William Blake Part 4

The history of higher criticism is the history of a succession of theories. Dr Paulus, forgotten father of German critics, supplied a rational one, for which he was obliged to make a super-historical use of the Essenes. It has reappeared in George Moore's _Brook Kerith_.

Renan, pantheist, artist and sceptic, tried to supply a subjective artistic explanation which soothed the subject, but turned the Object into a Frenchman. Strauss, Keim and Bousset, learned and painstaking, with hardly less success made Him into a dreamy cosmopolitan German of a now obsolete type. Schweitzer, better informed of the apocalyptic and eschatological medium through which the mind of Jesus worked, comes nearer to the apostolic mind that drew the picture of Jesus, yet, for want of the key, portrays Jesus as the tragic victim of the illusory time-spirit.

Swedenborg never gave any serious consideration to the catholic theory, but supplied its place out of the store of his supersensual revelations.

Loaded with these, and with a vague memory of the gnostic teaching of the threefold meaning of the Scriptures, he was able to evade every literal difficulty by turning to the spiritual meaning, and if need be to the celestial, which could be reached only through his own specific revelation. It is true that he tried to bring a steadying factor into his subjective interpretation by introducing his doctrine of correspondences; but as he has never been able to convince any but his elect followers that his correspondences, beyond some obvious ones, are other than arbitrary, he has succeeded only in making his commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, and the Apocalypse unreadable to the vast majority of Christians.

I have said enough about Swedenborg to make it clear that there was some affinity between him and Blake.

Blake's imperfect knowledge of him was much deepened in 1788, when he read his _Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and concerning the Divine Wisdom_. This he marked and annotated, and so we are able to trace the affinity in considerable detail.

On the whole Blake gives almost pa.s.sionate approval to _The Angelic Wisdom_. Only in rare instances does he differ. Swedenborg's doctrine of state made explicit what Blake had vaguely perceived all his life. It also helped him to formulate a theoretic explanation of his own supersensual vision. This is so important that I must quote an entire paragraph from _The Angelic Wisdom_, for the sake of Blake's comment and the reader's understanding.

69. THE DIVINE FILLS ALL THE s.p.a.cES OF THE UNIVERSE APART FROM s.p.a.cE.

_There are two things proper to nature,_ s.p.a.cE _and_ TIME. _Out of these man in the natural world forms the ideas of his thought and therefore his understanding. If he remains in these ideas and does not raise his mind above them he is nowise able to perceive anything spiritual and Divine, for he involves them in ideas which derive from s.p.a.ce and time; and in proportion as he does this, the light--the lumen--of his understanding becomes merely natural. To think from the lumen in reasoning about spiritual and Divine things, is like thinking from the thick darkness of night concerning the things which appear only in the light of day. This is the origin of naturalism. But he who knows how to raise his mind above the ideas of thought which derive from s.p.a.ce and time, pa.s.ses from thick darkness into light, and apprehends spiritual and Divine things, and, at last, sees those things which are in them and from them, and then by virtue of that light he disperses the thick darkness of the natural lumen, and relegates its fallacies from the middle to the sides. Every man with an understanding is able to think, and actually does think, above those properties of nature; and then he affirms and sees that the Divine, being omnipresent, is not in s.p.a.ce. He is also able to affirm and to see those things which have been adduced above. But if he denies the Divine Omnipresence and ascribes all things to nature, then he is not willing to be elevated, although he is able._

In the above Blake changed the word _middle_ into _centre_, and _sides_ into _circ.u.mference_, commenting: "When the fallacies of darkness are in the circ.u.mference they cast a bound about the infinite." In paragraph 70, Swedenborg adds what is a corollary to the above: _Angels do not comprehend when we say that the divine fills s.p.a.ces, for they do not know what s.p.a.ces are, but they understand when we say that the divine fills all things._ On this Blake makes the comment "Excellent."

Since the inhabitants of heaven have no idea of s.p.a.ce and time, their perceptions and modes of thought are entirely governed by their state.

This is true also of the visionary, and it decides what he reports of the other world. Everyone will easily perceive from this of what paramount importance his state is in a.s.signing the right value to his visions. As Swedenborg says: "s.p.a.ces and times in spiritual life have relation to states of love and are mutable with these."

