FURNACE

Blake Archive

Morgan Library and Museum

Jerusalem

Plate 6

We turn again to Northrop Frye's last major work, Words With Power: Being a Second Study of "The Bible and Literature." 

In Part 2 of his book Frye devotes the four chapters to four metaphoric topics: the Mountain, the Garden, the Cave and the Furnace. He calls these chapters "essays on comparative mythology, organized around four primary concerns: the concern to make and create, the concern to love, the concern to sustain oneself and assimilate the environment, with its metaphorical kernal of food, and the concern to escape from slavery and restraint." (Page 139) 

From Fearful Symmetry by Northrop Frye, Page 290

"But there is no image of an inscrutable fate which may not be also an image of creative power, and the winepress and mill may represent not only the disintegration of form, but the reuniting of all nature into the body and blood of a universal Man. Thus the gathering-in of life to prevent its death may be a symbol of apocalypse...In Night IX Blake expands this apocalyptic aspect of his bread and wine symbolism into a superb fantasia in which Luvah gathers the vintage and Urizen the harvest, Tharmas winnows the grain and Urthona grinds it in the mill... The process is part of the great communion feast in which human life is reintigrated into its real form. 

The same regenerative meaning belongs also to the furnace. Man's body may remain a natural hell of unsatisfied desire, or it may become an imaginative purgatory, a crucible from which the purified mind emerges. In that case the furnace, the body of Luvah, is operated by Los, which is the fiery furnace shown us in the Book of Daniel." 

Daniel 3

[23] And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
[24] Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellers, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
[25] He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
[26] Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
[27] And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellers, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
[28] Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

On page 296 of Words with Power Frye wrote:

"The image of the furnace may be used for either the negative or
positive aspects of the lower world. The negative or demonic world
is the traditional hell which is a furnace of heat without light.
The positive one is purgatorial, a crucible from which the redeemed
emerge purified like metal in a smelting operation."

 

The importance of the furnace to Blake as an agent of change is indicated by the fact that the word furnace occurs 171 times in his writings. Although several of Blake's characters are associated with furnaces, Los the blacksmith is the principle operator. His is the job of shaping the raw materials into the human form. 

Frye indicates that there a two sides ot the image of the furnace. In the hymn "How firm a foundation" we sing in the fourth verse: 

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”

The hymn is stating that our life's journey will not always be easy or pleasant; that our experience will force us into arduous situations that will try our endurance. For this the hymn writer uses the metaphor of the furnace whose intense heat removes that which can be annihilated from the pure, indestructable material which will enable us to achieve the goal of our journey. That which can be relinquished must be subjected to the testing of the fire so that we may learn to rely on God's wisdom and love to guide us.  

In the Books of Genesis and  Exodus we follow the journey of the children of 
Abraham as they pass through the furnace of Egypt which became progressively more onerous as the years passed.

Exodus 2

[23] And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
[24] And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
[25] And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Exodus 3

[9] Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
[10] Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Exodus 6

[11] Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 12

[41] And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Blake's use of the furnace:

Jerusalem, Plate 8, (E 151)
"He saw that Los was the sole, uncontrolld Lord of the Furnaces
Groaning he kneeld before Los's iron-shod feet on London Stone,
Hungring & thirsting for Los's life yet pretending obedience.
While Los pursud his speech in threatnings loud & fierce.
Thou art my Pride & Self-righteousness: I have found thee out:
Thou art reveald before me in all thy magnitude & power
Thy Uncircumcised pretences to Chastity must be cut in sunder!
Thy holy wrath & deep deceit cannot avail against me
Nor shalt thou ever assume the triple-form of Albions Spectre
For I am one of the living: dare not to mock my inspired fury
If thou wast cast forth from my life! if I was dead upon the mountains
Thou mightest be pitied & lovd: but now I am living; unless
Thou abstain ravening I will create an eternal Hell for thee.
Take thou this Hammer & in patience heave the thundering Bellows
Take thou these Tongs: strike thou alternate with me: labour obedient"
Jerusalem, Plate 9, (E 152)
"I saw terrified; I took the sighs & tears, & bitter groans:
I lifted them into my Furnaces; to form the spiritual sword.
That lays open the hidden heart: I drew forth the pang
Of sorrow red hot: I workd it on my resolute anvil:
I heated it in the flames of Hand, & Hyle, & Coban
Nine times; Gwendolen & Cambel & Gwineverra
Are melted into the gold, the silver, the liquid ruby,
The crysolite, the topaz, the jacinth, & every precious stone,
Loud roar my Furnaces and loud my hammer is heard:
I labour day and night, I behold the soft affections
Condense beneath my hammer into forms of cruelty
But still I labour in hope, tho' still my tears flow down.
That he who will not defend Truth, may be compelld to defend
A Lie: that he may be snared and caught and snared and taken
That Enthusiasm and Life may not cease: arise Spectre arise!"
Jerusalem Plate 10, (E 152) t
"Into the Furnaces & into the valleys of the Anvils of Death
And into the mountains of the Anvils & of the heavy Hammers
Till he should bring the Sons & Daughters of Jerusalem to be
The Sons & Daughters of Los that he might protect them from
Albions dread Spectres; storming, loud, thunderous & mighty
The Bellows & the Hammers move compell'd by Los's hand."

CHICHESTER 3

Wikipedia Commons
Jerusalem
Plate 1, Unique print in Fitzwilliam Museum

Jerusalem, Plate 1, (E 144)
[Frontispiece]  
[Above the archway:]

"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land

His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above                
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion

[On right side of archway:]

Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los
As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired
The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment 

[On left side, in reversed writing:]

Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead!"

