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.

TWO SIDES

Wikipedia Commons
There is No Natural Religion
Plate 4

To Blake the distinction to be made between the mind's ability to assimilate information was between sense data and spiritual sensation. Sense data came from external sources, spiritual sensation came from the inner man - the Poetic Genius. The senses originate in the Mortal Body. From his Immortal Spirit comes the awareness of Spiritual Truth. However Blake realized that Body and Soul were one unit working together and exchanging the information they discerned.

Our analytic minds, too, divide the information supplied by the senses and that supplied by internal sources. Psychology recognizes a reasoning mind and an intuitive mind which can be associated with the two sides of our brains. Blake might call the left rational side of the brain Reason. The Right side he might label Soul. In our culture the analytic reasoning function is thought to originate in the left side of the brain which frequently dominates. The right side, which is less valued, is often called intuition, without any association with Soul or Spirit. 

When Blake read Berkley' Siris he made comments which show his understanding of the two ways in which the mind is functioning in regard to reason based on sensation, and on vision based on immediate perception.

Annotations to Berkley' Siris, (E 664)
Berkley: 
"By experiments of sense we become acquainted with
the lower faculties of the soul; and from them, whether by a
gradual evolution or ascent, we arrive at the highest.  These
become subjects for fancy to work upon.  Reason considers and 
judges of the imaginations.  And these acts of reason become new
objects to the understanding."
Blake:     
"Knowledge is not by deduction but Immediate by Perception or
Sense at once Christ addresses himself to the Man not to his
Reason   Plato did not bring Life & Immortality to Light Jesus
only did this"  

Berkley:
"There is according to Plato properly no knowledge,
but only opinion concerning things sensible and perishing, not
because they are naturally abstruse and involved in darkness: but
because their nature and existence is uncertain, ever fleeting
and changing.
Blake:
"Jesus supposes every Thing to be Evident to the Child & to
the Poor & Unlearned Such is the Gospel 
     The Whole Bible is filld with Imaginations & Visions from
End to End & not with Moral virtues that is the baseness of Plato
& the Greeks & all Warriors  The Moral Virtues are continual
Accusers of Sin & promote Eternal Wars & Domineering over others  

Berkley:
"Aristotle maketh a threefold distinction of objects
according to the three speculative sciences.  Physics he
supposeth to be conversant about such things as have a principle
of motion in themselves, mathematics about things permanent but
not abstracted, and theology about being abstracted and
immoveable, which distinction may be seen in the ninth book of
his metaphysics."
Blake:
"God is not a Mathematical Diagram"  

Berkley:
"It is a maxim of the Platonic philosophy, that the
soul of man was originally furnished with native inbred notions,
and stands in need of sensible occasions, not absolutely for
producing them, but only for awakening, rousing or exciting, into
act what was already preexistent, dormant, and latent in the
soul.
Blake:
"The Natural Body is an Obstruction to the Soul or Spiritual
Body  

Berkley:
" . . . Whence, according to Themistius, . . . it may
be inferred that all beings are in the soul.  For, saith he, the
forms are the beings.  By the form every thing is what it is. 
And, he adds, it is the soul that imparteth forms to matter, . ."
Blake:
"This is my Opinion but Forms must be apprehended by Sense or
the Eye of Imagination 
     Man is All Imagination  God is Man & exists in us & we in him"

Blake:
"What Jesus came to Remove was the Heathen or Platonic
Philosophy which blinds the Eye of Imagination  The Real Man"

The immediacy of Blake's response to the visions which welled up from his inner discernment of spiritual realities are revealed in this little poem enclosed in a letter to a friend.

Letters, (E 708)
Enclosed poem. 
"To my dear Friend Mrs Anna Flaxman

     This Song to the flower of Flaxmans joy
     To the blossom of hope for a sweet decoy
     Do all that you can or all that you may
     To entice him to Felpham & far away

     Away to Sweet Felpham for Heaven is there
     The Ladder of Angels descends thro the air
     On the Turret its spiral does softly descend
     Thro' the village then winds at My Cot it does end

     You stand in the village & look up to heaven
     The precious stones glitter on flights seventy seven
     And My Brother is there & My Friend & Thine
     Descend & Ascend with the Bread & the Wine

     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 & WHOLENESS

Reposted from Nov 12, 2010 

Jerusalem, PLATE 63, (E 213)
"Jehovah stood among the Druids in the Valley of Annandale
When the Four Zoas of Albion, the Four Living Creatures, the Cherubim
Of Albion tremble before the Spectre, in the starry likeness of the Plow
Of Nations. And their Names are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona"

Milton Percival, author of William Blake's Circle of Destiny, was capable of revealing psychological meaning in Blake's poetry and pictures. He understood that Blake was depicting internal dynamics as he presented his Four Mighty ones in the one giant body of Albion.

