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| Wikimedia Commons Illustrations to Poems of Thomas Gray The Progress of Poesy |
Robinson's primary difficulty in communicating with Blake was his failure to accept the spiritual world which was more real to Blake than was the physical world. We tend to associate the ability to hear 'voices' and see 'visions' with mental illness as did Robinson. But most of us will admit that there are moments in our lives when we are super-sensitive to realities that bring together the awareness of truth, beauty and love in a culminating experience. This is the visionary state to which Blake had such ready access and which was so alien to Robinson.
A quote from Robinson's account of a conversation with Blake:
"The Sun. 'I have conversed with the Spiritual Sun—I saw him on Primrose-hill. He said, "Do you take me for the Greek Apollo?" "No," I said, "that" [and Blake pointed to the sky] "that is the Greek Apollo. He is Satan.'"
Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 229)
"The Sons of Los clothe them & feed, & provide houses & gardens
And every Human Vegetated Form in its inward recesses
Is a house of ple[as]antness & a garden of delight Built by the
Sons & Daughters of Los in Bowlahoola & in Cathedron
From London to York & Edinburgh the Furnaces rage terrible
Primrose Hill is the mouth of the Furnace & the Iron Door;
A quote from Robinson's account of a conversation with Blake:
"The combination of the warmest praise with imputations which from
another would assume the most serious character, and the liberty he took
to interpret as he pleased, rendered it as difficult to be offended as
to reason with him. The eloquent descriptions of Nature in Wordsworth's
poems were conclusive proofs of atheism, for whoever believes in Nature,
said Blake, disbelieves in God. For Nature is the work of the Devil.
On my obtaining from him the declaration that the Bible was the Word of
God, I referred to the commencement of Genesis—In the beginning God
created the Heavens and the Earth. But I gained nothing by this, for I
was triumphantly told that this God was not Jehovah, but the Elohim; and
the doctrine of the Gnostics repeated with sufficient consistency to
silence one so unlearned as myself."
Jerusalem, Plate 27, (E 171)
"Your Ancestors derived their origin from Abraham, Heber, Shem,
and Noah, who were Druids: as the Druid Temples (which are the
Patriarchal Pillars & Oak Groves) over the whole Earth witness to
this day.
You have a tradition, that Man anciently containd in his mighty
limbs all things in Heaven & Earth: this you recieved from the
Druids.
"But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of
Albion"
Albion was the Parent of the Druids; & in his Chaotic State of
Sleep Satan & Adam & the whole World was Created by the Elohim."
Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 228)
"To Create the lion & wolf the bear: the tyger & ounce:
To Create the wooly lamb & downy fowl & sealy serpent
The summer & winter: day & night: the sun & moon & stars
The tree: the plant: the flower: the rock: the stone: the metal:
Of Vegetative Nature: by their hard restricting condensations.
Where Luvahs World of Opakeness grew to a period: It
Became a Limit, a Rocky hardness without form & void
Accumulating without end: here Los. who is of the Elohim
Opens the Furnaces of affliction in the Emanation
Fixing The Sexual into an ever-prolific Generation
Naming the Limit of Opakeness Satan & the Limit of Contraction
Adam, who is Peleg & Joktan: & Esau & Jacob: & Saul & David"
A quote from Robinson's account of a conversation with Blake:
"It was this day in connection with the assertion that
the Bible is the Word of God and all truth is to be found in it, he
using language concerning man's reason being opposed to grace very like
that used by the Orthodox Christian, that he qualified, and as the same
Orthodox would say utterly nullified all he said by declaring that he
understood the Bible in a Spiritual sense. As to the natural sense, he
said Voltaire was commissioned by God to expose that. 'I have had,' he said, 'much
intercourse with Voltaire, and he said to me, "I blasphemed the Son of
Man, and it shall be forgiven me, but they (the enemies of Voltaire)
blasphemed the Holy Ghost in me, and it shall not be forgiven to them."
'I ask him in what language Voltaire
spoke. His answer was ingenious and gave no encouragement to
cross-questioning: 'To my sensations it was English. It was like the
touch of a musical key; he touched it probably French, but to my ear it
became English."
Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 228)
"Voltaire insinuates that these Limits are the cruel work of God
Mocking the Remover of Limits & the Resurrection of the Dead
Setting up Kings in wrath: in holiness of Natural Religion
Which Los with his mighty Hammer demolishes time on time
In miracles & wonders in the Four-fold Desart of Albion
Permanently Creating to be in Time Reveald & Demolishd"
Descriptive Catalogue, (E 543)
"All had originally one
language, and one religion, this was the religion of Jesus, the
everlasting Gospel. Antiquity preaches the Gospel of Jesus. The
reasoning historian, turner and twister of causes and
consequences, such as Hume, Gibbon and Voltaire; cannot with all
their artifice, turn or twist one fact or disarrange self evident action
and reality. Reasons and opinions concerning acts, are not
history. Acts themselves alone are history, and these are
neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire,
Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O
historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away
with your reasoning and your rubbish. All that is not action is
not worth reading. Tell me the What; I do not want you to
tell me the Why, and the How; I can find that out myself, as well
as you can, and I will not be fooled by you into opinions, that
you please to impose, to disbelieve what you think improbable or
impossible. His opinions, who does not see spiritual agency, is
not worth any man's reading; he who rejects a fact because it is
improbable, must reject all History and retain doubts only."
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