These manuscript pages are part of the bound volume known as “The Rossetti Manuscript” of “The Notebook of William Blake”. The notebook was bound by DGR after he made the transcription of Blake's poems that is represented by these pages, which are gathered into the volume after the original Blake notebook pages. Although Blake's notebook has been edited, with a facsimile of the original pages, by David V. Erdman, that edition does not reproduce DGR's transcription, which appears here for the first time.
As DGR's note heading this transcript indicates, the text represents DGR's judgment of “All that is of any worth” in the notebook. The transcription contains a large selection from Blake's manuscript texts. In copying Blake's works, DGR did not scruple to edit the original materials, which he saw as rough and in need of such intervention.
∵ All that is of any value in the foregoing pages
has here been copied
out. D.G.C.R.
* This was spoken by my spectre to Voltaire, Bacon, &c.
(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, (2nd line, 5th stanza)
I have adopted,
as preferable, the reading to be
found in the M.S. D.G.C.R.)
(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 following was probably written on some anti-visionary.)
D.G.C.R.
(N.B. I have compiled the following from various scat-
tered passages, wich may, or
may not, form a whole.)
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
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:
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
The last Judgement is not fable or allegory, but vision.
Fable or allegory
are
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
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
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
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 * The just arise on his right & the wicked on his left hand. *
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
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
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.
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
reavealed 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
they appear multitudes
of nations. Abraham hovers
above his posterity which appear as multitudes of chil-
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
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
the man with the basket are three fiery fiends with
grey beards and
scourges of fire; they represent cruel
laws; they scourge a groo
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
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
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
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
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 (
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.