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William Blake's
Subject: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
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There are nine known copies of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the
third of Blake's illuminated books. It was probably begun in 1789 and
completed in 1790.
(click on the highlighted plate numbers to see the illuminated pages)
Title Page - Plate 1
THE ARGUMENT
(Plate 2 )
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
Once meek, and in a perilous path,
The just man kept his course along
The vale of death.
Roses are planted where thorns grow,
And on the barren heath
Sing the honey bees.
Then the perilous path was planted:
And a river and a spring
On every cliff and tomb:
And on the bleached bones
Red clay brought forth.
Till the villain left the paths of ease,
To walk in perilous paths, and drive
The just man into barren climes.
Now the sneaking serpent walks
In mild humility,
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
(Plate 3 )
As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its
advent: the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is the Angel
sitting at the tomb: his writings are the linen clothes folded up. Now
is the dominion of Edom, & the return of Adam into Paradise: see
Isaiah XXXIV & XXXV Chap:
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
THE VOICE OF THE DEVIL
(Plate 4 )
All Bibles or sacred codes, have been the causes of the following
Errors.
1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that
Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his
Energies.
But the following Contraries to these are True.
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a
portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of
Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the
bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight.
(Plate 5 and Plate 6 )
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enoutgh to be
restrained; and the restrainer of reason usurps its place & governs
the unwilling.
And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the
shadow of desire.
The history of this written in Paradise Lost, & the Governor of Reason
is call'd Messiah.
And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the heavenly
host, is call'd the Devil or Satan and his children are call'd Sin &
Death.
But in the Book of Job Miltons Messiah is call'd Satan.
For this history has been adopted by both parties.
It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out, but the Devils
account is that the Messiah (Plate 6 ) fell, & formed a heaven of what
he stole from the Abyss.
This is shewn in the Gospel, where he prays to the Father to send the
comforter or Desire that
Reason may have Ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the Bible being no
other than he who dwells in flaming fire.
Know that after Christs death, he became Jehovah.
But in Milton' the Father is Destiny, the Son, a Raio of the five
senses, & the Holy-ghost, Vacuum!
Note. The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels &
God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true
Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it.
A MEMORABLE FANCY
(Plate 6 and Plate 7)
As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the
enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity,
I collected some of their Proverbs; thinking that as the sayings used
in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell, shew the
nature in Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or
garments,
When I came home: on the abyss of the five senses, where a flat sided
steep frowns over the present world, I saw a mighty Devil folded in
black clouds, hovering on the sides of the rock, with corroding fires
(Plate 7) he wrote the following sentence now percieved by the minds
of men, & read by them on earth.
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?
PROVERBS OF HELL
(Plate 7 )
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no
clock can measure.
All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap.
Bring out number weight & measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body, revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Prides cloke.
PROVERBS OF HELL
(Plate 8 )
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of
Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the
storymy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity
too great for the eye of man.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joyes impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
The selfish smiling fool, & the sullen frowning fool, shall be
both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
What is now proved was once, only imagin'd.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit: watch the roots; the
lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits.
The cistern contains; the fountain overflows.
One thought, fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn
of the crow.
PROVERBS OF HELL
(Plate 9)
The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep
in the night.
He who has suffer'd you to impose on him knows you.
As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Expect poison from the standing water.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than
enough.
Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the
beard of earth.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the
lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
The thankful reciever bears a plentiful harvest.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
The soul of sweet delight, can never be defil'd.
When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius, lift up
thy head!
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on,
so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
Damn, braces: Bless relaxes.
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!
Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
PROVERBS OF HELL
(Plate 10)
The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands &
feet Proportion.
As the air to a bird of the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the
contemptible.
The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl, that every thing
was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without
Improvement, are roads of Genius.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be
believ'd.
Enough! or Too much!
(Plate 11)
The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods of Geniuses,
calling them by the names and adorning themwith the properties of
woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their
enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.
And particularly they studied the genius of ech city & country,
placing it under its mental deity.
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav'd the
vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from
their objects; thus began Priesthood.
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And a length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.
A MEMORABLE FANCY
(Plate 12 and Plate 13)
The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how
they dared so roundly to assert, that God spoke to them; and whether
they did not think at the time, that they would be misunderstood, & so
be the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answer'd, I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical
perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and
as I was then perswaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest
indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but
wrote.
