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| Wikipedia Commons Illustration to Ballads by Hayley |
I went to Fearful Symmetry by Northrop Frye to seek information about Blake's Finite and Infinite, and found instead Becoming and Being. The Finite world is the world of Becoming, while the Infinite world is the world of Being. In the finite world nothing is permanent; change is the corollary of living in time and space. The definite remains, it endures. But without a defined 'identity' man passes through states as he travels his journey.
Milton, PLATE 30 [33], (E 129) "But the Emanations trembled exceedingly, nor could they
Live, because the life of Man was too exceeding unbounded
His joy became terrible to them they trembled & wept
Crying with one voice. Give us a habitation & a place
In which we may be hidden under the shadow of wings
For if we who are but for a time, & who pass away in winter
Behold these wonders of Eternity we shall consume
But you O our Fathers & Brothers, remain in Eternity
But grant us a Temporal Habitation. do you speak
To us; we will obey your words as you obey Jesus
The Eternal who is blessed for ever & ever. Amen Fearful Symmetry, Page 47:"The
real man, therefore, is the total form of the creative acts and visions
which he evolves in the course of his 'Becoming' life. The latter
exists in time and space, But his 'Being' or real existence is a work of
art, and exists, like the work of art, in the unity of time and space
which is infinite and eternal. The imagination or Being, then, is
immortal, a form constructed out of time but existing in what Paul calls
the 'fullness of time.' We arrive at the conception of immortality as
soon as we grasp the idea of the reality which is not merely a part of
an indefinite persistence of an indefinitely extensive physical world.
But for that very reason immortality cannot mean the indefinite survival
of a 'Becoming' life arrested at some point in its development...as in
most conceptions of an immortal personality. What is immortal about the
man is the total form of his creative acts, and these total forms are
the characters, or 'identities,' as Blake calls them, of the men who
made them, the isolating of what is eternally humane in them from the
accidents of Becoming. ...those good deeds are the eternal reality of
Everyman, the spiritual form of Everyman."
Milton, Plate 22 [24],(E 117) "I am that Shadowy Prophet who Six Thousand Years ago
Fell from my station in the Eternal bosom. Six Thousand Years
Are finishd. I return! both Time & Space obey my will.
I in Six Thousand Years walk up and down: for not one Moment
Of Time is lost, nor one Event of Space unpermanent
But all remain: every fabric of Six Thousand Years
Remains permanent: tho' on the Earth where Satan
Fell, and was cut off all things vanish & are seen no more
They vanish not from me & mine, we guard them first & last
The generations of men run on in the tide of Time
But leave their destind lineaments permanent for ever & ever.
So spoke Los as we went along to his supreme abode."Jerusalem, Plate 13, (E 157)
"Golgonooza: Los walks round the walls night and day.
He views the City of Golgonooza, & its smaller Cities:
The Looms & Mills & Prisons & Work-houses of Og & Anak:
The Amalekite: the Canaanite: the Moabite: the Egyptian:
And all that has existed in the space of six thousand years:
Permanent, & not lost not lost nor vanishd, & every little act,
Word, work, & wish, that has existed, all remaining still
In those Churches ever consuming & ever building by the Spectres
Of all the inhabitants of Earth wailing to be Created:
Shadowy to those who dwell not in them, meer possibilities:
But to those who enter into them they seem the only substances
For every thing exists & not one sigh nor smile nor tear,
Plate 14
One hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away."Jerusalem, Plate 31 [35], (E 177) "And the appearance of a Man was seen in the Furnaces;
Saving those who have sinned from the punishment of the Law,
(In pity of the punisher whose state is eternal death,)
And keeping them from Sin by the mild counsels of his love.
Albion goes to Eternal Death: In Me all Eternity.
Must pass thro' condemnation, and awake beyond the Grave!
No individual can keep these Laws, for they are death
To every energy of man, and forbid the springs of life;
Albion hath enterd the State Satan! Be permanent O State!
And be thou for ever accursed! that Albion may arise again:
And be thou created into a State! I go forth to Create
States: to deliver Individuals evermore! Amen.
So spoke the voice from the Furnaces, descending into Non-Entity
[To Govern the Evil by Good: and States abolish
Systems.]" Jerusalem, Plate 32 [36], (E 178) "These are States Permanently Fixed by the Divine Power
The Atlantic Continent sunk round Albions cliffy shore
And the Sea poured in amain upon the Giants of Albion
As Los bended the Senses of Reuben Reuben is Merlin
Exploring the Three States of Ulro; Creation; Redemption. & Judgment
And many of the Eternal Ones laughed after their manner
Have you known the judgment that is arisen among the
Zoa's of Albion? where a Man dare hardly to embrace
His own Wife, for the terrors of Chastity that they call
By the name of Morality. their Daughters govern all
In hidden deceit! they are Vegetable only fit for burning
Art & Science cannot exist but by Naked Beauty displayd
Then those in Great Eternity who contemplate on Death
Said thus. What seems to Be: Is: To those to whom
It seems to Be, & is productive of the most dreadful
Consequences to those to whom it seems to Be: even of
Torments, Despair, Eternal Death; but the Divine Mercy
Steps beyond and Redeems Man in the Body of Jesus Amen
And Length Bredth Highth again Obey the Divine Vision Hallelujah
Plate 33 [37]
And One stood forth from the Divine Family &,said I feel my Spectre rising upon me! Albion! arouze thyself!" Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 229)"As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains
So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever" Jerusalem, Plate 75, (E 230)"For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down continually
That not one Moment of Time be lost & every revolution
Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola & Cathedron." Laocoon, (E 273)"The Eternal Body of Man is The IMAGINATION.
God himself |
that is |<Hebrew>[Yeshua] JESUS We are his Members
The Divine Body|
It manifests itself in his Works of Art (In Eternity All is
Vision)
All that we See is VISION from Generated Organs gone as soon as
come
Permanent in The Imagination; considered as Nothing by the
NATURAL MAN"Vision of The Last Judgment, (E 554)
"The Last judgment is one of these Stupendous
Visions. I have represented it as I saw it.
to different People it appears differently as every
thing else does for tho on Earth things seem Permanent they are
less permanent than a Shadow as we all know too well
The Nature of Visionary Fancy or Imagination is very little
Known & the Eternal nature & permanence of its ever Existent
Images is considerd as less permanent than the things of
Vegetative & Generative Nature yet the Oak dies as well as the
Lettuce but Its Eternal Image & Individuality never dies. but
renews by its seed. just [as] <so> the Imaginative Image
returns according to the seed of Contemplative
Thought the Writings of the Prophets illustrate these conceptions
of the Visionary Fancy by their various sublime & Divine Images
as seen in the Worlds of Vision" Vision of The Last Judgment, (E 555) "This world of Imagination is the World of
Eternity it is the Divine bosom into which we shall all go after
the death of the Vegetated body This World of Imagination is
Infinite & Eternal whereas the world of Generation or Vegetation
is Finite & [for a small moment] Temporal There Exist
in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Every Thing
which we see are reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature"
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