10 QUOTES SEVENTH

Wikipedia Commons

Illustrations to Blair's The Grave

Page 27

if a Man is the Enemy of my Spiritual
Life while he pretends to be the Friend of my Corporeal. he is a
Real Enemy--but the Man may be the friend of my Spiritual Life
while he seems the Enemy of my Corporeal but Not Vice Versa

*

 Allegory addressd to the Intellectual powers
while it is altogether hidden from the Corporeal Understanding is
My Definition of the Most Sublime Poetry.

*

Art Degraded  Imagination Denied  War Governed the Nations 

*

How can the bird that is born for joy,
Sit in a cage and sing.
How can a child when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring.

*

Youth of delight come hither:
And see the opening morn,
Image of truth new born.

*

Five windows light the cavern'd Man; thro' one he breathes the air;
Thro' one, hears music of the spheres; thro' one, the eternal vine
Flourishes, that he may recieve the grapes; thro' one can look.
And see small portions of the eternal world that ever groweth;
Thro' one, himself pass out what time he please, but he will not;
For stolen joys are sweet, & bread eaten in secret pleasant.

*

The Bard replied. I am Inspired! I know it is Truth! for I Sing
According to the inspiration of the Poetic Genius
Who is the eternal all-protecting Divine Humanity
To whom be Glory & Power & Dominion Evermore Amen 

* 

But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death & Hell
Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in Mercy

*

He stood in fair Jerusalem to awake up into Eden
The fallen Man but first to Give his vegetated body         
To be cut off & separated that the Spiritual body may be Reveald 

* 

Lo the Eternal Great Humanity            
To whom be Glory & Dominion Evermore Amen
Walks among all his awful Family seen in every face
As the breath of the Almighty. such are the words of man to man
In the great Wars of Eternity, in fury of Poetic Inspiration,
To build the Universe stupendous: Mental forms Creating 

*  

BLAKE'S BEULAH

First posted April 2011

Beulah Land

Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling, 

Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand; 

Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling, 

None of these shall move me from Beulah Land.

• I'm living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky, 
• I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry; 
• O yes, I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply, 
• For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

Beulah occurs 182 times in Blake. Let's try to figure out just what he meant with the word. Look first at the Bible; Isaiah 62:4 appears to be the only place it's found there. The word Beulah appears many times in the Four Zoas and also in Milton and in Jerusalem. In the Four Zoas: In Night 1 of The Four Zoas (On Erdman 302) we read this: 

"There is from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant rest
Namd Beulah a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely 
Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep
Eternally. Created by the Lamb of God around
On all sides within & without the Universal Man
The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams
Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death" 

So we might call Beulah a suburb of Heaven; you're not exactly in Heaven, but you're close. Now go back a few lines and you may read this:  

"Then Eno a daughter of Beulah took a Moment of Time 
And drew it out to Seven thousand years with much care & affliction                                                 t
And many tears & in Every year made windows into Eden
She also took an atom of space & opend its center
Into Infinitude & ornamented it with wondrous art
Astonishd sat her Sisters of Beulah to see her soft affections
To Enion & her children & they ponderd these things wondring     
And they Alternate kept watch over the Youthful terrors
They saw not yet the Hand Divine for it was not yet reveald
But they went on in Silent Hope & Feminine repose"

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Milton begins with a reference to Beulah: 

"Daughters of Beulah! Muses who inspire the Poets Song
Record the journey of immortal Milton thro' your Realms
Of terror & mild moony lustre, in soft sexual delusions
Of varied beauty, to delight the wanderer and repose
His burning thirst & freezing hunger!"

(Read on if you want to begin to understand Milton.) On Plate 30 [33] we have this: 

"There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills           
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah
Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence

Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing
To the Inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides.
But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district       
As the beloved infant in his mothers bosom round incircled
With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to
The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah,
Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest."

Pressing on to Jerusalem I found this on Erdman 156-7:  

"The Eastern Gate, fourfold: terrible & deadly its ornaments:
Taking their forms from the Wheels of Albions sons; as cogs
Are formd in a wheel, to fit the cogs of the adverse wheel.

That toward Eden, eternal ice, frozen in seven folds             
Of forms of death: and that toward Beulah, stone:
The seven diseases of the earth are carved terrible.

And that toward Ulro, forms of war: seven enormities:
And that toward Generation, seven generative forms.

