The Portable William Blake

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The Portable William Blake Page 36

by Blake, William


  [A MURDEROUS PROVIDENCE]

  “A murderous Providence! A Creation that groans, living on Death,

  Where Fish & Bird & Beast & Man & Tree & Metal & Stone

  Live by Devouring, going into Eternal Death continually!”

  [COME, O LAMB OF GOD!]

  “Come, O thou Lamb of God, and take away the remembrance of Sin.

  To Sin & to hide the Sin in sweet deceit is lovely!

  To Sin in the open face of day is cruel & pitiless! But

  To record the Sin for a reproach, to let the Sun go down

  In a remembrance of the Sin, is a Woe & a Horror,

  A brooder of an Evil Day and a Sun rising in blood!

  Come then, 0 Lamb of Cod, and take away the remembrance of Sin.”

  [ALBION’S SPECTRE]

  ... The Spectre, like a hoar frost & a Mildew, rose over Albion,

  Saying, “I am God, O Sons of Men! I am your Rational Power!

  Am I not Bacon & Newton & Locke who teach Humility to Man,

  Who teach Doubt & Experiment? & my two Wings, Voltaire, Rousseau?

  Where is that Friend of Sinners? that Rebel against my Laws

  Who teaches Belief to the Nations & an unknown Eternal Life?

  Come hither into the Desart & turn these stones to bread.

  Vain foolish Man! wilt thou believe without Experiment And build a World of Phantasy upon my Great Abyss,

  A World of Shapes in craving lust & devouring appetite?”

  [IT IS BETTER TO PREVENT MISERY]

  Silence remain’d & every one resum’d his Human Majesty.

  And many conversed on these things as they labour’d at the furrow,

  Saying: “It is better to prevent misery than to release from misery:

  It is better to prevent error than to forgive the criminal.

  Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones,

  And those who are in misery cannot remain so long

  If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth.”

  They Plow’d in tears, the trumpets sounded before the golden Plow,

  And the voices of the Living Creatures were heard in the clouds of heaven,

  Crying: “Compell the Reasoner to Demonstrate with un-hewn Demonstrations.

  Let the Indefinite be explored, and let every Man be Judged

  By his own Works. Let all Indefinites be thrown into Demonstrations,

  To be pounded to dust & melted in the Furnaces of Affliction.

  He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars:

  General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite & flatterer,

  For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars

  And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.

  The Infinite alone resides in Definite & Determinate Identity;

  Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falshood continually,

  On Circumcision, not on Virginity, 0 Reasoners of Albion!”

  [THE DIVINE VISION]

  “What is a Wife & what is a Harlot? What is a Church & What

  Is a Theatre? are they Two & not One? can they Exist Separate?

  Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing? Brotherhood is Religion,

  O Demonstrations of Reason Dividing Families in Cruelty & Pride!”

  [THE DAUGHTERS OF LOS]

  And in the North Gate, in the West of the North, toward Beulah,

  Cathedron’s Looms are builded, and Los’s Furnaces in the South.

  A wondrous golden Building immense with ornaments sublime

  Is bright Cathedron’s golden Hall, its Courts, Towers & Pinnacles.

  And one Daughter of Los sat at the fiery Reel, & another

  Sat at the shining Loom with her Sisters attending round,

  Terrible their distress, & their sorrow cannot be utter’d;

  And another Daughter of Los sat at the Spinning Wheel,

  Endless their labour, with bitter food, void of sleep;

  Tho’ hungry, they labour: they rouze themselves anxious

  Hour after hour labouring at the whirling Wheel,

  Many Wheels & as many lovely Daughters sit weeping.

  Yet the intoxicating delight that they take in their work

  Obliterates every other evil; none pities their tears,

  Yet they regard not pity & they expect no one to pity,

  For they labour for life & love regardless of any one

  But the poor Spectres that they work for always, incessantly.

  They are mock’d by every one that passes by; they regard not,

  They labour, & when their Wheels are broken by scorn & malice

  They mend them sorrowing with many tears & afflictions.

  Other Daughters Weave on the Cushion & Pillow Network fine

  That Rahab & Tirzah may exist & live & breathe & love.

  Ah, that it could be as the Daughters of Beulah wish !

  Other Daughters of Los, labouring at Looms less fine,

  Create the Silk-worm & the Spider & the Catterpiller

  To assist in their most grievous work of pity & compassion;

  And others Create the wooly Lamb & the downy Fowl

  To assist in the work; the Lamb bleats, the Sea-fowl cries:

  Men understand not the distress & the labour & sorrow

  That in the Interior Worlds is carried on in fear & trembling,

  Weaving the shudd’ring fears & loves of Albion’s Families.

  Thunderous rage the Spindles of iron, & the iron Distaff

  Maddens in the fury of their hands, weaving in bitter tears

  The Veil of Goats-hair & Purple & Scarlet & fine twined Linen.

