William Blake 0838313442, 9780838313442
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"My aim has been solely to discover and, may be, expound the doctrine of
as far as
William Blake: 'the Everlasting Gospel,' as he finally called
narrow,
I
it.
If
this
aim be regarded as
can, and shall, plead that
it
is
as wide as Blake's own. Blake was not at
all
concerned to be an artist, in the accepted sense of the word; although, in his private meaning of the word, he was and desired to be, nothing but an Artist. 'Jesus
Apostles
&.
Disciples were
eal.
is
Thus, we can rescue Blake's own terms. True Reason the Contrary of true Energy, and not its Negation. For 63
WI LLI AM BLAKE there can be no' true Energy without true Reason as its 'outward bound and circumference', to be the Form in which true Energy deHghts. Thus, again, true Energy is indeed Eternal Dehght, for it is the deUght of the Identity in its own Form, and this self-deHght of the Identity, Hke the Identity itself, is eternal. It is a delight of Eternity.
Such
Blake's thought.
is
It
is,
in reality, perfectly
coherent; but only if we approach it with the clue of the Divine Vision in our hands. For Blake's economy of
language
is
'What the
But now we may go back. Good' is the passive that obeys
truly 'devilish'.
religious call
What the religious call Evil is the active springing from true Energy. No doubt it is less than the whole truth. But Blake was furious with the pretence of religion that destroys Religion. Reason.
false
Those who
restrain desire, do so because theirs is to be restrained; and the restrainer or governs the unwilling. reason usurps its place And being restrain'd, it by degrees becomes passive,
weak enough
&
till it is
The
only the shadow of desire. history of this is written in Paradise Lost,
the Governor or Reason
Desire is
far
is
a
new term
is
&
call'd Messiah.
in The Marriage,
more comprehensive than
It
is
plain that
sensual desire.
it
It refers
Natural Religion: The desire of Man being Infinite, the possession is Infinite