On page 20 we read:
"It is in his presentation of the Zoas that much of the power of Blake's myth lies. They are not the bloodless abstractions common to allegory. Blake believed in them. They are in consequence realities of the imagination, with power to terrify us as they terrified their creator. No other poet has given us so profound a sense of the helplessness of man before the primal forces of life; and no other poet, so passionate a denial of that helplessness. He fears these forces, because he sees them as demonic, with power over him; but he takes hope from the fact that these forces are in him - that they are himself. When man shall have brought them again into harmony, they will become his willing servants."

Jung touches on several of the same paradigms of psychic development as does Percival in this passage from his Psychological Commentary in Tibetan Book of the Dead, Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz:

"Fear of self-sacrifice lurks deep in every ego, and this fear is often only [of] the precariously controlled demand of the unconscious forces to burst out in full strength. No one who strives for selfhood (individuation) is spared this dangerous passage, for that which is feared also belongs to the wholeness of the self -- the sub-human, or supra-human world of psychic ‘dominants’ (archetypes) from which the ego originally emancipated itself with enormous effort, and then only partially, for the sake of a more or less illusory freedom. This liberation is certainly a very necessary and very heroic undertaking, but it represents nothing final: it is merely the creation of a subject, who, in order to find fulfillment, has still to be confronted by an object. This [object], at first sight, would appear to be the world, which is swelled out with projections for that very purpose. Here we seek and find our difficulties, here we seek and find our enemy, here we seek and find what is dear and precious to us; and it is comforting to know that all evil and all good is to be found out there, in the visible object, where it can be conquered, punished, destroyed, or enjoyed. But nature herself does not allow this paradisal state of innocence to continue for ever. There are, and always have been, those who cannot help but see that the world and its experiences are in the nature of a symbol, and that it really reflects something that lies hidden in the subject himself, in his own trans-subjective reality."

In the beginning of the Book of Urizen Blake expresses a recognition of the disturbance in the psyche which has given power to a force which is 'Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.' He gladly hears the call to have the 'dark visions of torment' revealed to him.

Urizen, PLATE 2, (E 74)
"PRELUDIUM TO THE [FIRST] BOOK OF URIZEN

Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;
And gave him a place in the north,
Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.

Eternals I hear your call gladly,
Dictate swift winged words, & fear not
To unfold your dark visions of torment."

Entering in the dark, unknown aspects of the psyche changes the occupation of the mind to the experience of emotional states which are both pleasant and painful and which appear to be outside of the mind.

Jerusalem, Plate 68, (E 222)
"Sometimes I curse & sometimes bless thy fascinating beauty
Once Man was occupied in intellectual pleasures & energies
But now my soul is harrowd with grief & fear & love & desire
And now I hate & now I love & Intellect is no more:
There is no time for any thing but the torments of love & desire
The Feminine & Masculine Shadows soft, mild & ever varying
In beauty: are Shadows now no more, but Rocks in Horeb"

To be torn asunder, to be under the control of your own wrath, to experience fury, anguish and terror - these are the 'far worse' things of which Los and Blake know. But they know too that Albion will be made whole.

Jerusalem, Plate 7, (E 150)
"Los answer'd. Altho' I know not this! I know far worse than this:
I know that Albion hath divided me, and that thou O my Spectre,
Hast just cause to be irritated: but look stedfastly upon me:
Comfort thyself in my strength the time will arrive,
When all Albions injuries shall cease, and when we shall
Embrace him tenfold bright, rising from his tomb in immortality.
They have divided themselves by Wrath. they must be united by
Pity: let us therefore take example & warning O my Spectre,
O that I could abstain from wrath! O that the Lamb
Of God would look upon me and pity me in my fury.
In anguish of regeneration! in terrors of self annihilation:
Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder,
And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction
Of Jerusalem, become her covering, till the time of the End."

The reunification of Albion, the archetype of the complete (individuated) individual and of the undivided mankind, restores the connection between humanity and the 'Universal Father' in 'Infinitude.'

Jerusalem, PLATE 97, (E 256)

Jerusalem, Plate 99

"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

So spake the Vision of Albion & in him so spake in my hearing
The Universal Father. Then Albion stretchd his hand into Infinitude."




 

USING GIFTS

           George Fox 

by Unidentified Artist

William Blake 

by John Linnell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the 2009 post Honoring Gifts.

