MALEVOLENCE

MALEVOLENCE

Blake's friend George Cumberland recommended him to Rev John Trusler an ordained minister who also engaged in pursuits such as teaching, writing, practicing medicine, and promoting various schemes. Blake was to design and execute several paintings illustrating subjects of Trusler's choosing. However Blake felt constrained by Trusler's contrary view of creating images. Apparently Trusler would only be satisfied by an image which faithfully reproduced something which he observed in the world as he experienced it, or was oversimplified as a caricature. 

Blake observed the outer physical world, but his art had been processed in his mind before it was transferred to a representation in graphic form. Blake took the opportunity of his correspondence with Trusler and Cumberland to explain his ideas about the purpose and methods of art. As Blake saw it Trusler would have found Michelangelo's art as unacceptable as his own because the master was not portraying what he saw externally but what his mind conceived.    

The movie Field of Dreams best captures for me the dichotomy of seeing only what the sense is capable of discerning and the expanded capability of perceiving a vision. The transition between the two capabilities is dramatically illustrated by the players being physical and visible on the ball field, and being invisible and without substance when they step into the corn field. It was not about the nature of the two realities but about one's ability to switch between the two modes of experience.  Blake attempted to make the vision which he discerned perceptible to Trusler who seemed to be blind to the reality which expresses itself through imagination.   

Letters, (E 701)

"To The Revd Dr Trusler
Hercules Build* Lambeth Aug* 16. 1799
Revd Sir
     I find more & more that my Style of Designing is a Species
by itself. & in this which I send you have been compelld by my
Genius or Angel to follow where he led if I were to act otherwise
it would not fulfill the purpose for which alone I live. which is
in conjunction with such men as my friend Cumberland to renew the
lost Art of the Greeks
     I attempted every morning for a fortnight together to follow
your Dictate. but when I found my attempts were in vain. resolvd
to shew an independence which I know will please an Author better
than slavishly following the track of another however admirable
that track may be At any rate my Excuse must be: I could not do
otherwise, it was out of my power!
     I know I begged of you to give me your Ideas & promised to
build on them here I counted without my host   I now find my
mistake
     The Design I have Sent.  Is
     A Father taking leave of his Wife & Child.  Is watchd by Two
Fiends incarnate. with intention that when his back is turned
they will murder the mother & her infant--If this is not
Malevolence with a vengeance I have never seen it on Earth. & if
you approve of this I have no doubt of giving you Benevolence
with Equal Vigor. as also Pride & Humility. but cannot previ-
ously describe in words what I mean to Design for fear I should
Evaporate some of the Spirit of my Invention.  But I
hope that none of my Designs will be destitute of Infinite
Particulars which will present themselves to the Contemplator. 
And tho I call them Mine   I know that they are not Mine being of
the same opinion with Milton when he says That the Muse visits
his Slumbers & awakes & governs his Song when Morn purples The
East. & being also in the predicament of that prophet who says  I
cannot go beyond the command of the Lord to speak good or bad
     If you approve of my Manner & it is agreeable to you.  I
would rather Paint Pictures in oil of the same dimensions   than
make Drawings. & on the same terms. by this means you will have a
number of Cabinet pictures. which I flatter myself will not be
unworthy of a Scholar of Rembrant & Teniers. whom I have Studied
no less than Rafael & Michael angelo--Please to send me your
orders respecting this & In my next Effort I promise more
Expedition 
I am Revd Sir 
Your very humble servt 
WILLm BLAKE"