Blake fully approved of Swedenborg's doctrine that the heart and lungs correspond to the will and understanding. Those who would understand Blake must remember this while reading the prophetic books.

But there are signs of disagreements that deepened with time.

Swedenborg wrote (237): _Man at birth comes first into the natural degree, and this increases in him by continuity, according to his various knowledge ... until he reaches the highest point of the understanding which is called the rational. But still the second degree, which is the spiritual, is not opened by this means. This is opened by love towards the neighbour ... the third degree by love towards the Lord._

With all Blake's devout admiration for Swedenborg this was too much for him. A child born solely into the natural degree! That! after all Blake knew, and all Christ had said about little children! Heaven save us all, especially Swedenborg! Blake's comment is important. Note that even when he is differing from his teacher, his language is Swedenborgian. He says:

"Study science till you are blind. Study intellectuals until you are cold.

Yet science cannot teach intellect. Much less can intellect teach affection. How foolish it is then to a.s.sert that man is born in only one degree, when that one degree is receptive of the three degrees: two of which he must destroy or close up or they will descend. If he closes up the two superior, then he is not truly in the third but descends out of it into mere Nature or h.e.l.l. Is it not also evident that one degree will not open the other, and that science will not open intellect, but that they are discrete and not continuous so as to explain each other, except by correspondence, which has nothing to do with demonstration, for you cannot demonstrate one degree by the other, for how can science be brought to demonstrate intellect without making them continuous and not discrete?"

There are three comments in which Blake introduces an element lacking in the voluminous writings of Swedenborg. On Swedenborg's statement: "A spiritual idea does not derive anything from s.p.a.ce, but it derives its all from state," he remarks: "_Poetic_ idea"; on paragraph 10, Blake comments: "He who loves feels love descend into him, and if he is wise, may perceive it from the _Poetic Genius_, which is the Lord"; on Swedenborg's phrase: "The negation of G.o.d const.i.tutes h.e.l.l," he remarks: "The negation of the _Poetic Genius_."

Here we get a hint of a small seed of difference which when fully grown was to sever Blake from Swedenborg for ever.

I must give one more, very pregnant, pa.s.sage from _The Angelic Wisdom_.

68. _Man out of his hereditary evil reacts against G.o.d. But if he believes that all his life is from G.o.d, and all good of life from the action of G.o.d, and all evil of life from the reaction of man, then reaction becomes the offspring of action, and man acts with G.o.d as from himself. The equilibrium of all things is from action and joint reaction, and everything must be in equilibrium._

The last sentence makes h.e.l.l an eternal necessity to preserve the equilibrium of heaven. Strictly it makes also the devil an eternal counterweight to G.o.d, and what else follows we may learn by studying Zoroastrian dualism. Blake's comment was:

"G.o.d and evil are here both good, and the two contraries married."

Blake was early occupied with the marriage of contraries. Swedenborg's word was a sanguine seed in prepared soil, and when it brought forth fruit a hundredfold, the rich return was not the logical outcome of Swedenborg's dualism, but a marriage of heaven and h.e.l.l, of religion and art, which is showing a fertile capacity for endless reproduction.

So far, then, Swedenborg's attraction for Blake far exceeded his repulsion, and he embraced him with impetuous affection. Here was a teacher who could understand by experience both the new birth and vision.

By his help he disentangled himself from the particular explanation and theory of the atonement as given by Whitefield and Wesley. Here was a visionary who could not only understand his own visions, but who could give a reasonable explanation of the working of the visionary faculty.

Swedenborg brought order, reason, and system into Blake's chaotic mind.

Isolated from the churches, yet ardently desiring fellowship as the substance of his faith and wisdom, it appeared to him that there was nothing else to do but join the New Church of Swedenborg, and accordingly, in 1788, he and Catherine signed their names in token of membership and a.s.sent to the distinctive doctrines of the New Church. The curious may find this reported in the Minutes of the first Seven Sessions of the General Conference of the New Church, published by James Speirs, 36 Bloomsbury Street, 1885.

