moved in the    
,shelley and ,godwin set4 ,another      
sister married ,copley ,fielding4 ,here 
was a group of artists connected by     
marriage4  ,varley helped to found the  
,water ,colour ,society in #ahjd1 and   
drew to himself many young men who were 
more or less his pupils4 ,among these1  
besides ,mulready1 were ,w4 ,h4 ,hunt1  
,john ,linnell1 ,samuel ,palmer1 ,james 
,holmes4  ,with the big1 fat1 genial    
,varley ,blake soon became friends4     
,varley was a typical once-born man1 and

 his clean earthiness made its          
irresistible appeal to the twice-born   
,blake with his head in the skies4      
,besides his water-colours he pursued   
with equal ardour and success the study 
of astrology4  ,minds of ,blake's order 
have been apt to believe in astrology1  
like ,jacob ,boehme and ,paracelsus2 but
 ,varley failed to convert ,blake       
because1 no doubt1 of the extremely     
materialistic explanation that he could 
only give of his science4 ,the stars1   
according to the astrology that the     
,western mind scoffs at1 are supposed to
 exert a direct influence on the        
destinies and characters of men4 ,but   
there is an ,oriental doctrine that     
dispenses with such a crude theory1     
considering that the stars have no more 
direct influence on character than the  
hands of a clock on time4 ,like all     
mysticism1 ,east and ,west1 it regards  
the universe as the macrocosm and man   
the microcosm4 ,between the two there is
 a correspondence1 and therefore the    

state of the microcosm can be read by   
the starry indications of the macrocosm 
as the time can be known by the hands of
 an exact clock or sundial4  ,varley    
understood nothing of all this1 and so  
failed to convince ,blake4 ,but he gave 
him what he needed far more1 hearty good
 will and unpatronizing faith and       
reverence4 ,blake could pursue his      
visions and report on them1 certain that
 his companion would believe in his     
marvels with that perfect credulity     
which so many are ready to give who have
 rejected the marvels of ,christianity4 
,at his bidding he evoked visions of    
past worthies1 and sketched them while  
they waited4 ,from #ahai to1 #ahbj      
,blake executed no less than fifty      
heads1 including his famous ,ghost of a 
,flea4  ,those of us who were thrilled  
in our boyhood by the tales of ,lord    
,lytton like to know that ,varley was   
consulted by him before writing his     
fascinating ,zanoni and ,strange ,story4
  ,a still greater comfort and help to  

,blake was ,john ,linnell4  ,john       
,linnell began by copying ,george       
,morland1 passed under the influence of 
,sir ,benjamin ,west1 and then became a 
pupil of ,varley1 who sent him straight 
to nature4 ,varley's brother ,cornelius 
attended a baptist chapel1 and he       
induced ,linnell to go with him and     
listen to the sermons of its pastor1 the
 ,reverend ,john ,martin4 ,he was       
convicted of sin1 converted1 duly       
immersed1 and regularly enrolled4       
,henceforth religion of a puritanic kind
 ruled his life1 and made him easy to   
dissenters of the different sects1 but  
stiff and uncompromising towards the    
,church of ,england and the clergy4 ,at 
one time he had thoughts of joining the 
quakers1 whose position is far different
 from that of the baptists2 but he was  
deterred by ,bernard ,barton1 who1      
though fond of art himself1 warned him  
that the ,friends as a whole looked with
 extreme suspicion on anyone addicted to
 such a questionable pursuit as that of 

making pictures4  ,blake was introduced 
to ,linnell by ,george ,cumberland in   
#ahah at ,linnell's house in ,rathbone  
,place4 ,they soon became intimate4     
,their religious conception of art      
united them1 and ,linnell much relished 
,blake's tirades against kings and      
priests4 ,it was only when ,blake spoke 
with equal licence of the sex passion   
that ,linnell felt an adverse tug at    
their friendship4  ,linnell took over   
for his country house ,collins' ,farm1  
,north ,end1 ,hampstead1 and there      
,blake became a regular visitor on      
,sunday afternoons until sickness and   
death put an end to his visits4  ,north 
,end1 now in the ,county of ,london1 is 
still a village on the ,heath4 ,on      
,saturdays1 ,sundays1 and ,bank         
,holidays it is overlaid with trippers1 
orange-peel1 and paper bags4 ,but no    
sooner do the holiday-makers return to  
work than ,north ,end and its marvellous
 portion of heath resumes its mystery1  
and the dreamer can dream undisturbed   

till the next people's holiday4  ,it is 
pleasant to think of ,blake arriving at 
,collins' ,farm1 then after the friendly
 greetings emerging by the ,bull and    
,bush1 sacred meeting-house of many     
artists1 crossing the road to ,rotten   
,row1 mounting the hillock and viewing  
the fir-trees which still stand in all  
their mysterious beauty4 ,if only ,north
 ,end had been south instead of north6  
,blake declared with seeming            
perverseness that the ,north upset his  
stomach4 ,varley would have explained to
 him that his ruling sign being ,leo1 he
 required like all lions the warm sunny 
south4  ,linnell introduced him to many 
of his young friends1 who1 catching the 
infection1 hailed ,blake as a master and
 sat at his feet to learn4 ,we note this
 deference because it is what ,blake so 
richly deserved2 but even among his new 
young friends there was nothing like    
complete discipleship4 ,blake's art was 
an inseparable part of his whole        
passionate1 chequered spiritual life4   

,no one whose inner life does not repeat
 the same broad outlines can really     
approach near to him as an artist4      
,james ,holmes1 with his easy1          
superficial1 courtly life1 might teach  
,blake to brighten his water-colours1   
but he was completely outside of his    
spiritual travail1 and could only wonder
 mildly why young idealists like        
,calvert1 ,palmer1 and ,richmond could  
be so preoccupied with ,blake's         
half-crazed thoughts4  ,even among those
 chosen three1 there were no sons of    
thunder4  ,edward ,calvert caught       
,blake's spirit in his lovely and simple
 woodcuts1 but quite rightly followed   
his own bent1 which led him ultimately  
along a different path from ,blake's    
zigzag lightning tract4 ,the master     
always transpierced ,nature1 and lived  
in a transcendental region3 ,calvert1   
serene and calm1 detected the heart of  
the ,divine beating equally in ,nature1 
and reproduced what he heard and saw in 
musical and sweet landscapes1 where     

storms never come1 and which modern     
artists would probably prefer to see    
disturbed by an earthquake4  ,samuel    
,palmer1 with youthful impulse and      
generosity1 gave himself to ,blake1 and1
 rendered receptive by his love and     
enthusiasm1 soon assimilated all the    
master's principles4 ,palmer's rich     
nature allowed of much reverence for    
,linnell too1 and in his early work it  
is easy to find examples first of       
,blake's influence and then of          
,linnell's4 ,like ,calvert1 he was      
deeply and equably devout4 ,he did not  
demand that austerity which drew        
,linnell to the baptist1 ,john ,martin2 
nor that passion for which ,blake went  
to hell4 ,the gentler elements of his   
soul led him away from harsh sects to   
the more temperate ,church of ,england1 
which can1 among other things1 still    
nourish those souls that require the    
kind of diet that ,george ,herbert could
 provide so bountifully4  ,we look with 
extreme interest to see how ,blake's    

professed disciples set about to unite  
their religion and art4 ,they did it as 
many other ,christian artists have done 
it1 as ,fra ,angelico did supremely     
well2 yet they missed ,blake's daemonic 
energy1 and so have failed to meet that 
demand of our own age which will at all 
cost have passion for the driving force 
of religion if it is to have religion at
 all4 ,samuel ,palmer painted and etched
 some exquisite pictures2 but he was in 
after years gently apologetic for       
,blake's ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1
 and he left the problem of the         
synthesis of religion and art in the    
light of ,christianity precisely where  
it was left by the best ,italian        
,christian artists4  ,george ,richmond  
completed the little inner circle of    
three disciples4 ,he was only sixteen   
when he met ,blake at ,john ,linnell's1 
,north ,end1 and then walked with him   
back to ,fountain ,court1 ,strand1      
thrilling with a unique impression as if
 he were verily walking with the prophet