Letters, (E 702)
"Revd Dr Trusler, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey
13 Hercules Buildings,.Lambeth, August 23, 1799
Revd Sir
     I really am sorry that you are falln out with the Spiritual
World Especially if I should have to answer for it I feel very
sorry that your Ideas & Mine on Moral Painting differ so much as
to have made you angry with my method of Study.  If I am wrong I
am wrong in good company.  I had hoped your plan comprehended All
Species of this Art & Especially that you would not reject that
Species which gives Existence to Every other. namely Visions of
Eternity You say that I want somebody to Elucidate my Ideas.  But
you ought to know that What is Grand is necessarily obscure to
Weak men.  That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not
worth my care.  The wisest of the Ancients considerd what is not
too Explicit as the fittest for Instruction because it rouzes the
faculties to act.  I name Moses Solomon Esop Homer Plato
     But as you have favord me with your remarks on my Design
permit me in return to defend it against a mistaken one, which
is.  That I have supposed Malevolence without a Cause.--Is not
Merit in one a Cause of Envy in another & Serenity & Happiness &
Beauty a Cause of Malevolence.  But Want of Money & the Distress
of A Thief can never be alledged as the Cause of his Thievery.
for many honest people endure greater hard ships with Fortitude
We must therefore seek the Cause elsewhere than in want of Money
for that is the Misers passion, not the Thiefs
     I have therefore proved your Reasonings Ill proportiond
which you can never prove my figures to be.  They are those of
Michael Angelo Rafael & the Antique & of the best living Models.
I percieve that your Eye[s] is perverted by Caricature
Prints, which ought not to abound so much as they do.  Fun I love
but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom.  Mirth is
better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth--I feel that a
Man may be happy in This World.  And I know that This World Is a
World of Imagination & Vision I see Every thing I paint In This
World, but Every body does not see alike.  To the Eyes of a Miser
a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun & a bag worn with the use
of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with
Grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes
of others only a Green thing that stands in the way.  Some See
Nature all Ridicule & Deformity & by these I shall not regulate
my proportions, & Some Scarce see Nature at all But to the Eyes
of the Man of Imagination Nature is Imagination itself.  As a man
is So he Sees.  As the Eye is formed such are its Powers You
certainly Mistake when you say that the Visions of Fancy are not
be found in This World.  To Me This World is all One continued
Vision of Fancy or Imagination & I feel Flatterd when I am told
So.  What is it sets Homer Virgil & Milton in so high a rank of
Art.  Why is the Bible more
Entertaining & Instructive than any other book.  Is it not
because they are addressed to the Imagination which is Spiritual
Sensation & but mediately to the Understanding or Reason Such is
True Painting and such was alone valued by the Greeks & the
best modern Artists.  Consider what Lord Bacon says "Sense sends
over to Imagination before Reason have judged & Reason sends over
to Imagination before the Decree can be acted."   See Advancemt of
Learning Part 2 P 47 of first Edition
     But I am happy to find a Great Majority of Fellow Mortals
who can Elucidate My Visions & Particularly they have been
Elucidated by Children who have taken a greater delight in
contemplating my Pictures than I even hoped.  Neither Youth nor
Childhood is Folly or Incapacity Some Children are Fools
& so are some Old Men.  But There is a vast Majority on the
side of Imagination or Spiritual Sensation
     To Engrave after another Painter is infinitely more
laborious than to Engrave ones own Inventions.  And of the Size
you require my price has been Thirty Guineas & I cannot afford to
do it for less.  I had Twelve for the Head I sent you as a
Specimen, but after my own designs I could do at least Six times
the quantity of labour in the same time which will account for
the difference of price as also that Chalk Engraving is at least
six times as laborious as Aqua tinta.  I have no objection to
Engraving after another Artist.  Engraving is the profession I
was apprenticed to, & should never have attempted to live by any
thing else If orders had not come in for my Designs & Paintings,
which I have the pleasure to tell you are Increasing Every Day.
Thus If I am a Painter it is not to be attributed to Seeking
after.  But I am contented whether I live by Painting or
Engraving
     I am Revd Sir Your very obedient servant
WILLIAM BLAKE"

Letters, (E 703)
"Mr [George] Cumberland, Bishopsgate,
Windsor Great Park
Hercules Buildings, Lambeth. Augst 26. 1799
Dear Cumberland
     I ought long ago to have written to you to thank you for
your kind recommendation to Dr Trusler which tho it has faild of
success is not the less to be rememberd by me with Gratitude--
     I have made him a Drawing in my best manner he has sent it
back with a Letter full of Criticisms in which he says it accords
not with his Intentions which are to Reject all Fancy from his
Work.  How far he Expects to please I cannot tell.  But as I
cannot paint Dirty rags & old Shoes where I ought to place Naked
Beauty or simple ornament.  I despair of Ever pleasing one Class
of Men--Unfortunately our authors of books are among this Class
how soon we Shall have a change for the better I cannot Prophecy.
Dr Trusler says 
"Your Fancy from what I have seen of it. & I have seen
variety at Mr Cumberlands seems to be in the other world or the
World of Spirits. which accords not with my Intentions. which
whilst living in This World Wish to follow the Nature of
it" I could not help Smiling at the difference between the
doctrines of Dr Trusler & those of Christ.  But however for his
own sake   I am sorry that a Man should be so enamourd of
Rowlandsons caricatures as to call them copies from life &
manners or fit Things for a Clergyman to write upon
     Pray let me intreat you to persevere in your Designing it is
the only source of Pleasure   all your other pleasures depend
upon It.  It is the Tree Your Pleasures are the Fruit.  Your
Inventions of Intellectual Visions are the Stamina of every thing
you value.  Go on if not for your own sake yet for ours who love
& admire your works. but above all For the Sake of the Arts.  Do
not throw aside for any long time the honour intended you by
Nature to revive the Greek workmanship.  I study your outlines as
usual just as if they were antiques.
     As to Myself about whom you are so kindly Interested.  I
live by Miracle.  I am Painting small Pictures from the Bible.
For as to Engraving in which art I cannot reproach myself with
any neglect yet I am laid by in a corner as if I did not Exist &
Since my Youngs Night Thoughts have been publishd Even Johnson &
Fuseli have discarded my Graver.  But as I know that He who Works
& has his health cannot starve.  I laugh at Fortune & Go on &
on.  I think I foresee better Things than I have ever seen.  My
Work pleases my employer & I have an order for Fifty small
Pictures at One Guinea each which is Something better than mere
copying after another artist.  But above all I feel myself happy
& contented   let what will come having passed now near twenty
years in ups & downs I am used to them & perhaps a little
practise in them may turn out to benefit.  It is now Exactly
Twenty years since I was upon the ocean of business & Tho I laugh
at Fortune I am perswaded that She Alone is the Governor of
Worldly Riches. & when it is Fit She will call on me till then I
wait with Patience in hopes that She is busied among my Friends.
     With Mine & My Wifes best compliments to Mr Cumberland
I remain
Yours sincerely
WILLm BLAKE" 

---

This is for those who may be confused by Blake's use of the word 'Fancy.'