And every part of the City is fourfold; & every inhabitant, fourfold"   

(The Eastern Gate is surely a place for another post.) Look also at the fourfold post.  Sun at his Eastern Gate

                                   Wikipedia Commons

The Sun at His Eastern Gate

 Although this may be confusing, Blake had more to say about Beulah on Plate 48 of Jerusalem. Read it carefully, and you'll gain a much better grasp of what Blake meant by Beulah; here is some of the most salient part:   

PLATE 48 of Jerusalem: 

"These were his [Albion's] last words, and the merciful Saviour in his arms
Reciev'd him, in the arms of tender mercy and repos'd
The pale limbs of his Eternal Individuality
Upon the Rock of Ages. Then, surrounded with a Cloud:
In silence the Divine Lord builded with immortal labour,         
Of gold & jewels a sublime Ornament, a Couch of repose,
With Sixteen pillars: canopied with emblems & written verse.
Spiritual Verse, order'd & measur'd, from whence, time shall reveal.
The Five books of the Decologue, the books of Joshua & Judges,
Samuel, a double book & Kings, a double book, the Psalms & Prophets 
The Four-fold Gospel, and the Revelations everlasting
Eternity groan'd. & was troubled, at the image of Eternal Death!

Beneath the bottoms of the Graves, which is Earths central joint,
There is a place where Contrarieties are equally true:
(To protect from the Giant blows in the sports of intellect,     
Thunder in the midst of kindness, & love that kills its beloved:
Because Death is for a period, and they renew tenfold.)
From this sweet Place Maternal Love awoke Jerusalem
With pangs she forsook Beulah's pleasant lovely shadowy Universe
Where no dispute can come; created for those who Sleep.          

Weeping was in all Beulah, and all the Daughters of Beulah
Wept for their Sister the Daughter of Albion, Jerusalem:
When out of Beulah the Emanation of the Sleeper descended
With solemn mourning out of Beulahs moony shades and hills:
Within the Human Heart, whose Gates closed with solemn sound."   

 

10 QUOTES SIXTH

Yale Center for British Art

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts
Page 73

For whether they lookd upward they saw the Divine Vision
Or whether they lookd downward still they saw the Divine Vision 
Surrounding them on all sides beyond sin & death & hell 

* 

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:

* 

 I come to Self Annihilation
Such are the Laws of Eternity that each shall mutually     
Annihilate himself for others good, as I for thee. 

* 

     Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
     Bring me my Arrows of desire:                     
     Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
     Bring me my Chariot of fire!

*

Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field:
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;
Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years;
Rise and look out, his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open. 

*

  For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;   
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
  And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe  
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!

*

I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.       
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate

*

But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form                                         
Because we were combind in Freedom & holy Brotherhood 

*

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

* 

In every cry of every Man, 
In every Infants cry of fear, 
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear  

* 

10 QUOTES FIFTH

Wikipedia

Song of Los

Plate 4

I come in Self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration
To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour
To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration
To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albions covering          
To take off his filthy garments, & clothe him with Imagination
To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration

*

Arise you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy!
Arise and drink your bliss, for every thing that lives is holy! 

*  

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

*

This theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn
Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Saviour over me
Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song.  

Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! expand!
I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine:
Fibres of love from man to man thro Albions pleasant land.

* 

     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

* 

 & Throughout all Eternity            
I forgive you you forgive me
As our dear Redeemer said                                   
This the Wine & this the Bread

*

Every thing in Eternity shines by its own Internal light 

* 

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!

* 

I know of no other
Christianity and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body
& mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination.   
  Imagination the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable
Universe is but a faint shadow & in which we shall live in our
Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies
are no more.

*

  He witherd up the Human Form,
By laws of sacrifice for sin:
  Till it became a Mortal Worm:    
But O! translucent all within.

10 QUOTES FOURTH

Yale Center for British Art
America A Prophecy
Plate 12 

 

But when once I did descry 

The Immortal Man that cannot Die 

Thro evening shades I haste away 

To close the Labours of my Day 

 

*

Thou Mother of my Mortal part.
With cruelty didst mould my Heart. 
And with false self-decieving tears,
Didst bind my Nostrils Eyes & Ears.

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay
And me to Mortal Life betray:
The Death of Jesus set me free, 
Then what have I to do with thee? 

* 

 The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who
waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom,
the Divine Body; will never enter there. 

