ENCOUNTERS

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Henry Crabb Robinson was a journalist and a lawyer, but he is remembered for his interest in interviewing exceptional people, especially people of genius. Blake was in his waning years when he became acquainted with Robinson through a supporter - Mrs Aders.

Since Robinson was a devoted Diarist he recorded accounts of his visits with Blake whom he found both interesting and perplexing. Blake had spent his lifetime meditating on the relationship between God and man. Although his ideas were startling to Robinson, they were well reasoned on the basis of his own experience of the spiritual dimension. The thinkers who had influenced Blake were foreign to Robinson. But because Robinson continued to visit him and engage in conversation, Blake expressed his unconventional ideas and Robinson preserved them in his dairy. There is no evidence that Robinson ever really grasped what Blake was talking about.

DIARY REMINISCENCES AND CORRESPONDENCE of HENRY CRABB ROBINSON

Vol 2 - including Blake

---

Robinson wrote:

December 10th [1825] - Dined with Aders. A very remarkable and interesting evening. The party at dinner, Blake the painter, and Linnell a painter. In the evening Miss Denman and Miss Flaxman came. Shall I call Blake artist, genius, mystic or madman. Probably he is all. I will put down without method what I can recollect of the conversation of this remarkable man. He has a most interesting appearance. He is now old (sixty eight), pale with a Socratic countenance and an expression of great sweetness though with something of languor about it except when animated, and then he has about him an air of inspiration The conversation turned on art, poetry, and religion. He brought with him an engraving of his Canterbury Pilgrims. One of the figures in it is like a figure in a picture to Mr Aders. "They say I stole it from this picture said Blake but I did it twenty years before. I knew of this picture in my youth I was always studying paintings of this kind, wonder there is a resemblance." In this he seemed to explain humanly what he had done. But at another time he spoke of paintings as being what he had seen in his visions And when he said my visions it was in the ordinary unemphatic tone in which speak of every day matters. In the same tone he said repeatedly, "The Spirit told me." I took occasion to say, "You express as Socrates used to do." What resemblance do you suppose there between your spirit and his. "The same as between our countenances." He paused and added, "I was Socrates" and then as correcting himself said, "a sort of brother. I must have had conversations with him. So I had with Jesus Christ, I have an recollection of having been with both of them." I suggested on philosophical grounds the impossibility of supposing an immortal being created, an eternity à parte post without an eternity à parte ante. His eye brightened at this and he fully concurred with me. "To sure it is impossible. We are all co existent with God members the Divine body. We are all partakers of the Divine nature." In this by the by Blake has but adopted an ancient Greek idea connected with this idea.

I will mention here though it formed of our talk as we were walking homeward that on my asking in what light he viewed the great question concerning the deity of Jesus Christ he said, "He is the only God." But then he added' "and so am I and so are you." He had just before and that occasioned question been speaking of the errors of Jesus Christ. "Jesus Christ should not have allowed himself to be crucified and should not have attacked the Government." On my inquiring how this view could be reconciled with the sanctity and Divine qualities of Jesus. Blake said, "He was not then become the Father." Connecting well as one can these fragmentary sentiments it would be hard to fix Blake's station between Christianity, Platonism, and Spinozism. Yet he professes to be very hostile to Plato and reproaches Wordsworth with being not a Christian but a Platonist.   

...

"There is no use in education. I hold it to be wrong It is the great sin It is eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was the fault of Plato He knew of nothing but the virtues and vices and good and evil. There is nothing in all that Everything is good in God's eyes." On my putting the obvious question, "Is there nothing absolutely evil in what men do" - "I am no judge of that. Perhaps not in God s eyes." He sometimes spoke as if he denied altogether the existence of evil and as if we had nothing to do with right and wrong; it being sufficient to consider all things as alike the work of God. Yet at other times he spoke of there being error in heaven. I asked about the moral character of Dante in writing his "Vision" - was he pure? "!Pure!" said Blake; "do you think there is any purity in God's eyes. The angels in heaven are no more so than we. 'He chargeth his angels with folly.'" He afterwards represented the Supreme Being as liable to error. "Did he not repent him that he had made Nineveh?" It is easier to repeat the personal remarks of Blake than these metaphysical speculations, so nearly allied to the most opposite systems of philosophy. Of himself he said he acted by command. The Spirit said to him, "Blake be an artist and nothing else." In this is felicity. His eye glistened while he spoke of the joy of himself solely to divine art. Art is inspiration. When Michael or Raphael or Mr Flaxman does any of his fine things, he does them in the Spirit." Blake said, "I should be sorry if I had earthly fame, for whatever natural glory a man has is so much from his spiritual glory. I wish to do nothing for profit. I wish to live for art. I want nothing whatever. I am quite happy." 