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fancy

synonym study for fancy

9. Fancy, fantasy, imagination refer to qualities in literature or other artistic composition. The creations of fancy are casual, whimsical, and often amusing, being at once less profound and less moving or inspiring than those of imagination: letting one's fancy play freely on a subject; an impish fancy. Fantasy now usually suggests an unrestrained or extravagant fancy, often resulting in caprice: The use of fantasy in art creates interesting results. The term and concept of creative imagination are less than two hundred years old; previously only the reproductive aspect had been recognized, hardly to be distinguished from memory. “Creative imagination” suggests that the memories of actual sights and experiences may so blend in the mind of the writer or artist as to produce something that has never existed before—often a hitherto unperceived vision of reality: to use imagination in portraying character and action.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fancy

An image or representation of anything formed in the mind. Synonyms: conception, thought, idea

---

IMAGINATIVE VISION

Gates of Paradise
Plate 15

Northrop Frye (like each of us) was born with certain gifts of talents which were his birthright, but he was responsible for developing them: recognizing them, applying them, and discovering what purpose they could best serve.  He studied philosophy and theology but determined that he was less suited for ministry than academia.

Here is a quote from Canadian Christian Leaders website:
"The most important factor in Frye’s shift to literature was William Blake. 'I date everything,' he said in an interview at the end of his life, 'from my discovery of Blake as an undergraduate and graduate student.' He described a moment of insight that he had while writing a paper on Blake’s Milton, when 'suddenly the universe just broke open, and I’ve never been, as they say, the same man since.' At the centre of Blake’s vision, as Frye saw it, was the expansive energy and consciousness belonging to an imaginative vision of reality, a faith in the power of the arts to 'show us the human world that man is trying to build out of nature.'” 

After studying English Literature at Oxford Frye returned to Canada and embarked on his career of teaching and writing literary criticism. This short passage from his first book, Fearful Symmetry, is an indication of the congruence of Frye's mind and Blake's mind. Because Frye was able to think like Blake thought, he could in his own way write like Blake wrote, although the two men concentrated their attention on their individual fields of endeavor.  

Frye wrote: "The justification for Blake's kind of dehydrated epic is a simple matter of literary honesty. Poems must take their own forms, and these precipitates of meaning are the forms that poetry takes in Blake's crystallized mind. And epic of such forms cannot be expanded: it can only be padded, and padding is immoral...The beauty of Jerusalem is the beauty of intense concentration, the beauty of the Sutra, of the aphorisms which are the forms of so much of the greatest vision, of a figured bass indicating the harmonic progression of ideas too tremendous to be expressed by a single melody." Page 359

Perhaps by reading the following passages we can recognize some of the characteristics Frye points out as representative of Blake's technique of communication.

---

Auguries of Innocence, (E 495)
"He who Doubts from what he sees
Will neer Believe do what you Please
If the Sun & Moon should Doubt
Theyd immediately Go out 
To be in a Passion you Good may Do
But no Good if a Passion is in you
The Whore & Gambler by the State
Licencd build that Nations Fate
The Harlots cry from Street to Street 
Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet
The Winners Shout the Losers Curse
Dance before dead Englands Hearse
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born 
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day"
  

Songs of Experience, Song 42, (E 24)
"The Tyger.                     
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,   
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

In what distant deeps or skies.        
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
On what wings dare he aspire? 
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
 
What the hammer? what the chain, 
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,       
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!               

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?                  
Did he who made the Lamb make thee? 

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:                        
What immortal hand or eye,                     
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"          