* 

  The Divine Vision still was seen
Still was the Human Form, Divine
  Weeping in weak & mortal clay
O Jesus still the Form was thine.      

  And thine the Human Face & thine
The Human Hands & Feet & Breath
  Entering thro' the Gates of Birth
And passing thro' the Gates of Death

*

But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death & Hell
Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in Mercy

*

The Hebrew Bible & the Gospel of
Jesus are not Allegory but Eternal Vision or Imagination of All
that Exists 

*

Is it a greater
miracle to feed five thousand men with five loaves than to
overthrow all the armies of Europe with a small pamphlet.

*

There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find
This Moment & it multiply. & when it once is found
It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed

*

Obey thou the Words of the Inspired Man
All that can be annihilated must be annihilated   
That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery
There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries

 

10 QUOTES THIRD

Yale Center for British Art

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Plate 40

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 will not cease from Mental Fight,

 Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:

 Till we have built Jerusalem,  

 In Englands green & pleasant Land. 

 *

  How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
   Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?

*

We live as One Man; for contracting our infinite senses
We behold multitude; or expanding: we behold as one,
As One Man all the Universal Family; and that One Man
We call Jesus the Christ: and he in us, and we in him,        
Live in perfect harmony in Eden the land of life,
Giving, recieving, and forgiving each others trespasses.
He is the Good shepherd, he is the Lord and master:
He is the Shepherd of Albion, he is all in all, 

*

  One Power alone makes a Poet. - Imagination The Divine Vision 

*

 Let every Christian as much as in him lies engage himself
openly & publicly before all the World in some Mental pursuit for
the Building up of Jerusalem  

*

Imagination the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable
Universe is but a faint shadow & in which we shall live in our
Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies
are no more.

*

What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children 

*

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!

*

     Soft he smild
     And I heard his voice Mild
     Saying This is My Fold
     O thou Ram hornd with gold
     Who awakest from sleep
     On the sides of the Deep 

* 

10 QUOTES SECOND

Yale Center for British Art

Illustrations to Poems of Thomas Gray

The Progress of Poesy

He who binds to himself a joy   
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies         
Lives in eternity's sun rise 

*

  Without Contraries is no progression.  Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to
Human existence.
  From these contraries spring what the religious call Good &
Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active
springing from Energy.
  Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell. 

*

I answerd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.

                 Opposition is true Friendship. 

*

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 

*

Mutual Forgiveness of each Vice
Such are the Gates of Paradise
Against the Accusers chief desire
Who walkd among the Stones of Fire
Jehovahs Finger Wrote the Law         
Then Wept! then rose in Zeal & Awe
And the Dead Corpse from Sinais heat      
Buried beneath his Mercy Seat        
O Christians Christians! tell me Why
You rear it on your Altars high 

*

     It was when Jesus said to Me
     Thy Sins are all forgiven thee
     The Christian trumpets loud proclaim
     Thro all the World in Jesus name
     Mutual forgiveness of each Vice
     And oped the Gates of Paradise
     The Moral Virtues in Great fear
     Formed the Cross & Nails & Spear
     And the Accuser standing by
     Cried out Crucify Crucify
     Our Moral Virtues neer can be
     Nor Warlike pomp & Majesty
     For Moral Virtues all begin
     In the Accusations of Sin 

 *

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

*

  I never made friends but by spiritual gifts;
By severe contentions of friendship & the burning fire of thought.

*

 Our wars are wars of life, & wounds of love,
With intellectual spears, & long winged arrows of thought:       
Mutual in one anothers love and wrath all renewing
We live as One Man

* 

     Now I a fourfold vision see
     And a fourfold vision is given to me
     Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
     And three fold in soft Beulahs night
     And twofold Always.  May God us keep
     From Single vision & Newtons sleep

10 QUOTES FIRST

New York Public Library

America A Prophecy

Plate 14

I give you the end of a golden string, 

Only wind it into a ball:

It will lead you in at Heavens gate, 

Built in Jerusalems wall.

* 

Eternity is in love with the productions of time. 

* 

 If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear  to man as it is: infinite.
   For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro'
narrow chinks of his cavern.

*

Man was made for Joy & Woe 

And when this we rightly know 

Thro the World we safely go

Joy & Woe are woven fine 

A Clothing for the soul divine  

* 

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk or jew.
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too 

*

We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye           
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day 

*

 He who sees the Infinite in all things sees
God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is

*

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face      
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
 
For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice.
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. 