Blake named his opponents in his trial as Sons of Albion. They included the accusers, the prosecuting witnesses, the prosecutors and judges in the case. Of the twelve named Sons of Albion the first three may be familiar enemies :

Hand
Hyle
Coban
The other nine each played a part in Blake's prosecution:
Skofeld
Kox
Bowen
Gwantok,
Peachy,
Brertun,
Slaid,
Huttn
Kotope

The twelve Sons of Albion parallel the twelve sons of Israel (Jacob) whose descendants formed the twelve tribes of the Hebrews. These are the divisions of Albion whom we see at work in the natural world. When Blake came under attack by the mechanism of the legal system, he became more aware that there were within himself the same fragmenting forces which attempted to attack him, to find him guilty, to punish and destroy him. Although these forces might be projected outward and cause him trouble in the natural world, if they remained within his psyche (his Heaven) they could destroy his inner peace. In Jerusalem he kept returning to the names of those who opposed him, not to place blame on them and exonerate himself, but to work on his own inner life which made him susceptible to acting out the harmful behaviors which his opponents represented.

To learn to deal with these Sons of Albion, and these 'Sons of Blake' can be seen as a theme of Jerusalem.

 Jerusalem Plate 4, (E 146)
"But the perturbed Man away turns down the valleys dark;
[Saying. We are not One: we are Many, thou most simulative]
Phantom of the over heated brain! shadow of immortality!
Seeking to keep my soul a victim to thy Love! which binds        
Man the enemy of man into deceitful friendships:
Jerusalem is not! her daughters are indefinite:
By demonstration, man alone can live, and not by faith.
My mountains are my own, and I will keep them to myself!
The Malvern and the Cheviot, the Wolds Plinlimmon & Snowdon  
Are mine. here will I build my Laws of Moral Virtue!
Humanity shall be no more: but war & princedom & victory!

So spoke Albion in jealous fears, hiding his Emanation
Upon the Thames and Medway, rivers of Beulah: dissembling
His jealousy before the throne divine, darkening, cold!          
Plate 5
The banks of the Thames are clouded! the ancient porches of Albion are
Darken'd! they are drawn thro' unbounded space, scatter'd upon
The Void in incoherent despair! Cambridge & Oxford & London,
Are driven among the starry Wheels, rent away and dissipated,
In Chasms & Abysses of sorrow, enlarg'd without dimension, terrible.    
Albions mountains run with blood, the cries of war & of tumult
Resound into the unbounded night, every Human perfection
Of mountain & river & city, are small & wither'd & darken'd
Cam is a little stream! Ely is almost swallowd up!
Lincoln & Norwich stand trembling on the brink of Udan-Adan!     
Wales and Scotland shrink themselves to the west and to the north!
Mourning for fear of the warriors in the Vale of Entuthon-Benython
Jerusalem is scatterd abroad like a cloud of smoke thro' non-entity:
Moab & Ammon & Amalek & Canaan & Egypt & Aram
Recieve her little-ones for sacrifices and the delights of cruelty   

Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish'd at me.
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination        
O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life!
Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of ages,
While I write of the building of Golgonooza, & of the terrors of Entuthon:
Of Hand & Hyle & Coban, of Kwantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd & Hutton:
Of the terrible sons & daughters of Albion. and their Generations.

Scofield! Kox, Kotope and Bowen, revolve most mightily upon
The Furnace of Los: before the eastern gate bending their fury.
They war, to destroy the Furnaces, to desolate Golgonooza:
And to devour the Sleeping  Humanity  of  Albion  in  rage  & hunger."   

 .

furnace 6

From Book of Urizen:
Dark grew his globe reddning with mists & full before his path
Striding across the narrow vale the Shadow of Urthona        
A spectre Vast appeard whose feet & legs with iron scaled
Stampd the hard rocks expectant of the unknown wanderer
Whom he had seen wandring his nether world when distant far
And watchd his swift approach collected dark the Spectre stood
Beside hi[m] Tharmas stayd his flight & stood in stern defiance
Communing with the Spectre who rejoicd along the vale
Round his loins a girdle glowd with many colourd fires
In his hand a knotted Club whose knots like mountains frownd
Desart among the Stars them withering with its ridges cold
Black scales of iron arm the dread visage iron spikes instead
Of hair shoot from his orbed scull. his glowing eyes
Burn like two furnaces. he calld with Voice of Thunder

Four winged heralds mount the furious blasts & blow their trumps
Gold Silver Brass & iron clangors clamoring rend the shores  
Like white clouds rising from the Vales his fifty two armies
From the four Cliffs of Urthona rise glowing around the Spectre
Four sons of Urizen the Squadrons of Urthona led in arms
Of gold & silver brass & iron he knew his mighty sons
(Erdman 99-100)

                        VALA
                   Night the Seventh                        
Then Urizen arose The Spectre fled & Tharmas fled
The darkning Spectre of Urthona hid beneath a rock
Tharmas threw his impetuous flight thro the deeps of immensity
Revolving round in whirlpools fierce all round the cavernd worlds

But Urizen silent descended to the Caves of Orc & saw        
A Cavernd Universe of flaming fire the horses of Urizen
(Erdman 352)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Even Rahab in all her turpitude Rahab divided herself
She stood before Los in her Pride among the Furnaces          
Dividing & uniting in Delusive feminine pomp questioning him

He answerd her with tenderness & love not uninspird          
Los sat upon his anvil stock they sat beside the forge
Los wipd the sweat from his red brow & thus began
To the delusive female forms shining among his furnaces

