Marriage of Heaven and Hell PDF
Marriage of Heaven and Hell PDF
Marriage of Heaven and Hell PDF
1906
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN
AND HELL
THE MARRIAGE OF
HEAVEN AND HELL
BY
WILLIAM BLAKE
BOSTON
JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY
igo6
MB
Gift
H. L, Mencken.
JAN n 8 192S
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN
AND HELL
THE ARGUMENT
RINTRAH roars and shakes his
fires in the burdenM air,
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
9
THE MARRIAGE OF
desire wascast out, but the Devil's
account is, that the Messiah fell, and
formed a heaven of what he stole from
the abyss.
This is shown 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 Christ's death he became
Jehovah.
But in Milton, the Father is Destiny,
the Son a ratio of the five senses, and
the Holy Ghost vacuum
10
HEAVEN AND HELL
A MEMORABLE FANCY
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 show
the nature of 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 he wrote
the following sentence now
perceived
by the minds of men, and read by
them on earth :
II
THE MARRIAGE OF
"How do you know but every bird
that cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of delight,
closed by your senses five?"
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HEAVEN AND HELL
PROVERBS OF HELL
In seed-time learn, in harvest teach,
in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plough
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 plough.
Dip him in the river who loves
water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a
wise man sees.
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THE MARRIAGE OF
Eternity is in love with the produc-
tions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sor-
row.
The hours of folly are measured by
the clock, but of wisdom no clock can
measure.
All wholesome food is caught with-
out a net or a trap.
Bring out number, weight, and
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 an-
other before you.
Ifthe fool would persist in his folly
he would become wise.
Folly is the cloak of knavery.
Shame is Pride's cloak.
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HEAVEN AND HELL
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 howling of
of lions, the
wolves, the raging of the stormy sea,
and the destructive sword, are por-
tions of Eternity too great for the eye
of man.
The fox condemns the trap, not
himself.
Joys impregnate, sorrows bring
forth.
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THE MARRIAGE OF
man wear
Let 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 and the
sullen frowning fool shall be both
thought wise that they may be a rod.
What is now proved was once only
imagined.
The the mouse, the fox, the
rat,
rabbit watch the roots; the Hon, the
tiger, 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.
21
THE MARRIAGE OF
A MEMORABLE FANCY
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, and so be
the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answered: "I saw no God,
nor heard any, in a finite organical
perception: but my senses discovered
the infinite in everything; and as I
was then persuaded, and remained
confirmed, that the voice of honest
indignation is the voice of God, I cared
not for consequences, but wrote.'*
Then Iasked: "Does a firm per-
suasion that a thing is so, make it
so?"
He replied: "All poets believe that
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HEAVEN AND HELL
it does, and in ages of imagination
this firm persuasion removed moun-
tains; but many are not capable of a
firm persuasion of anything."
Then Ezekiel said " The philosophy
:
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HEAVEN AND HELL
A MEMORABLE FANCY
I was in a printing-house in Hell,
and saw the method in which knowl-
edge istransmitted from generation
to generation.
In the chamber was a dragon-
first
man, clearing away the rubbish from
a cave's mouth; within, a number of
dragons were hollowing the cave.
In the second chamber was a viper
folding round the rock and 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.
Note. Jesus
Christ did not wish
to unite but to separate them, as in
the parable of sheep and goats; and
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THE MARRIAGE OF
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.
30
HEAVEN AND HELL
A MEMORABLE FANCY
An Angel came to me and said: "0
pitiable foolish young man! hor-
rible, dreadful state! Consider the
hot burning dungeon thou art prepar-
ing for thyself to all Eternity, to which
thou art going in such career."
I said " Perhaps you will be willing
:
39
THE MARRIAGE OF
A MEMORABLE FANCY
Once I saw a Devilin a flame of
fire, who arose before an Angel that
sat on a cloud, and the Devil uttered
these words: "The worship of God is,
honouring His gifts in other men each
according to his genius, and loving
the greatest 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, and at last white-pink
and smiling, and then replied: "Thou
idolater, is not God One? and is not
He visible in Jesus Christ? and has
not Jesus Christ given His sanction to
the law of ten commandments? and
are not all other men fools, sinners,
and nothings?"
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HEAVEN AND HELL
The Devil answered: "Bray a fool
in a mortar 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 com-
mandments. Did He not mock at the
Sabbath, and so mock the Sabbath's
God? murder those who were mur-
dered because of Him? turn away the
law from the woman taken in adultery,
steal the labour of others to support
Him? bear false witness when He
omitted making a defence before
Pilate? covet when He prayed 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 break-
ing these ten commandments. Jesus
was all virtue, and acted from im-
pulse, not from rules."
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THE MARRIAGE OF
When he had so spoken, I beheld
the Angel, who stretched out his arms
embracing the flame of fire, and 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 to-
gether 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 and ox is Op-
pression.
42
HEAVEN AND HELL
A SONG OF LIBERTY
1. The Eternal Female groan'd; it
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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 and wolf
shall cease."
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HEAVEN AND HELL
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
lechery call that virginity that wishes,
but acts not
For everything that lives is holy.
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