Letters, (E 728)
[To] Mr Butts, Grt Marlborough Street
Felpham April 25: 1803
My Dear Sir
...
 And now My Dear Sir Congratulate me on my return to London
with the full approbation of Mr Hayley & with Promise--But Alas!
     Now I may say to you what perhaps I should not dare to say
to any one else.  That I can alone carry on my visionary studies
in London unannoyd & that I may converse with my friends in
Eternity.  See Visions, Dream Dreams, & prophecy & speak Parables
unobserv'd & at liberty from the Doubts of other Mortals. perhaps
Doubts proceeding from Kindness. but Doubts are always pernicious
Especially when we Doubt our Friends   Christ is very decided on
this Point.  "He who is Not With Me is Against Me" There is no
Medium or Middle state & if a Man is the Enemy of my Spiritual
Life while he pretends to be the Friend of my Corporeal. he is a
Real Enemy--but the Man may be the friend of my Spiritual Life
while he seems the Enemy of my Corporeal but Not Vice Versa
     What is very pleasant.  Every one who hears of my going to
London again Applauds it as the only course for the interest of
all concernd in My Works.  Observing that I ought not to be away
from the opportunities London affords of seeing fine Pictures and
the various improvements in Works of Art going on in London
     But none can know the Spiritual Acts of my three years
Slumber on the banks of the Ocean unless he has seen them in the
Spirit or unless he should read My long Poem descriptive of those
Acts for I have in these three years composed an immense number
of verses on One Grand Theme Similar to Homers Iliad or Miltons
Paradise Lost the Person & Machinery intirely new to the
Inhabitants of Earth (some of the Persons Excepted) I have
written
this Poem from immediate Dictation twelve or sometimes twenty or
thirty lines at a time without Premeditation & even against my
Will. the Time it has taken in writing was thus renderd Non
Existent. & an immense Poem Exists which seems to be the Labour
of a long Life all producd without Labour or Study.  I mention
this to shew you what I think the Grand Reason of my being
brought down here
     I have a thousand & ten thousand things to say to you.  My
heart is full of futurity.  I percieve that the sore travel which
has been given me these three years leads to Glory & Honour.  I
rejoice & I tremble "I am fearfully & wonderfully made".  I had
been reading the cxxxix Psalm a little before your Letter
arrived.  I take your advice.  I see the face of my Heavenly
Father he lays his Hand upon my Head & gives a blessing to all my
works why should I be troubled why should my heart & flesh cry
out.  I will go on in the Strength of the Lord through Hell will
I sing forth his Praises. that the Dragons of the Deep may praise
him & that those who dwell in darkness & on the Sea coasts may be
gatherd into his Kingdom.  Excuse my perhaps too great
Enthusiasm.  Please to accept of & give our Loves to Mrs Butts &
your amiable Family. & believe me to be----

Ever Yours Affectionately
WILL. BLAKE."
 

Psalms 139
[1] O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
[2] Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
[3] Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
[4] For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
[5] Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
[7] Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
[8] If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
[9] If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
[10] Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
[11] If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
[12] Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
[13] For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
[14] I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
[15] My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
[16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
[17] How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
[18] If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

.

SMALL BOOK OF DESIGNS

British Museum

Small Book of Designs 

From Book of Urizen 

 Of this image David V Erdman makes this statement in The illuminated Blake :

"The 'anguish dividing and dividing" Los's soul mounts to pulsations of labor eventuating in the birth of Enitharmon, the pity engendered by his response to Urizen's plight or need. The process takes 'eternity on eternity' and he holds his hands against his ears , as if to shut out noise, or to keep his head from melting away, or to extrude the placental globe of blood." (Page 199)

All of the prints in the Small Book of Designs had been published by Blake as previously published plates in earlier books. However before printing Blake masked the text on the pages as requested by Ozias Humphry who commissioned the work. Blake overcame his reluctance to separate text from images to satisfy his friend's request.

Years later in a letter to Dawson Turner, Blake lamented the 'Loss of some of the best things' by splitting the pictures from the poetry which had led to their execution. The conception and the execution were of one piece to Blake and not to be torn apart.

Letters, (E 771) 

To Dawson Turner Esqre, Yarmouth, Norfolk
9 June 1818, 17 South Molton Street

Sir
     I send you a List of the different Works you have done me
the honour to enquire after--unprofitable enough to me tho
Expensive to the Buyer
     Those I Printed for Mr Humphry are a selection from the
different Books of such as could be Printed without the Writing
tho to the Loss of some of the best things  For they when Printed
perfect accompany Poetical Personifications & Acts without which
Poems they never could have been Executed"

To view all of the images of the Small Book of Designs in one place visit the Blake Archive.
The following links connect with posts from 2011 which show the images along with text which associates the image with a passage of poetry.

Design 1

Designs 2 3 4

Designs 5 6 7

Designs 8 9 10

Designs 11 12 13

Designs 14 15 16

Designs 17 18 19

Designs 20 21 22

Designs 23

Designs

PERSPECTIVE

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 39

Jerusalem Plate 39, (E 181) 

"Los was the friend of Albion who most lov'd him. In Cambridgeshire
His eternal station, he is the twenty-eighth, & is four-fold.
Seeing Albion had turn'd his back against the Divine Vision,
Los said to Albion, Whither fleest thou? Albion reply'd.         

I die! I go to Eternal Death! the shades of death
Hover within me & beneath, and spreading themselves outside
Like rocky clouds, build me a gloomy monument of woe:
Will none accompany me in my death? or be a Ransom for me
In that dark Valley? I have girded round my cloke, and on my feet

Bound these black shoes of death, & on my hands, death's iron gloves:
God hath forsaken me, & my friends are become a burden
A weariness to me, & the human footstep is a terror to me.

