Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Verse and Prose by William Blake
Author: William Blake
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1850?
Type of Manuscript: Manuscript notebook

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

page: [flyleaf verso]
Manuscript Addition: I purchased this original M. S. of Palmer, an attendant in the Antique Gallery at the British Museum, on the 30th April 1847. Palmer knew Blake personally. and it was from the artist's wife that he had the present M.S. which he sold me for 10 s.. Among the sketches there are one or two profiles of Blake himself. Illustrated div[? indecipherable text] ation is by Robt. Blake but with neither his brother's ease and vigour nor his heavenly? spirit.
Editorial Description: DGR's faded pencil note on the verso of the bound volume's front fly leaf.
Transcription Gap: leaves 1-58 (original Blake material)
Image of page 62 page: 62
Note: The number 1 is crossed out and replaced by 62 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
Verse and Prose by William Blake.

(natus 1757: obiit 182 8 7.)

All that is of any value in the foregoing pages

has here been copied out. D.G.C.R.

The Everlasting Gospel.
  • The vision of Christ that thou dost see
  • Is my vision's greatest enemy.
  • This is the fare of all mankind,—
  • Mine speaks in parables to the blind;
  • Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
  • Thy Heaven-doors are my Hell-gates.
  • Socrates taught what Meletus
  • Loathed as a nation's bitterest curse,
  • And Caiaphus was in his own mind
  • 10A benefactor to mankind.
  • Image of page [62v] page: [62v]
    Note: The number 2 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • Both read the Bible day and night,
  • But thou read'st black where I read white.

  • Was Jesus chaste, or did he *
  • Give any lessons of chastity?—
  • Jesis sat in Moses' chair;
  • They brought the adulterous woman there;
  • Moses commands she be stoned to death.
  • What was the sound of Jesus' breath?
  • He laid his hand on Moses' law:
  • 20The ancient heavens in silent awe,
  • Writ with curses from Pole to Pole,
  • All away began to roll.
  • The earth trembling and naked lay,
  • In secret bed of mortal clay,
  • And she heard the breath of God
  • As she heard it by Eden's flood.
  • “Good and evil are no more:
  • Sinai's trumpets! cease to roar;
  • Transcribed Footnote (page [62v]):

    * This was spoken by my spectre to Voltaire, Bacon, &c.

    Image of page 63 page: 63
    Note: The number 3 is crossed out and replaced by 63 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • Cease, finger of God, to write—
  • 30“The Heavens are not clean in thy sight.”
  • To be good only, is to be
  • A God, or else a Pharisee.
  • Thou angel of the Presence Divine
  • That did'st create this body of mine,
  • Wherefore hast thou writ these laws
  • And created Hell's dark jaws?
  • My presence I will take from thee;
  • A cold leper thou shalt be.
  • Though thou was so pure and bright
  • 40That Heaven was impure in thy sight,—
  • Though thine oath turned Heaven pale,—
  • Though thy covenant built Hell-jail,—
  • Though thou didst all to Chaos roll
  • With the serpent for its soul,—
  • Still the breath divine doth move,
  • And the breath divine is Love.
  • Woman, fear not; let me see
  • Image of page [63v] page: [63v]
    Note: The number 4 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • The seven devils that trouble thee;
  • Hide not from my sight thy sin,
  • 50That full forgiveness thou may'st win.
  • Hath no man condemnèd thee?”
  • “No man, Lord.”
  • “Then what is he
  • Who shall accuse thee? Come ye forth,
  • Ye fallen fiends of heavenly birth!
  • Ye shall bow before her feet,—
  • Ye shall lick the dust for meat,—
  • And though ye cannot love, but hate,
  • Ye shall be beggars at Love's gate.
  • 60What was thy love? Let me see't.
  • Was it love, or dark deceit?”
  • “Love too long from me hath fled:
  • 'Twas dark deceit, to earn my bread;
  • Image of page 64 page: 64
    Note: The number 5 is crossed out and replaced by 64 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • 'Twas covet, or 'twas custom, or
  • Some trifle not worth caring for.
  • but these would call a shame and sin
  • Love's temple that God dwelleth in.”

Manuscript Addition: Some [?] omitted

  • My spectre around me, night and day,
  • Like a wild beast guards my way;
  • My Emanation far within
  • Weeps incessantly for my sin.
  • A fathomless and boundless deep—
  • There we wander, there we weep;
  • On the hungry craving wind
  • My spectre follows thee behind.
Image of page [64v] page: [64v]
Note: The number 6 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • He scents thy footsteps in the snow
  • 10Wheresoever thou dost go.
  • Through the wintry hail and rain
  • When wilt thou return again?
  • Dost thou not, in pride and scorn,
  • Fill with tempests all my morn,
  • And with jealousies and fears?—
  • And fill my pleasant nights with tears?
  • Till I turn from female love
  • And root up the Infernal Grove,
  • I shall never worthy be
  • 20To step into Eternity.
  • Seven of my sweet loves thy knife
  • Has bereaved of their life:
  • Their marble tombs I built with tears
  • And with cold and shadowy fears.
Image of page 65 page: 65
Note: The number 7 is crossed out and replaced by 65 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • Seven more loves weep night and day
  • Round the tombs where my loves lay,
  • And seven more loves attend at night
  • About my couch with torches bright,
  • And seven more loves in my bed
  • 30Crown with vine my mournful head;
  • Pitying and forgiving all
  • Thy transgressions, great and small.
  • When wilt thou return, and view
  • My loves, and then in life renew?
  • When wilt thou return and live?
  • When wilt thou pity as I forgive?
  • Let us agree to give up love
  • And root up the Infernal Grove;
  • Then shall we return, and see
  • 40The worlds of happy Eternity.
Image of page [65v] page: [65v]
Note: The number 8 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • Throughout all Eternity,
  • I forgive you—you forgive me.
  • As our dear Redeemer said:
  • This the wine, and this the bread.

Manuscript Addition: not in Scott
  • To find the western path,
  • Right through the gates of wrath
  • I urge my way;
  • Sweet Morning leads me on;
  • With soft repentant moan
  • I see the break of day.
  • The war of swords and spears,
  • Melted by dewy tears,
  • Exhales on high;
  • 10The sun is freed from fears,
  • And with soft grateful tears
  • Ascends the sky.