Let us turn to Blake's two poems, _Tiriel_, 1788, and _Thel_, 1789, which have special interest as they were written about this time that he subscribed to the Swedenborgian Church and Swedenborg's influence was paramount.

Tiriel--old, bald, and blind--is related to Urizen, but Urizen in Blake's completed mythology is the symbol not only of the law with its prohibitive commandments, but of the reason formed by the five senses, and therefore ever ready to stamp out imagination and inspiration, which derive their source from beyond the senses. Tiriel is the product of the law, and is the ant.i.thesis of love. Swedenborg's natural man was justified and saved by love, Luther's faith not being sufficient, and so in Blake's Tiriel there is besides St Paul's law the Lutheran's pharisaism, and just a suggestion of that contempt for the beautiful which was to make Urizen such a terrible figure, and was eventually to lead to Blake's estrangement from Swedenborg.

Tiriel at the hour of his death realized why his paradise was fallen, and he had found nought but the drear sandy plain. His description of his own upbringing, shocking as it is, is that of the great bulk of mankind. The instant a child is born, the dull, blind father stands ready to form the infant head; and if the child, like Blake, has vision, the father, like Mr Blake, uses the whip to rouse the sluggish senses to act and to scourge off all youthful fancies.

"Then walks the weak infant in sorrow, compelled to number footsteps Upon the sand. And when the drone has reached his crawling length, Black berries appear that poison all round him. Such was Tiriel Compelled to pray repugnant, and to humble the immortal spirit; Till I am subtle as a serpent in a paradise, Consuming all, both flowers and fruits, insects and warbling birds."

Blake was thinking of his father and his own early whippings. But really fathers are not absolutely necessary, for the mother, the nurse, the elder sister, and the public school, can do the job a great deal more effectually. The other poem, _The Book of Thel_, 1789, is Swedenborgian throughout. Thel, youngest daughter of the Seraphim, bewails the transitoriness of life and all beautiful things, herself included. Then the _humble_ Lily of the Valley, a little Cloud, a Worm, and a Clod of Clay, all in their respective ways preach to her that "Everything that lives, lives not alone nor for itself." When she has reached the utter selflessness of a Clod of Clay, then only will she be able to behold steadfastly the seeming transitoriness of youth and beautiful things; seeming, for like the lowly lily they melt to flourish in eternal vales.

Here Blake endorses the Swedenborgian selflessness, and extols the Swedenborgian lowliness, modesty, and humility. Swedenborg believed in no doctrine of self-realization. To him the self was always an evil till lost in the Lord. It was the remains in him of German mysticism. Blake slowly and surely came to set a high value on the true self. But unlike the more modern preacher of self-realization, he believed that a man found his real self only after he had given himself pa.s.sionately to Jesus the eternal life and the eternal imagination. Then he was no longer to value the humility and modesty attached to selflessness. Their place was to be taken by a new kind of humility and a new kind of modesty of such flaming quality, that he wished to drop the old names and find others that more nearly described their sovereign reality.

Thel is finally invited by the matron Clay to enter her house, with the a.s.surance that she may return. Immediately the terrific Porter of the Eternal Gates lifted the _northern_ bar.

This is a well-known gate, among Swedenborgians, into the unseen world.

But it is very terrible. According to Garth Wilkinson it was the only gate that Blake knew, and he accounts by this means for Blake's apotheosis of the self and the pa.s.sions. At this time Blake saw through this gate what Swedenborg saw; but later, when he had shaken him off and changed his state, his vision changed accordingly, and the objects were stripped of their horror. He was also to know all the four gates leading into the unseen.

Thel, entering, "wandered in the land of clouds through valleys dark, list'ning dolours and lamentations" till she came even to her own grave-plot. Through such a gate it matters not whether one views this world or the other. Both must appear sad and joyless in the extreme, and enmesh the beholder in blackest pessimism. Thel, hearing a voice wailing like the ecclesiastic dirge of the disillusioned King, shrieked with terror, and fled back unhindered into the vales of Har.

