INSPIRATION

British Museum

Milton

Plate 15

To Annihilate the Selfhood of Deceit & False Forgiveness

Iain McGilchrist is the author of the book The Master and his Emissary. McGilchrist postulates the right side of the brain which functions as a whole has been preempted by the left side of the brain which process partially, primarily through reasoning.

McGilchrist portrays the romantic movement as a reaction against the enlightenment or age of reason. McGilchrist sees that left side of the brain, which processes thought in the way that Blake's Urizen did, has come to dominate man's psyche. Like Urizen the left side of the brain is rational, rigid, inflexible, and locked in the continuum of space and time - the 'here and now'. Blake's Los uses the right side of his brain by depending on imagination to see the infinite in all things, to integrate the opposites, and to act from inspiration.

There is No Natural Religion, (E 3)
"  VII The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite
& himself Infinite
     Conclusion,   If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic
character. the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the
ratio of all things & stand still, unable to do other than repeat
the same dull round over again
     Application.   He who sees the Infinite in all things sees
God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is"

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 11, (E 38)
 "Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God. nor heard any, in a finite
organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in
every thing, and as  I was then perswaded. & remain confirm'd;"

Milton, Plate 13, (E 108)
"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 40 [46], (E 142)
"There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries
The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination.
Plate 41 [48]
To bathe in the Waters of Life; to wash off the Not Human
I come in Self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration
To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour
To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration
To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albions covering          
To take off his filthy garments, & clothe him with Imagination
To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration
That it no longer shall dare to mock with the aspersion of Madness
Cast on the Inspired,"