I am that shadowy Prophet who six thousand years ago
Fell from my station in the Eternal bosom. I divided
To multitude & my multitudes are children of Care & Labour
O Rahab I behold thee I was once like thee a Son
Of Pride and I also have piercd the Lamb of God in pride & wrath
Hear me repeat my Generations that thou mayst also repent
Forgetful of his own Laws pitying he began to Embrace
The Shadowly Female since life cannot be quenchd Life exuded
His eyes shot outwards then his breathing nostrils drawn forth
Scales coverd over a cold forehead & a neck outstretchd
Into the deep to sieze the shadow scales his neck & bosom
She stood before Los in her Pride among the Furnaces                 
(Erdman 381)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Milton Plate 5:
While the Females prepare the Victims. the Males at Furnaces
And Anvils dance the dance of tears & pain. loud lightnings
Lash on their limbs as they turn the whirlwinds loose upon
The Furnaces, lamenting around the Anvils and this their Song[:]

 Ah weak & wide astray! Ah shut in narrow doleful form
 Creeping in reptile flesh upon the bosom of the ground
The Eye of Man a little narrow orb closd up & dark
Scarcely beholding the great light conversing with the Void
The Ear, a little shell in small volutions shutting out
All melodies & comprehending only Discord and Harmony
The Tongue a little moisture fills, a little food it cloys
A little sound it utters & its cries are faintly heard
Then brings forth Moral Virtue the cruel Virgin Babylon
(Erdman 98-99)

Furnace 5

(These quotations come from The Four Zoas)

PAGE 113 (FIRST PORTION)
We behold with wonder Enitharmons Looms & Los's Forges        
And the Spindles of Tirzah & Rahab and the Mills of Satan &
     Beelzeboul                                                
In Golgonooza Los's anvils stand & his Furnaces rage          
Ten thousand demons labour at the forges Creating Continually
The times & spaces of Mortal Life the Sun the Moon the Stars
In periods of Pulsative furor beating into wedges & bars      
Then drawing into wires the terrific Passions & Affections
Of Spectrous dead. Thence to the Looms of Cathedron conveyd
The Daughters of Enitharmon weave the ovarium & the integument
In soft silk drawn from their own bowels in lascivious delight
With songs of sweetest cadence to the turning spindle & reel
Lulling the weeping spectres of the dead. Clothing their limbs
With gifts & gold of Eden. Astonishd stupefied with delight
The terrors put on their sweet clothing on the banks of Arnon  
Whence they plunge into the river of space for a period till
The dread Sleep of Ulro is past. But Satan Og & Sihon          
Build Mills of resistless wheels to unwind the soft threads &
     reveal
Naked of their clothing the poor spectres before the accusing
     heavens
While Rahab & Tirzah far different mantles prepare webs of
     torture
(376 )

-------------------------------------------------------\
[113] (SECOND PORTION)
But when Rahab had cut off the Mantle of Luvah from            
The Lamb of God it rolld apart, revealing to all in heaven
And all on Earth the Temple & the Synagogue of Satan & Mystery

Even Rahab in all her turpitude Rahab divided herself
She stood before Los in her Pride among the Furnaces          
Dividing & uniting in Delusive feminine pomp questioning him

He answerd her with tenderness & love not uninspird            
Los sat upon his anvil stock they sat beside the forge
Los wipd the sweat from his red brow & thus began
To the delusive female forms shining among his furnaces

I am that shadowy Prophet who six thousand years ago
Fell from my station in the Eternal bosom. I divided
To multitude & my multitudes are children of Care & Labour
O Rahab I behold thee I was once like thee a Son
Of Pride and I also have piercd the Lamb of God in pride & wrath
Hear me repeat my Generations that thou mayst also repent
(379)
--------------------------------------------------------
The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning    
And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night      
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires the evil is all
     consumd
His eyes behold the Angelic spheres arising night & day
The stars consumd like a lamp blown out & in their stead behold
The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds
One Earth one sea beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & one Sun
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy
Calling the Plowman to his Labour & the Shepherd to his rest
He walks upon the Eternal Mountains raising his heavenly voice  
Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day
That risen from the Sea of fire renewd walk oer the Earth

For Tharmas brought his flocks upon the hills & in the Vales
Around the Eternal Mans bright tent the little Children play
Among the wooly flocks The hammer of Urthona sounds            
In the deep caves beneath his limbs renewd his Lions roar
Around the Furnaces & in Evening sport upon the plains
They raise their faces from the Earth conversing with the Man

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  

PAGE 139
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  
(406-7)
(End of The Four Zoas)                        

Furnace 4

From The Four Zoas, 5th Night:

................ Enitharmon stretchd on the dreary Earth          
Felt her immortal limbs freeze stiffning pale inflexible
His feet shrink withring from the deep shrinking & withering    
And Enitharmon shrunk up all their fibres withring beneath
As plants witherd by winter leaves & stems & roots decaying
Melt into thin air while the seed drivn by the furious wind      
Rests on the distant Mountains top. So Los & Enitharmon
Shrunk into fixed space stood trembling on a Rocky cliff
Yet mighty bulk & majesty & beauty remaind but unexpansive
As far as highest Zenith from the lowest Nadir. so far shrunk   
Los from the furnaces a Space immense & left the cold           
Prince of Light bound in chains of intellect among the furnaces
But all the furnaces were out & the bellows had ceast to blow

He stood trembling & Enitharmon clung around his knees
Their senses unexpansive in one stedfast bulk remain
The night blew cold & Enitharmon shriekd on the dismal wind
(Erdman 339)      

Songs of Experience
SONGS 55 
A DIVINE IMAGE

[An early Song of Experience included in one late copy]        t

Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face
Terror, the Human Form Divine
And Secrecy, the Human Dress

The Human Dress, is forged Iron
The Human Form, a fiery Forge.
The Human Face, a Furnace seal'd
The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge.