 ,isaiah4 ,for a while he was plastic   
clay in the hands of ,blake1 revealing  
the master's influence in ,abel the     
,shepherd and ,christ and the ,woman of 
,samaria1 but like his friends1 ,calvert
 and ,palmer1 he had sufficient native  
energy to follow his own instinct1 and  
when he found himself in portrait       
painting there is nothing to remind us  
even remotely of ,blake4 ,his sitters   
appear a noble family4 ,cardinal        
,newman1 ,bishop ,wilberforce1          
,charlotte ,bronte1 ,mrs ,gaskell1 and  
many others are extraordinarily         
beautiful1 and might all be taken for   
brothers and sisters4 ,richmond's       
religious feelings brought him into     
fellowship with the tractarian movement1
 which of all recent religious movements
 in ,england allows most standing-ground
 for one devoted to religion and art4   
,he did not paint ,titans1 but he puts  
us in love with his beautiful family1   
and that surely is no mean achievement4 
,among ,blake's friends must be         

mentioned ,crabb ,robinson and          
,frederick ,tatham1 not because of their
 intrinsic importance to ,blake1 but    
their use to us4 ,robinson was often    
sorely perplexed by the vehement        
paradoxes that ,blake wilfully poured   
into his ears2 but at the same time1 he 
thought it worth while to jot them down 
in his diary4  ,tatham came near enough 
to ,blake to enable him to fulfil       
several of the indispensable            
qualifications of the biographer4       
,afterwards he became an ,irvingite1    
and1 conscience-ridden1 destroyed many  
of ,blake's works that had come into his
 hands because he reckoned them unsound4
  ,one other very curious friendship    
stands out1 that with ,thomas ,griffiths
 ,wainewright4  ,wainewright was born   
out of due season4 ,he might have       
avoided the unpleasant and ugly things  
that befell him if he had been a        
contemporary of the ,borgias4 ,he was an
 artist1 and art is no respecter of     
persons4 ,we are tempted to say that art

 is fallen man's supreme consolation4   
,it is assuredly the meeting-place      
between a certain kind of saint and a   
certain kind of sinner4 ,the highest    
artist-saint1 like ,jesus ,christ1      
appears to create himself rather than   
works of art1 and such always makes an  
irresistible appeal to the              
artist-sinner1 as we see that ,christ   
did to ,oscar ,wilde in his ,de         
,profundis and to ,george ,moore in his 
,brook ,kerith4 ,the latter seems to be 
as far as the artist can reach without  
religion1 and it could teach most       
,christians something about their       
,master4 ,when ,blake discovered that   
the ,real ,man in each one of us has    
imagination for his chief and working   
faculty1 he overcame once for all the   
provoking dualism of art and religion1  
and at the same time he became an       
attraction to those who live an         
imaginative life1 especially among      
sinners4 ,wainewright was drawn to      
,blake for precisely the same reason    

that many modern enthusiasts are who    
could hardly be reckoned religious4 ,he 
is permanently interesting to the       
psychologist as to the artist1 and hence
 he could not escape the notice of ,lord
 ,lytton1 who introduced him into his   
,lucretia1 and above all of ,oscar      
,wilde1 who darted upon him1 and who1   
with such a subject1 was loosened to    
write in his most witty1 brilliant1 and 
characteristic style4  ,here ,i must    
mention1 in order1 ,blake's chief works 
from #ahaj to the end4  ,in #agic was   
published a small book of engravings    
,for ,children1 ,the ,gates of          
,paradise4 ,blake re-issued this in     
#ahaj1 changing the ,for ,children to   
,for the ,sexes4 ,the changes do not    
throw fresh light on ,blake4 ,rather1   
what is important to know1 we see1 in   
spite of the changes1 that ,blake's     
deepest thoughts were the same in #agie 
and #ahaj4 ,i will quote only the first 
two lines3    ,mutual ,forgiveness of   
each vice1   ,such are the ,gates of    

,paradise4  ,forgiveness of sins1 so    
impossible for the ,pharisee1 so easy   
for the artist1 is the heart of         
,christ's gospel4 ,blake leaned to that 
form of ,christianity which best        
understood forgiveness4 ,at this time he
 was inclined to think that the ,church 
of ,rome came nearest to ,christ4       
,blake reprinted ,the ,prologue and     
,characters of ,chaucer's ,pilgrims in  
#ahab4 ,then followed five years of     
indefatigable production1 but the works 
are lost for this world1 though ,blake  
would probably say that they were       
published in the other1 and read1 and   
remembered4  ,about #ahag he engraved   
leaflets1 ,laocoon1 and ,on ,homer's    
,poetry1 and ,on ,virgil4  ,the first is
 covered with small writing1 fresh      
proverbs of hell1 which are the same in 
substance as the earlier proverbs1 but  
less provocative4 ,the ,laocoon         
perfectly expressed his own experience  
during years of obscure struggle4 ,he   
found the same mighty conflict described

 from cover to cover of the ,bible4     
,christians have been accustomed to see 
there the history of their sin1         
conviction1 struggle1 and victory4      
,blake had nothing to say against all   
this1 but he named that which was       
striving for the victory the spirit of  
art1 and all the things that accompany  
the conflict--prayer1 praise1           
fasting--he explained in terms of art4  
,protestantism had made necessary such a
 vehement vindication of the beautiful4 
,to-day1 ,i suppose1 we accept naturally
 ,blake's aphorisms1 but need to        
rediscover some of those other things   
that protestantism and catholicism alike
 have insisted on so uncompromisingly in
 the past4  ,from ,on ,homer's ,poetry  
,i quote the following3  ,unity and     
,morality are secondary considerations  
and belong to ,philosophy and not to    
,poetry1 to ,exception and not to ,rule1
 to ,accident and not to ,substance4    
,the ,ancients called it eating of the  
,tree of ,good and ,evil4  ,in other    

words1 poetry1 like life and love and   
other instinctive things1 goes deeper   
and before our fine-spun distinctions of
 number and morality4 ,philosophers have
 sprung up since ,blake's day who are   
wonderfully agreed with him4  ,this on  
the cause of ,european wars is striking3
 ,the ,classics6 it is the ,classics1   
and not ,goths nor ,monks1 that desolate
 ,europe with ,wars4  ,from ,on ,virgil 
,i gather this1 which needs no comment3 
,a warlike ,state never can produce     
,art4 ,it will rob and plunder and      
accumulate into one place1 and translate
 and copy and buy and sell and          
criticize1 but not make4  ,during       
,blake's last year in ,south ,molton    
,street he executed seventeen woodcuts  
for ,dr ,thornton's ,pastorals of       
,virgil4 ,these are very simple and     
childlike or childish1 according to our 
state when we look at ,blake's work4    
,they seem to me of very unequal merit2 
but the best of them are invaluable1 for
 they show that ,blake at the age of    

sixty-three had not lost that childlike 
innocence1 the parody of which is all   
that most men attain to in their second 
childhood4  ,in #ahba ,blake removed to 
#c ,fountain ,court1 ,strand1 where he  
had the plainest of neutral rooms1 not  
without value as a background for his   
visions4 ,here relief was at hand1 but  
he knew it not4 ,harassed by poverty1 he
 must raise money somehow4 ,his         
collection of engravings1 which had     
steadily grown since the day that he had
 endowed his bride with it as his sole  
treasure1 was marketable1 and with as   
little fuss as need be he sold it to    
,messrs ,colnaghi and ,company4 ,it was 
the final self-stripping4 ,humbled and  
disciplined by the inexorable years1    
having surrendered himself and his last 
precious possession1 he was ready to    
bring forth the rich fruit of his mature
 genius4 ,his old friend and patron     
,butts gave him a commission to paint   
twenty-one water-colour designs         
illustrating the ,book of ,job4 ,he was 