Each one speaks according to the gifts he has received. The knowledge of this insight and of its corollary - that we recognize and respect the gifts of others as well as our own gifts - overcomes barriers among us. Here are four statement about the innate gifts from four sources. Out of their own unique gifts, each of these men express congruent ideas from varied perspectives. Let's listen to June Singer speaking of Carl Jung, and to statements from William Blake, George Fox, and Paul the Apostle.

Dr. Singer: from an Interview in 1998 - Complete Interview

"Jung’s great contribution to psychotherapy was his affirmation of the genius (daemon, guiding spirit) in every individual. He had the greatest respect for the individual, a trust in the authenticity of each person’s inner self-knowledge. Consequently he did not often assert his own views as an analyst, but rather worked to evoke the analysand’s own unconscious material and allow it to speak for itself. Trust in the unconscious, not a blind trust but the way you trust any teacher–you must find out for yourself what the wise person can teach you."

William Blake, Jerusalem, Plate 91

"Go, tell them that the Worship of God, is honouring his gifts
In other men: & loving the greatest men best, each according
To his Genius: which is the Holy Ghost in Man; there is no other
God, than that God who is the intellectual fountain of Humanity;
He who envies or calumniates: which is murder & cruelty,
Murders the Holy-one: Go tell them this & overthrow their cup,
Their bread, their altar-table, their incense & their oath:
Their marriage & their baptism, their burial & consecration:
I have tried to make friends by corporeal gifts but have only
Made enemies: I never made friends but by spiritual gifts;
By severe contentions of friendship & the burning fire of thought.
He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children
One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst
Jesus will appear; so he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect Whole
Must see it in its Minute Particulars;"

George Fox, Journal

"...So, Friends, come into that which is over all the spirits of the world, fathoms all the spirits of the world, and stands in the patience; with that, ye may see where others stand, and reach that which is of God in every one. Here is no strife, no contention, out of transgression; for he that goeth into strife, and into contention, is [away] from the pure spirit...."

Paul, Letter to the Ephesians

4:11-13 - "His 'gifts to men' were varied. Some he made his messengers, some prophets, some preachers of the Gospel; to some he gave the power to guide and teach his people. His gifts were made that Christians might be properly equipped for their service, that the whole body might be built up until the time comes when, in the unity of the common faith and common knowledge of the Son of God, we arrive at real maturity - that measure of development which is meant by the "fullness of Christ".

4:14-16 - "We are not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching and the jockeying of men who are expert in the craft presentation of lies. But we are meant to hold firmly to the truth in love, and to grow up in every way into Christ, the head. For it is from the head that the whole body, as a harmonious structure knit together by the joints with which it is provided, grows by the proper functioning of individual parts to its full maturity in love."

Learn more about Blake and Quakers from Larry.

PERSPECTIVES

Wikipedia Commons
Jerusalem
Plate 37, Detail

From Blake's Style published Oct 6, 2014

Larry wrote:

   One simple clue to reading Blake concerns his use of dialogue; he spoke with many voices. He exercised this freedom especially with the larger prophecies, the three major works. These on first reading may seem to present insuperable difficulties, but the reader who pays close attention to the identity of the speaker at each point will thereby break down the forest into manageable groves of trees. In his three long poems Blake gave titles to various elements or speeches; they became units, landmarks or guideposts, casting light on what at first seemed general confusion. 

In Night i of 'The Four Zoas' for example we find Enitharmon's Song of Death (FZ1-10.9; E305), the "Nuptial Song" of the "demons of the deep" (FZ1-13.20; E308), and the message of the Daughters of Beulah, which they call the "Wars of Death Eternal"(FZ1-21.13; E311). These three songs comprise three of the many selves of the human psyche; needless to say their ideas and attitudes vary immensely. They all describe the same event, but they see it, oh, so differently. They use the same words with different meanings. For example consider that what the daughters call "Death Eternal" the demons call marriage. In this way Blake challenges the reader and stretches his mind and immensely rewards whoever will accept the challenge. He gives us the end of a golden string. 

---

Ellie added:

In the early pages of the Four Zoas the disintegration process is presented from various perspectives. Although it is Albion, the totality, who is coming apart, it is the broken factions who are left to explain what is happening. Enitharmon who has been released from her parents and her twin brother, promises to sing a Song of Death. The death of the old order she sees an opportunity. By turning away and refusing to 'look upon the Universal Vision' she will 'drink up' all the powers of man.