*

When the stars threw down their spears       
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?                        
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?       

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:                
What immortal hand or eye,             
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

BLAKE'S ANGELS

Cleveland Museum of Art 

Christ in the Lap of Truth

Angels to Blake are symbols not signs. They intimate; they are not defined. They can have various functions in different circumstances. In Marriage of Heaven and Hell they project the conventional, conservative patterns of thought which constrict and confine. In the guise of Angels of Providence they protect and guide. The Angel of the Divine Presence is synonymous with the fallen Lucifer who is a sinister character.

Blake saw angels as spiritual forces who bring messages from the divine. He studied the role that they played in the Bible and knew their presence in his life. He conveyed in images the benevolence of the God who made angels instruments of the connection between the human and the divine.   

Letters, To Butts, (E 724)

"But if we fear to do the dictates of our
Angels & tremble at the Tasks set before us. if we refuse to do
Spiritual Acts. because of Natural Fears or Natural Desires!  Who
can describe the dismal torments of such a state!--I too well
remember the Threats I heard!--If you who are organized by Divine
Providence for Spiritual communion.  Refuse & bury your Talent in
the Earth even tho you should want Natural Bread. Sorrow &
Desperation pursues you thro life! & after death shame & confusion of face to
eternity"

Annotations to Lavater, (E 601) 

"Every mans leading propensity ought to be calld his
leading Virtue & his good Angel"  

Jerusalem, Plate 43 [29], (E 191)

"And thus the Voice Divine went forth upon the rocks of Albion    
I elected Albion for my glory; I gave to him the Nations,
Of the whole Earth. he was the Angel of my Presence: and all
The Sons of God were Albions Sons: and Jerusalem was my joy."

Songs and Ballads, William Bond, (E 497)

"He went not out to the Field nor Fold
He went not out to the Village nor Town           
But he came home in a black black cloud
And took to his Bed & there lay down

And an Angel of Providence at his Feet
And an Angel of Providence at his Head
And in the midst a Black Black Cloud      
And in the midst the Sick Man on his Bed

And on his Right hand was Mary Green
And on his Left hand was his Sister Jane
And their tears fell thro the black black Cloud
To drive away the sick mans pain"  

Everlasting Gospel, (E 521)

"To be Good only is to be
A Devil or else a Pharisee 
Thou Angel of the Presence Divine
That didst create this Body of Mine   
Wherefore hast thou writ these Laws
And Created Hells dark jaws
My Presence I will take from thee
A Cold Leper thou shalt be
Tho thou wast so pure & bright    
That Heaven was Impure in thy Sight
Tho thy Oath turnd Heaven Pale
Tho thy Covenant built Hells Jail
Tho thou didst all to Chaos roll
With the Serpent for its soul     
Still the breath Divine does move
And the breath Divine is Love" 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 560) 

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

Exodus 14

[18] And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have
gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his 
horsemen.
[19] And the angel of God, which went before the 
camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the 
cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
[20]
 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; 
and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to 
these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

Inscriptions on Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job, (E 687) 

[Blake's verbal variants from his source, the King James
Bible]

  II The Angel of the Divine Presence [identified in Hebrew as
"King Jehovah"] (not in the Bible) We shall awake up in thy
Likeness]  . . . With thy likeness (Psalm xvii:15)   the Sons of
God came to present themselves before the Lord & Satan came also
among them to present himself before the Lord   . . . and Satan
came also among them (Job i:6) 

Psalms 17

[13] Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
[14] From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
[15] As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

Job 1

[6] Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
[7] And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
[8] And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 

Letters, To Butts, (E 729)

"The Angel of the Divine Presence clothing Adam & Eve with Coats of Skins"

Genesis 3

[20] And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
[21] Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
[22] And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
[23] Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
[24] So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Songs of Experience, Songs 41, (E 24) 

"The Angel  
I Dreamt a Dream! what can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen:

 Guarded by an Angel mild:
Witless woe, was ne'er beguil'd!

And I wept both night and day
And he wip'd my tears away
And I wept both day and night
And hid from him my hearts delight

So he took his wings and fled:
Then the morn blush'd rosy red:
I dried my tears & armed my fears,
With ten thousand shields and spears,

Soon my Angel came again;
I was arm'd, he came in vain:
For the time of youth was fled    
And grey hairs were on my head."