allowed to show them1 and they drew     
forth from his friend ,linnell a further
 commission to execute and engrave a    
duplicate set1 with the written         
agreement that he should receive ,l#ajj 
for the designs and copyright and       
another ,l#ajj out of the profits4      
,there were no profits forthcoming2 but 
,linnell paid him in instalments ,l#ej  
besides the first ,l#ajj4 ,we may note  
here that the ,royal ,academy in #ahbb  
made him a grant of ,l#be4 ,and so1 at  
last1 ,blake had sufficient means to    
enable him to devote himself to his     
joyous work without the gnawing         
distraction of poverty and want4  ,there
 is no book in the world better suited  
for ,blake's genius than the ,book of   
,job4 ,it has been in itself a complete 
,bible to the mystic in all ages4 ,in it
 is given a marvellous description in   
dramatic form of that mysterious and    
awful self-stripping which the saint    
experiences after his conversion and not
 before4 ,it is an expansion of the text

 that even here death is the gate of    
life4 ,the same truth is insisted on by 
all the prophets1 especially by the     
prophets to the nations like ,ezekiel   
and ,jonah2 by the life1 death1 and     
resurrection of ,jesus ,christ2 by the  
personal experience of ,st ,paul2 and   
recently by ,hegel1 till it has become a
 commonplace both in religion and       
philosophy4  ,blake was troubled by no  
modern criticism of the ,book of ,job1  
which by post-dating it several hundred 
years has robbed it of much of its      
literary interest4 ,to him it was the   
porch of the ,sanctuary1 the oldest book
 in the ,bible1 at once the most ancient
 and most modern of books4 ,job1 after  
his dark night of testing and judgment1 
emerged simple and guileless1 a         
,patriarch who served ,god solely       
because that was the supremely right    
thing to do4 ,who was ,job8 ,the ,book  
gives no hint of his parentage4 ,who    
wrote the wonderful prologue8 ,who could
 write it8 ,again the ,book is silent4  

,tradition says ,moses2 and if tradition
 speak truly1 then several very         
interesting things follow4 ,job was     
probably the son of ,issachar1#f and as 
such went down with his father into     
,egypt when ,joseph had been advanced in
 that land4 ,he would then remove to ,uz
 in ,chaldaea1 carrying within treasures
 of ,egyptian learning4 ,in later years1
 ,moses1 fleeing from ,egypt into the   
desert of ,midian1 would become his     
neighbour4 ,moses is admittedly one of  
the world's greatest initiates4 ,as such
 he could certainly have written the    
prologue and the epilogue4 ,and how     
lofty a level the drama maintains       
throughout6 ,even ,job's friends1 who   
pour out pithy things in rich poetical  
language surpassing that attained by all
 laureates1 are rebuked for uttering    
only what everybody knows4 ,yet so      
universal is the ,book in its symbolism 
that it can afford1 if need be1 to      
dispense with picturesque details of its
 authorship and date1 and stand simply  

on its merits as an inspired dramatic   
epic of ,man's passage from his         
consciousness of degradation as a worm1 
and his stubbornness as a wild ass's    
colt1 to the dignity and power of a son 
of ,god4  ,blake had already traced the 
course of man's day of judgment in      
,night ,,ix of ,the ,four ,zoas1 and had
 painted a fresco of the subject in     
#ahbj4 ,in the poem he had used his own 
peculiar mythology1 and closed his poem 
to nearly all readers4 ,the ,book of    
,job obliged him to drop his own        
symbolism and use the simple and        
universal symbols that the drama itself 
supplies4 ,a brief reference to each    
design in order will make his purpose   
clear4   ,illustration3 ,then went      
,satan forth from the presence of the   
,lord   ,design ,i4--,job and his wife  
and family1 like true ,israelites1 are  
at prayer under a spreading fig-tree4   
,the shepherd sons have for the time    
left their flocks at rest and hanged    
their musical instruments on the tree4  

,at first sight the picture presents a  
scene of idyllic peace4 ,but there are  
ominous signs4 ,the sun is setting1     
night is fast coming1 and the fig-tree  
suggests the immemorial symbol of       
,israel's wrestling during the dark     
night4  ,design ,,ii4--,an illustration 
of the prologue of the ,book4 ,it is a  
marvellous representation of what an    
initiate only--a ,moses1 a ,blake--could
 have imagined of the cosmos1 with its  
heavenly portion peopled with the       
angelic sons of ,god in the middle1 the 
earth and its inhabitants below1 and    
above and beyond all ,god in ,his       
,heaven4  ,satan1 a magnificent figure1 
comes with the ,sons of ,god to present 
himself before ,god4 ,in his fiery aura 
are two shadowy figures making with him 
a trinity of evil4  ,design ,,iii4--,the
 crash of ,job's family4 ,he has built  
his house1 and prospered regardless of  
those who made it possible for him to   
build it2 and in the sudden turn of     
events it has become a mere ruin4       

,design ,,iv4--,job and his wife are    
under the fig-tree1 the man bearing with
 noble and unbroken fortitude the       
arrival of bad news4  ,design ,v4--,once
 more the cosmos4 ,satan is rushing     
headlong towards earth to wreak his full
 power on ,job in the midst of his      
charities1 yet forbidden to touch the   
one thing that ,job would so gladly     
surrender1 his life4 ,heaven cannot     
remain impassive at suffering on earth4 
,its sun is darkened and the ,almighty  
on ,his ,throne is grieved at ,his      
heart4  ,design ,,vi4--,satan's last    
malice on ,job4 ,he is reduced to sheer 
nakedness and wretchedness4 ,nothing of 
his former life that gave him comfort   
remains to him4 ,he is wrecked on ,god4 
,the ,lord gave and the ,lord hath taken
 away1 ,blessed be the name of the      
,lord4 ,with such faith and resignation 
his sun has not quite set4  ,design     
,,vii4--,the friends arrive4 ,once more 
,blake felt at home from his personal   
experience4 ,he had never had beyond    

,catherine and ,robert a perfect        
spiritual friend4 ,he had never lacked  
corporeal ones4 ,the remembrance of them
 gave zest and spirit to the portrayal  
of ,eliphaz the ,temanite1 ,bildad the  
,shuhite1 and ,zophar the ,naamathite4  
,design ,,viii4--,job's corporeal       
friends have done their worst4 ,they and
 his wife have quenched his last hope4  
,his sun has gone down4 ,naked and      
covered with boils from the crown of his
 head to the sole of his foot1 he lifts 
up both hands and curses the day that   
saw his birth4  ,design ,,ix4--,the     
vision of ,eliphaz1 and his terror1 for 
which ,blake recalled his own terror on 
the threshold4  ,design ,x4--,the       
corporeal friends stripped of their     
wordy disguise4 ,they are spiritual     
enemies that point the finger of scorn  
at the just1 upright man4 ,there is a   
glimmer of light on the horizon1 for    
,job can still say1 ,though ,he slay me1
 yet will ,i trust in ,him4  ,design    
,,xi4--,a worse stage of misery4        

