CREATE A SYSTEM

"I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans 
I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create"
                                                     Jerusalem, Plate 11

 The system that Blake created was based on his ability to see a world in a grain of sand, a heaven in a wild flower. He could focus his attention beyond the appearance presented to him by the natural world and see the Eternal implications which were hidden by the outward creation. If our doors of perception were cleansed we could see everything as it is: Infinite. If instead we see only through narrow chinks of our cavern we will mix bad art with good art, we will confuse error and truth, we will accept the world our five senses perceive not as a veil covering reality but as reality itself.
 
The outward system in which Blake lived was one of political tyranny, social oppression and economic poverty. But he was able to transcend his circumstance by using his art and poetry to reveal truth, display beauty and spread joy. His plea was that we see not with tunnel vision but through eyes that opened to Eternity ever expanding like the eyes of the Immortals.

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 565)
"The Last Judgment is an Overwhelming of Bad Art & Science. 

Mental Things are alone Real 
what is Calld Corporeal Nobody Knows of its Dwelling Place 
it is in Fallacy & its Existence an Imposture  
Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought 
Where is it but in the Mind of a Fool.  

Some People flatter themselves that there will be No Last Judgment
& that Bad Art will be adopted & mixed with Good Art 
That Error or Experiment will make a Part of Truth 
& they Boast that it is its Foundation 
these People flatter themselves   

I will not Flatter them 
Error is Created Truth is Eternal 
Error or Creation will be Burned Up 
& then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear 
It is Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it 

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. 
What it will be Questiond When the Sun rises 
do you not see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea 

O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host 
crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty 
I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any
more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight 
I look thro it & not with it."

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts