GHOST OF ABEL

First posted Jul 7, 2014 as SEEING VISIONS III.

"Eve: were it not better to believe Vision With all our might & strength tho we are fallen & lost"

 Michael Davis wrote in William Blake: A New Kind of Man on page 151:

"In December 1821 Byron published his sensationally bold drama Cain: A Mystery. Parsons preached against it from Kentish Town to Pisa and Blake challenged Byron's pessimism in a terse, seventy-five line poetic drama complete with stage-directions, The Ghost of Abel: 'A Revelation In the Visions of Jehovah seen by William Blake'. The prelude, addressed to LORD BYRON in the Wilderness' of error, asks 'Can a Poet doubt the Visions of Jehovah?' and concludes 'Imagination is Eternity': although mortal life is unreal, true life is everlasting. When grief-stricken Eve, with Adam, has seen and heard the ghost of Abel, 'the Accuser & Avenger Of Blood', she asks 'were it not better to believe Vision With all our might & strength, tho' we are fallen & lost?' and Adam concurs. They kneel before Jehovah, who declares 'I have given you a Lamb for an atonement instead Of the Transgressor.' Abel's vengeful Spectre sinks into the grave, from which Satan then arises, armed, to demand human blood on Calvary. Jehovah banishes him to annihilation of self in the Abyss, for only when error is cast out can regeneration begin. Angels sing of Jehovah's forgiveness: peace, brotherhood and love are eternal reality. So the brilliantly drama ends.

This work, dated 1822, is Blake's last in relief etching."

The Ghost of Abel, (E 270)
PLATE 1
"THE GHOST of ABEL
                            
A Revelation In the Visions of Jehovah
Seen by William Blake

To LORD BYRON in the Wilderness
          What doest thou here Elijah?
          Can a Poet doubt the Visions of Jehovah? Nature has no Outline:
          but Imagination has.  Nature has no Tune: but Imagination has!
          Nature has no Supernatural & dissolves: Imagination is Eternity

     Scene.  A rocky Country.  Eve fainted over the dead body
     of Abel which lays near a Grave.  Adam kneels by her Jehovah stands above

Jehovah-- Adam!
Adam--    I will not hear thee more thou Spiritual Voice
          Is this Death?
Jehovah--                Adam!
Adam--                        It is in vain: I will not hear thee
          Henceforth! Is this thy Promise that the Womans Seed
          Should bruise the Serpents head: Is this the Serpent? Ah!
          Seven times, O Eve thou hast fainted over the Dead Ah! Ah!     

          Eve revives
Eve--     Is this the Promise of Jehovah! O it is all a vain delusion
          This Death & this Life & this Jehovah!
Jehovah--                                 Woman! lift thine eyes

          A Voice is heard coming on
Voice--    O Earth cover not thou my Blood! cover not thou my Blood

          Enter the Ghost of Abel
Eve--     Thou Visionary Phantasm thou art not the real Abel.
Abel-     Among the Elohim a Human Victim I wander I am their House
          Prince of the Air & our dimensions compass Zenith & Nadir
          Vain is thy Covenant O Jehovah I am the Accuser & Avenger
          Of Blood O Earth Cover not thou the Blood of Abel
Jehovah-- What Vengeance dost thou require
Abel--                          Life for Life! Life for Life! 
Jehovah-- He who shall take Cains life must also Die O Abel

                  And who is he? Adam wilt thou, or Eve thou do this
Adam--    It is all a Vain delusion of the all creative Imagination
          Eve come away & let us not believe these vain delusions
          Abel is dead & Cain slew him! We shall also Die a Death
          And then! what then? be as poor Abel a Thought: or as 
          This! O what shall I call thee Form Divine! Father of Mercies
          That appearest to my Spiritual Vision: Eve seest thou also.
Eve--     I see him plainly with my Minds Eye. I see also Abel living:
          Tho terribly afflicted as We also are. yet Jehovah sees him
PLATE 2
          Alive & not Dead: were it not better to believe Vision
          With all our might & strength tho we are fallen & lost
Adam--    Eve thou hast spoken truly. let us kneel before his feet.

          They Kneel before Jehovah

Abel--    Are these the Sacrifices of Eternity O Jehovah, a Broken Spirit
          And a Contrite Heart. O I cannot Forgive! the Accuser hath          
          Enterd into Me as into his House & I loathe thy Tabernacles
          As thou hast said so is it come to pass: My desire is unto Cain
          And He doth rule over Me: therefore My Soul in fumes of Blood
          Cries for Vengeance: Sacrifice on Sacrifice Blood on Blood
Jehovah-- Lo I have given you a Lamb for an Atonement instead
          Of the Transgres[s]or, or no Flesh or Spirit could ever Live
Abel--    Compelled I cry O Earth cover not the Blood of Abel

          Abel sinks down into the Grave. from which arises Satan
          Armed in glittering scales with a Crown & a Spear 

Satan--   I will have Human Blood & not the blood of Bulls or Goats
          And no Atonement O Jehovah the Elohim live on Sacrifice
          Of Men: hence I am God of Men: Thou Human O Jehovah.
          By the Rock & Oak of the Druid creeping Mistletoe & Thorn
          Cains City built with Human Blood, not Blood of Bulls & Goats
          Thou shalt Thyself be Sacrificed to Me thy God on Calvary
Jehovah-- Such is My Will.                     Thunders
                           that Thou Thyself go to Eternal Death
          In Self Annihilation even till Satan Self-subdud Put off Satan
          Into the Bottomless Abyss whose torment arises for ever & ever.

          On each side a Chorus of Angels entering Sing the following

The Elohim of the Heathen Swore Vengeance for Sin! Then Thou stoodst
Forth O Elohim Jehovah! in the midst of the darkness of the Oath! All Clothed
In Thy Covenant of the Forgiveness of Sins: Death O Holy! Is this Brotherhood
The Elohim saw their Oath Eternal Fire; they rolled apart trembling over The
Mercy Seat: each in his station fixt in the Firmament by Peace Brotherhood and Love.

          The Curtain falls
          The Voice of Abels Blood
          1822 W Blakes Original Stereotype was 1788" 

We have seen that Blake was misunderstood and became an object of rejection because of his placing higher value on his visionary exercises than his associates could affirm. However, when we realize the use Blake put to his Vision, we can stand in awe.

Blake's response to the publication of Lord Byron's Cain: A Mystery was a visionary experience of his own which he presented in The Ghost of Abel.

Blake wrote The Ghost of Abel as a mini-drama so that it would be experienced in a time frame. The evolution of consciousness was being revealed as a process which each character was undergoing. Blake indicated in the preliminary statement that he would address, not natural events, but Eternal events. The framework of The Ghost  of Abel, and the reaction of readers to it would hold something which was much larger than its container.

What Blake attempts to communicate in his visual/verbal imagery is the compete panoply of man's mutual relationship to God. The Ghost of Abel is a summary of the modifications in man and in God which occur through confronting experiences of death, guilt, vengeance, forgiveness, sacrifice and self-annihilation. 

Wikipedia Commons
The Ghost of Abel
Detail, Page 2

 

Examine closely the two plates in the Library of Congress. Click on full page icon for the enlargement in order to scrutinize the tiny images which illustrate the text. Then left click to enlarge more and move around page.