Four Zoas, Night 1, Page 9, (E 305)
"But the two youthful wonders wanderd in the world of Tharmas  
Thy name is Enitharmon; said the fierce prophetic boy         
While thy mild voice fills all these Caverns with sweet harmony
O how our Parents sit & mourn in their silent secret bowers   
Page 1O 
But Enitharmon answerd with a dropping tear & frowning        
Dark as a dewy morning when the crimson light appears         
To make us happy let them weary their immortal powers         
While we draw in their sweet delights while we return them scorn                                                    
On scorn to feed our discontent; for if we grateful prove
They will withhold sweet love, whose food is thorns & bitter roots.
We hear the warlike clarions we view the turning spheres      
Yet Thou in indolence reposest holding me in bonds

 Hear! I will sing a Song of Death! it is a Song of Vala!     
The Fallen Man takes his repose: Urizen sleeps in the porch  
Luvah and Vala woke & flew up from the Human Heart           
Into the Brain; from thence upon the pillow Vala slumber'd.
And Luvah siez'd the Horses of Light, & rose into the Chariot of Day
Sweet laughter siezd me in my sleep! silent & close I laughd 
For in the visions of Vala I walkd with the mighty Fallen One 
I heard his voice among the branches, & among sweet flowers.

Why is the light of Enitharmon darken'd in dewy morn          
Why is the silence of Enitharmon a terror & her smile a whirlwind                                       
Uttering this darkness in my halls, in the pillars of my Holy-ones
Why dost thou weep as Vala? & wet thy veil with dewy tears, 
In slumbers of my night-repose, infusing a false morning?
Driving the Female Emanations all away from Los             
I have refusd to look upon the Universal Vision
And wilt thou slay with death him who devotes himself to thee 
Once born for the sport & amusement of Man now born to drink up 

all his Powers

Page 11
I heard the sounding sea; I heard the voice weaker and weaker;
The voice came & went like a dream, I awoke in my sweet bliss.
Then Los smote her upon the Earth twas long eer she revivd
He answer'd, darkning more with indignation hid in smiles  
I die not Enitharmon tho thou singst thy Song of Death"  

Los, whose emanation Enitharmon is, makes his protest by striking Enitharmon. His regret over this act of violence leads to a proposed marriage between the two which is celebrated at the Nuptial Feast. Rather than repairing the breach the Nuptial Feast awakes the 'Demon of Waves' who initiates 'vegetative life' with 'Spirits of Flaming fire on high' to govern 'the mighty Song.' The process has moved out of the control of Los and Enitharmon as additional forces are turned loose.

 Four Zoas, Night 1, Page 13, (E 308)
"And Los & Enitharmon sat in discontent & scorn           
The Nuptial Song arose from all the thousand thousand spirits 
Over the joyful Earth & Sea, and ascended into the Heavens
For Elemental Gods their thunderous Organs blew; creating
Delicious Viands. Demons of Waves their watry Eccho's woke!
Bright Souls of vegetative life, budding and blossoming       
Page 14
Stretch their immortal hands to smite the gold & silver Wires
And with immortal Voice soft warbling fill all Earth & Heaven.
With doubling Voices & loud Horns wound round sounding
Cavernous dwellers fill'd the enormous Revelry, Responsing!
And Spirits of Flaming fire on high, govern'd the mighty Song.  
And This the Song! sung at The Feast of Los & Enitharmon"

Those observing the events from the perspective of Beulah, give a report to the divine presence. Their account focuses on Urizen and Luvah, two aspects of the human psyche, who began a plot to gain power over Jerusalem, the emanation of Albion.

Four Zoas, Night 1, Page 21, (E 311)

"So spoke the Ambassadors from Beulah & with solemn mourning   
They were introducd to the divine presence & they kneeled down
In Conways Vale thus recounting the Wars of Death Eternal     

The Eternal Man wept in the holy tent Our Brother in Eternity
Even Albion whom thou lovest wept in pain his family
Slept round on hills & valleys in the regions of his love
But Urizen awoke & Luvah woke & thus conferrd

Thou Luvah said the Prince of Light behold our sons & daughters  
Reposd on beds. let them sleep on. do thou alone depart
Into thy wished Kingdom where in Majesty & Power
We may erect a throne. deep in the North I place my lot
Thou in the South listen attentive. In silent of this night
I will infold the Eternal tent in clouds opake while thou       
Siezing the chariots of the morning. Go outfleeting ride
Afar into the Zenith high bending thy furious course
Southward with half the tents of men inclosd in clouds
Will lay my scepter on Jerusalem the Emanation
On all her sons & on thy sons O Luvah & on mine     
Till dawn was wont to wake them then my trumpet sounding loud
Ravishd away in night my strong command shall be obeyd
For I have placd my centinels in stations each tenth man
Is bought & sold & in dim night my Word shall be their law" 

So the fall of man can appear as release from constrains as it did to Enitharmon; as an imposition of a new order of governing as it did at the nuptials of Los and Enitharmon; and as distancing of man from his connection to the Infinite, as it did to Unizen and Luvah when they sought to overthrow the established psychic order. There are among the processes which Blake describes in detail as he develops his characters and leads his reader along the path to regeneration.

