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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=536915" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Marriage of Heaven and Hell</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE ARGUMENT </div><div style="margin:10px 0">RINTRAH roars and shakes his <br>fires in the burdenM air, <br>Hungry clouds swag on the deep. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Once meek, and in a perilous path </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The just man kept his course along </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Vale of Death. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Roses are planted where thorns grow, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And on the barren heath </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sing the honey bees. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the perilous path was planted, <br>And a river and a spring <br>On every cliff and tomb; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">5 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And on the bleached bones <br>Red clay brought forth: <br>Till the villain left the paths of ease <br>To walk in perilous paths, and drive <br>The just man into barren climes. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now the sneaking serpent walks <br>In mild humility ; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the just man rages in the wilds <br>Where Uons roam. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in </div><div style="margin:10px 0">the burdened air, <br>Hungry clouds swag on the deep. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">As a new heaven is begun, and it is <br>now thirty-three years since its advent, <br>the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! <br>Swedenborg is the angel sitting at <br>the tomb: his writings are the Unen <br>clothes folded up. Now is the domin- <br>ion of Edom, and the return of Adam <br>into Paradise. — See Isaiah xxxiv. and <br>XXXV. chap. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">6 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Without contraries is no progres- <br>sion. Attraction and repulsion, rea- <br>son and energy, love and hate, are <br>necessary to human existence. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">From these contraries spring what <br>the religious call Good and Evil. <br>Good is the passive that obeys reason; <br>Evil is the active springing from <br>Energy. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Good is heaven. Evil is hell. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE VOICE OF THE DEVIL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">All Bibles or sacred codes have been <br>the cause of the following errors : — </div><div style="margin:10px 0">1. That man has two real existing <br>principles, viz., a Body and a Soul. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">2. That Energy, called Evil, is alone <br>from the Body ; and that Reason, called <br>Good, is alone from the Soul. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">3. That God will torment man in <br>Eternity for following his Energies. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the following contraries to <br>these are true : — </div><div style="margin:10px 0">1 . Man has no Body distinct from his <br>Soul. For that called Body is a por- <br>tion of Soul discerned by the five senses, <br>the chief inlets of Soul in this age. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">2 . Energy is the only life , and is from <br>the Body; and Reason is the bound <br>or outward circumference of Energy. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">8 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">3. Energy is Eternal Delight. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Those who restrain desire, do so <br>because theirs is weak enough to be <br>restrained; and the restrainer or <br>reason usurps its place and governs <br>the unwilling. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And being restrained, it by degrees <br>becomes passive, till it is only the <br>shadow of desire. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The history of this is written in <br>Paradise Lost, and the Governor or <br>Reason is called Messiah. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the original Archangel or pos- <br>sessor of the command of the heavenly <br>host is called the Devil, or Satan, and <br>his children are called Sin and Death. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But in the book of Job, Milton's <br>Messiah is called Satan. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">For this history has been adopted by <br>both parties. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">It indeed appeared to Reason as if </div><div style="margin:10px 0">9 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">desire was cast out, but the Devil's <br>account is, that the Messiah fell, and <br>formed a heaven of what he stole from <br>the abyss. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">This is shown in the Gospel, where <br>he prays to the Father to send the <br>Comforter or desire that Reason may <br>have ideas to build on, the Jehovah <br>of the Bible being no other than he <br>who dwells in flaming fire. Know <br>that after Christ's death he became <br>Jehovah. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But in Milton, the Father is Destiny, <br>the Son a ratio of the five senses, and <br>the Holy Ghost vacuum ! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Note. — The reason Milton wrote <br>in fetters when he wrote of Angels <br>and God, and at Uberty when of <br>Devils and Hell, is because he was <br>a true poet, and of the Devil's party <br>without knowing it. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">10 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A MEMORABLE FANCY </div><div style="margin:10px 0">As I was walking among the fires <br>of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments <br>of Genius, which to Angels look like <br>torment and insanity, I collected some <br>of their proverbs, thinking that as the <br>sayings used in a nation mark its <br>character, so the proverbs of Hell show <br>the nature of infernal wisdom better <br>than any description of buildings or <br>garments. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I came home, on the abyss <br>of the five senses, where a flat-sided <br>steep frowns over the present world, I <br>saw a mighty Devil folded in black <br>clouds hovering on the sides of the <br>rock; with corroding fires he wrote <br>the following sentence now perceived <br>by the minds of men, and read by <br>them on earth : — </div><div style="margin:10px 0">II </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'How do you know but every bird <br>that cuts the airy way <br>Is an immense world of delight, <br>closed by your senses five?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">12 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">PROVERBS OF HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, <br>in winter enjoy. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Drive your cart and your plough <br>over the bones of the dead. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The road of excess leads to the <br>palace of wisdom. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Prudence is a rich ugly old maid <br>courted by Incapacity. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He who desires, but acts not, breeds <br>pestilence. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The cut worm forgives the plough. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dip him in the river who loves <br>water. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">A fool sees not the same tree that a <br>wise man sees. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He whose face gives no light shall <br>never become a star. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">13 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Eternity is in love with the produc- <br>tions of time. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The busy bee has no time for sor- <br>row. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The hours of folly are measured by <br>the clock, but of wisdom no clock can <br>measure. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">All wholesome food is caught with- <br>out a net or a trap. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Bring out number, weight, and <br>measure in a year of dearth. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">No bird soars too high if he soars <br>with his own wings. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">A dead body revenges not injuries. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The most sublime act is to set an- <br>other before you. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">If the fool would persist in his folly <br>he would become wise. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Folly is the cloak of knavery. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Shame is Pride's cloak. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">14 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Prisons are built with stones of law, <br>brothels with bricks of religion. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The pride of the peacock is the <br>glory of God. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lust of the goat is the bounty <br>of God. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The wrath of the lion is the wisdom <br>of God. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The nakedness of woman is the <br>work of God. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Excess of sorrow laughs, excess of <br>joy weeps. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The roaring of lions, the howling of <br>wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, <br>and the destructive sword, are por- <br>tions of Eternity too great for the eye <br>of man. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The fox condemns the trap, not <br>himself. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Joys impregnate, sorrows bring <br>forth. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">15 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Let man wear the fell of the lion, <br>woman the fleece of the sheep. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The bird a nest, the spider a web, <br>man friendship. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The selfish smiling fool and the <br>sullen frowning fool shall be both <br>thought wise that they may be a rod. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">What is now proved was once only <br>imagined. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The rat, the mouse, the fox, the <br>rabbit watch the roots; the Hon, the <br>tiger, the horse, the elephant watch <br>the fruits. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The cistern contains, the fountain <br>overflows. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">One thought fills immensity. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Always be ready to speak your <br>mind, and a base man will avoid you. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Everything possible to be believed <br>is an image of truth. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The eagle never lost so much time </div><div style="margin:10px 0">z6 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">as when he submitted to learn of the <br>crow. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The fox provides for himself, but <br>God provides for the lion. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Think in the morning, act in the <br>noon, eat in the evening, sleep in the <br>night. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He who has suffered you to impose <br>on him knows you. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">As the plough follows words, so <br>God rewards prayers. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The tigers of wrath are wiser than <br>the horses of instruction. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Expect poison from the standing <br>water. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">You never know what is enough <br>unless you know what is more than <br>enough. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Listen to the fool's reproach; it is a <br>kingly title. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">17 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">the mouth of water, the beard of <br>earth. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The weak in courage is strong in <br>cunning. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The apple tree never asks the beech <br>how he shall grow, nor the lion the <br>horse how he shall take his prey. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The thankful receiver bears a plenti- <br>ful harvest. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">If others had not been foolish we <br>should have been so. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The soul of sweet delight can never <br>be defiled. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When thou seest an eagle, thou <br>seest a portion of Genius. Lift up thy <br>head! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">As the caterpillar chooses the fairest <br>leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest <br>lays his curse on the fairest joys. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">To create a little flower is the labour <br>of ages. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">i8 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Damn braces; bless relaxes. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The best wine is the oldest, the best <br>water the newest. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Prayers plough not; praises reap <br>not; joys laugh not; sorrows weep <br>not. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, <br>the genitals Beauty, the hands and <br>feet Proportion. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">As the air to a bird, or the sea <br>to a fish, so is contempt to the con- <br>temptible. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The crow wished everything was <br>black; the owl that everything was <br>white. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Exuberance is Beauty. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">If the lion was advised by the fox, <br>he would be cunning. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Improvement makes straight roads, <br>but the crooked roads without Improve- <br>ment are roads of Genius. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">19 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sooner murder an infant in its <br>cradle than nurse unacted desires. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Where man is not, nature is barren. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Truth can never be told so as to be <br>understood and not to be believed. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Enough! or Too much. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ancient poets animated all sen- <br>sible objects with Gods or Geniuses, <br>calling them by the names and adorn- <br>ing them with properties of woods, <br>rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, na- <br>tions, and whatever their enlarged <br>and numerous senses could perceive. <br>And particularly they studied the <br>Genius of each city and country, <br>placing it under its mental deity. Till <br>a system was formed, which some <br>took advantage of and enslaved the <br>vulgar by attempting to realize or <br>abstract the mental deities from their <br>objects. Thus began Priesthood. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">20 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Choosing forms of worship from <br>poetic tales. And at length they pro- <br>nounced that the Gods had ordered <br>such things. Thus men forgot that <br>all deities reside in the human breast. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">21 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A MEMORABLE FANCY </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel <br>dined with me, and I asked them how <br>they dared so roundly to assert that <br>God spoke to them, and whether they <br>did not think at the time that they <br>would be misunderstood, and so be <br>the cause of imposition. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Isaiah answered: 'I saw no God, <br>nor heard any, in a finite organical <br>perception: but my senses discovered <br>the infinite in everything; and as I <br>was then persuaded, and remained <br>confirmed, that the voice of honest <br>indignation is the voice of God, I cared <br>not for consequences, but wrote.'* </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I asked: 'Does a firm per- <br>suasion that a thing is so, make it <br>so?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He replied: 'All poets believe that </div><div style="margin:10px 0">22 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">it does, and in ages of imagination <br>this firm persuasion removed moun- <br>tains; but many are not capable of a <br>firm persuasion of anything.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Ezekiel said : ' The philosophy <br>of the East taught the first principles <br>of human perception; some nations <br>held one principle for the origin, and <br>some another. We of Israel taught <br>that the Poetic Genius (as you now <br>call it) was the first principle, and all <br>the others merely derivative, which <br>was the cause of our despising the <br>Priests and Philosophers of other <br>countries, and prophesying that all <br>Gods would at last be proved to origi- <br>nate in ours, and to be the tributaries <br>of the Poetic Genius. It was this that <br>our great poet King David desired so <br>fervently, and invokes so pathetically, <br>saying by this he conquers enemies <br>and governs kingdoms; and we so <br>loved our Ggd that we cursed in His </div><div style="margin:10px 0">i3 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">name all the deities of surrounding <br>nations, and asserted that they had <br>rebelled. From these opinions the <br>vulgar came to think that all nations <br>would at last be subject to the Jews. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'This,' said he, 'like all firm per- <br>suasions, is come to pass, for all <br>nations believe the Jews' code, and <br>worship the Jews' God; and what <br>greater subjection can be?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I heard this with some wonder, and <br>must confess my own conviction. <br>After dinner I asked Isaiah to favour <br>the world with his lost works; he said <br>none of equal value was lost. Ezekiel <br>said the same of his. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I also asked Isaiah what made him <br>go naked and barefoot three years. <br>He answered: 'The same that made <br>our friend Diogenes the Grecian.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I then asked Ezekiel why he ate <br>dung, and lay so long on his right and </div><div style="margin:10px 0">24 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">left side. He answered: 'The desire <br>of raising other men into a perception <br>of the infinite. This the North Ameri- <br>can tribes practise. And is he honest <br>who resists his genius or conscience, <br>only for the sake of present ease or <br>gratification?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ancient tradition that the world <br>will be consumed in fire at the end of <br>six thousand years is true, as I have <br>heard from Hell. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">For the cherub with his flaming <br>sword is hereby commanded to leave <br>his guard at [the] tree of life, and <br>when he does, the whole creation will <br>be consumed and appear infinite and <br>holy, whereas it now appears finite <br>and corrupt. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">This will come to pass by an im- <br>provement of sensual enjoyment. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But first the notion that man has </div><div style="margin:10px 0">25 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">a body distinct from his soul is to be <br>expunged; this I shall do by printing <br>in the infernal method by corrosives, <br>which in Hell are salutary and medici- <br>nal, melting apparent surfaces away, <br>and displaying the infinite which was <br>hid. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">If the doors of perception were <br>cleansed everything would appear to <br>man as it is, infinite. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">For man has closed himself up, till <br>he sees all things through narrow <br>chinks of his cavern. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">26 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A MEMORABLE FANCY </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I was in a printing-house in Hell, <br>and saw the method in which knowl- <br>edge is transmitted from generation <br>to generation. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the first chamber was a dragon- <br>man, clearing away the rubbish from <br>a cave's mouth; within, a number of <br>dragons were hollowing the cave. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the second chamber was a viper <br>folding round the rock and the cave, <br>and others adorning it with gold, silver, <br>and precious stones. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the third chamber was an eagle <br>with wings and feathers of air; he <br>caused the inside of the cave to be <br>infinite; around were numbers of <br>eagle-like men, who built palaces in <br>the immense cliffs. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the fourth chamber were lions </div><div style="margin:10px 0">27 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">of flaming fire raging around and <br>melting the metals into living fluids. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the fifth chamber were unnamed <br>forms, which cast the metals into the <br>expanse. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">There they were received by men <br>who occupied the sixth chamber, and <br>took the forms of books, and were <br>arranged in libraries. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Giants who formed this world <br>into its sensual existence and now <br>seem to live in it in chains are in <br>truth the causes of its life and the <br>sources of all activity, but the chains <br>are the cunning of weak and tame <br>minds, which have power to resist <br>energy, according to the proverb, <br>'The weak in courage is strong in <br>cunning.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus one portion of being is the </div><div style="margin:10px 0">28 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Prolific, the other the Devouring. To <br>the devourer it seems as if the pro- <br>ducer was in his chains; but it is not <br>so, he only takes portions of existence, <br>and fancies that the whole. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the Prolific would cease to be <br>prolific unless the Devourer as a sea <br>received the excess of his delights. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some will say, 'Is not God alone <br>the Prolific?' I answer: 'God only <br>acts and is in existing beings or <br>men.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">These two classes of men are always <br>upon earth, and they should be ene- <br>mies: whoever tries to reconcile them <br>seeks to destroy existence. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Religion is an endeavour to recon- <br>cile the two. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Note. — Jesus Christ did not wish <br>to unite but to separate them, as in <br>the parable of sheep and goats; and </div><div style="margin:10px 0">29 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He says : ' I came not to send peace, <br>but a sword.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Messiah, or Satan, or Tempter, was <br>formerly thought to be one of the <br>antediluvians who are our Energies. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">30 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A MEMORABLE FANCY </div><div style="margin:10px 0">An Angel came to me and said: '0 <br>pitiable foolish young man! hor- <br>rible, dreadful state! Consider the <br>hot burning dungeon thou art prepar- <br>ing for thyself to all Eternity, to which <br>thou art going in such career.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I said : ' Perhaps you will be willing <br>to show me my eternal lot, and we <br>will contemplate together upon it, and <br>see whether your lot or mine is most <br>desirable.'* </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So he took me through a stable, and <br>through a church, and down into the <br>church vault, at the end of v/hich was <br>a mill; through the mill we went, and <br>came to a cave; down the winding <br>cavern we groped our tedious way, <br>till a void boundless as a nether sky <br>appeared beneath us, and we held by </div><div style="margin:10px 0">31 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">the roots of trees, and hung over this <br>immensity; but I said: 'If you please, <br>we will commit ourselves to this void, <br>and see whether Providence is here <br>also; if you will not, I will.' But he <br>answered : ' Do not presume, young <br>man; but as we here remain, behold <br>thy lot, which will soon appear when <br>the darkness passes away.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So I remained with him sitting in <br>the twisted root of an oak; he was <br>suspended in a fungus, which hung <br>with the head downward into the <br>deep. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">By degrees we beheld the infinite <br>abyss, fiery as the smoke of a burning <br>city; beneath us at an immense dis- <br>tance was the sun, black but shining; <br>round it were fiery tracks on which <br>revolved vast spiders, crawling after <br>their prey, which flew, or rather <br>swum, in the infinite deep, in the most </div><div style="margin:10px 0">32 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">terrific shapes of animals sprung from <br>corruption; and the air was full of <br>them, and seemed composed of them. <br>These are Devils, and are called powers <br>of the air. I now asked my com- <br>panion which was my eternal lot. <br>He said: 'Between the black and <br>white spiders.'' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But now, from between the black <br>and white spiders, a cloud and fire <br>burst and rolled through the deep, <br>blackening all beneath so that the <br>nether deep grew black as a sea, and <br>rolled with a terrible noise. Beneath <br>us was nothing now to be seen but a <br>black tempest, till looking East be- <br>tween the clouds and the waves, we <br>saw a cataract of blood mixed with <br>fire, and not many stones' throw from <br>us appeared and sunk again the scaly <br>fold of a monstrous serpent. At last <br>to the East, distant about three degrees, <br>appeared a fiery crest above the waves ; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">33 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">slowly it reared like a ridge of golden <br>rocks, till we discovered two globes <br>of crimson fire, from which the sea <br>fled away in clouds of smoke; and <br>now we saw it was the head of Le- <br>viathan. His forehead was divided <br>into streaks of green and purple, like <br>those on a tiger's forehead; soon we <br>saw his mouth and red gills hang just <br>above the raging foam, tinging the <br>black deeps with beams of blood, ad- <br>vancing toward us with all the fury <br>of a spiritual existence. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">My friend the Angel climbed up <br>from his station into the mill. I <br>remained alone, and then this ap- <br>pearance was no more; but I found <br>myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside <br>a river by moonlight, hearing a harper <br>who sung to the harp; and his theme <br>was: 'The man who never alters his <br>opinion is like standing water, and <br>breeds reptiles of the mind.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">34 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But I arose, and sought for the <br>mill, and there I found my Angel, <br>who, surprised, asked me how I <br>escaped. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I answered: 'All that we saw was <br>owing to your metaphysics; for when <br>you ran away, I found myself on a <br>bank by moonlight, hearing a harper. <br>But now we have seen my eternal <br>lot, shall I show you yours?' He <br>laughed at my proposal; but I by <br>force suddenly caught him in my <br>arms, and flew Westerly through the <br>night, till we were elevated above the <br>earth's shadow; then I flung myself <br>with him directly into the body of the <br>sun; here I clothed myself in white, <br>and taking in my hand Swedenborg*s <br>volumes, sunk from the glorious clime, <br>and passed all the planets till we came <br>to Saturn. Here I stayed to rest, and <br>then leaped into the void between <br>Saturn and the fixed stars. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">35 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Here,' said I, 'is your lot; in this <br>space, if space it may be called.' <br>Soon we saw the stable and the church, <br>and I took him to the altar and opened <br>the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, <br>into which I descended, driving the <br>Angel before me. Soon we saw seven <br>houses of brick. One we entered. In <br>it were a number of monkeys, baboons, <br>and all of that species, chained by the <br>middle, grinning and snatching at one <br>another, but withheld by the shortness <br>of their chains. However, I saw that <br>they sometimes grew numerous, and <br>then the weak were caught by the <br>strong, and with a grinning aspect, <br>first coupled with and then devoured <br>by plucking off first one Umb and then <br>another till the body was left a help- <br>less trunk; this, after grinning and <br>kissing it with seeming fondness, they <br>devoured too. And here and there I <br>saw one savourily picking the fiesh off </div><div style="margin:10px 0">36 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">his own tail. As the stench terribly <br>annoyed us both, we went into the <br>mill; and I in my hand brought the <br>skeleton of a body, which in the mill <br>was Aristotle's Analytics. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So the Angel said; 'Thy phantasy <br>has imposed upon me, and thou ought- <br>est to be ashamed.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I answered: 'We impose on one <br>another, and it is but lost time to con- <br>verse with you whose works are only <br>Analytics.'* </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I have always found that Angels <br>have the vanity to speak of them- <br>selves as the only wise; this they do <br>with a confident insolence sprouting <br>from systematic reasoning. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Thus Swedenborg boasts that what <br>he writes is new ; though it is only the <br>contents or index of already published <br>books. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">37 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'A man carried a monkey about <br>for a show, and because he was a Uttle <br>wiser than the monkey, grew vain, <br>and conceived himself as much wiser <br>than seven men. It is so with <br>Swedenborg; he shows the folly of <br>churches, and exposes hypocrites, till <br>he imagines that all are religious, and <br>himself the single one on earth that <br>ever broke a net. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Now hear a plain fact: Sweden- <br>borg has not written one new truth. <br>Now hear another: he has written all <br>the old falsehoods. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'And now hear the reason: he con- <br>versed with Angels who are all re- <br>ligious, and conversed not with Devils <br>who all hate reUgion, for he was <br>incapable through his conceited no- <br>tions. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Thus Swedenborg's writings are <br>a recapitulation of all superficial </div><div style="margin:10px 0">38 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">opinions, and an analysis of the more <br>sublime, but no further. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Have now another plain fact: any <br>man of mechanical talents may from <br>the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob <br>Behmen produce ten thousand volumes <br>of equal value with Swedenborg's, and <br>from those of Dante or Shakespeare an <br>infinite number. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'But when he has done this, let <br>him not say that he knows better than <br>his master, for he only holds a candle <br>in sunshine.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">39 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A MEMORABLE FANCY </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Once I saw a Devil in a flame of <br>fire, who arose before an Angel that <br>sat on a cloud, and the Devil uttered <br>these words: 'The worship of God is, <br>honouring His gifts in other men each <br>according to his genius, and loving <br>the greatest men best. Those who <br>envy or calumniate great men hate <br>God, for there is no other God.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Angel hearing this became <br>almost blue, but mastering himself he <br>grew yellow, and at last white-pink <br>and smiling, and then replied: 'Thou <br>idolater, is not God One? and is not <br>He visible in Jesus Christ? and has <br>not Jesus Christ given His sanction to <br>the law of ten commandments? and <br>are not all other men fools, sinners, <br>and nothings?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">40 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Devil answered: 'Bray a fool <br>in a mortar with wheat, yet shall not <br>his folly be beaten out of him. If <br>Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you <br>ought to love Him in the greatest <br>degree. Now hear how He has given <br>His sanction to the law of ten com- <br>mandments. Did He not mock at the <br>Sabbath, and so mock the Sabbath's <br>God? murder those who were mur- <br>dered because of Him? turn away the <br>law from the woman taken in adultery, <br>steal the labour of others to support <br>Him? bear false witness when He <br>omitted making a defence before <br>Pilate? covet when He prayed for His <br>disciples, and when He bid them <br>shake off the dust of their feet against <br>such as refused to lodge them? I tell <br>you, no virtue can exist without break- <br>ing these ten commandments. Jesus <br>was all virtue, and acted from im- <br>pulse, not from rules.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">41 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When he had so spoken, I beheld <br>the Angel, who stretched out his arms <br>embracing the flame of fire, and he <br>was consumed, and arose as Elijah. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Note. — This Angel, who is now <br>become a Devil, is my particular <br>friend; we often read the Bible to- <br>gether in its infernal or diabolical <br>sense, which the world shall have if <br>they behave well. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I have also the Bible of Hell, which <br>the world shall have whether they <br>will or no. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">One law for the lion and ox is Op- <br>pression. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">42 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A SONG OF LIBERTY </div><div style="margin:10px 0">1. The Eternal Female groan'd; it <br>was heard over all the earth: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">2. Albion's coast is sick silent; the <br>American meadows faint. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">3. Shadows of prophecy shiver <br>along by the lakes and the rivers, and <br>mutter across the ocean. France, <br>rend down thy dungeon! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">4. Golden Spain, burst the barriers <br>of old Rome ! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">5. Cast thy keys, Rome, into <br>the deep — down falling, even to <br>eternity down falling; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">6. And weep! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">7. In her trembling hands she took <br>the new-born terror, howling. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">8. On those infinite mountains <br>of light now barr'd out by the Atlantic </div><div style="margin:10px 0">43 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">sea, the new-born fire stood before the <br>starry king. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">9. Flagg'd with grey-browM snows <br>and thunderous visages, the jealous <br>wings wavM over the deep. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">10. The speary hand burn'd aloft; <br>unbuckled was the shield; forth went <br>the hand of jealousy among the flam- <br>ing hair, and hurl'd the new-born <br>wonder through the starry night. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">11. The fire, the fire is falling ! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">12. Look up! look up! citizen <br>of London, enlarge thy countenance! <br>O Jew, leave counting gold; return to <br>thy oil and wine! African, black <br>African! (Go, winged thought, widen <br>his forehead.) </div><div style="margin:10px 0">13. The fiery limbs, the flaming hair <br>shot like the sinking sun into the <br>Western sea. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">14. WakM from his eternal sleep, <br>the hoary element roaring fled away. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">44 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0">15. Down rush'd, beating his wings <br>in vain, the jealous king, his grey- <br>brow'd councillors, thunderous war- <br>riors, curl'd veterans, among helms <br>and shields, and chariots, horses, ele- <br>phants, banners, castles, slings, and <br>rocks. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">16. Falling, rushing, ruining; <br>buried in the ruins, on Urthona's <br>dens. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">17. All night beneath the ruins; <br>then their sullen flames, faded, emerge <br>round the gloomy king. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">18. With thunder and fire, leading <br>his starry hosts through the waste <br>wilderness, he promulgates his ten <br>commandments, glancing his beamy <br>eyelids over the deep in dark dismay. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">19. Where the Son of Fire in his <br>Eastern cloud, while the Morning <br>plumes her golden breast, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">20. Spuming the clouds written </div><div style="margin:10px 0">45 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE MARRIAGE OF </div><div style="margin:10px 0">with curses, stamps the stony law to <br>dust, loosing the eternal horses from <br>the dens of night, crying: 'Empire is <br>no more! and now the lion and wolf <br>shall cease.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">46 </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HEAVEN AND HELL </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">CHORUS </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Let the Priests of the Raven of <br>Dawn, no longer in deadly black, with <br>hoarse note curse the Sons of Joy. <br>Nor his accepted brethren whom, <br>tyrant, he calls free, lay the bound or <br>build the roof. Nor pale religious <br>lechery call that virginity that wishes, <br>but acts not ! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">For everything that lives is holy. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">47</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Blake">William Blake</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=536915" data-title="The Marriage of Heaven and Hell de William Blake" data-description="THE ARGUMENT 

RINTRAH roars and shakes his 
fires in the burdenM air, 
Hungry clouds swag on the deep. 

Once meek, and in a perilous path 

The just man kept his course along 

The Vale of Death. 

Roses are planted where thorns grow, 

And on t..."></div>
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