Image of page 66 page: 66
Note: The number 9 is crossed out and replaced by 66 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • Beneath the white thorn stood in May
  • Three virgins at the break of day;
  • They bore a net of golden twine
  • To hang upon the branches fine:
  • The first was clothed in iron wire,
  • The second was clothed in tears and sighs,
  • Dazzling bright before my eyes.
  • Pitying I wept to see the woe
  • That Love and Beauty undergo,—
  • 10to be clothed in burning fires
  • And in ungratified desires,
  • And in tears clothed night and day:
  • It melted all my soul away.
  • When they saw me weep, a smile
  • Which did heaven itself beguile
  • Bore the golden net aloft,
  • As by downy pinions soft,
  • O'er the morning of my day.
  • Image of page [66v] page: [66v]
    Note: The number 10 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • Underneath the net I stray,—
  • 20Now entreating Flaming-fire,
  • Now entreating Iron-wire,
  • Now entreating Tears-and-sighs.
  • O when will the morning rise?

  • “I see, I see!” the mother said,
  • “My children will die for lack of bread!
  • What more hath the merciless tyrant said?”
  • The monk sat him down on her stony bed.
  • His eye was dry,—no tear could flow,—
  • A hollow groan first spoke his woe;
  • He trembled and shuddered upon the bed;
  • At length, with a feeble cry, he said:
  • “When God commanded this hand to write
  • 10In the shadowy hours of deep midnight,
  • Image of page 67 page: 67
    Note: The number 11 is crossed out and replaced by 67 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • He told me that all I wrote should prove
  • The bane of all that on earth I love.
  • “My brother starved between two walls;
  • Thy children's crying my soul appals;
  • I mocked at the rack and griding chain,—
  • My bent body mocks at their torturing pain.
  • “Thy father drew his sword in the north,—
  • By his strong courage he is marched forth;
  • Thy brother has armèd himself in steel,
  • 20To revenge the wrongs that thy Children feel.
  • “But vain the sword and vain the bow,—
  • They never can work War's overthrow;
  • The hermit's prayer and the Widows tear
  • Alone can free the World from fear.”

Image of page [67v] page: [67v]
Note: The number 12 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
The Birds.
  • (He.) Where thou dwellest, in what grove,
  • Tell me, fair one, tell me, love;
  • Where thou thy charming nest dost built.
  • O thou pride of every field.
  • (She.) Yonder stands a lovely tree,—
  • There I live and mourn for thee;
  • Morning drinks my silent tear
  • And evening winds my sorrow hear.
  • (He.) O thou Summer's harmony,
  • 10I have lived and mourned for thee;
  • Each day I mourn along the wood,
  • And night hath heard my sorrow loud.
  • (She.) Dost thou truly long for me?
  • And am I thus sweet to thee?
  • Sorrow now is at an end,
  • Image of page 68 page: 68
    Note: The number 13 is crossed out and replaced by 68 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • O my lover and my friend.
  • (He.) Come, on wings of joy will fly
  • To where my bower is hung on high;
  • Come, and make thy calm retreat
  • 20Among green leaves and blossoms sweet.

  • Why was Cupid a boy,
  • And why a boy was he?
  • He should have been a girl
  • For aught that I can see.
  • For he shoots with his bow,
  • And the girl shoots with her eye,
  • And they both are merry and glad
  • And laugh when we do cry.
  • Then to make Cupid a boy
  • Image of page [68v] page: [68v]
    Note: The number 14 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • 10Was surely a woman's plan,
  • For a boy never learns so much
  • Till he is become a man.
  • And then he's so pierced with cares
  • And wounded with arrowy smarts,
  • That the whole business of his life
  • Is to pick out the heads of the darts.
  • 'Twas the Greek love of war
  • That turned love into a boy
  • And woman into a statue of stone;
  • 20And away fled every joy.

  • If e'er I grow to man's estate,
  • O give to me a woman's fate;
  • May I govern all both great and small,
  • Have the last word, and take the wall.

Image of page 69 page: 69
Note: The number 15 is crossed out and replaced by 69 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
A cradle-song.
  • Sleep, sleep, beauty-bright,
  • Dreaming, in the joys of night;
  • Sleep, sleep, in thy sleep
  • Little sorrows sit and weep.
  • Sweet babe, in thy face
  • Soft desires I can trace,
  • Secret joys and secret smiles;
  • Little pretty infant wiles.
  • As thy softest limbs I feel,
  • 10Smiles as of the morning steal
  • O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
  • Where thy little heart doth rest.
  • O the cunning wiles that creep
  • In thy little heart asleep!
  • When thy little heart does wake,
  • Then the dreadful light shall break.

Image of page [69v] page: [69v]
Note: The number 16 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
Manuscript Addition: as in S S[?].
  • When the voices of children are heard on the green
  • And whisperings are in the dale,
  • The days of youth rise fresh in my mind
  • And my face turns grave and pale.
  • Then come home, my children, the sun is
  • gone down
  • And the dews of night arise:
  • Your spring and your day are wasted in play,
  • And your winter and night in disguise.

  • The look of love alarms
  • Because 'tis filled with fire,
  • But the look of soft deceit
  • Shall win the lover's hire.
  • Soft deceit and idleness,
  • These are beauty's sweetest dress.

Image of page 70 page: 70
Note: The number 17 is crossed out and replaced by 70 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • I heard an Angel singing
  • When the day was springing:
  • “Mercy, Pity, and Peace,
  • Are the world's release.”
  • So he sang all day
  • Over the new-mown hay,
  • Till the sun went down
  • And haycocks looked brown.
  • I heard a devil curse
  • 10Over the heath and the furze:
  • “Mercy could be no more
  • If there were nobody poor,—
  • And Pity no more could be
  • If all were happy as ye,—
  • And mutual fear brings Peace.
  • Misery's increase
  • Are Mercy, Pity, Peace.”
  • At his curse the sun went down,
  • And the heavens gave a frown.

  • I give you the end of a golden string;
  • Only wind it into a ball,
  • It will lead you in at Heaven's gate
  • Built in Jerusalem's wall.

Image of page [70v] page: [70v]
Note: The number 18 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
Manuscript Addition: not printed
Editorial Description: Comment is positioned alongside the first two stanzas of this page.
  • I laid me down upon a bank
  • Where Love lay sleeping;
  • I heard among the rushes dank
  • Weeping, weeping.
  • Then I went to the heath and the wild,
  • To the thistles and thorns of the waste;
  • And they told me how they were beguil'd,
  • Driven out, and compelled to be chaste.
  • I went to the garden of love,
  • 10And I saw what I never had seen;
  • A chapel was built in the midst,
  • Where I used to play on the green.
  • And the gates of this chapel were shut,
  • And “ Thou shalt not,” writ over the door;
  • So I turned to the garden of love
  • Which so many sweet flowers bore.
Image of page 71 page: 71
Note: The number 19 is crossed out and replaced by 71 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • And I saw it was filled with graves,
  • And tombstones where flowers should be;
  • And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
  • 20And choking binding [?] with briars my joys and desires.

