THE GRAVE 5

The Grave - Page 5
Fuseli's arrangement
Blake's Watercolor

Wikimedia Commons
The Grave - Page 5
Cromak's arrangement
Schiavonetti's Engraving 

  

Fuseli - V. THE GOOD OLD MAN DYING.

 
Book - 5 Death of the Strong Wicked Man

 
Perhaps it is worth noting that in Fuseli's title to the fifth illustration to Blair's The Grave, he used the word 'dying' instead of 'death' to describe what was happening. Dying is a process which takes place in the world of matter. It is the relinquishing the natural body to be replaced by the spiritual body. Man enters the Door of Death into Eternal Death not naked but carrying a body fit for Eden.

 

Blake taught that the babe is born innocent and bearing the potential for goodness to be expressed as he journeys through life in the material world. The Good Old Man Dying has not accumulated sorrows and regrets as he traveled through the Vale of Death for he lived in hope and faith and love patiently awaiting the glory which would be revealed.

Annotations to Reynolds, (E 656)
   "Reynolds Thinks that Man Learns all that he Knows I say on
the Contrary That Man Brings All that he has or Can have Into the
World with him.  Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown  
This World is too poor to produce one Seed"  

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 86, (E 369)
"Come hither be patient let us converse together because  
I also tremble at myself & at all my former life

Enitharmon answerd I behold the Lamb of God descending
To Meet these Spectres of the Dead I therefore fear that he
Will give us to Eternal Death fit punishment for such
Hideous offenders Uttermost extinction in eternal pain    
An ever dying life of stifling & obstruction shut out
Of existence to be a sign & terror to all who behold
Lest any should in futurity do as we have done in heaven
Such is our state nor will the Son of God redeem us but destroy
PAGE 98 [90] 
So Enitharmon spoke trembling & in torrents of tears

Los sat in Golgonooza in the Gate of Luban where     
He had erected many porches where branchd the Mysterious Tree 
Where the Spectrous dead wail & sighing thus he spoke to Enitharmon

Lovely delight of Men Enitharmon shady refuge from furious war
Thy bosom translucent is a soft repose for the weeping souls
Of those piteous victims of battle there they sleep in happy obscurity
They feed upon our life we are their victims. Stern desire
I feel to fabricate embodied semblances in which the dead
May live before us in our palaces & in our gardens of labour  
Which now opend within the Center we behold spread abroad
To form a world of Sacrifice of brothers & sons & daughters   
To comfort Orc in his dire sufferings; look! my fires enlume afresh
Before my face ascending with delight as in ancient times" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII Page 103, (E 376)
"In Golgonoozas Furnaces among the Anvils of time & space
Thus forming a Vast family wondrous in beauty & love
And they appeard a Universal female form created,
From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead
PAGE 104 (FIRST PORTION) 
And Enitharmon namd the Female Jerusalem the holy
Wondring she saw the Lamb of God within Jerusalems Veil
The divine Vision seen within the inmost deep recess
Of fair Jerusalems bosom in a gently beaming fire

Then sang the Sons of Eden round the Lamb of God & said 
Glory Glory Glory to the holy Lamb of God
Who now beginneth to put off the dark Satanic body
Now we behold redemption Now we know that life Eternal
Depends alone upon the Universal hand & not in us
Is aught but death In individual weakness sorrow & pain" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 104 (SECOND PORTION), (E 378)
"Los said to Enitharmon Pitying I saw
Pitying the Lamb of God Descended thro Jerusalems gates
To put off Mystery time after time & as a Man
Is born on Earth so was he born of Fair Jerusalem
In mysterys woven mantle & in the Robes of Luvah 

He stood in fair Jerusalem to awake up into Eden
The fallen Man but first to Give his vegetated body 
To be cut off & separated that the Spiritual body may be Reveald"

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Prayer of St Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me
sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where 
there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to
console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For
it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are 
pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life. 

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