Los answerd, troubled: and his soul was rent in twain:
Must the Wise die for an Atonement? does Mercy endure Atonement? 
No! It is Moral Severity, & destroys Mercy in its Victim.
So speaking, not yet infected with the Error & Illusion,"

Blake was not setting up a scientific experiment when he wrote of the process in the fall and recovery of humanity. He did not suggest that the Philosophers Stone would be produced by collecting the right ingredients, following the right procedures and, using the proper techniques in such a way that the outcome would be assured. Blake asked his reader to become aware of the minute details, while at the same time he was cognizant of the whole of which the details were a part.

Northrop Frye wrote of this situation in The Double Vision, the last book he wrote before his death in 1991. You may recall that his first book, published in 1947, was   Fearful Symmetry.

"If the spirit of man and the spirit of God inhabit the same world, that fact is more important than the theological relation between them." Page 84

"There is nothing unique about death itself...
In the double vision of a spiritual and a physical world simultaneously present, every moment we have lived through we have also died out of into another order. Our life in the resurrection, then, is already here, and waiting to be recognized." Page 85
 
If there was one big Truth that Blake wanted to convey it was that the message of Jesus was still waiting to be heard. The New Testament shows us the truth that God is an internal reality which is ever-present and makes man whole. But this message has fallen into the hands of people who reject the truth of it and alter it into the old falsehoods of following external routines of ritual and law and selfish interest. The grip of darkness and error maintains its hold in the minds and lives of people.

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 114, (E 385)
"And Los & Enitharmon took the Body of the Lamb 
Down from the Cross & placd it in a Sepulcher which Los had hewn
For himself in the Rock of Eternity trembling & in despair 
Jerusalem wept over the Sepulcher two thousand Years
Page 115  
Rahab triumphs over all she took Jerusalem
Captive A Willing Captive by delusive arts impelld
To worship Urizens Dragon form to offer her own Children
Upon the bloody Altar. John Saw these things Reveald in Heaven
On Patmos Isle & heard the Souls cry out to be deliverd"

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 563)
"The Combats of Good & Evil is Eating of the Tree
of Knowledge     The Combats of Truth & Error is Eating of the Tree
of Life   & of Truth & Error which are the same thing
these are not only Universal but Particular.  Each are
Personified There is not an Error but it has a Man for its
Agent that is it is a Man.. There is not a Truth
but it has also a Man                 Good & Evil are Qualities in Every Man
whether Good or Evil Man          These are Enemies & destroy one
another by every Means in their power both of deceit & of open
Violence The Deist & the Christian are but the Results of these
Opposing Natures Many are Deists who would in certain Circumstances   
have been Christians   in outward appearance Voltaire was one of
this number he was as intolerant as an Inquisitor   Manners make
the Man not Habits.  It is the same in Art by their Works ye [P
90] shall know them the Knave who is Converted to Deism & the
Knave who is Converted to Christianity is still a Knave but he
himself will not know it tho Every body else does    Christ comes
as he came at first to deliver those who were bound under the
Knave not to deliver the Knave He Comes to Deliver Man the
Accused & not Satan the Accuser        we do not
find any where that Satan is Accused of Sin he is only accused of
Unbelief & thereby drawing Man into Sin that he may accuse him. 
Such is the Last Judgment a Deliverance from Satans Accusation
Satan thinks that Sin is displeasing to God he ought to know that
Nothing is displeasing to God but Unbelief & Eating of the Tree
of Knowledge of Good & Evil" 

Annotations to Watson, (E 614)
 "To me who believe the Bible & profess myself a Christian a
defence of the Wickedness of the Israelites in murdering so many
thousands under pretence of a command from God is altogether
Abominable & Blasphemous.  Wherefore did Christ come was it not
to abolish the Jewish Imposture   Was not Christ murderd because
he taught that God loved all Men & was their father & forbad all
contention for Worldly prosperity in opposition to the Jewish
Scriptures which are only an Example of the wickedness & deceit
of the Jews & were written as an Example of the possibility of
Human Beastliness in all its branches.  Christ died as an
Unbeliever . & if the Bishops had their will so would Paine. 

but he who speaks a word against the Son of man shall be
forgiven let the Bishop prove that he has not spoken against 

the Holy Ghost who in Paine strives with Christendom as in
Christ he strove with the Jews" 

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

"That the Jews assumed a right Exclusively to the benefits
of God. will be a lasting witness against them. & the same will
it be against Christians"

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

"The Bible or Peculiar Word of God, Exclusive of Conscience
or the Word of God Universal, is that Abomination which like the
Jewish ceremonies is for ever removed & henceforth every man may
converse with God & be a King & Priest in his own house" 
 

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

"The Bible tells me that the plan of Providence was Subverted
at the Fall of Adam & that it was not restored till Christ" 

Letters, To Butts, (E 719) 

"And now let me finish with assuring you that Tho I have been
very unhappy I am so no longer I am again Emerged into the light
of Day I still & shall to Eternity Embrace Christianity and Adore
him who is the Express image of God but I have traveld thro
Perils & Darkness not unlike a Champion I have Conquerd and shall
still Go on Conquering Nothing can withstand the fury of my
Course among the Stars of God & in the Abysses of the Accuser My
Enthusiasm is still what it was only Enlarged and confirmd"