PLATE 10 of The Book of Urizen:
        Chap: IV.[b]

1. Ages on ages roll'd over him!
In stony sleep ages roll'd over him!
Like a dark waste stretching chang'able
By earthquakes riv'n, belching sullen fires
On ages roll'd ages in ghastly                 

Sick torment; around him in whirlwinds
Of darkness the eternal Prophet howl'd
Beating still on his rivets of iron
Pouring sodor of iron; dividing
The horrible night into watches.                                 

2. And Urizen (so his eternal name)
His prolific delight obscurd more & more
In dark secresy hiding in surgeing
Sulphureous fluid his phantasies.
The Eternal Prophet heavd the dark bellows,                      
And turn'd restless the tongs; and the hammer
Incessant beat; forging chains new & new
Numb'ring with links. hours, days & years

3. The eternal mind bounded began to roll
Eddies of wrath ceaseless round & round,                     
And the sulphureous foam surgeing thick
Settled, a lake, bright, & shining clear:
White as the snow on the mountains cold.

4. Forgetfulness, dumbness, necessity!
In chains of the mind locked up,                                 
Like fetters of ice shrinking together
Disorganiz'd, rent from Eternity,
Los beat on his fetters of iron;
And heated his furnaces & pour'd
Iron sodor and sodor of brass  
(Erdman 74)
                                
 --------------------------------------------------------
From Milton Plate 5:

While the Females prepare the Victims. the Males at Furnaces 
And Anvils dance the dance of tears & pain. loud lightnings
Lash on their limbs as they turn the whirlwinds loose upon
The Furnaces, lamenting around the Anvils & this their Song[:]

Ah weak & wide astray! Ah shut in narrow doleful form
Creeping in reptile flesh upon the bosom of the ground      
The Eye of Man a little narrow orb closd up & dark
Scarcely beholding the great light conversing with the Void
The Ear, a little shell in small volutions shutting out
All melodies & comprehending only Discord and Harmony
The Tongue a little moisture fills, a little food it cloys  
A little sound it utters & its cries are faintly heard
Then brings forth Moral Virtue the cruel Virgin Babylon

Can such an Eye judge of the stars? & looking thro its tubes
Measure the sunny rays that point their spears on Udanadan
Can such an Ear filld with the vapours of the yawning pit.  
Judge of the pure melodious harp struck by a hand divine?
Can such closed Nostrils feel a joy? or tell of autumn fruits
When grapes & figs burst their covering to the joyful air
Can such a Tongue boast of the living waters? or take in
Ought but the Vegetable Ratio & loathe the faint delight     
Can such gross Lips percieve? alas! folded within themselves
They touch not ought but pallid turn & tremble at every wind
(Erdman 98 -99)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Furnaces 3A

Blake used 'furnace' for many things:

From AMERICA a PROPHECY Plate 4; Erdman 52-53) :  
(Here 'furnace' suggests the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
War initiated by the American leaders, such as 'Boston's Angel.)

"Here on their magic seats the thirteen Angels sat perturb'd
For clouds from the Atlantic hover o'er the solemn roof.

PLATE 11
Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc
And Bostons Angel cried aloud as they flew thro' the dark night.

He cried: Why trembles honesty and like a murderer,
Why seeks he refuge from the frowns of his immortal station!  
Must the generous tremble & leave his joy, to the idle: to the
     pestilence!
That mock him? who commanded this? what God? what Angel!
To keep the gen'rous from experience till the ungenerous
Are unrestraind performers of the energies of nature;
Till pity is become a trade, and generosity a science,        
That men get rich by, & the sandy desart is giv'n to the strong
What God is he, writes laws of peace, & clothes him in a tempest
What pitying Angel lusts for tears, and fans himself with sighs
What crawling villain preaches abstinence & wraps himself
In fat of lambs? no more I follow, no more obedience pay.      

PLATE 12
So cried he, rending off his robe & throwing down his scepter.
In sight of Albions Guardian, and all the thirteen Angels
Rent off their robes to the hungry wind, & threw their golden
     scepters
Down on the land of America. indignant they descended
Headlong from out their heav'nly heights, descending swift as
     fires      
Over the land; naked & flaming are their lineaments seen
In the deep gloom, by Washington & Paine & Warren they stood
And the flame folded roaring fierce within the pitchy night
Before the Demon red, who burnt towards America,
In black smoke thunders and loud winds rejoicing in its terror

Breaking in smoky wreaths from the wild deep, & gath'ring thick
In flames as of a furnace on the land from North to South"

From The Four Zoas (Vala; Night the Fifth;
"And first he found the Limit of Opacity & namd it Satan
In Albions bosom for in every human bosom these limits stand  
And next he found the Limit of Contraction & namd it Adam
While yet those beings were not born nor knew of good or Evil

Then wondrously the Starry Wheels felt the divine hand. Limit
Was put to Eternal Death Los felt the Limit & saw
The Finger of God touch the Seventh furnace in terror          
And Los beheld the hand of God over his furnaces
Beneath the Deeps in dismal Darkness beneath immensity
 
PAGE 55 (SECOND PORTION)
In terrors Los shrunk from his task. his great hammer        
Fell from his hand his fires hid their strong limbs in smoke
For with noises ruinous   hurtlings & clashings & groans      
The immortal endur'd. tho bound in a deadly sleep
Pale terror siezd the Eyes of Los as he beat round            
The hurtling Demon. terrifid at the shapes
Enslavd humanity put on he became what he beheld
He became what he was doing he was himself transformd"