,hitherto ,job had held fast his faith  
in ,god4 ,now he no longer sees ,god as 
,he is4 ,in the terrors of his dreams   
and visions he cannot discern between   
,god and ,satan4 ,satan stretches over  
him with a face reminiscent of ,god's4  
,as ,job turns away his head in horror1 
it becomes impossible for him to detect 
the cloven hoof2 and so he touches that 
horror of great darkness1 worse than all
 physical suffering1 where not only man 
but ,god has turned ,his face1 and in   
,its place loom the commandments of     
stone1 which recall the darkness and    
thunders of ,sinai4   ,illustration3    
,when the morning ,stars sang together1 
all the ,sons of ,god shouted for joy   
,design ,,xii4--,the horror of darkness 
has passed4 ,the stars are shining1 and 
the youthful ,elihu essays to utter the 
wisdom that the old men have lacked4    
,blake could recall the ministry of his 
young friends1 who had come so recently 
into his life1 and by their love had    
caused the stars to appear4 ,elihu does 

not utter perfect wisdom1 for that      
cannot be reached from human experience4
  ,design ,,xiii4--,the source of       
perfect wisdom4 ,the ,lord answered ,job
 out of the ,whirlwind4 ,job sees ,him  
as ,he is in ,his true lineaments1 and  
listens as the ,almighty speaks4 ,blake1
 too1 reads breathlessly the marvellous 
description of creation till his spirit 
flames up1 and the creative fire gives  
birth to his next most glorious design4 
,design ,,xiv4--,the creation and the   
immense joy of it4 ,there is the        
creation of the whole cosmos1 when the  
morning ,stars sang together1 and all   
the ,sons of ,god shouted for joy4      
,never was such joy again till the      
beginning of the ,new ,creation1 when   
the ,son of ,god was born in ,bethlehem1
 as ,luke1 artist and saint1 narrates   
with such artless simplicity and beauty4
 ,the ,scriptures assure us of a time   
when that joy shall be eternal4         
,meanwhile it is the artists who in true
 creation have a foretaste of the joy4  

,it is ,blake who has presented it in   
its most spiritual and universal aspect4
  ,design ,,xv4--,a grotesque4 ,i       
presume that ,blake1 like ,leonardo da  
,vinci1 discovered something grotesque  
as he explored the universe4  ,design   
,,xvi4--,the universe once more4 ,it is 
the consummation of the judgment4 ,satan
 and his shadowy companions who dwell in
 man have taken definite form and       
substance4 ,the man who has walked the  
way of excess has brought all his latent
 evil out1 and has given it substance1  
so that he can arise in his strength and
 cast it out for ever4  ,design         
,,xvii4--,job's beatific vision4 ,he is 
blessed and his house1 now only his     
wife1 but through her and ,god's        
blessing he may be fruitful and         
multiply1 and build his house in the    
divine order4 ,his sun has risen and    
will no more set4  ,design              
,,xviii4--,job stands before an altar of
 burnt-offering4 ,like ,jacob he has    
prevailed1 and ,god accepts him and his 

prayers for his friends4  ,design       
,,xix4--,job and his wife once more     
under the fig-tree1 whose fruit has     
ripened4 ,he is the recipient of        
friendly gifts and offerings from his   
neighbours4  ,design ,,xx4--,job1 with  
memories engraven on the chambers of his
 imagery1 stretching forth his hands    
over his new family of beautiful        
daughters4  ,design ,,xxi4--,a return to
 the first scene4 ,but the sun is       
rising1 and ,job and his family1 taking 
their instruments of art1 are           
worshipping ,god in the beauty of       
holiness4  ,blake completed his         
engravings for ,job in ,march #ahbe1 and
 they were published ,march #ahbf4      
,they might well have been the crowning 
work of his life1 and followed by his   
,nunc dimittis1 but there was boundless 
mental energy in the old man1 though his
 body was failing4   ,illustration3     
,,from ,,the ,,dante ,,series4   ,it was
 in #ahbe that ,blake met ,crabb        
,robinson at the house of ,mr ,aders1   

where ,mrs ,aders1 daughter of ,raphael 
,smith1 was in the habit of entertaining
 many interesting people4  ,crabb       
,robinson was a most excellent man--well
 accoutred1 steady on his legs1 with    
well-set head1 without superstition1 and
 just enough prejudice to starch his    
mind4  ,he knew ,blake at the time that 
he was learning ,italian for the sake of
 ,dante that he might execute ,dante    
designs for ,linnell4 ,from ,robinson's 
reminiscences1 we do just get a glimpse 
of ,blake struggling with ,dante1 and   
delighting to mystify his respectable   
friend4 ,unfortunately1 the reported    
references in their conversations to    
,dante are few1 though enough perhaps to
 indicate ,blake's attitude4 ,he was not
 one of ,dante's elect4 ,but with closer
 study he was beginning to fall under   
his spell1 and we may safely surmise    
that if ,dante had come into ,blake's   
life in his youth1 instead of           
,swedenborg1 ,blake would have become   
the greatest catholic mystic artist of  

the age4  ,little more remains to be    
told4  ,blake in great pain of          
body--stomach trouble and shivering     
fits--was driven to his bed4 ,when he   
knew the end was near1 he said to his   
wife3 ,i have no grief but in leaving   
you1 ,catherine4 ,we have lived happy1  
we have lived long1 we have been ever   
together1 but we shall be divided soon4 
,why should ,i fear death8 ,nor do ,i   
fear it4 ,i have endeavoured to live as 
,christ commanded1 and ,i have sought to
 worship ,god truly in my own home1 when
 ,i was not seen of men4  ,while the    
wife ministered to him he exclaimed     
suddenly1 ,you have ever been an angel  
to me1 ,i will draw you4 ,and he did4   
,in answer to her1 he expressed a wish  
to be buried at ,bunhill ,fields by the 
,church of ,england4  ,at midday on     
,august #abth1 #ahbg1 he burst into     
strong joyous song1 and then corrected  
his previous word about parting by      
assuring ,catherine that he would always
 be there to take care of her4 ,then he 

remained quite quiet till his spirit    
passed away4     ,,epilogue   ,life is a
 voyage of discovery or rediscovery4    
,those1 like ,blake1 born in a          
,christian land make the same voyage4   
,the ,christian tradition is handed on  
to us in our tender infancy1 and most   
people take what their immediate        
teachers tell them1 and live on that dry
 stock for the rest of their days4 ,but 
the sinner and the genius1 like ,blake1 
early throw their inheritance overboard1
 and driven by native energy go in      
adventurous quest of new lands4 ,the    
first half of ,blake's life was spent   
thus4 ,he would rebel at all costs1 he  
would above all protest against what he 
hated--the religion of repression4  ,for
 many years ,christianity and repression
 were for him synonymous terms4 ,his    
craving was for expression4 ,parents1   
teachers1 priests1 kings1 governments1  
were enemies to spontaneous             
self-expression4 ,then they must go4    
,his youthful exuberance admitted of no 

half-measures4 ,like ,ezekiel and       
,christ1 he poured out his invective    
against hireling shepherds3 unlike them1
 he ceased for a time to believe in good
 shepherds4 ,one and all they were out  
to repress men's instincts and passions1
 until1 driven in1 the pent-up passion  
poisoned their whole nature1 or in the  
weaker sort was rendered passive4 ,blake
 proclaimed his doctrine with vehemence1
 but no one regarded him4  ,pursuing    
this course for many years1 he perceived
 some wonderful things4 ,art is         
expression2 and he made an application  
of all the glories of art to human      
character4 ,teach men to express        
themselves1 and then instead of their   
being as dull and similar as a flock of 
sheep governed by the herd instinct1    
they would grow into a beautiful        
variety4 ,man would create himself as an
 artist creates his works4 ,the same law
 governed both4 ,repression when        
successful induced a nerveless1 sapless 
type4 ,man became an overwhipped dog4   