Manuscript Addition: S. S[?]
  • A flower was offer'd to me,
  • Such a flower as May never bore;
  • But I said “I've a pretty rose-tree,”
  • And I passed the sweet flower o'er.
  • Then I went to my pretty rose-tree,
  • To tend her it [?] by day and by [?]night;
  • But my rose turned away with jealousy,
  • And her thorns were my only delight.

Manuscript Addition: x
Editorial Description: The mark suggests a footnote, which does not appear.
  • The angel who presided o'er my birth
  • Said: “Little creature, formed of joy and mirth,
  • Go, love without the help of anything on earth”

Image of page [71v] page: [71v]
Note: The number 20 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • I saw a chapel all of gold
  • That none did dare to enter in;
  • And many weeping stood without,
  • Weeping, mourning, worshipping.
  • I saw a serpent rise between
  • The white pillars of the door,
  • And he forced and forced and forced
  • Till Down he the golden hinges tore;
  • And along the pavement sweet
  • 10Set with pearls and rubies bright,
  • All his slimy length he drew,
  • Till upon the altar white
  • He vomited his poison out
  • On the bread and on the wine.
  • So I turned into a sty,
  • And laid me down among the swine.

Image of page 72 page: 72
Note: The number 21 is crossed out and replaced by 72 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • Never seek to tell thy love,
  • Love that never told can be;
  • For the gentle wind doth does move
  • Silently, invisibly.
  • I told my love, I told my love,—
  • I told her all my heart,
  • Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
  • Ah! she did doth depart.
  • Soon after she was gone from me,
  • 10A traveller came by,
  • Silently, invisibly:
  • He took her with a sigh.

  • Great things are done when men and mountains meet;
  • These are not done by jostling in the street.

Image of page [72v] page: [72v]
Note: The number 22 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
Manuscript Addition: not in Scott
Editorial Description: A penciled “x“ marks the poem noted as omitted from Scott.
The wild-flower's song.
  • As I wandered (ni ) the forest
  • The green leaves among,
  • I heard a wild-flower
  • Singing a song:
  • “I slept in the earth,
  • In the silent night;
  • I murmured my thoughts fears,
  • And I felt delight.
  • “In the morning I went,
  • 10As rosy as morn,
  • To seek for new joy;
  • But I met with scorn.”
  • The errors of a wise man make your rule,
  • Rather than the perfections of a fool.

Image of page 73 page: 73
Note: The number 23 is crossed out and replaced by 73 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
Manuscript Addition: as in S S[?].
The sick rose.
  • O rose, thou art sick;
  • The invisible worm,
  • That flies in the night
  • In the howling storm,
  • Hath found out thy bed
  • Of crimson joy,
  • And his dark secret love
  • Doth thy life destroy.

  • Nought loves another as itself,
  • Nor venerates another so;
  • Nor is it possible to thought
  • A greater than itself to know.
  • Then, father, how can I love you
  • Or any of my brothers more?
  • I love you like the little bird
  • That picks up crumbs before the door.

Image of page [73v] page: [73v]
Note: The number 24 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
The Tiger.
Transcribed Note (page [73v]):

(This poem I copy from Cunningham's Memoir of

Blake, where it is given in its complete state from

the volume printed during the life-time of the

poet. In one instance however, (2 nd line, 5 th stanza)

I have adopted, as preferable, the reading to be

found in the M.S. D.G.C.R.)

  • Tiger, tiger, burning bright
  • In the forest of the night,
  • What immortal hand or eye
  • Framed thy fearful symmetry?
  • In what distant deeps or skies
  • Burned the fervour of thine eyes?
  • On what wings dare he aspire—
  • What the hand dare seize the fire?
  • And what shoulder and what art
  • Image of page 74 page: 74
    Note: The number 25 is crossed out and replaced by 74 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • 10Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
  • When thy heart began to beat,
  • What dread hand formed thy dread feet?
  • What the hammer, what the chain,
  • Formed thy strength and forged thy brain?
  • What the anvil? What dread grasp
  • Dare thy deadly terrors clasp?
  • When the stars threw down their spheres
  • And watered heaven with their tears,
  • Did he smile, his work to see?
  • 20Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Manuscript Addition: not in Scott X
Editorial Description: The note is crossed out
  • I walked abroad on a snowy day,
  • I asked the soft snow with me to play;
  • She played and she melted in all her prime.
  • Ah! that sweet love should be thought a crime!

Image of page [74v] page: [74v]
Note: The number 26 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • “Love seeketh not itself to please,
  • Nor for itself hath any care,—
  • But for another's gives its ease,
  • And builds a heaven in hell's despair.”
  • So sung a little clod of clay,
  • Trodden with the cattle's feet;
  • But a pebble of the wood
  • Warbled out these metres meet:—
  • “Love seeketh only self to please,
  • 10To bind another to its delight,—
  • Joys in another's loss of ease,
  • And builds a hell in heaven's despite.”

  • I was angry with my friend;
  • I told my wrath,—my wrath did end.
  • I was angry with my foe;
  • I told it not,—my wrath did grow.

Image of page 75 page: 75
Note: The number 27 is crossed out and replaced by 75 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau,
  • Mock on, mock on,—'tis all in vain!
  • You throw the sand against the wind
  • And the wind blows it back again.
  • And every sand becomes a gem
  • Reflected in the beams divine;
  • Blown back, they blind the mocking eye,
  • But still in Israel's paths they shine.

  • Why should I care for the men of Thames,
  • Or the cheating waters of chartered streams?—
  • Or shrink at the little blasts of fear
  • That the hireling blows into mine ear?
  • Though born on the cheating banks of Thames,—
  • Though his waters bathed my infant limbs,—
  • The Ohio shall wash his stains from me.
  • I was born a slave, but I go to be free.

