William Blake, Poet and Mystic

LIBRARY ANNEX 1 ; , .rJ'MW*vl*l-r'rm CORNELL t UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM A FUND RECEIVED BY BEQUEST OF WILLARD-FISKE 1831-1904 FIRST LIBRARIAN OP THIS UNIVERSITY : 1 868- 1 883 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013436492 WILLIAM BLAKE WILLIAM BLAKE POET AND MYSTIC By P. BERGER Docteur-es-Lettres Professor of English Lahguage and Literature in the Lycê and Lecturer in the University of Bordeauxj Authorized Translation from the French by DANIEL H. CONNER. LONDON CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. 1914 THE WESTMINSTER PRESS LONDON, W. To EMILE LEGOUIS Professor at the Sorbonne In recognition of His Sympathy and Encouragement. Oh ! never rudely will I blame his faith In the might of stars and angels ! . Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays and talismans And spirits ; and delightedly believes Divinities, being himself divine." S. T. Coleridge. NOTE The Author desires to thank Mr. John Sampson and the Authorities of the Clarendon Press for per- mission to quote from the text of The French Revolution, published—^for the first time—in the Oxford Edition (1913) of Blake's Poetical Works. CONTENTS PAGE I : THE MAN : HIS LIFE I Introduction 3 II His Life 22 III His Character 43 IV His Visions j 48 II : THE MYSTIC : HIS DOCTRINES \y General Character of his Works and his System 63 - VI Mysticism and its various Forms 68 lyil His Theories—The Work of Demolition—Negation of the Senses and of Reason 76 lyÎII Constructive Work—Imagination and Symbolism 86 iJX His Universe—The Creation of the World : Spectre and Emanation—the Fall and Regeneration of Man 99 (JK The Four Zoas and their Emanations 128; XI His other Creations, and the Worlds they live in 168. XII His System of Morality 179 XIII The Sources of his Doctrines 198 HI : THE POET : HIS WORKS XIV The Influence of Mysticism upon Poetry—Destruc- tion of the Poetry of Logic and Reason 211 (XV Symbolism in Language 221 XVI The Feelings and the Emotions 238 ^VII The Imagination 253 XVIII Chronological Survey of his Work—(i) Prose Writings 275 xii CONTENTS XIX Chronological Survey—(ii) Lyrical Poems XX Chronological Survey—(iii) The Earlier Prophetic Books XXI Chronological Survey—(iv) The Great Prophetic — Books : Vala Jerusalem—Milton XXII His Literary Models and his Imitators XXIII Conclusion Bibliography Chronological Table Index " PART I THE MAN : HIS LIFE ERRATA " P. 132 line 3 for « hills " read " halls P. 13s line 8 for "not" read "nor" " P. 255 line 7 delete the first " the " P. 258 line II for " ephermeral " read "ephemeral P. 278 line 7 from bottom delete " the " before "pulpit " P. 330 line II from bottom for "nation " read " nations " P. 333 line 13 from bottom for " urzien " read " urizen xii CONTENTS PAGE 282 XIX Chronological Survey—(ii) Lyrical Poems XX Chronological Survey—(iii) The Earlier Prophetic Books 325 XXI Chronological Survey—(iv) The Great Prophetic — Books : Vala Jerusalem—Milton 343 XXII His Literary Models and his Imitators 3^9 XXIII Conclusion 380 Bibliography Chronological Table Index I : INTRODUCTION name of William Blake iimnediately suggests, to anyone THEinterested in art or literature, the idea of an eccentric, a man half out of his senses, who was subject to extra- ordinary fancies and apocalyptic visions, and who, in his attempts to give a description of his supernatural dreams which should be at once poetic and pictorial, reveals himself as a very notable artist and a very unequal poet ; so that we find in his work beauties of the highest order, side by side with pages that are almost unreadable. In this study of Blake we shall consider him almost exclusively as poet and visionary, disregarding his artistic side except in so far as it throws light upon his character as a man. We shall examine him as a strange poetical and psychological phenomenon. We shall try to define his ideas of the world as we can gather them from his writings, and to give as comprehensible a description as possible of the universe that he saw in his visions. Finally, and chiefly, we shall endeavour to show the influence of the visionary upon the poet, searching his works for signs of the mystical and imaginative spirit that produced them, and being thus led to see, in this very characteristic case, the general effect of mysticism and of prophetic vision upon the poetic spirit properly so called. This will therefore be above all an attempt at literary criticism and psychological analysis. We shall not concern ourselves with the historical aspect of the case, interesting as this is, nor seek to show whether Blake was or was not the product of his age and his environ- ment. We shall look upon him rather as. a unique personality, thrown by chance, as he would have himself said, out of the world of eternity into that of space and time, to appear there for an instant and then return to his true dwelling-place. The