Then I aksed: does a firm perswasion that a thing is so, make it so?
He replied, All poets that it does, & in ages of imagination this firm
perswasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm
perswasion of any thing.
Then Ezekiel said, The philosophy of the east taught the first
principles of human perception: some nations held one principle for
the origin & some another; we of Israie taught that the Poetic Genius
(as you now call it) was the first principle and all other others
merely derivative, which was the cause of our despising the priests &
Philosophers of other countries, and prophecying that all Gods (Plate
13) would at last be proved to originate in ours & to be the
tributaries of the Poetic Genius; it was this that our great poet King
David desired so fervently & invokes so patheticaly, saying by this he
counquers enemies & governs kingdoms; and we so loved our God, that we
cursed in his name all deities of surrounding nations, and asserted
that they had rebelled; from these opinions the vulgar came to think
that all nations would at last be subject to the jews.
This said he, like all firm perswasions, is come to pass, for all
nations believe the jews code and worship the jews god, and what
greater subjection can be?
I heard this with some wonder, & must confess my own conviction. After
dinner I ask'd Isaiah to favour the world with his lost works, he said
none of equal value was lost. Ezekiel said the same of his.
I also asked Isaiah what made him go naked and barefoot three years?
he answer'd, the same that made our friend Diogenes the Grecian.
I then asked Ezekiel, why he eat dung, & lay so long on his right &
left side? he answer'd, the desire of raising other men into a
perception of the infinite; this the North American tribes practise, &
is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of
present ease or gratification?
(Plate 14)
The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the
end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his
guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be
consumed, and appear infinite, and holy whereas it now appears finite
& corrupt.
This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to
be expunged: this I shall do, by printing in the infernal mehtod, by
corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent
surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.
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.
A MEMORABLE FANCY
(Plate 15)
I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which knowledlg
is transmitted from generation to generation.
In the first chamber was a Dragon-Man, clearing away the rubbish from
a caves moth; within, a number of Dragons were hollowing the cave.
In the second chamger was a Viper folding round the rock & the cave,
and others adorning it with gold, silver and precious stones.
In the third chamber was an Eagle with wings and feathers of air; he
caused the inside of the cave to be infinite; around were numbers of
Eagle like men, who built palaces in the immense cliffs.
In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire raging around &
melting the metals into living fluids.
In the fifth chamber were Unnam'd forms, which cast the metals into
the expanse.
There they were reciev'd by Men who occupied the sixth chamber, and
took the forms of books & were arranged in libraries.
(Plate 16 and Plate 17)
The Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence and now
seem to live in it in chains, are in truth, the causes of its life &
the souces of all activity; but the chains are, the cunning of weak
and tame minds, which have power to resist energy, according to the
proverb, the weak incourage is strong in cunning.
Thus one poriton of being, is the Prolific, the other, the Devouring:
to the devourer it seems as if the producer was in his chains, but it
is not so; he only takes portions of existence and fancies that the
whole.
But the Prolific would cease to be Prolific unless the Devourer as a
sea recieved the excess of his delights.
Some will say, Is not God alone the Prolific? I answer, God only Acts
& Is, in existing beings or Men.
These two classes of men are always upon earth, & they sould be
enemies; whoever tries
(Plate 17) to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence.
Religion is an endeavour to reconcile the two.
Note. Jesus Christ did not wish to unit bu to seperate them, as in the
Parable of sheep and goats! & he says I came not to send Peace but a
Sword.
Messiah or Satan or Tempter was formerly thought to be one of the
Antediluvians who are our Energies.
A MEMORABLE FANCY
(Plate 17, Plate 18 , Plate 19 , Plate 20)
An Angel came to me and said O pitiable foolish young man! O horrible!
O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing
for thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such career.
I said, perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot & we
will contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is
most desirable.
So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into the church
vault at the end of which was a mill: thro' the mill we went, and came
to a cave, down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way till a
void boundless as a nether sky appear'd beneath us, & we held by the
roots of trees and hung over this immensity, but I said, if you please
we will commit ourselves to this void, and see whether providence is
here also, if you will not, I will? but he answer'd, do not presume O
young-man but as we here remain behold thy lot which will soon appear
when the darkness passes away.