  [A VISION OF MARY AND JOSEPH]

  “... Behold, in the Visions of Elohim Jehovah, behold Joseph & Mary

  And be comforted, O Jerusalem, in the Visions of Jehovah Elohim.”

  She looked & saw Joseph the Carpenter in Nazareth & Mary

  His espoused Wife. And Mary said, “If thou put me away from thee

  Dost thou not murder me?” Joseph spoke in anger & fury, ”Should I

  Marry a Harlot & an Adulteress?” Mary answer’d, ”Art thou more pure

  Than thy Maker who forgiveth Sins & calls again Her that is Lost?

  Tho’ She hates, he calls her again in love. I love my dear Joseph,

  But he driveth me away from his presence; yet I hear the voice of God

  In the voice of my Husband: tho’ he is angry for a moment, he will not

  Utterly cast me away; if I were pure, never could I taste the sweets

  Of the Forgiveness of Sins; if I were holy, I never could behold the tears

  Of love of him who loves me in the midst of his anger in furnace of fire.”

  “Ah my Mary!” said Joseph, weeping over & embracing her closely in

  His arms: “Doth he forgive Jerusalem & not exact Purity from her who is

  Polluted? I heard his voice in my sleep & his Angel in my dream,

  Saying, ‘Doth Jehovah Forgive a Debt only on condition that it shall

  Be Payed? Doth he Forgive Pollution only on conditions of Purity?

  That Debt is not Forgiven! That Pollution is not Forgiven!

  Such is the Forgiveness of the Gods, the Moral Virtues of the

  Heathen whose tender Mercies are Cruelty. But Jehovah’s Salvation

  Is without Money & without Price, in the Continual Forgiveness of Sins,

  In the Perpetual Mutual Sacrifice in Great Eternity; for behold,

  There is none that liveth & Sinneth notl And this is the Covenant

  Of Jehovah: If you Forgive one-another, so shall Jehovah Forgive You,

  That He Himself may Dwell among You. Fear not then to take

  To thee Mary thy Wife, for she is with Child by the Holy Ghost.’ ”

  Then Mary burst forth into a Song: she flowed like a River of

  Many Streams in the arms of Joseph & gave forth her te
ars of joy

  Like many waters, and Emanating into gardens & palaces upon

  Euphrates, & to forests & floods & animals wild & tame from

  Gihon to Hiddekel, & to corn fields & villages & inhabitants

  Upon Pison & Arnon & Jordan. And I heard the voice among

  The Reapers, Saying, “Am I Jerusalem the lost Adulteress ? or am I

  Babylon come up to Jerusalem?” And another voice answer’ d, Saying,

  “Does the voice of my Lord call me again? am I pure thro’ his Mercy

  And Pity? Am I become lovely as a Virgin in his sight, who am

  Indeed a Harlot drunken with the Sacrifice of Idols? does he

  Call her pure as he did in the days of her Infancy when She

  Was cast out to the loathing of her person? The Chaldean took

  Me from my Cradle. The Amalekite stole me away upon his Camels

  Before I had ever beheld with love the Face of Jehovah, or known

  That there was a God of Mercy. O Mercy, O Divine Humanity!

  O Forgiveness & Pity & Compassion! If I were Pure I should never

  Have known Thee: If I were Unpolluted I should never have

  Glorified thy Holiness or rejoiced in thy great Salvation.”

  Mary leaned her side against Jerusalem: Jerusalem recieved

  The Infant into her hands in the Visions of Jehovah. Times passed on.

  Jerusalem fainted over the Cross & Sepulcher. She heard the voice:

  “Wilt thou make Rome thy Patriarch Druid & the Kings of Europe his

  Horsemen? Man in the Resurrection changes his Sexual Garments at Will.

  Every Harlot was once a Virgin: every Criminal an Infant Love....

  [THE DESOLATE WORLD ]

  The inhabitants are sick to death: they labour to divide into Days

  And Nights the uncertain Periods, and into Weeks & Months. In vain

  They send the Dove & Raven & in vain the Serpent over the mountains

  And in vain the Eagle & Lion over the four-fold wilderness:

  They return not, but generate in rocky places desolate:

  They return not, but build a habitation separate from Man.

  The Sun forgets his course like a drunken man; he hesitates

  Upon the Cheselden hills, thinking to sleep on the Severn.

  In vain: he is hurried afar into an unknown Night:

  He bleeds in torrents of blood as he rolls thro’ heaven above.

  He chokes up the paths of the sky; the Moon is leprous as snow,

  Trembling & descending down, seeking to rest on high Mona,

  Scattering her leprous snows in flakes of disease over Albion.

  The Stars flee remote; the heaven is iron, the earth is sulphur,

  And all the mountains & hills shrink up like a withering gourd

  As the Senses of Men shrink together under the Knife of flint

  In the hands of Albion’s Daughters among the Druid Temples, ...