Furnace II

There are 168 occurrencies of 'furnace' in Blake's poetry and over 100 of them are in Jerusalem. We hear it first in Songs of Experience; look at 'The Tyger':
                                                                                                                            
In the Four Zoas:
Luvah was cast into the Furnaces of affliction & sealed (Night 2;; Erdman 376)                                            
In Golgonooza Los's anvils stand & his Furnaces rage 
(Night 8 Erdman 376)

In Jerusalem plate 5:
The Male is a Furnace of beryll; the Female is a golden Loom The Starry Wheels revolv'd heavily over the Furnaces; 
(Erdman 148)   

In my Furnaces into One Nation the English: & taking refuge
with solemn cadences she drew
Fibres of life out from the Bones into her golden Loom
Hand had his Furnace on Highgates heights & it reachd
To Brockley Hills across the Thames: he with double Boadicea
In cruel pride cut Reuben apart from the Hills of Surrey
Comingling with Luvah & with the Sepulcher of Luvah
For the Male is a Furnace of beryll: the Female is a golden Loom

Los cries: No Individual ought to appropriate to Himself
Or to his Emanation, any of the Universal Characteristics
Of David or of Eve, of the Woman, or of the Lord.
Of Reuben or of Benjamin, of Joseph or Judah or Levi
Those who dare appropriate to themselves Universal Attributes
Are the Blasphemous Selfhoods & must be broken asunder

Loud scream the Daughters of Albion beneath the Tongs & Hammer
Dolorous are their lamentations in the burning Forge
They drink Reuben & Benjamin as the iron drinks the fire
They are red hot with cruelty: raving along the Banks of Thames
And on Tyburns Brook among the howling Victims in loveliness
While Hand & Hyle condense the Little-ones & erect them into
A mighty Temple even to the stars: but they Vegetate
Beneath Los's Hammer, that Life may not be blotted out.
(Jerusalem Plate 90; Erdman 249-50)

                                                                Jerusalem, 92.2; E252

161. This sinful Nation Created in our Furnaces & Looms is Albion

                                                                Jerusalem, 92.6; E252:
162. Beneath the Furnaces & the starry Wheels & the Immortal Tomb

                                                                Jerusalem, 94.2; E254:
163. Revolve: & over them the Furnaces of Los & the Immortal Tomb around

                                                                Jerusalem, 94.12; E254:
164. Beneath the Furnaces & starry Wheels and in the Immortal Tomb

                                                                Jerusalem, 94.19; E254:

165. So Albion spoke & threw himself into the Furnaces of affliction

                                                                Jerusalem, 96.35; E256

166. All was a Vision, all a Dream: the Furnaces became

                                                                Jerusalem, 96.36; E256
(More to come.)

The Furnace

The magnum opus of Northrop Frye was a two volume work about 'The Bible and Literature'; it crowned his career in the last years of his life.  The first one was called The Great Code and the last one, written just before he died, was Words with Power. (One exciting line of the link is "Blake's lifelong project was to produce his own revised and updated version of the Scriptures.")

'Words with Power' has in its Contents four 'variations', each one with it own chapter: "the Mountain, the Garden, the Cave and the Furnace." Obviously each of these is related to significant material in Blake's Works.  In this post we will concentrate on "The Furnace":

Jerusalem plate 6

In this picture we see Los, the Blacksmith at his shop. His furnace is going; above it the Spectre hovers.

Jerusalem, Plate 6, (E 148)

"His spectre driv'n by the Starry Wheels of Albions sons, black and 
Opake divided from his back; he labours and he mourns!

For as his Emanation divided, his Spectre also 
divided
In terror of those starry wheels: and the 
Spectre stood over Los 
Howling in pain: a blackning Shadow, blackning 
dark & opake
Cursing the terrible Los: bitterly cursing him 
for his friendship
To Albion, suggesting murderous thoughts 
Los rag'd and stamp'd the earth in his might & 
terrible wrath!
He stood and stampd the earth! then he threw down his hammer in rage &
In fury: then he sat down and wept, terrified! Then arose
And chaunted his song, labouring with the tongs and hammer:
But still the Spectre divided, and still his pain increas'd
In pain the Spectre divided: in pain of hunger and thirst:"(Erdman 148-49)

'Furnace' appears often in Blake's poetry (168 times); here is a fruitful one:

Jerusalem, Plate 95, (E 256)

"Albion stood in terror: not for himself but for his Friend
Divine, & Self was lost in the contemplation of faith
And wonder at the Divine Mercy & at Los's sublime honour
Do I sleep amidst danger to Friends! O my Cities & Counties
Do you sleep! rouze up! rouze up. Eternal Death is abroad
So Albion spoke & threw himself into the Furnaces of affliction
All was a Vision, all a Dream: the Furnaces became
Fountains of Living Waters Howing from the Humanity Divine
And all the Cities of Albion rose from their Slumbers, and All
The Sons & Daughters of Albion on soft clouds Waking from Sleep
Soon all around remote the Heavens burnt with flaming fires
And Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona arose into
Albions Bosom: Then Albion stood before Jesus in the Clouds
Of Heaven Fourfold among the Visions of God in Eternity"

On page 296 of Words with Power Frye wrote:
"The image of the furnace may be used for either the negative or
positive aspects of the lower world. The negative or demonic world
is the traditional hell which is a furnace of heat without light.
The positive one is purgatorial, a crucible from which the redeemed
emerge purified like metal in a smelting operation" ... and on and on.
(Get the book and read it; it's full of meaning.)