So I remain'd with him sitting in the twisted (Plate 18 ) root of an
oak; he was suspended in a fungus, which hung with the head downward
into the deep.
By degrees we beheld the infinite Abyss, fiery as the smoke of a
burning city; beneath us at an immense distance was the sun, black but
shining; round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd vast spiders,
crawling after their prey; which flew or rather swum in the infinite
deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption, &
the air was full of them, & seem'd composed of them; these are Devils,
and arc called Powers of the air. I now asked my companion which was
my eternal lot? he said, between the black & white spiders.
But now, from between the black & white spiders, a cloud and fire
burst and rolled thro' the deep, blackning all beneath, so that the
nether deep grew black as a sea & rolled with a terrible noise;
beneath us was nothing now to be seen but a black tempest, till
looking east between the clouds & the waves, we saw a cataract of
blood mixed with fire, and not many stones throw from us appear'd and
sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent; at last to the east,
distant about three degrees appear'd a fiery crest above the waves;
slowly it reared like a ridge of golden rocks till we discover'd two
globes of crimson fire, from which the sea fled away in clouds of
smoke, and now we saw, it was the head of Leviathan; his forehead was
divided into streaks of green & purple like those on a tygers
forehead: soon we saw his mouth & red gills hang just above the raging
foam tinging the black deep with beams of blood, advancing toward
(Plate 19) us with all the fury of a spiritual existence.
My friend the Angel climb'd up from his station into the mill; I
remain'd alone, & then this appearance was no more, but I found myself
sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moonlight hearing a
harper who sung to the harp, & his theme was, The man who never alters
his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind.
But I arose, and sought for the mill & there I found my Angel, who
surprised asked me how I escaped?
I answer'd, All that we saw was owing to your metaphysics; for when
you ran away, I found myself on a bank by moonlight hearing a harper.
But now we have seen my eternal lot, shall I shew you yours? he
laugh'd at my proposal; but I by force suddenly caught him in my arms,
& flew westerly thro' the night, till we were elevated above the
earths shadow; then I flung myself with him directly into the body of
the sun; here I clothed myself in white, & taking in my hand
Swedenborgs volumes, sunk from the glorious clime, and passed all the
planets till we came to saturn; here I staid to rest, & then leap'd
into the void, between saturn & the fixed stars.
Here, said I! is your lot, in this space, if space it may be call'd.
Soon we saw the stable and the church, & I took him to the altar and
open'd the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, into which I descended
driving the Angel before me; soon we saw seven houses of brick; one we
enter'd; in it were a (Plate 20) number of monkeys, baboons, & all of
that species, chain'd by the middle, grinning and snatching at one
another, but witheld by the shortness of their chains; however I saw
that they sometimes grew numerous, and then the weak were caught by
the strong, and with a grinning aspect, first coupled with & then
devour'd, by plucking off first one limb and then another till the
body was left a helpless trunk; this after grinning & kissing it with
seeming fondness they devour'd too; and here & there I saw one
savourily picking the flesh off of his own tail; as the stench
terribly annoy'd us both we went into the mill, & I in my hand brought
the skeleton of a body, which in the mill was Aristotles Analytics.
So the Angel said: thy phantasy has imposed upon me & thou oughtest to
be ashamed.
I answer'd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time to
converse with you whose works are only Analytics.
Opposition is true Friendship.
(Plate 21, Plate 22)
I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves
as the only wise; this they do with a confident insolence sprouting
from systematic reasoning:
Thus Swedenborg boasts that what he writes is new; tho' it is only the
Contents or Index of already publish'd books.
A man carried a monkey about for a shew, & because he was a little
wiser than the monkey, grew vain, and conciev'd himself as much wiser
than seven men. It is so with Swedenborg; he shews the folly of
churches & exposes hypocrites, till he imagines that all are
religious, & himself the single (Plate 22) one on earth that ever
broke a net.
Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth: Now
hear another: he has written all the old falshoods.
And now hear the reason. He conversed with Angels who are all
religious, & conversed not with Devils who all hate religion, for he
was incapable thro' his conceited notions.