Blake's Notebook, (E 876)
    " It was when Jesus said to Me
     Thy Sins are all forgiven thee
     The Christian trumpets loud proclaim
     Thro all the World in Jesus name
     Mutual forgiveness of each Vice
     And oped the Gates of Paradise
     The Moral Virtues in Great fear
     Formed the Cross & Nails & Spear
     And the Accuser standing by
     Cried out Crucify Crucify
     Our Moral Virtues neer can be
     Nor Warlike pomp & Majesty
     For Moral Virtues all begin
     In the Accusations of Sin

Blake's Notebook, (E 876)   

    "If Moral Virtue was Christianity
     Christs Pretensions were all Vanity
     And Caiphas & Pilate Men
     Of Moral Praise Worth   & the Lions Den
     And not the Sheepfold Allegories
     Of God & Heaven & their Glories 

     The Moral Christian is the Cause 
     Of the Unbeliever & his Laws"

DESIGN 8 - PREACHING

For each of the eight images in the Large Book of Designs, I will republish an earlier post to shed light on how the picture fits into Blake's overall myth of Creation, Fall and Apocalypse.
 
8) Preaching to the inhabitants of Britain

Saturday, October 21, 2017

PERFECT UNITY

Wikimedia Commons
Joseph of Arimathea preaching to the inhabitants of Britain

Blake saw that the Perfect Unity of Homer's poetry was apparent in its parts (minute particulars) as much as in its totality. The unifying force came not from what the author included or omitted but from his own inner truth or spirit from which he was writing. The ability to trust his imagination instead of his reasoning power enabled him to connect with the underlying reality which transcends individual experience.

The Perfect Unity of Homer's poetry included the bad with the good. It was not about morality but about intrinsic character. Blake considered bad and good to be contraries whose differences would be reconciled when error was annihilated. The substance of poetry is furnished not by the Reasoning Abstract but by the Imagination which has access to the Holy Spirit - connecting the image of God within each with the One in whose image man is made.

ON HOMERS POETRY, (E 269) 
"Every Poem must necessarily be a perfect Unity, but why Homers is

peculiarly so, I cannot tell: he has told the story of
Bellerophon & omitted the judgment of Paris which is not only a
part, but a principal part of Homers subject
  But when a Work has Unity it is as much in a Part as in the
Whole. the Torso is as much a Unity as the Laocoon
  As Unity is the cloke of folly so Goodness is the cloke of
knavery  Those who will have Unity exclusively in Homer come out
with a Moral like a sting in the tail: Aristotle says Characters
are either Good or Bad: now Goodness or Badness has nothing to do
with Character. an Apple tree a Pear tree a Horse a Lion, are
Characters but a Good Apple tree or a Bad, is an Apple tree
still: a Horse is not more a Lion for being a Bad Horse. that is
its Character; its Goodness or Badness is another consideration.
  It is the same with the Moral of a whole Poem as with the Moral
Goodness
of its parts Unity & Morality, are secondary considerations &
belong to Philosophy & not to Poetry, to Exception & not to Rule,
to Accident & not to Substance. the Ancients calld it eating of
the tree of good & evil.
  The Classics, it is the Classics! & not Goths nor Monks, that
Desolate Europe with Wars.
                                                             
ON VIRGIL                            
Sacred Truth has pronounced that Greece & Rome as Babylon &
Egypt: so far from being parents of Arts & Sciences as they
pretend: were destroyers of all Art.  Homer Virgil & Ovid confirm
this opinion & make us reverence The Word of God, the only light
of antiquity that remains unperverted by War.  Virgil in the
Eneid Book VI. line 848 says Let others study Art: Rome has
somewhat better to do, namely War & Dominion
  Rome & Greece swept Art into their maw & destroyd it     a
Warlike State never can produce Art.  It will Rob & Plunder &
accumulate into one place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell &
Criticise, but not Make.
  Mathematic Form is Eternal in the Reasoning Memory.  Living
Form is Eternal Existence.
  Grecian is Mathematic Form
  Gothic is Living Form"

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 544)
"The human mind cannot go beyond the
gift of God, the Holy Ghost.  To suppose that Art can go beyond
the finest specimens of Art that are now in the world, is not
knowing what Art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the
spirit."

Vision of last Judgment, (E 554)
 "The Last Judgment when all those are Cast away who trouble
Religion with Questions concerning Good & Evil or Eating of the
Tree of those Knowledges or Reasonings which hinder the Vision of
God turning all into a Consuming fire  Imaginative Art &
Science & all Intellectual Gifts all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
are [despisd] lookd upon as of no use & only Contention
remains to Man then the Last Judgment begins & its Vision is seen
by the [Imaginative Eye] of Every one according to the
situation he holds"

Milton, Plate 25 [27], (E 122)
"And you shall Reap the whole Earth, from Pole to Pole! from Sea to Sea
Begining at Jerusalems Inner Court, Lambeth ruin'd and given
To the detestable Gods of Priam, to Apollo: and at the Asylum
Given to Hercules, who labour in Tirzahs Looms for bread    
Who set Pleasure against Duty: who Create Olympic crowns
To make Learning a burden & the Work of the Holy Spirit: Strife."