Image of page [75v] page: [75v]
Note: The number 28 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • I rose up at the dawn of day.
  • “Get thee away, get thee away.
  • Pray'st thou for riches? away, away!
  • This is the Throne of Mammon grey.”
  • Said I: “This sure is very odd;
  • I took it to be the throne of God;
  • Everything besides I have,—
  • It is only for riches that I can crave.
  • “I have mental joys and mental health,
  • 10Mental friends and mental wealth;
  • I've a wife that I love and that loves me;
  • I've all but riches bodily.
  • Then if for riches I must not pray,
  • God knows it's little prayers I need say.”
  • I am in God's presence night and day;
  • He never turns his face away:
  • Image of page 76 page: 76
    Note: The number 29 is crossed out and replaced by 76 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
  • The accuser of sins by my side doth stand
  • And he holds my money-bag in his hand;
  • For my worldly things God makes him pay,
  • 20And he'd pay for more if to him I would pray:
  • He says, if I worship not him for a God
  • I shall eat coarser food and go worse shod;
  • But as I don't value such things as these,
  • You must do, M r. Devil, just as God please.

Added TextThe Little Vagabond.
  • Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold,
  • But the alehouse is healthy and pleasant and warm;
  • Besides, I can tell when I am used well;
  • The poor parsons with wind like a blown bladder swell.
  • But if at the church they would give us some ale
  • And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
  • We'd stay and we'd pray all the livelong day,
  • Nor ever once wish from the church to stray.
Image of page [76v] page: [76v]
Note: The number 30 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • Then God, like a father rejoicing to see
  • 10His children as pleasant and happy as he,
  • Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
  • But shake hands and kiss him, and there'd be no more hell.

  • I asked a thief to steal me a peach;—
  • He turned up his eyes.
  • I asked a lithe lady to lie down;—
  • Holy and meek, she cries.
  • As soon as I went,
  • An angel came;
  • He winked at the thief,
  • And smiled at the dame;
  • And without one word spoke,
  • 10Had a peach from the tree,—
  • And 'twixt earnest and joke,
  • Enjoyed the lady.

Epigram.
  • To Chloe's heart young Cupid slyly stole,
  • But he crept in at Myra's pocket-hole.

Image of page 77 page: 77
Note: The number 31 is crossed out and replaced by 77 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
Transcribed Note (page 77):

(It seems probable that the following lines were

intended as an introduction to the series of designs

which Blake commenced in illustration of Dante.

The space I have left blank is occupied in the

M.S. by something completely indecipherable,

which appears from the context to be a proper

name. D.G.C.R.)

  • The caverns of the Grave I've seen,
  • And these I showed to England's queen;
  • But now the caves of Hell I view,—
  • Whom shall I dare to show them to?
  • What mighty soul in beauty's form
  • Shall dauntless view the infernal storm?
  • Egremont's Countess can control
  • The flames of hell that round me roll.
  • If she refuse, I still go on
  • 10Till the heavens and earth are gone;—
  • Still admired by noble minds,
  • Image of page [77v] page: [77v]
    Note: The number 32 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
  • Followed by envy on the winds.
  • Re-engraved time after time,
  • Ever in their youthful prime,
  • My designs unchanged remain;
  • Time may rage, but rage in vain;
  • For above time's troubled fountains
  • On the great Atlantic mountains,
  • In my Golden House on high,
  • 20There they shine eternally.

  • The countless gold of a merry heart,
  • The rubies and pearls of a loving eye,
  • The idle man never can bring to the mart
  • Nor the cunning hoard up in his treasury.

Transcribed Note (page [77v]):

(The following was probably written on some anti-visionary.)

D.G.C.R.

  • He's a blockhead who wants a proof of what he can't perceive,
  • And he's a fool who tries to make such a blockhead believe.

Image of page 78 page: 78
Note: The numbers 33 and 43 are crossed out and replaced by 78 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
20
Deleted Text
  • My title as a genius thus is proved:—
  • Not praised by Hayley, nor by Flaxman loved.

21
Deleted Text
  • Cromek loves artists as he loves his meat;
  • He loves the art,—but 'tis the art to cheat.

22
Deleted Text
  • A pretty sneaking knave I knew . . . . . .
  • Oh M r. Cromek! how do you do?

23
Deleted Text
  • The Sussex men are noted fools,
  • And weak in their brain-pan.
  • I wonder if H— the painter
  • Is not a Sussex man.

Manuscript Addition: not in Scott X
24
Deleted Text
  • Friends were quite hard to find, old authors say,
  • But now they stand in everybody's way.

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Transcribed Note (page 79):

(N.B. I have compiled the following from various scat-

tered passages, wich may, or may not, form a whole.)

Blake's Chaucer:

An original Engraving by William Blake from his

Fresco Painting of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrimmage.

Mr. B. having from early youth cultivated the two arts,

painting and engraving, and during a period of forty

years never suspended his labors on copper for a single

day, submits with confidence to public patronage, and

requests the attention of amateurs in a large stroke

engraving (3 f. 11i long by 1 f. high) containing 30 original,

high-finished, whole-length portraits on horseback of

Chaucer's characters, where every character & every expression,

every lineament of head, hand, and foot, every particular

of dress or costume, where every horse is appropriate to

his rider; and the scene or landscape, with its villages,

cottages, churches, and the Inn in Southwark; is minutely

labored, not by the hands of journeymen, but by the

original artist himself, even to the stuffs and embroidery

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of the garments, the hair upon the horses, the leaves upon

the trees, and the stones and gravel upon the road. The

great strength of coloring and depth of work peculiar to

Mr. B.'s prints will be here found accompanied by a

precision not to be seen but in the work of an original

artist.
Sir Jeffery Chaucer and the nine and twenty Pilgrims

on their journey to Canterbury.
The time chosen is early morning before sun-rise,

when the jolly company are just quitting the Tabarde

Inn. The knight and Squire with the Squire's Yeoman

lead the procession; then the youthful Abbess, her Nun

and three Priests; her greyhounds attend her:

  • “Of small hounds had she that she fed
  • With roast flesh, milk and wastel-bread.”
Next follow the Friar and Monk; then the Tapster, the

Pardoner, the Sumpnor, and the Manciple. After these

“our Hoste” who occupies the centre of the cavalcade,—

(the fun afterwards exhibited on the road may be

seen depicted in his jolly face)—directs them to the

knight (whose solemn gallantry no less fixes attention)

as the person who will be likely to commence their

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A Vision of the Last Judgement.

The last Judgement is not fable or allegory, but vision.

Fable or allegory are is a totally distinct and inferior kind

of poetry. Vision or imagination is a representation of

what eternally exists really and unchangeably. Fable or

allegory is formed by the daughters of Memory: imagination

is surrounded by the daughters of inspiration, who in

the aggregate are called Jerusalem. Fable is allegory, but

what critics call the fable is vision itself. The Hebrew

Bible and the Gospel of Jesus are not allegory, but eternal

vision or imagination of all that exists. Note here

that fable or allegory is seldom without some vision.