Professor Marx described it thusly:
"Frye's fourth variation and last chapter is called the Furnace. Its theme is 
"lower wisdom," relating it to the lower love of the previous chapter and to 
the higher wisdom of the mountain in chapter 5. The wisdom and power of 
the Furnace is not communicated from on high by God, but is forged within 
by His rivals. Frye calls that self-made wisdom titanic creative energy. Its 
primary concern is making or work or possession or property. What these 
apparently unrelated terms have in common is the self-driven extension of the 
self--that which one produces and thereby owns."

LOOMS & FURNACES

Blake Archive

                      British Museum
                       Book of Urizen
                      Plate 26, Copy D

Industrialization was taking place at a fast pace during Blake's lifetime which extended from 1757 to 1827. The two processes at which we have been looking as images for the transformation of man's psyche, the furnaces and the looms, were rapidly developing as means by which society and the economy were entering a new age. The technical advances made possible by inventions and applications, and the might of empire, spread the means of automated manufacture throughout Britain. Blake latched onto the powerful images of the industrial revolution as symbols for the trauma which modify the inner workings in the brain.

Songs of Innocence & of Experience, Song 55, (E 33)

A DIVINE IMAGE
[An early Song of Experience included in one late copy] 
"Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face
Terror, the Human Form Divine
And Secrecy, the Human Dress

The Human Dress, is forged Iron
The Human Form, a fiery Forge.
The Human Face, a Furnace seal'd
The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge."

Milton, Plate 6, (E 100)
"But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of Albion

Loud sounds the Hammer of Los, loud turn the Wheels of Enitharmon
Her Looms vibrate with soft affections, weaving the Web of Life
Out from the ashes of the Dead"

But the furnaces and looms likewise were used by Blake to symbolize the loss of human values as mechanization replaced manual skills. Blake saw that the souls who were the inhabitants of Britain were thrown into the furnaces and woven in the looms 'among the dark Satanic wheels.'

Jerusalem, Plate 15, (E 159)
"But first Albion must sleep, divided from the Nations

I see Albion sitting upon his Rock in the first Winter           
And thence I see the Chaos of Satan & the World of Adam
When the Divine Hand went forth on Albion in the mid Winter
And at the place of Death when Albion sat in Eternal Death
Among the Furnaces of Los in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom
PLATE 16
Hampstead Highgate Finchley Hendon Muswell hill: rage loud
Before Bromions iron Tongs & glowing Poker reddening fierce
Hertfordshire glows with fierce Vegetation! in the Forests
The Oak frowns terrible, the Beech & Ash & Elm enroot
Among the Spiritual fires; loud the Corn fields thunder along  
The Soldiers fife; the Harlots shriek; the Virgins dismal groan
The Parents fear: the Brothers jealousy: the Sisters curse
Beneath the Storms of Theotormon & the thundring Bellows
Heaves in the hand of Palamabron who in Londons darkness
Before the Anvil, watches the bellowing flames: thundering       
The Hammer loud rages in Rintrahs strong grasp swinging loud

Round from heaven to earth down falling with heavy blow
Dead on the Anvil, where the red hot wedge groans in pain
He quenches it in the black trough of his Forge; Londons River
Feeds the dread Forge, trembling & shuddering along the Valleys 

Humber & Trent roll dreadful before the Seventh Furnace
And Tweed & Tyne anxious give up their Souls for Albions sake
Lincolnshire Derbyshire Nottinghamshire Leicestershire
From Oxfordshire to Norfolk on the Lake of Udan Adan
Labour within the Furnaces, walking among the Fires              
With Ladles huge & iron Pokers over the Island white.

Scotland pours out his Sons to labour at the Furnaces
Wales gives his Daughters to the Looms; England: nursing Mothers
Gives to the Children of Albion & to the Children of Jerusalem
From the blue Mundane Shell even to the Earth of Vegetation      
Throughout the whole Creation which groans to be deliverd.
Albion groans in the deep slumbers of Death upon his Rock."

Jerusalem, Plate 65, (E 216)
"Then left the Sons of Urizen the plow & harrow, the loom
The hammer & the chisel, & the rule & compasses; from London fleeing
They forg'd the sword on Cheviot, the chariot of war & the battle-ax,
The trumpet fitted to mortal battle, & the flute of summer in Annandale
And all the Arts of Life. they changd into the Arts of Death in Albion.
The hour-glass contemnd because its simple workmanship.
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, & the water wheel,
That raises water into cisterns: broken & burnd with fire:
Because its workmanship. was like the workmanship of the shepherd. 
And in their stead, intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel:
To perplex youth in their outgoings, & to bind to labours in Albion
Of day & night the myriads of eternity that they may grind
And polish brass & iron hour after hour laborious task!
Kept ignorant of its use, that they might spend the days of wisdom
In sorrowful drudgery, to obtain a scanty pittance of bread:
In ignorance to view a small portion & think that All,
And call it Demonstration: blind to all the simple rules of life."

Alfred Kazin in his introduction to Blake: The Viking Portable Library provides this insight into Blake's first-hand experience of changes induced by the industrial revolution:
"Blake was only one of many Englishmen who felt himself being slowly ground to death, in a world of such brutal exploitation and amid such inhuman ugliness, that the fires of the new industrial furnaces and the cries of the child laborers are always in his work. His poems and designs are meant to afford us spiritual vision; a vision beyond the factory system, the hideous new cities, the degradation of children for the sake of profit, the petty crimes for which children could be hanged. 'England,' a man said to me on V-E day, 'has never recovered from its industrial revolution'; Blake was afraid it could not survive it; the human cost was already too great. He never saw the north of Britain, but the grey squalor of the Clydebrook, the great industrial maw of Manchester and Liverpool, the slums the broken families are remembered in the apocalyptic rant of Jerusalem, where

'Scotland pours out her son to labour in the Furnaces;
Wales gives her daughters to the Loom.'"