Jerusalem, Plate 74 (E 229)
"The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man; & when separated      
From Imagination, and closing itself as in steel, in a Ratio
Of the Things of Memory. It thence frames Laws & Moralities
To destroy Imagination! the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars

Teach me O Holy Spirit the Testimony of Jesus! let me
Comprehend wonderous things out of the Divine Law"
_____________________

Ephesians 3
[8] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
[9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
[11] According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
[12] In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

____________________

In the eighth image in The Large Book of Designs, Blake is saying many things at the same time:

He is making a connection between the issues which must be resolved in the England in which he lived, and the solutions which were presented by Jesus 2000 years ago.

He is showing the varied reactions which individuals have when they are offered opportunities to develop.

He is reminding people to be aware of their responsibilities to wake up to the truth of Spiritual Realities.

He is telling his audience that the downward spiral which is in progress because they have become entrapped in the outer world of false thinking about sex and war, will not be broken until they listen to the inner voice of oneness with God and Man. 


.

DESIGN 7 - THIRALATHA

For each of the eight images in the Large Book of Designs, I will republish an earlier post to shed light on how the picture fits into Blake's overall myth of Creation, Fall and Apocalypse.

7) Thiralatha
____________

2010/07

THIRALATHA

I enjoy locating Blake images which are rarely seen. Last week I came across an image in the British Museum collection which I had not seen before. It is from A Large Book of Designs which Blake was commissioned to make for Ozias Humphry (a painter of miniatures) in 1794.

The images from the book include:

Plate 1: "Albion rose from where he laboured at the Mill with Slaves
Giving himself for the Nations he danc'd the dance of Eternal Death"
Plate 2: The Accusers of Theft Adultery Murder, used as frontispiece of copy B of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Plate 3: Plate 21 of Book of Urizen - Los, Enitharmon, Orc
Plate 4: Plate 4 of Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Plate 5: Frontispiece to Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Plate 6: Joseph of Arimathea Preaching to the Inhabitants of Britain
Plate 7: Plate 8 of Book of Urizen
Plate 8: A Dream of Thiralatha from a canceled plate for America

Most of the images in A Large Book of Designs are familiar from other sources but this one was new to me: A Dream of Thiralatha. To see images from the Small and Large books of designs in the British Museum click on link.
These are two mentions of Thiralatha in Blake's early works.
 
America (E 59) [Fragment] [d]
"As when a dream of Thiralatha flies the midnight hour:
In vain the dreamer grasps the joyful images, they fly
Seen in obscured traces in the Vale of Leutha, So
The British Colonies beneath the woful Princes fade.

And so the Princes fade from earth, scarce seen by souls of men
But tho' obscur'd, this is the form of the Angelic land."

Europe, Plate 14, (E 66)
"Sotha & Thiralatha, secret dwellers of dreamful caves,
Arise and please the horrent fiend with your melodious songs.
Still all your thunders golden hoofd, & bind your horses black.
Orc! smile upon my children!
Smile son of my afflictions.
Arise O Orc and give our mountains joy of thy red light."

_________________________

In Fearful Symmetry, Northrop Frye describes the progressive decline of the children of Los and Enitharmon when the Divine Vision is lost:
"All of these sons (of Los) may under the wrong conditions be perverted and in fact are usually so portrayed. Rintrah may become fanatical bigotry, Palamabron lazy dilettantism, Bromion dogmatic prejudice, Sotha a berserk lust for fighting, Antamon sensuality, and so on. But there is a particular reason why they become perverted. Los is the spiritual form of time, and his 'emanation' is the spiritual form of space, Enitharmon. But until Los completes his task, Enitharmon will remain elusive and remote, and will be the tyranny which the idea of unbounded space exerts on the mind. (Page 261)
... 
"In human life Enitharmon is one of the presiding spirits of war, Blake calls war enslaved energy, and the energy he means is the organic energy of Orc. Organic energy, which exists in the world of generation, is primarily sexual energy, hence war is a perversion of the sexual impulse." (Page 262)


In A Blake Dictionary, S Foster Damon, provides a diagram of The Repression of Sex under Enitharmon on page 124.

Moving in a counterclockwise direction Ethinthus (body), leads to Leutha (guilt), followed by Oothoon (frustration) and ends with Thiralatha (erotic dreams). Thus the divisions of Enitharmon who was meant to embody Love and Imagination has become instead the source of sexual frustration and war (Sotha).
 
Song of Los, Plate 3, (E 67) 
"Times rolled on o'er all the sons of Har, time after time

Orc on Mount Atlas howld, chain'd down with the Chain of Jealousy
Then Oothoon hoverd over Judah & Jerusalem
And Jesus heard her voice (a man of sorrows) he recievd
A Gospel from wretched Theotormon.

The human race began to wither, for the healthy built            
Secluded places, fearing the joys of Love
And the disease'd only propagated:
So Antamon call'd up Leutha from her valleys of delight:
And to Mahomet a loose Bible gave.
But in the North, to Odin, Sotha gave a Code of War,             
Because of Diralada thinking to reclaim his joy." 

Although Damon calls Thiralatha "the last overt expression of thwarted sex," something of the Imagination remained in her as seen in the dream image of a lovely woman with a child falling into her arms .

. 

DESIGN 6 - BROMION & THEOTORMON

For each of the eight images in the Large Book of Designs, I will republish an earlier post to shed light on how the picture fits into Blake's overall myth of Creation, Fall and Apocalypse.
 
6) Bromion,Oothoon,Theotormon   
________  
Sunday, March 10, 2019

Love

Wikipedia Commons Songs of Innocence & of Experience Plate 40, Copy L

This is an extract from Chapter Two of Ram Horn'd With Gold by Larry Clayton. 

A very elementary lesson about love confronts the reader of "The Clod and the Pebble". It shows with stark simplicity the two kinds of love, divine and demonic.

Two kinds of love! Blake will explore the pebble's love with its infinite variety of forms before he allows us to rest again in the love of God. Blake's poem,Visions of the Daughters of Albion, (Look also at the Plates) begins with the words, "I loved Theotormon".

The heroine, Oothoon, thus describes the first significant act in a life of horror. Before the consummation of her love for Theotormon she is raped by Bromion. Then Theotormon won't have her; well named, he's tormented by God. Woman as a possession makes life hell for everyone. Here we find Blake's first full manifestation of the "torments of love and jealousy".

At the climax of this strange love song, with the irony all spent, Oothoon properly assesses conventional love and brands it,

"self-love that envies all, a creeping skeleton With lamplike eyes watching around the frozen marriage bed."

     Those are hot, passionate words of righteous indignation at what fallen men have made of love. Oothoon then proceeds to offer a happier form of married love:

"But silken nets and traps of adamant will Oothoon spread, And catch for thee girls of mild silver, or of furious gold. I'll lie beside thee on a bank & view their wanton play In lovely copulation, bliss on bliss, with Theotormon"

With these extravagant images the young poet shocks his reader into an awareness of love's spectrum of value. In the ironic language of 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' the first, jealous love, is the love of Heaven or Restraint, and the second, the selfless love, is that of Hell or Eternal Delight. This version of values set the style for Blake's use of the word. It became in his hands a sharp sword penetrating to the core of society's ills.

The subtitle of The Four Zoas begins, "The Torments of Love & Jealousy". Violent and passionate feelings characterize the entire epic. As soon as the reader can envision 4Z as a whole, he will perceive that all these passionate feelings in all of these characters have a common destructiveness and alienating effect, until the Moment of Grace recorded in Night vii. Love, hate, fear, pride, humiliation, all are united in this common fallenness.

In Night i the primeval pair, Los and Enitharmon, set the tone for the meaning of love in this fallen world. (They all too aptly portray the emotional universe of many married couples):

"Alternate Love & Hate [filled] his breast: hers Scorn & Jealousy". Enitharmon believes love to be a one way street. Speaking to Los of their parents: "...if we grateful prove They will withhold sweet love, whose food is thorns & bitter roots."

And in Night ii she announces her philosophy of the relations between man and woman: "The joy of woman is the death of her most best beloved Who dies for Love of her

In torments of fierce jealousy & pangs of adoration."

There you have love at its worst! This fairly represents Blake's ironic use of the word in his major work. In Blake's symbolic structure of thought love is most often a function of woman, who is a symbol of fallenness . Not until 'Jerusalem' do we meet the feminine embodiment of the Christian graces, among them love divine.

The notebookpoem which begins, "My Spectre around me night and day" merits study as an approach to understanding the use of Blake's symbolism to express his deepest feelings about life. I quote the climax of it. In the first verse Blake means by 'love' very much what Paul in Romans 8 meant by 'flesh'. In the second, without using the word, he expresses in the fullest possible way what divine love meant to him:   

"Let us agree to give up Love,

 And root up the infernal grove;

 Then shall we return & see

 The worlds of happy Eternity.

 
& Throughout all Eternity

 I forgive you, you forgive me.

 As our dear Redeemer said: 

This the Wine & this the Bread."

As these lines suggest, Blake had a strong sense of reticence about using the sacred words in the sacred sense, perhaps because he had so exhaustively explored their profane senses. Nevertheless in the poem "William Bond" from the Pickering Manuscript he gave an exquisite portrait of romantic love, purified of fallenness and filled with the divine. Read the last two verses: 

"I thought Love liv'd in the hot sun shine,
But O, he lives in the Moony light!
I thought to find Love in the heat of day,
But sweet Love is the Comforter of Night.

Seek Love in the Pity of others' Woe,
In the gentle relief of another's care,
In the darkness of night & the winter's snow,
In the naked & outcast, Seek Love there!"