 

VIEW OF BLAKE 2

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

It seems that William Blake was fairly well known in his lifetime although poorly understood. Among the men who were acquainted with Blake and wrote biographic accounts about his life and work are Benjamin Malklin, John Thomas Smith, Crabb Robinson, and Allen Cunningham. The accounts that they published were based on source material collected from close acquaintances of Blake, such as Varley, Linnell, Tatum, Fuseli, and Cromek.

The Scotsman Allan Cunningham included William Blake in his in his six volume work, Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects published shortly after Blake died. Cunningham was not personally acquainted with Blake but men who did know Blake acted as his sources. Cunningham first met Cromek in 1809 when he was touring Scotland. The following year Cunningham moved to London with Cromek's encouragement. It was twenty years later that Cunningham wrote of Blake's life.

 

Lives of the most eminent British Painters (1829-33) by Allan Cunningham

On William Blake

"He was by nature a poet, a dreamer, and an enthusiast. The eminence which it had been the first ambition of his youth to climb, was visible before him, and he saw on its ascent or on its summit those who had started earlier in the race of fame. He felt conscious of his own merit, but was not aware of the thousand obstacles which were ready to interpose. He thought that he had but to sing songs and draw designs, and become great and famous.The crosses which genius is heir to had been wholly unforeseen, and they befell him early. He wanted, too, the skill of hand, and fine tact of fancy and taste, to impress upon the offspring of his thoughts that popular shape which gives such productions immediate circulation. His works were, therefore, looked coldly on by the world, and were only esteemed by men of poetic minds, or those who were fond of things out of the common way. He earned a little fame, but no money by these speculations, and had to depend for bread on the labours of the graver.

All this neither crushed his spirit nor induced him to work more in the way of the world; but it had a visible influence upon his mind. He became more seriously thoughtful, avoided the company of men, and lived in the manner of a hermit, in that vast wilderness, London. Necessity made him frugal, and honesty and independence prescribed plain clothes, homely fare, and a cheap habitation. He was thus compelled more than ever to retire to worlds of his own creating, and seek solace in visions of paradise for the joys which the earth denied him. By frequent indulgence in these imaginings he gradually began to believe in the reality of what dreaming fancy painted the pictured forms which swarmed before his eyes assumed, in his apprehension, the stability of positive revelations, and he mistook the vivid figures which his professional imagination shaped, for the poets, and heroes, and princes of old. Amongst his friends he at length ventured to intimate that the designs on which he was engaged, were not from his own mind, but copied from grand works revealed to him in visions; and those who believed that would readily lend an car to the assurance that he was commanded to execute his performances by a celestial tongue!

Of these imaginary visitations he made good use, when he invented his truly original and beautiful mode of engraving and tinting his plates. He had made the designs of his Days of Innocence, and was meditating, he said, on the best means of multiplying their resemblance in form and in line; he felt sorely perplexed. At last he was made aware that the spirit of his favourite brother Robert was in the room, and to this celestial visitor he applied for counsel. The spirit advised him at once: "Write," he said, "the poetry, and draw the designs upon the copper with a certain liquid (which he named, and which Blake ever kept a secret): then cut the plain parts of the plate down with aquafortis, and this will give the whole, both poetry and figures, in the manner of a stereotype." The plan recommended by this gracious spirit was adopted; the plates were engraved, and the work printed off. The artist then added a peculiar beauty of his own. He tinted both the figures and the verse with a variety of colours, amongst which, while yellow prevails, the whole has a rich and lustrous beauty, to which I know little that can be compared. The size of these prints is four inches and a half high by three inches wide. The original genius of Blake was always confined, through poverty, to small dimensions. Sixty-five plates of copper were an object to him who had little money. The Gates of Paradise, a work of sixteen designs, and those exceedingly small, was his next undertaking. The meaning of the artist is not a little obscure; it seems to have been his object to represent the innocence, the happiness, and the upward aspirations of man. They bespeak one intimately acquainted with the looks and the feelings of children. Over them there is shed a kind of mysterious halo which raises feelings of devotion. The Songs of Innocence and the Gates of Paradise became popular among the collectors of prints. To the sketch-book and the cabinet the works of Blake are unfortunately confined. 

...