“Pilgrim's Progress” is full of it; the Greek poets the same.

But allegory and vision ought to be known as two dis-

tinct things and so called for the sake of eternal life.

The [ancients exercise fable] when they assert that Jupiter

usurped the throne of his Father Saturn, and brought on

an iron age, and begat on Mnemosyne or Memory the

great Muses, which are not inspiration as the Bible is.

Reality was forgot and the vanities of time and space

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only remembered and called reality. The Greeks represent

Chronos or Time as a very aged man: this is fable, but the

real vision of Time is in eternal youth. I have however

somewhat accommodated my figure of Time to the common

opinion, as I myself am also infected with it and my vision

is also infected, and I see Time aged, alas! too much so. Alle-

gories are things that relate to moral virtues; moral vir-

tues do not exist; they are allegories and dissimulations:

but Time and Space are real beings, a male and a female.

Time is a man, Space is a woman, and her masculine

portion is Death._ Such is the mighty difference between

allegoric fable and spiritual mystery. Let it here be noted

that the Greek fables originated in spiritual mystery and

real visions which are lost and clouded in fable and

alegory, while the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Gospel are

genuine, preserved by the Saviour's mercy. The nature of

my work is visionary or imaginative; it is an endeavor

to restore what the ancients called the golden age.
Plato has made Socrates say that poets and prophets

do not know or understand what they write or utter.

This is a most pernicious falsehood. If they do not pray,

is an inferior kind to be called knowing? Plato confutes

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himself.
The Last Judgement is one of these stupendous visions.

I have represented it as I saw it: to different people it appears

differently, as everything else does; for, tho' on earth things

seem permanent, they are less permanent than a shadow,

as we all know too well. In eternity one thing never

changes into another thing; each identity is eternal; con-

sequently Apuleius's Golden Ass and Ovid's Metamorphoses

and others of the like kind are fable; yet they contain vision,

in a sublime degree, being derived from real vision in

more ancient writings. Lot'ss wife being changed into a

pillar of salt alludes to the mortal body being rendered

a permanent statue, but not changed or transformed

into another identity while it retains its own indivi-

duality. A man can never become ass nor horse; some

are born with shapes of men who may be both, but

eternal identity is one thing and corporeal vegetation

is another thing. Changing water into wine by Jesus,

and into blood by Moses, relates to vegetable nature also.
The nature of visionary fancy or imagination is

very little known, and the eternal nature and perma-

nence of its ever-existent images is considerd as less

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permanent than the things of vegetative and generative

nature. Yet the oak dies as well as the lettuce; but its

eternal image and individuality never dies, but re-

news by its seed. Just so the imaginative image returns

by the seed of contemplative thought. The writings of

the prophets illustrate these conceptions of the visionary

fancy by their various sublime and divine images

as seen in the worlds of vision.
This world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is

the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the

death of the vegetated body. This world of imagination

is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation

or vegetation is finite and temporal. There exist in

that eternal world the permanent realities of every

thing which we see are reflected in this vegetable glass

of nature.
All things are comprehended in their eternal forms

in the divine body of the Saviour, the true vine of eternity,

the human imagination, who appeared to me as coming

to judgement among his saints and throwing off the

temporal that the eternal might be established: around

him were seen the images of existences according to

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Transcribed Note (page 82):

* The just arise on his right & the wicked on his left hand. *

a certain order suited to my imaginative eye, as follows.
Jesus seated between the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz,

with the word divine of revelation on his knee, and on

each side the four and twenty elders sitting in judgment;

the heavens opening around him by unfolding the clouds

around his throne The old Heaven & old Earth are passing away, & and the New Heaven and New Earth descending. : a sea of fire issues from before

the throne: Adam and Eve appear first before the judge-

ment seat in humiliation: Abel surrounded by inno-

cents, and Cain with the flint in his hand with which

he slew his brother, falling with the head downwards.

From the cloud on which Eve stands Satan is seen falling

headlong, wound round by the tail of the serpent, whose

bulk, nailed to the cross round which he wreathes, is

falling into the abyss. Sin is also represented as a female

bound in one of the serpent's folds, surrounded by her

fiends. Death is chained to the cross; and Time falls

together with Death, dragged down by a demon crowned

with laurel. Another demon with a key has the charge

of Sin and is dragging her down by the hair. Beside

them a figure is seen scaled with iron scales from

head to feet, precipitating himself into the abyss with the

sword and balances; he is [?] King of Bashan.
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On the right, beneath the cloud on which Abel kneels,

is Abraham with Hagar and Ishmael on the left. Abel

kneels on a bloody cloud, descriptive of those churches before

the flood, that they were filled with blood and fire and

vapor of smoke: even till Abraham's time the vapor and

heat was not extinguished. These states exist now: Man

passes on, but states remain for ever; he passes thro' them

like a traveller, who may as well suppose that the places

he has passed thro' exist no more as a man may sup-

pose that the states he has passed thro' exist no more:

every thing is eternal._ Ishmael is Mahomed: and be-

neath the falling figure of Cain is Moses casting his

tables of stone into the deeps. It ought to be understood

that the persons Moses and Abraham are not here

meant, but the states signified by those names, the indi-

viduals being representatives or visions of those states,

as they were re avealed to mortal man in the series

of divine revelations as they are written in the Bible.

These various states I have seen in my imagination; when

distant, they appear as one man, but, as you appr oach,

they appear multitudes of nations. Abraham hovers

above his posterity which appear as multitudes of chil-

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dren ascending from the earth surrounded by stars, as it

was said: “As the stars of heaven for multitude.” Jacob

and his twelve sons hover beneath the feet of Abraham,

and recieve their children from the earth. I have seen

when, at a distance, multitudes of men in harmony appear

like a single infant, sometimes in the arms of a female;

this represented the Church.
But to proceed with the description of those on the left

hand. Beneath the cloud on which Moses kneels are two

figures, a male and female, chained together by the feet;

they represent those who perishd by the flood. Beneath

them a multitude of their associates are seen falling

headlong. By the side of them is a mighty fiend with a

book in his hand, which is shut; he represents the person

named in Isaiah XXII C and 20 V._ Eliakim the son of

Hilkiah; he drags Satan down headlong; he is crowned

with oak. By the side of the scaled figure representing

[?] King of Bashan, is a figure with a basket, emptying

out the vanities of riches and worldly honors; he is

Araunah the Jebusite, master of the threshing floor. Above

him are two figures elevated on a cloud, representing

the Pharisees who plead their own righteousness before

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the throne; they are weighed down by two fiends. Beneath

