The son of George MacDonald became an admirer of William Blake as was his father. Greville MacDonald had grown up under the influence of his imaginative father and the literary associates who visited his home. He did not however follow his father's profession but entered the field of medicine. He tried his hand a various endeavors as well, including writing a defense of William Blake's unconventional system of thought, and body of work. Aware that Blake has been considered by some of his contemporaries as 'mad', he entitled his book the Sanity of William Blake.
British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts
Exerpts from Sanity of William Blake, 1907:
"And one remarkable point of distinction
between these two classes is this : that the
sane majority find the language provided
for them by their country's traditions vastly
in excess of their needs, while the insane
minority are for ever discontent with their
native tongue because of its total insufficiency
to express what they feel and know, the
visions they see and believe in. These,
though they have the whole wealth of culture
at command, are nevertheless for ever
seeking and finding new forms of expression,
but often only to discard them because
they fail to express the truth. It is these
who paint uplifting pictures the wealthy can
never possess, whatever they pay for them ;
who sing divine songs, as did William
Blake, for fashion to laugh at ; who make
wooden fiddles wail passionately, as did
Joachim, whom even the quite sane applaud."
...
"In what he leaves unsaid,' declared
Schiller, 'I discover the master of Style.'
This is very near to Blake's 'seeing through,
and not with the eye.' And if style is
indicated by what is left unsaid, imagination
is indicated by the perception of what is not
seen, and often but pointing to it, rather
than telling it. So the idealist Blake
discards the algebraical equation, the logical
argument; and in place of them his only
method of teaching is Appeal.
Appeal to what? To that very consciousness
in man of deeps in his existence
which science has not fathomed, but which
the greatest teachers touch with their poetry,
their music, their paintings, and call into
conscious life."
...
" When thou seest an eagle thou
seest a portion of genius ; lift up thy head ! "
In other words, do not dare to think you
can cage an eagle. It cannot be done ; for
an eagle caged is but divine energy prosti-
tuted to the tyranny of man ; it ceases to be
a portion of genius and is become a product
of constraint, and a lie to the living truth.
It is life robbed of purpose. Everywhere
Blake is crying the same truth in the wilder-
ness, and no one hears. Life robbed of
liberty to fulfil breeds pestilence : this is the
key to The Daughters of Albion. The glory
of all desire, of all inspiration, is its
purpose ; and if you seek to restrain these
tigers of fire by the " horses of instruction,"
they become "tigers of wrath." This is the
key to the books of Los and of Urizen.
And both must be opened if we would enter
the disordered treasure-house of the Jeru-
salem. Blake is absolutely and persistently
assertive of the truth of life's purpose."
...
"Reason is minister to the imagination, and
must never become its master."
...
"And this much must be confessed, that
the more patiently we study Blake, the more
clearly are we convinced of his consistency.
We find, if we keep close to him as he
leads us through the jungle, the abyss, the
empyrean, that the path is certain to him,
and that he is guided by the stars no less
than by the pitfalls he would have us
fathom. He has but one purpose: to lead
us out of the eternal jungle of our individual
warfare with death. Of the path he
is sure, and in his purpose he never falters
or misses the light. Nevertheless the jungle
is as much the outcome of natural law as
pleasant pastures; in their subjection to
human purpose lies the difference. So what
appears unprofitable in Blake's luxuriant
imagination is but unprofitable perhaps from
the point of view of our matter-of-fact
utilitarian minds. He is but running wild
like a child who feels that nursery restrictions
are altogether immoral when judged from
the standpoint of his need to live in the full
vigour of delight ; who feels that he must
show the wise old people how they have
forgotten the glory of life." Marriage of Heaven & Hell, Plate 6, (E 35)
"A Memorable Fancy.
As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the
enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and
insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs: thinking that as
the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs
of Hell, shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any
description of buildings or garments.
When I came home; on the abyss of the five senses, where a
flat sided steep frowns over the present world. I saw a mighty
Devil folded in black clouds, hovering on the sides of the rock,
with corroding fires he wrote the following sentence now
percieved by the minds of men, & read by them on earth.
How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?"
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