...

February 2nd [1827]- Götzenberger the young painter from Germany and I accompanied him to Blake. We looked over Blake's Dante. Götzenberger was highly gratified by the designs. I interpreter between them. Blake seemed gratified by the visit said nothing remarkable.

It was on this occasion that I saw Blake for the last. He died on the 12th of August. His genius as an artist was by Flaxman and Fuseli, and his poems excited great interest in. His theosophic dreams bore a close resemblance to those Swedenborg. I have already referred to an article written by me on Blake for the Hamburg Patriotic - Annals 5. My interest in remarkable man was first excited in 1806. Dr Malkin our Grammar School head master published in that year a memoir of a very precocious child who died. An engraving of a portrait of him by Blake was prefixed. Dr Malkin gave an account of Blake as a painter and poet and of his visions and added some specimens his poems including the Tiger.

...

Late 1827 - visit to Catherine

She had the wife's virtue of virtues, an implicit reverence for her husband. It is quite certain that she believed in all his visions. On one occasion speaking of his visions she said, "You know, dear, the first time you saw God was when you were four years old and he put his head to the window and set you a screaming." In a word she was formed on the Miltonic model, and, like the first wife, Eve, worshipped God in her husband.

  "He for God only she for God in him"  

---

From Blake's Notebook, (E481)
"I rose up at the dawn of day
Get thee away get thee away
Prayst thou for Riches away away
This is the Throne of Mammon grey

Said I this sure is very odd                                     
I took it to be the Throne of God
For every Thing besides I have
It is only for Riches that I can crave

I have Mental Joy & Mental Health
And Mental Friends & Mental wealth       
Ive a Wife I love & that loves me
Ive all But Riches Bodily
                
I am in Gods presence night & day             
And he never turns his face away
The accuser of sins by my side does stand                      
And he holds my money bag in his hand

For my worldly things God makes him pay            
And hed pay for more if to him I would pray
And so you may do the worst you can do
Be assurd Mr Devil I wont pray to you                         
                
Then If for Riches I must not Pray
God knows I little of Prayers need say
So as a Church is known by its Steeple   
If I pray it must be for other People     

He says if I do not worship him for a God                     
I shall eat coarser food & go worse shod
So as I dont value such things as these
You must do Mr Devil just as God please"

 

HARVEST & VINTAGE

Revelations 14
[15] And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
[16] And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
[17] And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
[18] And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
[19] And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
[20] And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

S. Foster Damon, William Blake: Philosophy and Symbols, in commenting on the final scenes in the Four Zoas, says (Page 164):

AND GOD BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY 
AND SANCTIFIED IT

"In six days heaven and earth had been created, according to Genesis, and on the seventh day the Lord rested. In six days, therefore, that work is to be reversed, before the Sabbath of the Millennium can arise. These six days are spent in a final Harvest and Vintage of the world, to make the Bread and Wine of Eternity. Urizen threshes the corn which Urthona bakes into the Bread of Philosophy, while Luvah presses the grapes into the Wine of Ecstacy; and all the chaff and refuse is cast into Non-Entity. This lovely festival in the spiritual world is the reality of what on earth seems to be the final catastrophes of the Apocalypse. During this time Orc burns himself out: Ahania and Enion rise to their former Glory; Luvah and Vala regain their original State of Innocence; while Los takes on his original form, Urthona. The terrific vision ends in a splendid peace:

[Four Zoas, PAGE 139, Night the Ninth, (E 406)]:
"How is it we have walkd thro fires & yet are not consumd
How is it that all things are changd even as in ancient times

The Sun arises from his dewy bed & the fresh airs
Play in his smiling beams giving the seeds of life to grow
And the fresh Earth beams forth ten thousand thousand springs of
life
Urthona is arisen in his strength no longer now
Divided from Enitharmon no longer the Spectre Los
Where is the Spectre of Prophecy where the delusive Phantom
Departed & Urthona rises from the ruinous walls
In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
For intellectual War The war of swords departed now
The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns

End of The Dream"

The image of the harvest and vintage appears in Milton as well:

Milton, PLATE 25 [27] (E 121)
"The Wine-press on the Rhine groans loud, but all its central beams
Act more terrific in the central Cities of the Nations
Where Human Thought is crushd beneath the iron hand of Power.
There Los puts all into the Press, the Opressor & the Opressed
Together, ripe for the Harvest & Vintage & ready for the Loom.