the man with the basket are three fiery fiends with

grey beards and scourges of fire; they represent cruel

laws; they scourge a gro o up of figures down into the

deeps. Beneath them are various figures in attitudes

of contention, representing various states of misery,

which alas! every one on earth is liable to enter into

and against which we should all watch. The ladies

will be pleased to see that I have represented the furies

by three men and not by three women. It is not be-

cause I think the ancients wrong; but they will be

pleased to remember that mine is vision and not

fable. The spectator may suppose them Clergymen

in the pulpit scourging sin instead of forgiving it.
The earth beneath these falling groupes of figures

is rocky and burning and seems as if convulsed by

earthquakes. A great city on fire is seen in the dis-

tance; the armies are fleeing upon the mountains. On the

foreground hell is opened, and many figures are descending

into it down stone steps and beside a gate beneath a

rock where Sin and Death are to be closed eternally by

that fiend who carries the key in one hand and drags

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them down with the other. On the rock and above the

gate, a fiend with wings urges the wicked onwards with

fiery darts; he is Hazael the Syrian who drives abroad

all those who rebell against their Saviour. Beneath the

steps, Babylon represented by a king crowned, grasping his

sword and his sceptre; he is just awakend out of his

grave. Around him are other kingdoms arising to judge-

ment, represented in this picture as single personages

according to the descriptions in the Prophets. The figure

dragging up a woman by her hair represents the Inquisition,

as do those contending on the sides of the pit; and in

particular the man strangling a woman represents a

cruel church.
Two persons—one in purple the other in scarlet—are

descending down the steps into the pit; these are Caiphas

and Pilate, two states where all those reside who calum-

niate and murder under pretence of holiness and justice;

Caiphas has a blue flame like a mitre on his head;

Pilate has bloody hands that never can be cleansed. The

females behind them represent the females belonging to

such states who are under perpetual terrors and vain

dreams, plots and secret deceit. Those figures that

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descend into the flames before Caiphas and Pilate are

Judas and those of his class; Achitophel is also here

with the cord in his hand.
Between the figures of Adam and Eve appears a fiery

gulph descending from the sea of fire before the throne.

In this cataract four angels descend headlong with

four trumpets to awake the dead. Beneath these is the

seat of the harlot named Mystery in the Revelations;

she is siezed by two beings, each with three heads; they

represent vegetative existence; as it is written in Reve-

lations, they strip her naked and burn her with fire;

—it represents the eternal consumption of vegetable

life and death with its lusts; the wreathed torches

in their hands represents eternal fire which is the fire

of generation or vegetation; it is an eternal consum-

mation. Those who are blessed with imaginative

vision see this eternal female and tremble at what

others fear not, while they despise and laugh at what

others fear. Beneath her feet is a flaming cavern

in which are seen her kings and councillors and

warriors descend in flames, lamenting and looking

upon her in astonishment and terror, and hell is

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opened beneath her seat. On the left hand the great

Red Dragon with seven heads and ten horns; he has

salary-book of accusations lying on the rock open

before him; he is bound in chains by two strong demons;

they are Gog and Magog, who have been compelled to

subdue their master (Ezekiel XXXVIII C. 8V.) with their

hammer and tongs about to new-create the seven-headed

kingdoms. The graves beneath are opened and the dead

awake and obey the call of the trumpet; those on the

right hand awake in joy, those on the left in horror.

Beneath the Dragon's cavern a skeleton begins to ani-

mate, starting into life at the trumpet's sound, while

the wicked contend with each other on the brink of

perdition. On the right, a youthful couple are awaked

by their children; an aged patriarch is awaked by his

aged wife; he is Albion, our ancestor, patriarch of the

Atlantic Continent, whose history preceded that of the

Hebrews, and in whose sleep or chaos creation began;

the good woman is Brittannica, the wife of Albion; Jeru-

salem is their daughter. Little infants creep out of the

flowery mould into the green fields of the blessed, who

in various joyful companies embrace and ascend to

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meet eternity.
The persons who ascend to meet the lord coming in

the clouds with power and great glory are representations

of those states described in the Bible under the names

of the fathers before and after the flood. Noah is seen

in the midst of these canopied by a rainbow. On his

right hand Shem and on his left Japhet: these three

persons represent Poetry, Painting, and Music, the

three powers in man of conversing with paradise

which the flood did not sweep away. Above Noah is

the Church universal represented by a woman surrounded

by infants. There is such a state in eternity: it is

composed of the innocent civilized heathen and the

uncivilized savage, who, having not the law, do by

nature the things contained in the law. This state

appears like a female crowned with stars driven

into the wilderness; she has the moon under her feet.

The aged figure with wings having a writing-tablet and

taking account of the numbers who arise is that Angel

of the Divine Presence mentiond in Exodus XIV C. 19v;

and in other places this Angel is frequently called by

the name of Jehovah Shekinah[?], the I am of the oaks of

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Albion.
Around Noah and beneath him are various figures

risen into the air. Among these are three females repre-

senting those who are not of the dead, but of those found

alive at the Last Judgement; they appear to be innocently

gay and thoughtless, not being among the condemnd,

because ignorant of crime in the midst of a corrupted age;

(the Virgin Mary was of this class): a mother meets her

numerous family in the arms of their father, these are

representations of the Greek learned and wise, as also

of those of other nations, such as Egypt and Babylon,

in which were multitudes who shall meet the Lord

coming in the clouds.
The children of Abraham or Hebrew Church are re-

presented as a stream of figures in which are seen stars

somewhat like the milky way; they ascend from the

earth, where figures kneel embracing above the graves,

and represent religion or civilized life, such as it is

in the Christian Church who are the offspring of the

Hebrew. Just above the graves and above the spot where

the infants creep out of the grave, stand —a man

and woman—; these are the primitive Christians. The

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two figures in purifying flames by the side of the Dragon's

cavern represents the latter state of the Church, when

on the verge of perdition yet protected by a flaming

sword. Multitudes are seen ascending from the green

fields of the blessed, in which a Gothic Church is re-

presentative of true art, called Gothic in all ages by those

who follow the fashion, as that is called which is

without shape or fashion. By the right hand of Noah, a

woman with children represents the state calld Laban

the Syrian; it is the remains of civilisation in the

state from whence Adam was taken. Also on the

right hand of Noah a female descends to meet her

lover or husband, representative of that love called

friendship which looks for no other heaven than

their beloved and in him sees all reflected as in a

glass of eternal diamond.
On the right hand of these rise the diffident and

humble, and on their left a solitary woman with

her infant; these are caught up by three aged men

who appear as suddenly emerging from the blue sky

for their help; these three aged men represent divine

providence as opposd to and distinct from divine

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vengeance, represented by three aged men on the side of