An overflow of imagination is a failing uncommon in this age, and has generally received of late little quarter from the critical portion of mankind. Yet imagination is the life and spirit of all great works of genius and taste; and, indeed, without it, the head thinks and the hand labours in vain. Ten thousand authors and artists rise to the proper, the graceful, and the beautiful, for ten who ascend into "the heaven of invention." A work — whether from poet or painter — conceived in the fiery ecstasy of imagination, lives through every limb; while one elaborated out by skill and taste only will look, in comparison, like a withered and sapless tree beside one green and flourishing. Blake's misfortune was that of possessing this precious gift in excess. His fancy overmastered him — until he at length confounded "the mind's eye" with the corporeal organ, and dreamed himself out of the sympathies of actual life...."

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Europe, PLATE 2, (E 61)
"Unwilling I look up to heaven! unwilling count the stars!
Sitting in fathomless abyss of my immortal shrine.
I sieze their burning power
And bring forth howling terrors, all devouring fiery kings.

Devouring & devoured roaming on dark and desolate mountains      
In forests of eternal death, shrieking in hollow trees.
Ah mother Enitharmon!
Stamp not with solid form this vig'rous progeny of fires.

I bring forth from my teeming bosom myriads of flames.
And thou dost stamp them with a signet, then they roam abroad    
And leave me void as death:
Ah! I am drown'd in shady woe, and visionary joy.

And who shall bind the infinite with an eternal band?
To compass it with swaddling bands? and who shall cherish it
With milk and honey?"                                             
I see it smile & I roll inward & my voice is past.

She ceast & rolld her shady clouds
Into the secret place."

 

BLAKE'S DESIGNS

Wikipedia Commons
Illustrations to Blair's The Grave 

Heavens Portals Wide Expand to Let Him In

The Grave

At the end of the text of the 1803 edition of The Grave are unsigned comments. It is likely that a sympathetic friend wrote the comments in conjunction with Blake's explanations. Since Fuseli wrote a statement for the introduction, he may have been the author of the final remarks as well. The congruence of the arrangement and analysis of the designs with Blake's thinking makes it likely that it was written by Fuseli with the assistance of Blake.

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Click on the ROMAN NUMERAL to see Blake's watercolor for the specific design for the description of the image.

"OF THE DESIGNS"

"By the arrangement here made, the regular progression of Man, from his first descent into the Vale of Death, to his last admission into Life eternal, is exhibited. These Designs, detached from the Work they embellish, form of themselves a most interesting Poem.

I. THE DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO THE GRAVE.

“ Eternal King, whose potent arm sustains
The keys of Death and Hell ! ”

II. THE DESCENT OF MAN INTO THE VALE OF DEATH.

The pious daughter weeping and conducting her sire onward; age, creeping carefully on hands and knees; an elder, without friend or kindred; a miser ; a bachelor, blindly proceeding, no one knows where, ready to drop into the dark abyss ; frantic youth rashly devoted to vice and passion, rushing past the diseased and old, who totters on crutches; the wan declining virgin ; the miserable and distracted widow; the hale country youth ; and the mother and her numerous progeny, already arrived in this valley, are among speak irresistibly to the feelings.

III. DEATH'S DOOR.

The Door opening, that seems to make utter darkness visible; age, on crutches, hurried by a tempest into it.Above is the renovated man seated in light and glory.

IV. THE STRONG AND WICKED

MAN DYING. Extent of limb, a broad capacious chest, heaving in agony, and prodigious muscular force, so exerted as to pourtray the excruciating torments of mind and body, all contribute to give a fearful picture of the Strong and Wicked Man in the pangs of Death. His masculine soul is hurried through the casement in flame, while his daughter hides her face with horror not to be resisted, and his frantic wife rushes forward, as if resolved to share his fate.

V. THE GOOD OLD MAN DYING.

Never perhaps were two subjects more happily conceived, and beautifully contrasted, than this and the former. In that all is confusion, hurry, and terror ; in this are perfect repose, beatic hope, and heavenly consolation.

Peace in his countenance, his hand on the gospel, his soul devoutly ascending to eternal bliss, his affectionate children, some in prayer, others believing, or at least anxiously hoping, that he still lives; all denote how great is the happiness of the Good Man in the Hour of Death.

VI. THE SOUL HOVERING OVER THE BODY.

How wishfully she looks On all she's leaving, now no longer her’s !”

VII. THE SOUL EXPLORING THE RECESSES OF THE GRAVE.

The Soul, prior to the dissolution of the Body, exploring through and beyond the tomb, and there discovering the emblems of mortality and of immortality,

VIII. THE COUNSELLOR, KING, WARRIOR, MOTHER, AND CHILD.

All are equal in the Grave. Wisdom, Power, Valour, Beauty, and Innocence, at the hour of death, alike are impotent and unavailing.

IX. THE SKELETON RE-ANIMATED.

When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumb’ring dust, Not unattentive to the call, awakes”; while the world in flames typifies the renovation of all things, the end of Time, and the beginning of Eternity.