,expression produced a strong1 beautiful
 character above all petty and tiresome 
rules of conduct4 ,the conduct of such  
is carelessly right4  ,it was by        
,blake's frank proclamation of the ego  
that he anticipated so much of what the 
modern apostles of the superman have    
made us all familiar with4 ,from        
,ibsen's ,doll's ,house to ,nietzsche's 
,thus spake ,zarathustra1 confidence in 
the ego has been proclaimed as the means
 to liberty1 beauty1 and sovereignty2   
and this has been accompanied by        
revivals on a large scale of those      
ancient mystery religions that turn on  
the culture of the divine ego4  ,this   
was a road of excess which ,blake       
pursued as far as an individual might4  
,in the nineteenth century the law of   
the ego1 the struggle for life1 the     
survival of the fittest1 brute force1   
were regarded as all one1 and           
transferred from the individual to the  
,state1 till in a few years the world   
was plunged into war4  ,blake's voyage  

of rediscovery began during the ,reign  
of ,terror4 ,the new teachers1 like     
,swedenborg and ,godwin1 ,tom ,paine and
 ,mary ,wollstonecraft1 failed to       
satisfy his own craving for expression4 
,the ,reign of ,terror appalled him when
 it showed him his principle at work in 
the proletariat4 ,then it was that      
turning again to the ,evangelists he    
made the wonderful discovery1 which     
later apostles of the ego have not made1
 that ,jesus ,christ was the perfect    
example and embodiment of his vision4   
,he had pictured to himself a man1      
impelled by a creative passion1 whose   
character in every part should be       
manifestly the outcome of fiery energy4 
,and there was the ,man in the ,subject 
of the ,gospels4 ,but he saw that ,jesus
 ,christ could not be labelled or       
classed4 ,there was egoistic            
self-expression in ,him1 and there was  
self-renunciation4 ,somehow ,he had     
altogether escaped the modern dilemma of
 self-expression or self-sacrifice4     

,both were magnificently present in ,him
 and united1 because ,his               
self-expression was resting on ,his     
self-surrender to ,god4 ,give up ,god1  
and man swings perpetually between duty 
to neighbour and duty to self4 ,believe 
in and surrender to ,god1 and each falls
 into its proper place4 ,this was not   
the only synthesis in the character of  
,jesus4 ,he was a union of all possible 
contraries4 ,gentleness and fierceness2 
non-resistance and aggressive force2    
non-resentment and fiery invective2     
forgiveness and severe justice1 haughty 
pride and lowliness2 self-confidence and
 utter dependence upon ,god1 all were in
 ,jesus4 ,henceforth ,blake could keep  
his vision of ,jesus and his vision of  
art1 for they were one4  ,the next stage
 in rediscovery was to find out what the
 great body of dogmatic truth had       
affirmed about ,jesus down the          
,christian centuries4 ,here he made     
little progress4 ,he probably felt1 as  
we all do at times1 that the simplicity 

of the gospel was lost in the maze of   
dogmatic subtleties4 ,the negative      
aspect of dogma1 that it rules out all  
that would infringe on that simplicity1 
never occurred to him4 ,his mind was    
governed and distracted by ,hindoo      
pantheism1 and catholic anthropomorphism
 filtered and diluted through           
,swedenborg4 ,even after he had         
repudiated ,swedenborg the distraction  
remained4 ,his new understanding of     
,christ taught him that he must accept  
the ultimate antinomy of good and evil1 
and that therefore ,christ's heaven and 
hell must remain2 but the pantheism     
never abated its watery flood1 and the  
emphatic catholic teaching of           
transcendence and immanence gained no   
sufficient hold to deliver his mind4    
,the truth is that ,blake was not a     
great thinker1 still less a             
system-builder4 ,he ought to have found 
the best ,christian system while young  
and kept to it4 ,then he could have     
lived his life of vision within coherent

 bounds4 ,clear1 sharp dogma1 like      
outline in art1 would have given rest to
 his mind1 substance to his visions1 and
 saved him from the waste of pouring out
 a torrent of incoherent sayings        
containing scraps of gnosticism1        
theosophy1 rosicrucianism1 and almost   
every heresy under the sun4  ,the       
master-mind in his youth who could have 
given him a sound system was ,dr        
,johnson1 and he would not listen to    
him4 ,how should the arch-rebel pay any 
attention to the arch-conservator8 ,dr  
,johnson said many foolish things about 
things of no great importance3 he was   
wise in great matters4 ,an ounce of     
folly1 like a dead fly in the ointment1 
suffices to put off the fastidious      
rebel1 who will seize hold of any       
excuse4 ,eventually ,blake subscribed to
 the same creed as ,dr ,johnson4 ,that  
surely is a marvellous unanimity for    
such diverse minds4  ,the master-mind in
 his age who could have given him a     
better system than his own1 and to whom 

he was beginning to listen1 was ,dante4 
,his catholicism may have been of a     
medieval pattern1 but it was very little
 infected with the time-spirit2 it is   
even now finer than ,swedenborg's       
fabrication1 and modern compared with   
the gnosticism that bulked so largely in
 ,blake's mind4  ,blake makes no        
disciples1 and no school can claim him1 
but he speaks to all who have any mental
 equipment4 ,his vision of ,christ1 if  
we can make it our own and fill out its 
defects1 will put us beyond the modern  
worship of the superman1 and take us out
 of that sectarianism which gains       
ascendancy for a little while because of
 its lightness and fragmentariness4     
,the confusion in ,blake's mental life  
affects his art4 ,he declared           
consistently in times of clear vision   
that outline1 form1 and foundation are  
the essence of spiritual things4 ,this  
is beyond anything to be found in ,sir  
,joshua's ,discourses1 and anticipates  
,benedetto ,croce when he says that art 

is an ultimate1 that form is constant   
and is spiritual activity1 while matter 
is changeable1 yet he accomplished many 
designs that ,reynolds could have taught
 him to correct4  ,his later poems      
suffer still more4 ,the energy in them  
is terrific1 and they are filled with   
flashes of inspiration2 but their       
atmosphere is murky1 and never clears   
for more than fifty lines at a time4    
,they are storehouses1 but the one who  
would get anything out of them must     
bring his taper with him4  ,the early   
short poems1 on the contrary1 shine with
 their own light4 ,the ,tiger and ,the  
,emmet are written before his mind has  
time to plunge into the penumbra of his 
disorderly system4  ,blake was still    
young in spirit when he died4 ,one feels
 with him1 as with ,tolstoi1 that he had
 far from come to the end of his tether4
 ,he was one of the few to whose years  
another threescore might have been added
 with advantage4 ,where would he have   
arrived8 ,i think when we remember that 

for more than twenty years before his   
death he was on the voyage of           
rediscovery1 we may hazard the guess    
that he would have reached the catholic 
form of ,christianity1 having thrown    
overboard his private symbolism on the  
way2 and that then he would have        
produced great1 long poems of           
crystalline clearness1 which would have 
placed him by the side of the           
master-poets of the ages4  ,yet it is   
idle work guessing at what might have   
been4 ,we blame a man's times1 or birth1
 or church1 or what not for his         
failures1 when we should look for some  
fundamental lack in his own equipment4  
,that ,blake was not quite one of our   
conquerors1 then1 we will not attribute 
to the eighteenth century or to         
,swedenborg's predominant influence in  
his early life1 but simply to the fact  
that he lacked the strong1 virile reason
 that could keep pace with the on-rush  
of his visions4 ,he was all ,los3       
,urizen1 whom he repudiated with such   

scorn1 alone could have balanced his    
nature and led him to the supreme       
achievement4     ,,index     ,abel the  
,shepherd1 #agf    ,abstract            
,philosophy1 #aji    ,adam and ,eve     
observed by ,satan1 #abc    ,aders1 ,mr 
and ,mrs1 #ahg    ,age of ,reason1 #hg1 
#ic    ,ahania1 #aaa    ,akashic        
,records1 #acb    ,albion1 #adi-ej      
,america3 ,a ,prophecy1 #if-g1 #ih      
,american ,independence1 ,war of1 #hf1  
#hg1 #ih    ,ancient of ,days1 #aja     
,angelic ,wisdom1 #eh    ,angelico1     
,fra1 #agf    ,arblay1 ,m4 d'1 #he      
,asia1 #aji    ,astrology1 #agb-c       
,augustine1 ,st1 #aeb    ,austen1 ,jane1
 #agj     ,barbauld1 ,mrs1 #cj          
,bartolozzi1 #ag1 #abc1 #aed    ,barton1
 ,bernard1 #agd    ,bas ,bleu1 #bh      
,basire1 #ag1 #ah    ,bastille1 the1    
#hi1 #ij1 #ib    ,bath1 ,lord1 #bi      
,beaumont and ,fletcher1 #cc            
,beethoven1 #agj    ,bible1 the1 #abb1  
#acc    ,bildad1 #ahd    ,blair's       
,grave1 #aed-i    ,blake1 ,catherine1   