Thus Swedenborgs writings are a recapitulation of all superficial,
opinions, and an analysis of the more sublime, but no further.
Have now another plain fact: Any man of mechanical talents may from
the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen, produce ten thousand
volumes of equal value with Swedenborgs, and from those of Dante or
Shakespear, an infinite number.
But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than
his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine.
A MEMORABLE FANCY
(Plate 22, Plate 23, Plate 24)
Once I saw a Devil in a flame of fire, who arose before an Angel that
sat on a cloud, and the Devil utter'd these words.
The worship of God is, Honouring his gifts in other men each according
to his genius, and loving the greatest (Plate 23) men best; those who
envy or calumniate great men hate God, for there is no other God.
The Angel hearing this became almost blue, but mastering himself he
grew yellow, & at last white pink & smiling, and then replied,
Thou Idolater, is not God One? & is not he visible in Jesus Christ?
and has not Jesus Christ given his sanction to the law often
commandments, and are not all other men fools, sinners, & nothings?
The Devil answer'd: bray a fool in a morter with wheat, yet shall not
his folly be beaten out of him; if Jesus Christ is the greatest man,
you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has
given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: d;d he not mock at
the sabbath, and so mock the sabbaths God? murder those who were
murder'd because of him? turn away the law from the woman taken in
adultery? steal the labor of others to support him? bear false witness
when he omitted making a defence before Pilate? covet when he pray'd
for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their
feet against such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can
exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue,
and acted from impulse, (Plate 24) not from rules.
When he had so spoken: I beheld the Angel who stretched out his arms
embracing the flame of fire, & he was consumed and arose as Elijah.
Note. This Angel, who is now become a Devil, is my particular friend;
we often read the Bible together in its infernal or diabolical sense
which the world shall have if they behave well.
I have also: The Bible of Hell: which the world shall have whether
they will or no.
One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression.
A SONG OF LIBERTY
(Plate 25, Plate 26, Plate 27)
1. The Eternal Female groan'd! it was heard over all the Earth:
2. Albions coast is sick silent; the American meadows faint!
3. Shadows of Prophecy shiver along by the lakes and the rivers
and mutter across the ocean. France rend down thy dungeon;
4. Golden Spain burst the barriers of old Rome;
5. Cast thy keys O Rome into the deep down falling, even to
eternity down falling,
6. And weep.
7. In her trembling hands she took the new born terror howling;
8. On those infinite mountains of light, now barr'd out by the
atlantic sea, the new born fire stood before the starry king!
9. Flag'd with grey brow'd snows and thunderous visages the
jealous wings wav'd over the deep.
10. The speary hand burned aloft, unbuckled was the shield, forth
went the hand of jealousy among the flaming hair, and (Plate 26)
hurl'd the new born wonder thro' the starry night.
11. The fire, the fire, is falling!
12. Look up! look up! O citizen of London, enlarge thy
countenance; O Jew, leave counting gold! return to thy oil and
wine; O African! black African! (go, winged thought, widen his
forehead.)
13. The fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking sun
into the western sea.
14 Wak'd from his eternal sleep, the hoary element roaring fled
away;
I5. Down rush'd beating his wings in vain the jealous king; his
grey brow'd councellors, thunderous warriors, curl'd veterans,
among helms, and shields, and chariots, horses, elephants:
banners, castles, slings, and rocks,
I6. Falling, rushing, ruining! buried in the ruins, on Urthona's
dens;
17. All night beneath the ruins, then their sullen flames faded
emerge round the gloomy King.
18. With thunder and fire: leading his starry hosts thro' the
waste wilderness, (Plate 27) he promulgates his ten commands,
glancing: his beamy eyelids over the deep in dark dismay,
19. Where the son of fire in his eastern cloud, while the morning
plumes her Golden breast,
20. Spurning the clouds written with curses, stamps the stony law
to dust, loosing: the eternal horses from the dens of night,
crying,
Empire is no more! and now the lion & wolf shall cease
Chorus
Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black,
with hoarse note curse the sons of joy. Nor his accepted brethren,
whom tyrant, he calls free: lay the bound or build the roof. Nor
pale religious Ietchery call that virginity, that wishes but acts
not!
For every thing that lives is Holy.
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