They sang at the Vintage. This is the Last Vintage! & Seed
Shall no more be sown upon Earth, till all the Vintage is over
And all gatherd in, till the Plow has passd over the Nations
And the Harrow & heavy thundering Roller upon the mountains

And loud the Souls howl round the Porches of Golgonooza

Crying O God deliver us to the Heavens or to the Earths,
That we may preach righteousness & punish the sinner with death
But Los refused, till all the Vintage of Earth was gatherd in.

And Los stood & cried to the Labourers of the Vintage in voice of
awe.

Fellow Labourers! The Great Vintage & Harvest is now upon Earth
The whole extent of the Globe is explored: Every scatterd Atom
Of Human Intellect now is flocking to the sound of the Trumpet
All the Wisdom which was hidden in caves & dens, from ancient
Time; is now sought out from Animal & Vegetable & Mineral

The Awakener is come. outstretchd over Europe! the Vision of God
is fulfilled
The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,
He listens to the sounds of War astonishd & ashamed;"

Milton, PLATE 27 [29] (E 124)
"This Wine-press is call'd War on Earth, it is the Printing-Press
Of Los; and here he lays his words in order above the mortal
brain
As cogs are formd in a wheel to turn the cogs of the adverse
wheel.

Milton, PLATE 43 [50], (E 144)
"To go forth to the Great Harvest & Vintage of the Nations

Finis"

As Damon says, Blake wrote on multiple levels simultaneously. On the historical level the harvest and vintage appeared as the battles and wars which were taking place in his own times - the Napoleonic Wars ("Wine-press on the Rhine groans loud".) In Blake's personal experience the activities of his publishing work were his participation in the 'Great Harvest & Vintage' ("the Printing-Press Of Los; and here he lays his words in order above the mortal brain"). At the spiritual level they were the rewinding of the 'golden string' which had begun to be unwound with the material creation which Blake pictured in the Book of Urizen ("Every scatterd Atom Of Human Intellect now is flocking to the sound of the Trumpet").

Genesis 1
[5] And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
[8] And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
[12] And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
[13] And the evening and the morning were the third day.
[17] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
[18] And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
[19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
[22] And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
[23] And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
[27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them
[31] And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Blake's Love

He used the word 782 times in The Complete Works.
Some of them are innocuous:
"53. I hate scarce smiles I
love laughing  (Annotations to Lavater; Erdman 585)

Some are sacred:
"63. my mother; & S^t John. Whoso dwelleth in love dwelleth in God ....
64. God in him. & such an one cannot judge of any but in love" (Annotations Erdman 599)

Others in the purest sense:
71. He who Loves feels love descend into him & if he has wisdom may perceives it is from the Poetic Genius which is the Lord. (Ann.Swedenborg, Erdman 603)

This from the Clod of Clay in Thel:
"O beauty of the vales of Har, we live not for ourselves.
Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed:
My bosom of itself is cold, and of itself is dark,
But he that loves the lowly pours his oil upon my head,
And kisses me, and binds his nuptial bands around my breast,
And says: "Thou mother of my children, I have loved  thee,
And I have given thee a crown that none can take away."
But how this is, sweet maid, I know not, and I cannot know;
I ponder, and I cannot ponder, yet I live and  love.'"

This one is so rich! The Clod of Clay represents Mother Earth. 'He who loves the lowly' can only be God (the godlike!).

In general one gets the feeling that Blake was very reticent in his prophetic works in using godly love.
Instead he most often seemed to speak of female love.

In the poem that has been given the name Broken Love Blake tried to distinguish between what theologicans might call carnal love and godly love. Blake's term for the first is female love directed by the Spectre or the Selfhood.

He had tersely and succinctly made the distinction in
The Clod and the Pebble:
"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair."

So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite."

In the closing plates of Jerusalem Blake went to great length in setting forth the distinction between selfish love and godly love, but to grasp this well the reader would require much study.