_Thel_ is sweet, even heavenly in the Swedenborgian sense. But its sweetness cloys. Christ, like the Law before Him, made a sparing use of honey, preferring the more indispensable salt, which He enjoined His disciples to have in themselves at all times. Blake was to recover plentiful salt, but not until he had drawn Swedenborg's line between heaven and h.e.l.l in a wholly different place.

Swedenborg's influence is pleasantly found at work in the _Songs of Innocence_. Innocence was a favourite word, and Swedenborg saw the celestial angels both innocent and naked. There is nothing more innocent than a lamb, and therefore Blake by a sure instinct and in childlike joy piped his song about the lamb, satisfying at once his feeling for the lamb, the child, and the Maker of the lamb who was called the Lamb of G.o.d.

The song called _The Divine Image_ shows Swedenborg's influence at its best. So many men with Blake's mystic proclivities rush into vague abstractions. To-day we hear of Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Life, and all personality denied to G.o.d. Yet these are mere high-sounding abstractions, and are quite meaningless apart from concrete personality. Swedenborg was clear as day here, and it was he who taught Blake the pure wisdom contained in his verses:

"For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is G.o.d, our Father dear, And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is man, His child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face, And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress."

Swedenborg's teaching continues in _The Songs of Experience_, but with a question mark.

Blake sings to the Fly:

"Am not I A fly like thee?

Or art not thou A man like me?"

To see humanity in a fly is Swedenborgian; and Blake answered his question in the affirmative.

In the next song there are many questions; and it cannot be doubted that Blake's answers would have been the exact contrary to Swedenborg's.

Swedenborg, like his theosophical predecessors, had a way of denying that G.o.d created the particular animals that man finds inconvenient. Tigers, wolves, rats, bats, and moths are so obnoxious, that it soothes man's vanity to suppose that they are embodiments of evil exhaled from h.e.l.l.

They have served as restful homes for vampires and other creations of Old Night. And so Swedenborg, governed by mental habits of reason and use as measured by man, drew a sharp line between animals of a heavenly and h.e.l.lish origin. When Blake saw the tiger he saw differently. His aesthetic eye instantly marvelled at its "fearful symmetry," the fire of its eyes, the sinews of its heart; and he cried, "Did He who made the Lamb make thee?" He gives no answer. But there was no need. "In what distant _deeps_ or _skies_" the tiger had his origin had no further perplexity for him once he had married h.e.l.l to heaven.

_The Little Vagabond_, though hardly within the ken of Swedenborg, contains what every vagabond knows. Blake was able to rescue vagabonds as well as tigers from an exclusively h.e.l.lish origin.

Blake remained an orthodox Swedenborgian for nearly two years, and then came reaction and rebellion, not without resentment and bitterness. What was the cause of Blake's permanent repudiation of Swedenborg? Various reasons are given by Swedenborgians to prove that Blake was wholly in the wrong. Mr Morris gives a beautifully simple explanation. Quoting Blake's saying that he had two different states, one in which he liked Swedenborg's writings and one in which he disliked them, he says, "The latter was a state of pride in himself, and then they were distasteful to him, but afterwards he knew that he had not been wise and sane." That is the way that we all at some time in our life account for the obstinacy of those who will not worship at our altar.

Mr Garth Wilkinson, who of Swedenborgians most deserves to be heard, wrote in the preface of his edition of _The Songs of Innocence and Experience_, 1839, that Blake entered the "invisible world through the terrific porter of its northern gate." Like Sh.e.l.ley, he verged towards pantheism, not a spiritual pantheism, but a "natural spiritualism" or "ego-theism." His genius "entered into and inhabited the Egyptian and Asiatic perversions of an ancient and true religion," and thus "found a home in the ruins of Ancient and consummated Churches." Wilkinson discovered a great deal of the ego and of h.e.l.l in Blake. All of this criticism, which is ingenious, I cannot accept. To begin with the ego. Swedenborg believed that every man in his own _proprium_ was consumed with self-love, and that only love to the Lord could enable him entirely to overcome his love of self. Blake believed that the real self was made in the image of G.o.d, and therefore it must be loved, reverenced, and obeyed. The recognition of the same divine principle in others enables one to love one's neighbour as oneself. All German mystical talk of hatred to self and death to self was repudiated by Blake as artificial and unreal.