time and place of his coming to earth are of small importance. What do matter are the immortal words he spoke ; and these belong to no country and no age. ' It is impossible, however, to understand him properly without knowing his pbsition with regard to the age he lived in, or seeing how far he followed and how far he departed from the general course of its thought. A few general remarks, therefore, brief indications of 4 WILLIAM BLAKE surroundings and tendencies rather than examinations of facts—will not be out of place, as an introduction to our study of the man himself. Blake lived from 1757 to 1827, and the best of his poetical works were produced between 1782 and 1803. Standing, therefore, on the threshold of the nineteenth century, he belongs to the period of the French Revolution, and of the revival of Liberal ideas in England. From a literary point of view, he comes just at the close of the pseudo- classical period of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the rising romanticism. If it were possible to define in so many words his attitude towards, or his part in, this movement, it could only be done by callir^ him the prophet of liberty and imagination, as opposed J to and its authority. All through, work he declaims against I reason his logic and reason, and defends the cause, of imagination and vision withIKSFinevitable consequences, absolute liberty and uncontrolled fancy, inôlitics as welTas in art. To describe the birth of these ideas in his age, and follow them through the generations that have felt their influence, would be to write the history of imagination in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and recount its incessant conflicts with reason and reality. We can only attempt to sketch the chief phases of the struggle in broad outline. Ever since the seventeenth century, reason seems to have been the ruling power in Europe. The great enthusiasms of the sixteenth century had long ago died down : men could see no new worlds to conquer, either on the map of the globe or in the sphere of human knowledge. " Everything has been said, and we come too late." The eighteenth century was, consequently, an age, not of creation but of organisation. Now, what does an organising age need ? No dreams, no fancy, no ima^naSoii, but an exact sense of the real, a logical spirit, a strong and correct judgment—all attributes of reason. It is reason, therefore, which we find dominating the political as well as the literary and the social life of the age. In politics, we see how in France the ministers of Louis XIV were settling the adminis- tration of the old monarchy, and strengthening its institutions, as if it were to last for ever. In England, the nation was definitely ridding itself of absolute monarchy, and, by a series of violent though carefully calculated changes, establishing for good and all the constitution which is still in force. This final settlement of their institutions brought about, in both countries, the absolute rule of law, and the habit of complete submission, whether willing or unwilling, to the established order. INTRODUCTION i 5 And we find the same organisation and the same discipline in things spiritual. The religion of the State, that which was most in accordance with reason, implanted itself in France, where the Government repressed all deviations from it, Protestantism and mystical Quietism as well as the atheistical tendencies that were beginning to spread. In England, the same victorious warfare was being waged, though less violently, against all religion that did not conform to the rule of the established Church, which adopted the same masterful and contemptuous attitude towards the ruined remnant of Catholicism, towards the many Puritans, who could only find the realisation of their dreams in America, and towards the free- thinkers, who as yet did not dare to make themselves known. Philosophy, also, was entirely under the influence of reason. Descartes had made it the sole basis of his system, just as Bacon had founded his science upon reasoned experience and observation of reality, and as Locke was to build up all his knowledge of the world upon the reasoned evidence of the senses. It was actually through reason that Pascal succeeded in proving the impotence of reason itself and the rightful supremacy of faith. And what are we to say of literature properly so called ? What had now become of the creative fancy, the fruitful disorder of the Renaissance ? Where were the freedom and the playful spontaneity of the sixteenth century poets ? Where the complex and exuberant worlds of Rabelais and Shakespeare ? All these had vanished for ever, giving place to men bent upon organisation and order, who had cleared the virgin forests, cut away the growing brushwood, and given us instead the beautiful straight avenues of Versailles and the well-trimmed groves of Hampton Court.

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