X. THE RE-UNION OF SOUL AND BODY.

The Body springs from the grave, the Soul descends from an opening cloud ; they rush together with inconceivable energy; they meet, never again to part !

XI. A FAMILY MEETING IN HEAVEN.

The sweet felicity, the endearing tenderness, the ineffable affection, that are here depicted, are sufficiently obvious. The Husband clasps the Wife; the Children embrace; the Boy recognises and eagerly springs to his Father.

XII. THE LAST JUDGMENT.

Christ coming to judgment in the clouds of heaven, with the “ Thrones set, and the Books opened.” On his knees lies the Book of Life. The Recording Angels kneel on each side of his throne, and the Elders are also seated on each side of Him to judge the world. Surrounding the throne are the blessed, entering into their joy; and arising from these, on each hand, are two clouds of figures: one with the insignia of Baptism; the other with the insignia of the Lord's Supper, inclosing a glorification of angels, with harps. Beneath, on the right hand of Christ, are the blessed, rising in the air to judgment; on the left hand are the cursed: Some are precipitating themselves from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne (among them is Satan, wound round with the Serpent), others are pleading their own righteousness, and others, beneath, fleeing with banners and spears among the rocks, crying to the “rocks to cover them."

Beneath these are represented the harlot's mystery, and the dragon, who fee before the face of the Judge.

In the centre, standing on the midst of the earth, is the angel with the last trumpet. On each side of him is an angel : that on the left is drawing his sword on the wicked; that on the right is sheathing his sword on the just, who are rising in various groups, with joy and affection, family by family. The angel with the trumpet, and his accompanying ministers of judgment, are surrounded by a column of flame, which spreads itself in various directions over the earth, from which the dead are bursting forth, some in terror, some in joy. On the opening cloud, on each hand of Christ, are two figures, supporting the books of remembrance: that over the just is beheld with humiliation; that over the wicked with arrogance. A sea of fire issues from beneath the throne of Christ, destructive to the wicked, but salutary to the righteous. Before the sea of Fire the clouds are rolled back, and the heavens 'are rolled together as a scroll.'”

DEFENDING FRIENDS

Wikipedia Commons

Illustrations to Blair's The Grave

Reunion of Soul and Body

William Blake and Henry Fuseli shared the trait of being misunderstood by many of their contemporaries. Each felt compelled to defend the other when he felt his friend was under attack by someone who was incapable of appreciating the level of insight the other had reached.

Blake wrote this letter for publication in the Monthly Magazine. Blake was reacting to criticism in the article published in the Bell's Weekly Messenger which found fault with Fuseli's portrayal of the physical and mental suffering of Count Ugolino when he and his children were imprisoned in Pisa.

Letters, (E 768)
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
[In the Monthly Magazine, XXI (July 1, 1806)]

"SIR,
     My indignation was exceedingly moved at reading a criticism
in Bell's Weekly Messenger (25th May) on the picture of Count
Ugolino, by Mr. Fuseli, in the Royal Academy exhibition; and your
Magazine being as extensive in its circulation as that Paper, as
it also must from its nature be more permanent, I take the
advantageous opportunity to counteract the widely-diffused malice
which has for many years, under the pretence of admiration of the
arts, been assiduously sown and planted among the English public
against true art, such as it existed in the days of Michael
Angelo and Raphael.  Under pretence of fair criticism and
candour, the most wretched taste ever produced has been upheld
for many, very many years: but now, I say, now its end is come.
Such an artist as Fuseli is invulnerable, he needs not my
defence; but I should be ashamed not to set my hand and shoulder,
and whole strength, against those wretches who, under pretence of
criticism, use the dagger and the poison.
     My criticism on this picture is as follows:

     Mr. Fuseli's Count Ugolino is the father of sons of feeling
and dignity, who would not sit looking in their parent's face in
the moment of his agony, but would rather retire and die in
secret, while they suffer him to indulge his passionate and
innocent grief, his innocent and venerable madness, and insanity,
and fury, and whatever paltry cold hearted critics cannot,
because they dare not, look upon.  Fuseli's Count Ugolino is a
man of wonder and admiration, of resentment against man and
devil, and of humilitation before God; prayer and parental
affection fills the figure from head to foot.  The child in his
arms, whether boy or girl signifies not, (but the critic must be
a fool who has not read Dante, and who does not know a boy from a
girl); I say, the child is as beautifully drawn as it is
coloured--in both, inimitable! and the effect of the whole is
truly sublime, on account of that very colouring which our critic
calls black and heavy.  The German flute colour, which was used
by the Flemings, (they call it burnt bone), has possessed the eye
of certain connoisseurs, that they cannot see appropriate
colouring, and are blind to the gloom of a real terror.