BLAKE'S FURNACES VI

Is an individual capable of exercising control over what goes on in his mind? Some would argue that he is not; that his thoughts are simply reactions to his memories or to external activity. Others observe an ability to decide what response is made by the psyche to the ever changing panorama of sensation and thought to which one is subject. Blake fell into the second category. Blake had developed his image of the furnaces as a means of gaining the ability to alter the 'mind forged manacles.' The difficulty in altering the way the mind perceives is that the mind is subject to the very strictures which it projects onto the outside world. In his four chapters of Jerusalem Blake explores both the outward and inward manifestations of a mind which has lost its unity and its ability to view ultimate reality. 

The final reference in Jerusalem to the furnaces of Los is on plate 91. Here the furnaces succeeded in amalgamating the nations into one because Los had succeeded in in altering his Spectre. The Spectre was no longer able to take control of Los' mind. Los no longer saw his Spectre as good or evil, he could now serve Los as intellect because Los no longer expects him to make him holy.  

The work of the furnaces, the inner work, was over but the final achievement of the Los' furnaces had begun a chain reaction of reassembling Albion. The process of disintegration was reversed. Reintegration took place in multiple stages involving Los, Enitharmon, Britannia, Albion, Jesus and Jerusalem. The final appearance of a furnace was the 'Furnace of Affliction' into which Albion threw himself as an 'Offering of Self for Another'. By this act there was a transformation of the furnaces into 'Fountains of Living Waters' which initiated the final universal awakening.  

Yale Center for British Art
Jerusalem  
Plate 73 
 
Yale Center for British Art 
Jerusalem 
Plate 97 

Jerusalem, Plate 91, (E 251)

"Thus Los alterd his Spectre & every Ratio of his Reason      
He alterd time after time, with dire pain & many tears
Till he had completely divided him into a separate space.

Terrified Los sat to behold trembling & weeping & howling
I care not whether a Man is Good or Evil; all that I care
Is whether he is a Wise Man or a Fool. Go! put off Holiness    
And put on Intellect: or my thundrous Hammer shall drive thee
To wrath which thou condemnest: till thou obey my voice
So Los terrified cries: trembling & weeping & howling! Beholding                                         
PLATE 92
What do I see? The Briton Saxon Roman Norman amalgamating
In my Furnaces into One Nation the English: & taking refuge
In the Loins of Albion. The Canaanite united with the fugitive
Hebrew, whom she divided into Twelve, & sold into Egypt
Then scatterd the Egyptian & Hebrew to the four Winds!       
This sinful Nation Created in our Furnaces & Looms is Albion

So Los spoke. Enitharmon answerd in great terror in Lambeths Vale

The Poets Song draws to its period & Enitharmon is no more."

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 256)
"Albion replyd. Cannot Man exist without Mysterious          
Offering of Self for Another, is this Friendship & Brotherhood
I see thee in the likeness & similitude of Los my Friend

Jesus said. Wouldest thou love one who never died
For thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee
And if God dieth not for Man & giveth not himself           
Eternally for Man Man could not exist. for Man is Love:
As God is Love: every kindness to another is a little Death
In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood

So saying. the Cloud overshadowing divided them asunder
Albion stood in terror: not for himself but for his Friend     
Divine, & Self was lost in the contemplation of faith
And wonder at the Divine Mercy & at Los's sublime honour

Do I sleep amidst danger to Friends! O my Cities & Counties
Do you sleep! rouze up! rouze up. Eternal Death is abroad

So Albion spoke & threw himself into the Furnaces of affliction 
All was a Vision, all a Dream: the Furnaces became
Fountains of Living Waters Flowing from the Humanity Divine
And all the Cities of Albion rose from their Slumbers, and All
The Sons & Daughters of Albion on soft clouds Waking from Sleep
Soon all around remote the Heavens burnt with flaming fires    
And Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona arose into
Albions Bosom: Then Albion stood before Jesus in the Clouds
Of Heaven Fourfold among the Visions of God in Eternity
PLATE 97
Awake! Awake Jerusalem! O lovely Emanation of Albion
Awake and overspread all Nations as in Ancient Time
For lo! the Night of Death is past and the Eternal Day
Appears upon our Hills: Awake Jerusalem, and come away"

BLAKE'S FURNACES V

Yale Center for British Art
Blake's Water-Colours for the
Poems of Thomas Gray
Design 93

The first product of Los' furnaces (Damon) was Erin. Like Enitharmon she was Space. Since Los had compelled his Spectre to join his operating the furnaces, the outcome was not optimum; first because Erin was partially the work of the Spectre and second because the Spectre was compelled. With Erin came all the Daughters of Beulah but not in their eternal form.
 
The appearance of the spaces of Erin provided a field in which the problems of Albion and Jerusalem could be addressed but solutions still  were unclear by the end of chapter 2. Erin had provided the space in which Golgonooza might be built; the work continued.

