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According to Blake man lives in four worlds: Eden, Beulah, Generation, and Ulro.
We all start in Eden (Heaven, 'before life'); since our true life is Eternal, living before
and after 'this world' (In the Bible there are 44 occurrences of 'this world'; one useful
occurrence might be at John 15:19.)
Beulah comes when the Eternals tire of the "severe contentions of friendship" (Erdman
143), they are able to take a 'vacation' from Eternity to a place of rest; eventually they may
go back to Eden or down to 'this world'.
(On Milton Plate 41: "Altho' our Human Power can sustain the severe contentions
Of Friendship, our Sexual cannot: but flies into the Ulro.")
We examine Eden both before and after 'this world'. The period between makes up most
of Blake's poetry. Babies just entering the world Blake called 'innocent'. Songs of
Innocence is one of his early works; it came out in 1789; later Songs of Innocence and
Experience was in 1794.
In Blake's vernacular these two concepts may be seen to represent before and after the Fall.
The four worlds correspond to the four zoas (fourness is ubiqutous for Blake).
Urthona may be seen to relate to Eden, since he doesn't appear in 'this world'; in 'this world'
he will be represented by Los.
Urizen is usually down at Ulro: Blake had a strong impulse toward Urizen, which he disliked
and tried to overcome. Opposing Urizen is Luvah. (The two names suggest the two functions
of Reason and Feeling).
The fourth zoa is Tharmas, the earliest zoa who represents sensation.
the Four Zoas (Urthona, Urizen, Luvah and Tharmas), were created by the fall of Albion. In the
Book of Milton Blake drew an impressive picture of the Four Zoas:
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New York Public Library Milton Plate 32 |
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