#cj1 #ca1 #cg1 #ch1 #dj1 #ff1 #adh      
,blake1 ,james 7,sen471 #ab1 #ci        
,blake1 ,james 7,jun471 #ci    ,blake1  
,robert1 #ad1 #ci1 #dj1 #de    ,blake1  
,william1 born1 #aa2     baptized1 #ab2 
vision at ,peckham ,rye1 #ac2     books 
read1 #ad2     learns drawing from ,mr  
,pars1 #ae2     apprenticed to ,basire1 
#ag2     joins the ,academy under       
,moser1 #ba2     designs ,morning1 or   
,glad ,day1 #bb2     falls in love with 
,polly ,wood1 #bc2     marries          
,catherine ,boucher1 #bd2     meets     
,flaxman1 #cj2     goes to ,mrs         
,mathew's parties1 #cj2     on war1     
#cd-e2     lodges at #bc ,green ,street1
 #cg2     moves to #bg ,broad ,street1  
#ci2     nurses ,robert1 #dj2     moves 
to #bh ,poland ,street1 #dj2            
engraves after ,stothard1 #dd2          
,robert imparts method of engraving1    
#de2     comments on ,lavater's         
,aphorisms1 #ea2       and ,swedenborg1 
#ee-hj2     reads and annotates ,angelic
 ,wisdom1 #fb-e2     subscribes his name

 to tenets of the ,new ,church1 #ff2    
on ,swedenborg1 #gb2     takes leave of 
,swedenborg1 #hj2     among the rebels1 
#hi2     wears the bonnet rouge1 #hi2   
on sex1 #id-f2     moves to #ac         
,hercules ,buildings1 #ih2     engraves 
,europe3 ,a ,prophecy1 #ii1 #aja2       
illustrates ,buerger's ,lenore1 #aaa2   
goes to ,felpham1 #aag2     paints      
miniatures1 #aai-ba2     learns ,greek  
from ,hayley1 #aba2     returns to      
,london1 #abg2     ,south ,molton       
,street1 #abg2     vision clears after  
visit to ,truchsess gallery1 #abi2      
and ,sir ,j4 ,reynolds1 #aef-i2         
writes descriptive catalogue1 #afa2     
and ,chaucer1 #afb-c2     vision of     
,jesus ,christ1 #afe-h2     new friends1
 #agb2     and ,varley1 #agb-c2         
removes to #c ,fountain ,court1 ,strand1
 #ahj2     sells his collection of      
engravings1 #ahj2     and ,book of ,job1
 #ahb-hf2     and ,dante1 #ahg2         
illness1 #ahg2     death1 #ahh          
,blue-stockings1 the1 #bf-cf    ,boehme1

 ,jacob1 #bc1 #dg1 #di1 #ea1 #ef1 #eh1  
#gb1 #aah1 #afe1 #agb    ,bond ,street1 
#ba    ,book for a ,rainy ,day1 #cj     
,book of ,ahania1 #aaj    ,book of ,job1
 #aha-b    ,book of ,los1 #aaj    ,book 
of ,urizen1 #ajf    ,boucher1           
,catherine1 #bd    ,bourdon1 #abi       
,bousset1 #fa    ,boydell's ,shakespeare
 ,gallery1 #abc    ,brahma1 #aji        
,bray1 ,mrs1 #afj1 #afb    ,breughel1   
#abi    ,bronte1 ,charlotte1 #agg       
,brook ,kerith1 #agh    ,brooke1 ,mrs1  
#cj    ,bull and ,bush1 ,north ,end1    
,hampstead1 #agd    ,bunyan1 ,john1 #adj
    ,buerger1 #aaa1 #aab    ,burke1     
,edmund1 #he1 #hi    ,burney1 ,dr1 #bi  
,burney1 ,fanny1 #bh1 #db1 #he1 #hf1    
#agj    ,butler1 ,samuel1 #aff          
,butts1 ,thomas1 #aba1 #abd1 #abe1 #abg1
 #acb     ,calvert1 ,edward1 #age1 #agf 
,candide1 #bh    ,caracci1 #abf         
,carter1 ,mrs1 #bf1 #bg1 #bh1 #cj       
,castle of ,otranto1 #cd    ,catherine  
of ,siena1 ,st1 #ec1 #acc    ,chapone1  
,mrs1 #cj1 #ca    ,chatterton1 #ad      

,chaucer1 #afa1 #afb1 #afc    ,chaucer's
 ,canterbury ,pilgrims1 #aei            
,chesterfield1 ,lord1 ,letters to his   
,son1 #bg    ,christ1 #aeb    ,christ   
and the ,woman of ,samaria1 #agf        
,clod1 the1 #ajd    ,coleridge1 ,s4 ,t41
 #hb1 #agj    ,collins' ,farm1 ,north   
,end1 ,hampstead1 #agd    ,correggio1   
#abf1 #agb    ,cosmos1 the1 #acd1 #adg1 
#ahc1 #ahe    ,cowper1 ,w41 #hb1 #aaf1  
#abc1 #abd1 #acj    ,cowper1 ,life of1  
#acj    ,crime and ,punishment1 #ih     
,croce1 ,benedetto1 #aic    ,cromek1    
,robert ,hartley1 #aed-f1 #aei1 #afj1   
#afe    ,cumberland1 ,george1 #agb      
,dante1 #gc1 #aad1 #acc1 #ahg1 #aib     
,deism1 #add-e    ,de ,profundis1 #agh  
,designs for ,job1 #ahc-f    ,dialogues 
of the ,dead1 #bf    ,dogma1 #aib       
,dostoieffski1 #ih    ,dualism1 #adc    
,duerer1 ,albert1 #af1 #ag1 #da1 #db1   
#abi1 #agb     ,earl ,godwin1 #db       
,ego-theism1 #ga    ,elihu1 #ahe        
,elinor1 #aab    ,eliot1 ,george1 #aab  
,eliphaz1 #ahd    ,elizabethan age1 #af 

,emmet1 the1 #aic    ,engleheart1 #afj  
,enitharmon1 #ii1 #ajj1 #ajh    ,eno1   
#aaa    ,enquiry concerning ,political  
,justice1 #hb    ,epipsychidion1 #ie    
,essay on ,old ,maids1 #aba    ,essenes1
 the1 #fa    ,europe1 #aji    ,europe3  
,a ,prophecy1 #ii-aja    ,evelina1 #db  
,ezekiel1 #acg1 #add1 #aha1 #ahi        
,ezra1 #aah     ,fair ,elinor1 #cd      
,felpham1 #aag1 #aai1 #abe1 #abf        
,fenelon1 #ej1 #ec    ,fielding1        
,copley1 #agb    ,fingal1 #ad           
,flaxman1 #bb1 #bd1 #be1 #bi1 #cj1 #ca1 
#aaf1 #aag1 #aah1 #aai1 #aba1 #abc1     
#aei1 #afj1       #aga    ,flaxman1     
,maria1 #aad    ,flemish picturesque1   
#abe    ,florentine ,school of ,art1 #af
    ,fludd1 #bc    ,foote1 ,samuel1 #di 
,fordyce1 ,dr1 #he    ,france1 #aji     
,francis of ,assisi1 ,st1 #de           
,franklin1 #if    ,french ,revolution1  
#he1 #hg1 #hi1 #ij-b1 #aja1 #aah        
,fuseli1 #bd1 #ha1 #aga-b    ,fuzon1    
#aaj1 #aaa     ,garrick1 #aae           
,gaskell1 ,mrs1 #agg    ,gates of       