     The taste of English amateurs has been too much formed upon
pictures imported from Flanders and Holland; consequently our
countrymen are easily brow-beat on the subject of painting; and
hence it is so common to hear a man say, "I am no judge of
pictures:" but, O Englishmen! know that every man ought to be a
judge of pictures, and every man is so who has not been
connoisseured out of his senses.
     

 A gentleman who visited me the other day, said, "I am very
much surprised
at the dislike that some connoisseurs shew on viewing the
pictures of Mr. Fuseli; but the truth is, he is a hundred years
beyond the present generation." Though I am startled at such
an assertion, I hope the contemporary taste will shorten the
hundred years into as many hours; for I am sure that any
person consulting his own eyes must prefer what is so
supereminent; and I am as sure that any person consulting
his own reputation, or the reputation of his country, will
refrain from disgracing either by such ill-judged criticisms in
future.
Yours,
WM. BLAKE. 

_____________ 

Fuseli's support of Blake was provided when the publisher Cromek reneged on his promise to have Blake engrave his own designs for a new issue of Blair's The Grave. When Cromek engaged Schiavonetti to do the engravings, depriving Blake of the income, Fuselli contributed remarks in support of Blake's designs in the introduction to the publication.

The recognition of Blake's designs by Fuseli may have eased the sting of rejection, but it did not allieviate the harm which Blake had endured. Fuseli could defend Blake attempts to make perceptible the spiritual world in imagery which was accessible to the public, but he couldn't overcome common man's taste for the predictable and conventional.

The Grave

London, July 1808.

Cromek wrote:

"To the elegant and classical taste of Mr. FUSELI he is indebted for excellent remarks on the moral worth and picturesque dignity of the Designs that accompany this Poem. Mr. Philips is entitled to his kindest thanks, for the capitally painted Portrait of Mr. William Blake, which is here presented to the Subscribers; and to Mr. SCHIAVONETTI he is under still greater obligations for a ETCHINGS which, it is not too much praise to say, no other artist could have executed so ably."

Fuseli wrote:

"The moral series here submitted to the Public, from its object and method of execution, has a double claim on general attention.

In an age of equal refinement and corruption of manners, when systems of education and seduction go hand in hand; when religion itself compounds with fashion; when in the pursuit of present enjoyment, all consideration of futurity vanishes, and the real object of life is lost—in such an age, every exertion confers a benefit on society which tends to impress man with his destiny, to hold the mirror up to life, less indeed to discriminate its characters, than those situations which show what all are born for, what all ought to act for, and what all must inevitably come to.

The importance of this object has been so well understood at every period of time, from the earliest and most innocent, to the latest and most depraved, that reason and fancy have exhausted their stores of argument and imagery, to impress it on the mind : animate and inanimate nature, the seasons, the forest and the field, the bee and ant, the larva, chrysalis and moth, have lent their real or supposed analogies with the origin, pursuits, and end of the human race, so often to emblematic purposes, that instruction is become stale, and attention callous. The serpent with its tail in its mouth, from a type of eternity, is become an infant's bauble ; even the nobler idea of Hercules pausing between virtue and vice, or the varied imagery of Death leading his patients to the grave, owe their effect upon us more to technic excellence than allegoric utility.

Aware of this, but conscious that affectation of originality and trite repetition would equally impede the author of the moral series before us, has endeavoured to wake sensibility by touching our sympathies with nearer, less ambiguous, and less ludicrous imagery, than what mythology, Gothic superstition, or symbols as far-fetched as inadequate, could supply. His invention has been chiefly employed to spread a familiar and domestic atmosphere round the most important of all subjects, to connect the visible and the invisible world, without provoking probability, and to lead the eye from the milder light of time to the radiations of eternity.

Such is the plan and the moral part of the author's invention; the technic part, and the execution of the artist, though to be examined by other principles, and addressed to a narrower circle, equally claim approbation, sometimes excite our wonder, and not seldom our fears, when we see him play on the very verge of legitimate invention; but wildness so picturesque in itself, so often redeemed by taste, simplicity, and elegance, what child of fancy, what artist would wish to discharge? The groups and single figures on their own basis, abstracted from the general composition, and considered without attention to the plan, frequently exhibit those genuine and unaffected attitudes, those simple graces which nature and the heart alone can dictate, and only an eye inspired by both, discover. Every class of artists, in every stage of their progress or attainments, from the student to the finished master, and from the contriver of ornament, to the painter of history, will find here materials of art and hints of improvement !"

HENRY FUSELI.