  And the Twelve Daughters of Albion united in Rahab & Tirzah,

  A Double Female; and they drew out from the Rocky Stones

  Fibres of Life to Weave, for every Female is a Golden Loom,

  The Rocks are opake hardnesses covering all Vegetated dungs;

  And as they Wove & Cut from the Looms, in various divisions

  Stretching over Europe & Asia from Ireland to Japan,

  They divided into many lovely Daughters, to be counterparts

  To those they Wove; for when they Wove a Male, they divided

  Into a Female to the Woven Male: in opake hardness

  They cut the Fibres from the Rocks: groaning in pain they Weave,

  Calling the Rocks Atomic Origins of Existence, denying Eternity

  By the Atheistical Epicurean Philosophy of Albion’s Tree.

  Such are the Feminine & Masculine when separated from Man.

  They call the Rocks Parents of Men, & adore the frowning Chaos,

  Dancing around in howling pain, clothed in the bloody Veil,

  Hiding Albion’s Sons within the Veil, closing Jerusalem’s Sons without, to feed with their Souls the Spectres of Albion,

  Ashamed to give Love openly to the piteous & merciful Man,

  Counting him an imbecile mockery, but the Warrior They adore & his revenge cherish with the blood of the Innocent.

  [THE SPECTRE’S THREATS]

  “0 thou poor Human Form!” said she. “0 thou poor child of woel

  Why wilt thou wander away from Tirzah? why me compel to bind thee?

  If thou dost go away from me I shall consume upon these Rocks.

  These fibres of thine eyes that used to beam in distant heavens

  Away from me, I have bound down with a hot iron.

  These nostrils that expanded with delight in Morning skies

  I have bent downward with lead melted in my roaring furnaces

  Of affliction, of love, of sweet despair, of torment unendurable.

  My soul is seven furnaces; incessant roars the bellows Upon my terribly flaming heart, the molten metal runs In channels thro’ my fiery limbs. O love, 0 pity, O fear, O pain! O the pangs, the bitter pangs of love forsaken!”

  [THE WARRIOR’S LAMENT]

  “.... Once Man was occupied in intellectual pleasures & energies,

  But now my Soul is harrow’d 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....”

  [ALL ARE MEN IN ETERNITY]

  For all are Men in Eternity, Rivers, Mountains, Cities, Villages,

  All are Human, & when you enter into their Bosoms you walk

  In Heavens & Earths, as in your own Bosom you bear your Heaven

  And Earth & all you behold; tho’ it appears Without, it is Within,

  In your Imagination, of which this World of Mortality is but a Shadow.

  [MEN AND STATES]

  As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains,

  So Men pass on, but States remain permanent for ever.

  [SPECTRE AND IMAGINATION]

  The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man, & when separated

  From Imagination and closing itself as in steel in a Ratio Of the Things of Memory, It thence frames Laws & Moralities

  To destroy Imagination, the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars.

  Teach me, O Holy Spirit, the Testimony of Jesus! let me Comprehend wonderous things out of the Divine Law!

  I behold Babylon in the opening Streets of London. I behold

  Jerusalem in ruins wandering about from house to house.

  This I behold: the shudderings of death attend my steps.

  I walk up and down in Six Thousand Years: their Events are present before me

  To tell how Los in grief & anger, whirling round his Hammer on high,

  Drave the Sons & Daughters of Albion from their ancient mountains.

  [LOS’S HAMMER]

  The blow of his Hammer is Justice, the swing of his Hammer Mercy,

  The force of Los’s Hammer is eternal Forgiveness....

  [THE ETERNAL CIRCLE]

  And where Luther ends Adam begins the Eternal Circle

  To awake Prisoners of Death, to bring Albion again

  With Luvah into light eternal in his eternal day.

  But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of Albion.

  [WHAT GOD IS]

  “.... It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.

  The man who permits you to injure him deserves your vengeance:

  He also will recieve it; go Spectre! obey my most secret desire

  Which thou knowest without my speaking. Go to these Fiends of Righteousness,

  Tell them to obey their Humanities & not pretend Holiness

  When they are murderers as far as my Hammer & Anvil permit.

  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, Organized, & not as thou,

  O Fiend of Righteousness, pretendest; thine is a Disorganized

  And snowy cloud, brooder of tempests & destructive War.

  You smile with pomp & rigor, you talk of benevolence & virtue;

  I act with benevolence & Virtue & get murder’d time after time.

  You accumulate Particulars & murder by analyzing, that you

  May take the aggregate, & you call the aggregate Moral Law,

  And you call that swell’d & bloated Form a Minute Particular;

  But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars, & every

  Particular is a Man, a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus....

  “I care not whether a Man is Good or Evil; all that I care

 

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