Blake's Life

This is the big one! Like most people Blake's life had two halves:
In the first half Blake loved to hate; his hatreds were multiple:

He hated legalisms of every sort:
"When Satan first the black bow bent
And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent
He forg'd the Law into a Sword
And spilled the blood of mercys Lord"
Jerusalem Plate 22, lines 82-5)

He hated Religion (by which he meant false Religion!); he saw hypocrisy in every facet of Religion:
 "Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black, with hoarse note curse the sons of joy. Nor his accepted brethren whom, tyrant, he calls free; lay the bound or build the roof. Nor pale religious letchery call that virginity, that wishes but acts not! For every thing that lives is Holy"
(MHH, Plate 27, lines 10-21, Erdman 45)

He hated War with 104 occurrences of the word:

PLATE 25 [27] of Milton (E12)1:

"The Awakener is come. outstretchd over Europe!
the Vision of God is fulfilled
The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,
He listens to the sounds of War astonishd & ashamed;
He sees his Children mock at Faith and deny Providence"

(E130)
"These are the Gods of the Kingdoms of the Earth: in contrarious
And cruel opposition: Element against Element, opposed in War Not Mental, as the Wars of Eternity, but a Corporeal Strife."

In contrast to the corporeal war of this vale of tears Blake sees the Eternals engaging in War and Hunting, mental, not corporeal.

War and Religion are closely associated in Blake's mind (and in mine!):
(E150)
Cambel & Gwendolen wove webs of war & of
Religion, to involve all Albions sons,
and Jerusalem plate 52 (To the Deists) E200:
"the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can
never be the cause of a War nor of a single
Martyrdom. Those who Martyr others or who cause War are
Deists, but never can be Forgivers of Sin.
The Glory of Christianity is, To Conquer by
Forgiveness. All the Destruction therefore,
in Christian Europe has arisen from Deism,
which is Natural Religion."

He hated exploitation and oppression of the poor. Study London

He hated materialism:

Vision of the Last Judgment (Erdman 564)

"I assert for My self that I do
not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it
is hindrance & not Action it is as the Dirt
upon my feet No part of Me."

All of Blake's hatreds he lumped together and referred to as the female will, female love and sometimes (unfortunately) just love:

My Shadow (Erdman 476)

"Till I turn from Female Love
And root up the Infernal Grove tI shall never worthy be
To Step into Eternity.........Let us agree to give up Love
And root up the infernal grove Then shall we return & see
The worlds of happy Eternity"

But then came the Moment of Grace, and the second half of life began. At that point forgiveness took the place of hatred:

Annotations to Watson (Erdman 619):
"The Gospel is Forgiveness of Sins & has No Moral Precepts
these belong to Plato & Seneca & Nero"

Blake was talking to God when he said this:

And throughout all Eternity
I forgive you, you forgive me.
As our dear Redeemer said:
This the Wine, and this the Bread.

Brothers, let us drink the wine and eat the bread.

Blake's God

Here we go again:
We start of course with the four year old who ran screaming to his mother after seeing an angry God in the window. This certainly suggests exposure to one of the angry preachers who (then and now) project their own misery onto the God they describe for their parishioners. It set for Blake the mode for 25 years of defiance for a God so destructive to the human psyche. Christians through the ages have repressed the anger they feel toward such a God. But Blake did not repress! He let it all out.

By the age of 33 in MHH he had learned to express complete skepticism re the God and the Church that directed the religious life of the multitude. In particular he saw it as a conspiracy of rogues (look again at Plate 11).

Now look again at Milton, plate 37:
"The Monstrous Churches of Beulah, the Gods of Ulro
Twelve monstrous dishumanizd terrors Synagogues of Satan.
A Double Twelve & Thrice Nine: such their divisions:"

Here Blake named twelve (prechristian) "Gods, the Twelve Spectre Sons of the Druid Albion " and twenty-seven "Heavens & their Churches" in three groups: the antediluvian ones, the Judaic ones, and the supposed Christian ones. So he's talking about fallen religion, where many of us attend every Sunday (that would be the church of Luther).

The religious denomination that goes by the name of 'Witnesses' would take great issue with the description that Blake made of Jehovah:

Jehovah was Urizen, even Satan, the Angel of the Divine Presence, the Gnostic demiurge who made a hash of his Creation. So much for that God. He was called everything but 'Loving'.