,paradise1 #agh    ,genlis1 ,madame de1 
#hf    ,ghost of a ,flea1 #agc          
,gibbon1 ,edward1 #aae    ,gilchrist1   
#de    ,glad ,day1 #db    ,gnosticism1  
#acd    ,godwin1 ,w41 #hb-d1 #hf1 #hg1  
#hh1 #ib1 #ade1 #agb1 #aij    ,goethe1  
#cj1 #cf1 #ed1 #agj    ,goldsmith1      
,oliver1 #ah    ,gordon1 ,lord ,george1 
#bc    ,gothic architecture1 #ag        
,grand ,style1 #abe    ,gregory1 ,dr1   
#he    ,guyon1 ,madame1 #bc1 #dg1 #ej   
,gwen1 ,king of ,norway1 #cd            
,habakkuk1 #abi    ,halls of ,los1 #abb 
,hamilton1 #db    ,hardy1 #hh           
,harlow1 #afj    ,haydn1 #agj           
,hayley1 ,william1 #aad-acj1 #acg1      
#aci-db1 #aec-d1 #afe1 #aga    ,head of 
,romney1 #aec    ,heath1 ,james1 #afj   
,heaven and ,hell1 #gh    ,hegel1 #aha  
,hell1 #eg    ,hemskerck1 ,martin1 #af  
,herbert1 ,george1 #agf    ,hervey1 #di1
 #ej    ,hesketh1 ,lady1 #aaf           
,highland ,society1 #ad    ,hogarth1    
#db1 #dc1 #aeh    ,holbein1 ,hans1 #abi 
,holcroft1 #hh    ,holmes1 ,james1 #agb1

 #age    ,hoppner1 #afb    ,how sweet ,i
 roam'd1 #af1 #cc    ,hume1 #cf         
,hunt1 ,w4 ,h41 #agb     ,ibsen1 #aij   
,imagination1 #abb1 #abe    ,imlay1     
,charles1 #hf    ,immanence1 #aib       
,inspiration1 #abb1 #acb1 #acc          
,isaiah1 #aah     ,jacob1 #afi          
,jefferson1 #hg    ,jerusalem1 #aac1    
#aca1 #acb1 #adb1 #adi1 #aea    ,jesus  
,christ1 #afe-h1 #ahi1 #aij-a    ,job1  
,book of1 #gf    ,john1 ,saint1 #aeb    
,johnson1 bookseller1 #bb1 #ha1 #hb1    
#hf1 #ij1 #abc    ,johnson1 ,dr1 #bj1   
#bg1 #bh1 #cf1 #dg1 #dh1 #ade1 #aib     
,johnson1 ,rev4 ,john1 #aai1 #abb       
,jonah1 #aha    ,jonson1 ,ben1 #ad1 #af1
 #ca1 #cc    ,joseph of ,arimathea1 #ah 
,juniper ,hall1 #he     ,kaufmann1      
,angelica1 #ag    ,keim1 #fa    ,king   
,edward the ,third1 #cc    ,king ,edward
 and ,queen ,elinor1 #db    ,klopstock's
 ,messiah1 #abb     ,landseer1 #afa     
,laocoon1 #agi    ,lavater1 #ej-d1 #aga 
,law1 ,william1 #dh1 #afe    ,le ,brun1 
#ba    ,lenore1 ,buerger's1 #aaa        

,linnell1 ,john1 #agb1 #agc-e1 #aha     
,little ,girl ,found1 #ajc    ,little   
,girl ,lost1 #ajc    ,little ,tom the   
,sailor1 #aai    ,locke1 ,john1 #aji    
,london1 ,bishop of1 #bi    ,los1 #ge1  
#ajg1 #ajh1 #aji1 #aci1 #add1 #aid      
,luke1 ,st1 #ahe    ,luvah1 #add        
,lyca1 #ajd    ,lyttelton1 ,lord1 #bf1  
#bi    ,lytton1 ,bulwer1 #hb1 #agc1 #agh
     ,mackintosh1 #hi    ,macpherson1   
#ad1 #ae1 #db    ,mad ,song1 #cc        
,maimonides1 #ed    ,marriage of ,heaven
 and ,hell1 #ge1 #ha1 #agf    ,martin1  
,rev4 ,john1 #agc1 #agf    ,mathew1     
,mrs1 #be1 #bi1 #cj1 #ca1 #cb1 #ce1 #ci1
 #dd1 #aai    ,mathew1 ,rev4 ,henry1    
#bi1 #cj1 #cb    ,memory1 #abb1 #acb1   
#acc1 #ace1 #acf1 #acg1 #adg            
,mendelssohn1 ,moses1 #ed    ,meyer1    
#aae    ,michael ,angelo1 #af1 #ag1 #ah1
 #ba1 #db1 #dd1 #aag1 #abf1 #abi1 #aci1 
#aeg1 #aeh1 #aga    ,milton1 ,john1 #dd1
 #gf1 #aje1 #aah1 #abc-d1 #acb1 #acc1   
#acg1 #ach1 #aci1 #aea    ,milton1 #abb1
 #abd1 #aca1 #acb1 #acg-adb1 #aeb       

,miniature ,painting1 #aai1 #abj1 #aba1 
#abe    ,montagu1 ,mrs1 #bf1 #bg1 #bh1  
#bi1 #cj1 #ce    ,moore1 ,george1 #fa1  
#agh    ,more1 ,hannah1 #bh1 #aae       
,morland1 ,george1 #agc    ,morning1 or 
,glad ,day1 #bb    ,morris1 ,mr1 #ga    
,mortimer1 #db    ,moses1 #ahb1 #ahc    
,mulgrave1 ,lord1 #bi    ,mulready1 ,w41
 #agb    ,muses1 the1 #abb    ,my ,silks
 and ,fine ,array1 #cc    ,mysterious   
,mother1 #cd    ,mysticism1 ,german1 #fh
     ,napoleon1 #agj    ,narbonne1 ,m4  
de1 #he    ,nature1 #ac1 #abe1 #adf1    
#adi    ,nelly ,o',brien1 #aeh          
,newman1 ,cardinal1 #agf    ,newton1    
,sir ,isaac1 #aji    ,nietzsche1 #ed1   
#acc1 #aci1 #adj1 #agj1 #aij    ,night  
,thoughts1 ,young's1 #aab    ,no ,popery
 ,riots1 #bc    ,north ,american        
,states1 #dd    ,north ,end1 ,hampstead1
 #agd1 #agf     ,odin1 #aji    ,on      
,homer's ,poetry1 #agi    ,on ,virgil1  
#agi1 #ahj    ,oothoon1 #id-e    ,opie1 
,mrs1 #aae    ,oram1 #cj    ,orc1 #ii1  
#ajj1 #aji1 #aaj    ,ord1 ,mrs1 #bh     

,ossian1 #ad    ,ossian1 #aje           
,paine1 ,tom1 #hb1 #hf-h1 #hi1 #ic1 #if1
 #ih1 #add1 #ade1 #aij    ,palamabron1  
#aji    ,palmer1 ,samuel1 #agb1 #age-f  
,pantheism1 #ga1 #gb1 #ajf1 #ajg1 #adc  
,pantheism1 ,hindoo1 #aia               
,paracelsus1 #bc1 #dg1 #eh1 #aah1 #agb  
,paradise ,lost1 #acf    ,parker1 #ci1  
#dj    ,pars1 ,mr1 #ae    ,pascal1 #bh  
,passion1 #gf1 #gg1 #adg-h    ,pastorals
 of ,virgil1 #ahj    ,paul1 ,st1 #acd1  
#ace1 #adj1 #adf1 #aha    ,paulus1 ,dr1 
#fa    ,pebble1 the1 #aed    ,penance of
 ,jane ,shore1 #db    ,pepys1 ,sir      
,lucas1 #bi    ,percy's ,reliques1 #ad  
,phillips1 ,captain1 #bi    ,pilgrimage 
to ,canterbury1 #afj-a    ,piozzi1 ,mrs1
 #hd    ,plato1 #aji1 #adi1 #aeb        
,poetical ,sketches1 #cc1 #dd    ,poison
 ,tree1 #ajd    ,pope1 ,a41 #aad        
,portland1 ,duchess of1 #bf    ,price1  
,dr1 #hb    ,priestley1 ,dr1 #hb1 #hg1  
#ic    ,proverbs of ,hell1 #gf          
,pythagoras1 #aji     ,quakers1 #agd    
,quintilian1 #bh     ,radcliffe1 ,mrs1  

