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| British Museum Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts |
Reading on Page 152 of Golgonooza: City of Imagination:
"Not only is the Divine Humanity the sum of all the blessed spirits who together comprise the 'heavens' but so with all the 'states' of being, whether of the heavens or the hells. Within the greater being of the Divine Humanity all these States exist, like organs of a single body. Of all these human States the Scriptures provides Blake (following Swedenborg) with representative types of 'All that can happen to Man in his pilgrimage of seventy years'... Thus the groups of figures, or individual figures, in Blake's composition are representatives of collectivities, the composition as a whole representing the universal body of the Divine Humanity, the Grand Man of the Heavens. So understood the painting's approximation to an organic unity comprising in a single life all the figures, whether in the celestial, the infernal or intermediate regions becomes understandable; as does the appearance of a flow, a circulation of life within the unity - the Person - within whom all humanity is seen to live and move and have our being."
Acts 17
[18] Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him [Paul]. And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities" -- because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
[19] And they took hold of him and brought him to the Are-op'agus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present?
[20] For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean."
[21] Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
[22] So Paul, standing in the middle of the Are-op'agus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
[23] For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
[24] The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man,
[25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.
[26] And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation,
[27] that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us,
[28] for `In him we live and move and have our being';
as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.'
"Not only is the Divine Humanity the sum of all the blessed spirits who together comprise the 'heavens' but so with all the 'states' of being, whether of the heavens or the hells. Within the greater being of the Divine Humanity all these States exist, like organs of a single body. Of all these human States the Scriptures provides Blake (following Swedenborg) with representative types of 'All that can happen to Man in his pilgrimage of seventy years'... Thus the groups of figures, or individual figures, in Blake's composition are representatives of collectivities, the composition as a whole representing the universal body of the Divine Humanity, the Grand Man of the Heavens. So understood the painting's approximation to an organic unity comprising in a single life all the figures, whether in the celestial, the infernal or intermediate regions becomes understandable; as does the appearance of a flow, a circulation of life within the unity - the Person - within whom all humanity is seen to live and move and have our being."
Acts 17
[18] Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him [Paul]. And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities" -- because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
[19] And they took hold of him and brought him to the Are-op'agus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present?
[20] For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean."
[21] Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
[22] So Paul, standing in the middle of the Are-op'agus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
[23] For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
[24] The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man,
[25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.
[26] And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation,
[27] that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us,
[28] for `In him we live and move and have our being';
as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.'
Milton, Plate 13 [14], (E 107)
"The Bard replied. I am Inspired! I know it is Truth! for I Sing
Plate 14 [15]
According to the inspiration of the Poetic Genius
Who is the eternal all-protecting Divine Humanity
To whom be Glory & Power & Dominion Evermore Amen"
Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 131)
"But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form
Because we were combind in Freedom & holy Brotherhood"
Jerusalem, Plate 49, (E 198)
"O Polypus of Death O Spectre over Europe and Asia
Withering the Human Form by Laws of Sacrifice for Sin
By Laws of Chastity & Abhorrence I am witherd up.
Striving to Create a Heaven in which all shall be pure & holy
In their Own Selfhoods, in Natural Selfish Chastity to banish Pity
And dear Mutual Forgiveness; & to become One Great Satan
Inslavd to the most powerful Selfhood: to murder the Divine Humanity
In whose sight all are as the dust & who chargeth his Angels with folly!"
Jerusalem, Plate 61, (E 212)
"Before I had ever beheld with love the Face of Jehovah; or known
That there was a God of Mercy: O Mercy O Divine Humanity!
O Forgiveness & Pity & Compassion! If I were Pure I should never
Have known Thee; If I were Unpolluted I should never have
Glorified thy Holiness, or rejoiced in thy great Salvation."
Design of the Last Judgment, (E 554)
To Ozias Humphry Esq
"many Infants appear in the Glory
representing the Eternal Creation flowing from the Divine
Humanity in Jesus who opens the Scroll of Judgment upon his knees
before the Living & the Dead
Such is the Design which you my Dear Sir have been the cause
of my producing & which but for you might have slept till the
Last Judgment"
Jerusalem, Plate 16, (E 161)
"All things acted on Earth are seen in the bright Sculptures of
Los's Halls & every Age renews its powers from these Works
With every pathetic story possible to happen from Hate or
Wayward Love & every sorrow & distress is carved here
Every Affinity of Parents Marriages & Friendships are here
In all their various combinations wrought with wondrous Art
All that can happen to Man in his pilgrimage of seventy years
Such is the Divine Written Law of Horeb & Sinai:
And such the Holy Gospel of Mount Olivet & Calvary:"
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