the picture among the wicked with scourges of fire.
If the spectator could enter into these images in his

imagination, approaching them on the fiery chariot of

his contemplative thought, if he could enter into Noah's

rainbow, could make a friend and companion of one

of these images of wonder which always intreats him

to leave mortal things, (as he must know),—then

would he arise from the grave, then would he meet

the Lord in the air, and then he would be happy. General

knowledge is remote knowledge: it is in particulars

that wisdom consists and happiness too. Both in art

and in life general masses are as much art as a

pasteboard man is human. Every man has eyes,

nose, and mouth; this every idiot knows; but he

who enters into and discriminates most minutely

the manners and intentions, the characters in all

their branches, is the alone wise or sensible man,

and on this discrimination all art is founded. I

intreat then that the spectator will attend to the

hands and feet, to the lineaments of the counte-

nances; they are all descriptive of character, and

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not a line is drawn without intention. And that most

discriminate and particular. As poetry admits not

a letter that is insignificant, so painting admits

not a grain of sand or a blade of grass insignificant,

—much less an insignificant blur or mark.
Above the head of Noah is Seth. This state called

Seth is male and female in a higher state of hap-

piness and wisdom than Noah, being nearer the

state of innocence. Beneath the feet of Death two

figures represent the two seasons of Spring and

Autumn, while beneath the feet of Noah four seasons

represent the changed state made by the flood.
By the side of Seth is Elijah; he comprehends all

the prophetic characters. He is seen on his fiery

chariot, bowing before the throne of the Saviour. In

like manner the figures of Seth and his wife comprehend

the Fathers before the flood and their generations; when

seen remote, they appear as one man. A little below

Seth on his right are two figures, a male and a

female, with numerous children. These represent

those who were not in the line of the Church, and

yet were saved from among the antediluvians who

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perished. Between Seth and these a female figure repre-

sents the solitary state of those who previous to the flood

walked with God.
All these arise toward the opening cloud before the

throne, led onward by triumphant groups of infants.

Between Seth and Elijah three female figures crowned

with garlands represent Learning and Science which

accompanied Adam out of Eden.
The cloud that opens rolling apart before the throne

and before the new heaven and the new earth, is composed

of various groups of figures, particularly the four living

creatures mentioned in Revelations as surrounding the

throne. These I suppose to have the chief agency in

removing the old heavens and the old earth to make way

for the new heaven and the new earth to descend from

the throne of God and of the Lamb. That living creature

on the left of the throne gives to the seven Angels the

seven phials of the wrath of God with which they, hovering

over the deeps beneath, pour out upon the wicked their

plagues. The other living creatures are descending with

a shout and with the sound of the trumpet, and di-

recting the combats in the upper elements. In the two

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corners of the picture, on the left hand Apollyon is foiled

before the sword of Michael, and, on the right the two

witnesses are subduing their enemies.
On the cloud are opend the books of remembrance

of life and of death; before that of life on the right

some figures bow in lamentation: before that of death

on the left the Pharisees are pleading their own righte-

ousness: the one shines with beams of light, the other

utters lightnings and tempests.
A last judgement is necessary because fools flourish.

Nations flourish under wise rulers and are depressd

under foolish rulers: it is the same with individuals

of nations. Works of art can only be produced in

perfection where the man is either in affluence or is

above the care of it. Poverty is the fool's rod which at

last is turned on his own back. That is a last judge-

ment when men of real art govern and pretenders

fall. Some people and not a few artists have as-

serted that the painter of this picture would not have

done so well if he had been properly encouraged. Let

those who think so reflect on the state of nations

under poverty and their incapability of art. Though

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art is above either, the argument is better for affluence than

poverty, and, though he would not have been a greater

artist, yet he would have produced greater works of art

in proportion to his means. A last judgement is not

for the purpose of making bad men better, but for the

purpose of hindering them from opressing the good with

poverty and pain by means of such vile arguments and

insinuations.
Around the throne heaven is opened and the nature

of eternal things displayed, all springing from the divine

humanity. All beams from him: he is the bread and

the wine; he is the water of life. Accordingly on each

side of the opening heaven appears an Apostle: that on

the right represents Baptism; that on the left represents

the Lord's Supper. All life consists of these two:—throwing

off error and knaves from our company continually;

and recieving truth or wise men into our company con-

tinually. He who is out of the Church and opposes it is

no less an agent of religion than he who is in it: to be

an error and to be cast out is a part of God's design. No

man can embrace true art till he has explored and cast

out false art (such is the nature of mortal things): or

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he will be himself cast out by those who have al-

ready embraced true art. Thus my picture is a history

of art and science, the foundation of truth, which is

humanity itself. What are all the gifts of the spirit but

mental gifts? Whenever any individual rejects error

and embraces truth, a last judgement passes upon

that individual.
Over the head of the Saviour and Redeemer the Holy

Spirit like a dove is surrounded by a blue heaven in

which are the two cherubim that bowed over the ark;

for here the temple is opened in heaven and the ark

of the covenant is as a dove of peace. The curtains are

drawn apart, Christ having rent the veil: the candle-

stick and the table of shew-bread appear on each side:

a glorification of angels with harps surrounds the dove.
The temple stands on the mount of God: from it

flows on each side a river of life, on whose banks

grows the tree of life, among whose branches temples

and pinnacles, tents and pavilions, gardens and groves

display paradise with its inhabitants walking up and

down in conversations concerning mental delights.