Blake mentioned Jehovah 64 times; here is a fairly representative
one from his notes on The Last Judgment:

" The Aged Figure with Wings having a writing tablet & taking
account of the numbers who arise is That Angel of the Divine
Presence mentiond in Exodus XIVc 19v & in other Places
this Angelis frequently calld by the Name of Jehovah Elohim The I am of the Oaks of Albion"

Jehovah was too often identified with condemnation:

In the Epilogue to Gates of Paradise we read:
" To The Accuser Who is The God of This World
Truly My Satan thou art but a Dunce
And dost not know the Garment from the Man
Every Harlot was a Virgin once
Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan
Tho thou art Worshipd by the Names Divine
Of Jesus & Jehovah thou art still
The Son of Morn in weary Nights decline
The lost Travellers Dream under the Hill"

The most derogatory figure Blake used for authorities
such as King George or Jehovah is in Nobodaddy, a term
used again in an indelicate doggerel on Erdman 499.

Blake accurately portrayed the leading spirit of the Old Testament in the above discussion.

We come now to the gospel. Blake considered Jesus the only God. In his mind Jesus was largely about forgiveness; many examples of Blake's forgiveness (the forgiveness Jesus taught can be found throughout his poetry.) The most succinct one has
appeared in these posts before: the little unnamed poem going by the name of My Spectre; here's the end of it:

"And Throughout all Eternity I forgive you; you forgive me.
As the dear Redeemer said, this the Wine and this the Bread."

If you want more on Blake and God, look at the
Spiritual Autobiography, Chapter Five.

NECESSITIES

Matthew 6:28
"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass in the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: but your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

When I read this passage prosaically, it is hard to accept because I know rationally that everything is not provided for in the natural world. There are those who go hungry and who suffer needs of all sorts. When I first heard these words sung I recognized them as poetry. Then they spoke to me at a different level. I knew they spoke of a deeper aspect of God's provision. I knew that God's love is all encompassing, and that we need to look from a God's eye view to see that God provides for out every need.


A view of necessities: The Piper
Songs of Innocence, Frontispiece


In this letter to his friend Anna Flaxman, Blake who often suffered need because there was little market for his art, indicates that God provides the true necessities - 'The Bread of sweet Thought' and the 'Wine of Delight.' His mind and his spirit were adequately provided for even in times when his body suffered from deprivation.




Letters, "To my dear Friend Mrs Anna Flaxman" (E 709)

"The Bread of sweet Thought & the Wine of Delight
Feeds the Village of Felpham by day & by night
And at his own door the blessd Hermit does stand
Dispensing Unceasing to all the whole Land
W. BLAKE"

Blake and the Bible

(Look also at Blake's Bible.)

If you think the Bible is inerrant, and that every word has one and only one meaning, then you don't need to read this any further.

Blake had an unparalleled freedom with the Bible. Northrup Frye referred to him as a Bible soaked protestant. He was Bible soaked, but the meanings he found in most of the Bible were distinctive and often unique: "Both read the Bible day and night,But thou read’st black where I read white."

Blake's 'white' reading will excite you and/or repel you. Or perhaps you will add your Blake to the canon; that happens.

1. The idea of Nobodaddy implies an explicit and emphatic rejection of the "sub-Christian" elements of the O.T.

Blake spent half his life figuring out who/what Christ was, after which he measured the quality and value of everything in the Bible in accordance with Christ's identity.

He rejected the thump on the head for the "healing balm".

2. He put the same value on his own visions (and vision) as he did the Bible. In visions he conversed with Isaiah and Ezekiel (see the second Memorable Fancy). My wife's favorite Blake quoted Ezekiel's conversation with Blake thusly: when Blake asked him why he behaved so erratically re living in his underwear and spending 3 months on his left side, etc., Ezekiel responded "'the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite". That has in fact became our calling in life.

To use slightly more orthodox terminology we could say the desire to get people thinking about Heaven (in it's larger meaning). That's a good subject for another post.

When our youngest was married (an outdoor Catholic marriage, I had a chance to read some scripture. I finished with the quotation from "Saint William Blake":
"Throughout Eternity I forgive you, you forgive me;
as the dear Redeemer said, this the wine and this the bread."

Blake was very free with his use of the Bible, as I, too strive to be, God willing.

There's much further information on this subject at Chapter Six of my Blake website.