Jerusalem, Plate 9, (E 152)

"Thus they contended among the Furnaces with groans & tears;
Groaning the Spectre heavd the bellows, obeying Los's frowns;
Till the Spaces of Erin were perfected in the furnaces
Of affliction, and Los drew them forth, compelling the harsh Spectre.         
Plate 10
Into the Furnaces & into the valleys of the Anvils of Death
And into the mountains of the Anvils & of the heavy Hammers
Till he should bring the Sons & Daughters of Jerusalem to be
The Sons & Daughters of Los that he might protect them from
Albions dread Spectres; storming, loud, thunderous & mighty      
The Bellows & the Hammers move compell'd by Los's hand."

Jerusalem, Plate 11, (E 154)
"Then Erin came forth from the Furnaces, & all the Daughters of Beulah
Came from the Furnaces, by Los's mighty power for Jerusalems
Sake: walking up and down among the Spaces of Erin:              
And the Sons and Daughters of Los came forth in perfection lovely!
And the Spaces of Erin reach'd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth.

Los wept with exceeding joy & all wept with joy together!
They feard they never more should see their Father, who
Was built in from Eternity, in the Cliffs of Albion.             

But when the joy of meeting was exhausted in loving embrace;
Again they lament. O what shall we do for lovely Jerusalem?
To protect the Emanations of Albions mighty ones from cruelty?
Sabrina & Ignoge begin to sharpen their beamy spears
Of light and love: their little children stand with arrows of gold:   
Ragan is wholly cruel Scofield is bound ill iron armour!
He shoots beneath Jerusalems walls to undermine her foundations!
A shadow animated by thy tears O mournful Jerusalem!"      

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 155)
"Why wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?.
Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:
But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:
What shall we do for thee O lovely mild Jerusalem?

And Los said. I behold the finger of God in terrors!           
Albion is dead! his Emanation is divided from him!
But I am living! yet I feel my Emanation also dividing
Such thing was never known! O pity me, thou all-piteous-one!
What shall I do! or how exist, divided from Enitharmon?
Yet why despair! I saw the finger of God go forth                
Upon my Furnaces, from within the Wheels of Albions Sons:
Fixing their Systems, permanent: by mathematic power
Giving a body to Falshood that it may be cast off for ever.
With Demonstrative Science piercing Apollyon with his own bow!
God is within, & without! he is even in the depths of Hell!      

Such were the lamentations of the Labourers in the Furnaces!

And they appeard within & without incircling on both sides
The Starry Wheels of Albions Sons, with Spaces for Jerusalem:
And for Vala the shadow of Jerusalem: the ever mourning shade:
On both sides, within & without beaming gloriously!              

Terrified at the sublime Wonder, Los stood before his Furnaces.
And they stood around, terrified with admiration at Erins Spaces
For the Spaces reachd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth;
And they builded Golgonooza: terrible eternal labour!"

In the final section of chapter 2 (To The Jews) Erin reappeared as the spokesperson for reviewing the situation which existed because of the religious errors existing in Blake's time as the result of the long history of belief in a God of vengeance and moral law. Blake spent chapter 2 enumerating the errors which result from man's misconceptions of God with the hope of revealing error that it may be recognized and annihilated. 

Jerusalem, Plate 49, (E 197) 

"And thus Erin spoke to the Daughters of Beulah, in soft tears" 

Jerusalem, Plate 50, (E 199)
"The Atlantic Mountains where Giants dwelt in Intellect;
Now given to stony Druids, and Allegoric Generation
To the Twelve Gods of Asia, the Spectres of those who Sleep:
Sway'd by a Providence oppos'd to the Divine Lord Jesus:
A murderous Providence! A Creation that groans, living on Death. 
Where Fish & Bird & Beast & Man & Tree & Metal & Stone
Live by Devouring, going into Eternal Death continually:
Albion is now possess'd by the War of Blood! the Sacrifice
Of envy Albion is become, and his Emanation cast out:

Come Lord Jesus, Lamb of God descend! for if; O Lord!            
If thou hadst been here, our brother Albion had not died.
Arise sisters! Go ye & meet the Lord, while I remain--
Behold the foggy mornings of the Dead on Albions cliffs!
Ye know that if the Emanation remains in them:
She will become an Eternal Death, an Avenger of Sin              
A Self-righteousness: the proud Virgin-Harlot! Mother of War!
And we also & all Beulah, consume beneath Albions curse.

So Erin spoke to the Daughters of Beulah. Shuddering
With their wings they sat in the Furnace, in a night
Of stars, for all the Sons of Albion appeard distant stars,      
Ascending and descending into Albions sea of death.
And Erins lovely Bow enclos'd the Wheels of Albions Sons."

Evidence that error continued is spoken by the Daughters of Beulah presented in their reply to Erin's lament:

Jerusalem, Plate 50, (E 200)
"Expanding on wing, the Daughters of Beulah replied in sweet response

Come O thou Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of Sin
To Sin & to hide the Sin in sweet deceit. is lovely!!            
To Sin in the open face of day is cruel & pitiless! But
To record the Sin for a reproach: to let the Sun go down
In a remembrance of the Sin: is a Woe & a Horror!
A brooder of an Evil Day, and a Sun rising in blood
Come then O Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of Sin" 

Minna Doskow, author of William Blake' Jerusalem, Structure and Meaning in Poetry
and Pictures, states the continued errors the Daughters make:

"They do not abolish the category of sin or separate the individual from the state. They wish simply to end the recording or remembrance of of sin, Albion's religious tally sheets, which is a worthy but insufficient aim.They have achieved a half truth only. Therefore the prayer to God cannot bring about salvation nor end generation. Unlike the inhabitants of Beulah, who express the imaginative vision after chapter 1's general survey of all error and its alternatives, these Daughters of Beulah at the end of chapter 2's survey of religious error and its alternatives are still involved in it."