Here they are no longer talking of what is good and

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evil, or of what is right or wrong, and puzzling themselves

in Satan's labyrinth, but are conversing with eternal

realities as they exist in the human imagination. We are

in a world of generation and death, and this world we

must cast off if we would be painters such as Rafael, Mi

chael Angelo, and the ancient sculptors: if we do not cast

off this world, we shall be only Venetian painters who

will be cast off and lost from art.
Jesus is surrounded by beams of glory in which

are seen all around him infants emanating from him:

these represent the eternal births of intellect from the

divine humanity. A rainbow surrounds the throne and

the glory, in which youthful nuptials recieve the infants

in their hands. In eternity woman is the emanation of

man; she has no will of her own; there is no such thing

in eternity as a female will.
On the side next Baptism are seen those called in the

Bible Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers; they represent

Education. On the side next the Lord's Supper, the Holy

Family, consisting of Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, Za-

charias, and Elizabeth receiving the bread and wine,

among other spirits of just made perfect. Beneath these

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a cloud of women and children are taken up, fleeing

from the rolling cloud which separates the wicked from

the seats of bliss: these represent those who tho' willing

were too weak to reject error without the assistance

and countenance of those already in the truth: for a

man can only reject error by the advice of a friend

or by the immediate inspiration of God. It is for this

reason, among many others, that I have put the Lord's

Supper on the left hand of the throne, for it appears

so at the last judgement, for a protection.
The painter hopes that his friends, Anytus Melitus,

and Lycon, will percieve that they are not now in

ancient Greece; and, tho' they can use the poison of

calumny, the English public will be convinced that

such a picture as this could never be painted by a

madman or by one in a state of outrageous manners,

as these bad men both print and publish by all the

means in their power. The painter begs public pro-

tection and all will be well.
Men are admitted into heaven,—not because they have

curbed and governed their passions, but because they

have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of

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heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of

intellect from which all the passions emanate uncurbed

in their eternal glory. The fool shall not enter into

heaven, let him be ever so holy; holiness is not the price

of entrance into heaven. Those who are cast out are all

those who, having no passions of their own because no

intellect, have spent their lives in curbing and governing

other people's by the various arts of poverty and cruelty

of all kinds. The modern Church crucifies Christ with

the head downwards. Woe, woe, woe to you, hypocrites!

Even murder the courts of justice (more merciful than

the Church) are whispered to allow is not done in

passion, but in cool-blooded design and intention.
Many suppose that before the creation all was

solitude and chaos: this is the most pernicious idea

that can enter the mind, as it takes away all

sublimity from the Bible and limits all existence to

creation and to chaos, to the time and space fixed

by the corporeal vegetative eye, and leaves the man

who entertains such an idea the habitation of

unbelieving demons. Eternity exists and all

things in eternity, independent of creation which

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was an act of mercy. I have represented those who

are in eternity by some in a cloud within the

rainbow that surrounds the throne; they merely

appear as in a cloud when any thing of creation,

redemption, or judgement, is the subjects of contem-

plation, tho' their whole contemplation is concerning

these things; the reason they so appear is the hu-

miliation of the reasoning and doubting selfhood

and the giving all up to inspiration. By this it

will be seen that I do not consider either the

just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but

to be, every one of them, states of the sleep which

the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of

good and evil, when it leaves Paradise following

the serpent.
Many persons such as Paine and Voltaire,

with some of the ancient Greeks, say: “We will

not converse concerning good and evil; we will

live in Paradise and liberty.” You may say so

in spirit, but not in the mortal body, as you

pretend, till after a last judgement; for in Para-

dise they have no corporeal and mortal body; that

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originated with the fall and was called death,

and cannot be removed but by a last judgement.

While we are in the world of mortality, we must

suffer; the whole creation groans to be delivered.

There will always be as many hypocrites born as

honest men, and they will always have superior

power in mortal things. You cannot have liberty

in this world without what you call moral

virtue, and you cannot have moral virtue with-

out the slavery of that half of the human race

who hate what you call moral virtue.
The nature of hatred and envy and of all the

mischiefs in the world are here depicted. No one

envies or hates one of his own party; even the

devils love one another in their own way; they

torment one another for other reasons than hate

or envy; these are only employed against the

just. Neither can Seth envy Noah, or Elijah envy

Abraham, but they may both of them envy the

success of Satan or of Og or Molech. The horse

never envies the peacock, nor the sheep the goat;

but they envy a rival in life and existence

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whose ways and means exceed their own. Let him

be of what class of animals he will, a dog will

envy a cat who is pamperd at the expense of

his comfort, as I have often seen. The Bible

never tells us that Devils torment one another

thro' envy; it is thro' this that they torment the

just. But for what do they torment one another?

Ianswer,—For the coercive laws of hell, moral

hypocrisy. They torment a hypocrite when he is

discovered: they punish a failure in the tormentor

who has suffered the subject of his torture to

escape. In hell all is self-righteousness; there

is no such thing there as forgiveness of sin;

he who does forgive sin is crucified as an

abettor of criminals, and he who performs works

of mercy in any shape whatever is punished, and,

if possible, destroyed,—not thro' envy or hatred or

malice, but thro' self-righteousness that thinks

it does God service—which God is Satan. They do

not envy one another,—they contemn or despise

one another. Forgiveness of sin is only at the judge-

ment-seat of Jesus the Saviour, where the accuser

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is cast out, not because he sins, but because he

torments the just and makes them do what he con-

demns as sin and what he knows is opposite to

their own identity.
It is not because angels are holier than men

or devils that makes them angels, but because

they do not expect holiness from one another, but

from God only.
The player is a liar when he says: “Angels

are happier than men because they are better.” Angels

are happier than men and devils because they

are not always prying after good and evil in one

another and eating the tree of knowledge for

Satan's gratification.
The last judgement is an overwhelming of bad

art and science. Mental Things are alone real;

what is called corporeal nobody knows of; its

dwelling-place is a fallacy and its existence an

imposture. Where is the existence out of mind or

thought? where is it but in the mind of a fool?

Some people flatter themselves that there will be

no last judgement, and that bad art will be

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adopted and mixed with good art, that error or

experiment will make a part of truth, and they

boast that it is its foundation. These people flatter

themselves; I will not flatter them. Error is created;

truth is eternal: error or creation will be burned

up, and then, and not till then truth or eternity

will appear. It is burned up the moment men

cease to behold the outward creation, and that to me

it is hindrance and not action; it is, as the

dirt upon my feet, no part of me.—“What!” it

will be questioned; “when the sun rises do you

not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a

guinea? “ Oh no! no! I see an innumerable com-

pany of the heavenly host crying: “Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty!” I question not my cor-

poreal or vegetative eye any more than I would

question a window containing concerning a sight: I look

thro' it, and not with it.
The last judgement [will be] when all those are

cast away who trouble religion with questioning

concerning good and evil, or eating of the tree of

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those knowledges or reasonings which hinder the

vision of God turning all into a consuming fire,

when imagination, art and science, and all intel-

lectual gifts, all the gifts of the Holy Ghost, are

looked upon as of no use, and only contention re-

mains to man; then the last judgement begins,

and its vision is seen by the eye of every one

according to the situation he holds.

The End.
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