#cd    ,raphael1 #af1 #ba1 #db1 #abf1   
#aeg    ,reign of ,terror1 #hi1 #ajj1   
#ajb1 #aag1 #aij    ,rembrandt1 #db1    
#aeh1 #aga    ,renan1 #fa               
,repression1 #ahi-ij1 #aia    ,reynolds1
 ,sir ,joshua1 #aah1 #abf1 #aef-i1 #aic 
,reynolds' ,discourses1 #aeg-h1 #aic    
,richmond1 ,george1 #agf-g    ,rights of
 ,man1 #hh    ,rintrah1 #aji            
,ritson's ,english ,songs1 #dd          
,robinson1 ,crabb1 #afa1 #agg1 #ahg     
,romano1 ,julio1 #af    ,romney1 #aae1  
#aaf1 #aah1 #aai1 #abc1 #abd1 #acj      
,romney1 ,life of1 #acj    ,rose1       
,samuel1 #abg    ,rotten ,row1          
,hampstead1 #agd    ,rousseau1 #bh1 #cf1
 #aji1 #ade    ,rowley1 #ad    ,royal   
,academy1 #ba1 #be    ,rubens1 #ba1 #db 
,samson1 ,dr1 #ii    ,satan1 #gf1 #aci1 
#ahc1 #ahd1 #ahf    ,schiavonetti1      
,lewis1 #aee1 #afj    ,schiavonetti1    
,niccolo1 #afj    ,schoolboy1 the1 #ajd 
,schweitzer1 #fa    ,scott1 ,sir ,w41   
#ad1 #agj    ,seven ,planes1 #acd       
,seward1 ,anna1 #aae    ,sex1 #adg-h    

,shakespeare1 #ad1 #bf1 #bg1 #cc1 #dd1  
#gf1 #aah1 #acb1 #acc    ,sharpe1 #abc  
,shelley1 #ga1 #hd1 #ie1 #acc1 #agb     
,shields1 ,f41 #aab    ,shipwreck1 after
 ,romney1 #acj1 #aec    ,skofield1 #abg 
,smelt1 ,mr1 #bi    ,smith1 ,j4 ,t41    
#cj1 #ci    ,socrates1 #aji    ,song of 
,liberty1 #ic    ,song of ,los1 #ajh    
,songs of ,experience1 #gj    ,songs of 
,innocence1 #fi1 #ajb1 #ajc    ,sotho1  
#aji    ,spencer1 #ca    ,spencer's     
,faery ,queen1 #ad    ,stael1 ,madame   
de1 #hf    ,stothard1 #bb1 #bd1 #dd1    
#aab1 #aad1 #aei1 #afj1 #afa1 #afb1     
#afd1 #afe1 #aga    ,strange ,story1    
#agc    ,strauss1 #fa    ,swedenborg1   
#cj1 #ci1 #di1 #ea1 #eb1 #ec1 #ee-hj1   
#eh1 #ei1 #aje1 #aaj1 #aah1 #acg1       
#ach1 #adc1 #afj1 #ahg1 #aij1 #aia1     
#aib1 #aid    ,swinburne1 #ad1 #cc1 #ec 
,symbolism1 #acf     ,tabard ,inn1 #afb 
,talleyrand1 #he    ,tatham1 ,f41 #agg  
,tharmas1 #add    ,the ,divine ,image1  
#fi    ,the ,little ,vagabond1 #ga      
,thel1 #ff-i    ,thelwall1 #hf          

,theosophy1 #acd    ,theotormon1 #id-e  
,theresa1 ,st1 #bc1 #dg1 #ej            
,thomson1 #ad    ,thornton1 ,dr1 #ahj   
,thus ,spake ,zarathustra1 #aij         
,tiger1 the1 #aic    ,tiriel1 #ff1 #fg  
,titian1 #db1 #agb    ,tolstoi1 #aic    
,tooke1 ,horne1 #hf    ,townshend1      
,charles1 #hg    ,transcendence1 #aib   
,trismegistus1 #aji    ,triumphs of     
,temper1 #aad1 #aae1 #aba    ,truchsess1
 ,count1 #abi     ,urizen1 #ff1 #fg1    
#ge1 #ic1 #ii1 #ajf1 #ajg1 #ajh1 #aaj1  
#aaa1 #aci1 #adb1 #add1 #aid            
,varley1 ,cornelius1 #agc    ,varley1   
,john1 #agb-c1 #agd    ,venetian art1   
#aag    ,venetian finesse1 #abe         
,vesey1 ,mrs1 #bh    ,vinci1 ,leonardo  
da1 #abi1 #ahe    ,visions of the       
,daughters of ,albion1 #id-e1 #ig       
,voltaire1 #bh1 #cf1 #aji1 #ade         
,wainewright1 ,t4 ,g41 #agg-h           
,walpole1 ,horace1 #bf1 #bh1 #cd1 #he   
,war1 #cd1 #ce1 #dc1 #dd    ,warren1 #if
    ,washington1 #if    ,water ,colour  
,society1 #agb    ,watson1 ,caroline1   

#acj    ,watteau1 #abi    ,webster1 #cc 
,werther1 #bh    ,wesley1 ,john1 #bc1   
#dh1 #di1 #ej1 #ff1 #aci1 #adj1 #afe    
,west1 ,sir ,benjamin1 #agc             
,whitefield1 #bc1 #di1 #ej1 #ff1 #aci1  
#adj1 #ade1 #afe    ,wilberforce1 #agg  
,wilde1 ,oscar1 #agh    ,wilkinson1     
,garth1 #ec1 #fh1 #ga1 #gb              
,wollstonecraft1 ,mary1 #hb1 #hd-f1 #hh1
 #hi1 #ib1 #aij    ,wood1 ,polly1 #bc   
,woollett1 #ag1 #ah    ,wordsworth1 #ac1
 #agj     ,yeats1 ,w4 ,b41 #aab1 #acb   
,young1 ,edward1 #aab     ,zanoni1 #agc 
,zoas1 the ,four1 #aac1 #abd1 #aca1     
#adb1 #ade1 #ahb    ,zophar1 #ahd       
,printed in ,great ,britain by  ,,unwin 
,,brothers1 ,,limited  ,,woking ,,and   
,,london     ,footnotes3  #a ,this fact 
was first pointed out by ,mr ,laurence  
,binyon4  #b ,jerusalem1 #gb4 #ej-eb4   
#c ,prov4 viii4 #bg-ca4  #d ,jerusalem1 
#ae4 #fa-fi4  #e ,thirteenth ,discourse4
  #f ,genesis xlvi4 #ac4                
,transcriber's ,notes3  ,passages in    
italics are indicated by italics4  ,some

 quotes are opened with marks but are   
not closed4 ,obvious errors have been   
silently closed while those requiring   
interpretation have been left open4     
,the following misprints have been      
corrected3   no corrected to not 7page  
#db7   correponds corrected to          
corresponds 7page #ef7   ,hesbeth       
corrected to ,hesketh 7page #aaf7       
,other than the corrections listed      
above1 inconsistencies in spelling1     
hyphenation1 and period usage after     
abbreviations have been retained from   
the original4