HERACLITUS & BLAKE

Columbia.edu

Illustrations to Dante

The Whirlwind of Lovers

 

 Words of Power, Northrop Frye

Page 166, Quote from Hericlitus

"Immortals become mortals, mortals become immortal: they live in each other's death and die in each other's life."

The thought of Hericlitus, an obscure  Greek philosopher of the 6th century BC, had an influence on William Blake. 

Rex Warner included on his website some of the content of Hericlitus' philosophy. Below each of Hericlitus' quotes is a passage from Blake which expresses similar or related sentiments.

Warner writes:

"The following quotations are again from Burnet and I have kept his numbering:

1. It is wise to hearken, not to me, but to my Word, and to confess that all things are one. 

ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE, (E 2) 

"PRINCIPLE 7th As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various) So
all Religions & as all similars have one source 
The true Man is the source he being the Poetic Genius"

4. Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men if they have souls that understand not their language.

THERE is NO NATURAL RELIGION [b], (E 2)

 "I  Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover."

 Letters, To Trusler, (E 702)

 "Some Scarce see Nature at all But to the Eyes
of the Man of Imagination Nature is Imagination itself.  As a man
is So he Sees.  As the Eye is formed such are its Powers You
certainly Mistake when you say that the Visions of Fancy are not
be found in This World.  To Me This World is all One continued
Vision of Fancy or Imagination & I feel Flatterd when I am told
So."  

7. If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult. 

 THERE is NO NATURAL RELIGION [b], (E 2)

 "PRINCIPLE 4. As none by traveling over known lands can find out
the unknown.  So from already acquired knowledge Man could not
acquire more. therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists"

16. The learning of many things teacheth not understanding, else would it have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hekataios. 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 560) 

"General
Knowledge is Remote Knowledge it is in Particulars that Wisdom
consists & Happiness too."

46. It is the opposite which is good for us.

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 12)

"There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries
The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination."

61. To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right. 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 554)

 "The Last Judgment when all those are Cast away who trouble
Religion with Questions concerning Good & Evil or Eating of the
Tree of those Knowledges or Reasonings which hinder the Vision of
God turning all into a Consuming fire   Imaginative Art &
Science & all Intellectual Gifts all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
are lookd upon as of no use & only Contention
remains to Man then the Last Judgment begins & its Vision is seen
by the [Imaginative Eye] of Every one according to the
situation he holds"

71. You will not find the boundaries of soul by travelling in any direction, so deep is the measure of it. 

There is No Natural Religion, [b], (E 3)

  VII The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite
& himself Infinite

 80. I have sought for myself. 

Jerusalem, Plate 10, (E 153)

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

91a. Thought is common to all. 

All Religions Are One, (E 1) 

"PRINCIPLE. 5. The Religions of all Nations are derived from
each Nations different reception of the Poetic Genius which is
every where call'd the Spirit of Prophecy."

 91b. Those who speak with understanding must hold fast to what is common to all as a city holds fast to its law, and even more strongly. For all human laws are fed by the one divine law. It prevails as much as it will, and suffices for all things with something to spare. 

All Religions Are One, (E 1)

 "PRINCIPLE 2d  As all men are alike in outward form, So (and
with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic
Genius"

95. The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own. 

Milton, Plate 27 [29], (E 125) 

"But in Eternity the Four Arts: Poetry, Painting, Music,          
And Architecture which is Science: are the Four Faces of Man.
Not so in Time & Space: there Three are shut out, and only
Science remains thro Mercy: & by means of Science, the Three
Become apparent in time & space, in the Three Professions

Poetry in Religion: Music, Law: Painting, in Physic & Surgery:" 

__________ 

Songs and Ballads, (E 501)

"You dont believe I wont attempt to make ye
You are asleep I wont attempt to wake ye
Sleep on Sleep on while in your pleasant dreams
Of Reason you may drink of Lifes clear streams
Reason and Newton they are quite two things         
For so the Swallow & the Sparrow sings
Reason says Miracle. Newton says Doubt
Aye thats the way to make all Nature out       
Doubt Doubt & dont believe without experiment
That is the very thing that Jesus meant       
When he said Only Believe Believe & try    
Try Try & never mind the Reason why"

From Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

"Heraclitus stresses that the message is not his own invention, but a timeless truth available to any who attend to the way the world itself is. 'Although this Word is common,' he warns, 'the many live as if they had a private understanding' (B2). The Word (account, message) exists apart from Heraclitus’ teaching, but he tries to convey that message to his audience."