PR 4144 
 
 1906 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 D0DD3Et3bE45 
 
 % 
 

 O, "o . * * .'N 
 
 o *4> 6 o * « - <J^^ rv I 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 ^*' J' \ ^ 
 
 
 
 
 » • o 
 
 
 ^^ • 
 
 / '^ 
 
 • H o^ : 
 
 
 
 
 • 'V" '^ 
 
 
 * 
 
 ^^-;^. . 
 
 <^. ^ 
 
 
 .^^ 
 

 0^.-^:^%^^^ 
 
 ^^0^ 
 
 ^9^ 
 
 H^ 
 
 
 ^v^d^ 
 
 4 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 o • i 
 
 
 o 
 * 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 i • 
 
 ■\ 
 
 
 ^0 
 
 T» .4.^ 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN 
 AND HELL 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM BLAKE 
 
 r 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY 
 
 igo6 
 
• MB 
 
 Gift 
 
 H. L, Mencken. 
 
 ■JAN n 8 
 
 192S 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN 
 AND HELL 
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 RINTRAH roars and shakes his 
 fires in the burdenM air, 
 Hungry clouds swag on the deep. 
 
 Once meek, and in a perilous path 
 
 The just man kept his course along 
 
 The Vale of Death. 
 
 Roses are planted where thorns grow, 
 
 And on the barren heath 
 
 Sing the honey bees. 
 
 Then the perilous path was planted, 
 And a river and a spring 
 On every cliff and tomb; 
 
 5 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 And on the bleached bones 
 Red clay brought forth: 
 Till the villain left the paths of ease 
 To walk in perilous paths, and drive 
 The just man into barren climes. 
 
 Now the sneaking serpent walks 
 In mild humility ; 
 
 And the just man rages in the wilds 
 Where Uons roam. 
 
 Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in 
 
 the burdened air, 
 Hungry clouds swag on the deep. 
 
 As a new heaven is begun, and it is 
 now thirty-three years since its advent, 
 the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! 
 Swedenborg is the angel sitting at 
 the tomb: his writings are the Unen 
 clothes folded up. Now is the domin- 
 ion of Edom, and the return of Adam 
 into Paradise. — See Isaiah xxxiv. and 
 XXXV. chap. 
 
 6 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 Without contraries is no progres- 
 sion. Attraction and repulsion, rea- 
 son and energy, love and hate, are 
 necessary to human existence. 
 
 From these contraries spring what 
 the religious call Good and Evil. 
 Good is the passive that obeys reason; 
 Evil is the active springing from 
 Energy. 
 
 Good is heaven. Evil is hell. 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE DEVIL 
 
 All Bibles or sacred codes have been 
 the cause of the following errors : — 
 
 1. That man has two real existing 
 principles, viz., a Body and a Soul. 
 
 2. That Energy, called Evil, is alone 
 from the Body ; and that Reason, called 
 Good, is alone from the Soul. 
 
 3. That God will torment man in 
 Eternity for following his Energies. 
 
 But the following contraries to 
 these are true : — 
 
 1 . Man has no Body distinct from his 
 Soul. For that called Body is a por- 
 tion of Soul discerned by the five senses, 
 the chief inlets of Soul in this age. 
 
 2 . Energy is the only life , and is from 
 the Body; and Reason is the bound 
 or outward circumference of Energy. 
 
 8 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 3. Energy is Eternal Delight. 
 
 Those who restrain desire, do so 
 because theirs is weak enough to be 
 restrained; and the restrainer or 
 reason usurps its place and governs 
 the unwilling. 
 
 And being restrained, it by degrees 
 becomes passive, till it is only the 
 shadow of desire. 
 
 The history of this is written in 
 Paradise Lost, and the Governor or 
 Reason is called Messiah. 
 
 And the original Archangel or pos- 
 sessor of the command of the heavenly 
 host is called the Devil, or Satan, and 
 his children are called Sin and Death. 
 
 But in the book of Job, Milton's 
 Messiah is called Satan. 
 
 For this history has been adopted by 
 both parties. 
 
 It indeed appeared to Reason as if 
 
 9 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 desire was cast out, but the Devil's 
 account is, that the Messiah fell, and 
 formed a heaven of what he stole from 
 the abyss. 
 
 This is shown in the Gospel, where 
 he prays to the Father to send the 
 Comforter or desire that Reason may 
 have ideas to build on, the Jehovah 
 of the Bible being no other than he 
 who dwells in flaming fire. Know 
 that after Christ's death he became 
 Jehovah. 
 
 But in Milton, the Father is Destiny, 
 the Son a ratio of the five senses, and 
 the Holy Ghost vacuum ! 
 
 Note. — The reason Milton wrote 
 in fetters when he wrote of Angels 
 and God, and at Uberty when of 
 Devils and Hell, is because he was 
 a true poet, and of the Devil's party 
 without knowing it. 
 
 10 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 A MEMORABLE FANCY 
 
 As I was walking among the fires 
 of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments 
 of Genius, which to Angels look like 
 torment and insanity, I collected some 
 of their proverbs, thinking that as the 
 sayings used in a nation mark its 
 character, so the proverbs of Hell show 
 the nature of infernal wisdom better 
 than any description of buildings or 
 garments. 
 
 When I came home, on the abyss 
 of the five senses, where a flat-sided 
 steep frowns over the present world, I 
 saw a mighty Devil folded in black 
 clouds hovering on the sides of the 
 rock; with corroding fires he wrote 
 the following sentence now perceived 
 by the minds of men, and read by 
 them on earth : — 
 
 II 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 "How do you know but every bird 
 that cuts the airy way 
 Is an immense world of delight, 
 closed by your senses five?" 
 
 12 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 PROVERBS OF HELL 
 
 In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, 
 in winter enjoy. 
 
 Drive your cart and your plough 
 over the bones of the dead. 
 
 The road of excess leads to the 
 palace of wisdom. 
 
 Prudence is a rich ugly old maid 
 courted by Incapacity. 
 
 He who desires, but acts not, breeds 
 pestilence. 
 
 The cut worm forgives the plough. 
 
 Dip him in the river who loves 
 water. 
 
 A fool sees not the same tree that a 
 wise man sees. 
 
 He whose face gives no light shall 
 never become a star. 
 
 13 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 Eternity is in love with the produc- 
 tions of time. 
 
 The busy bee has no time for sor- 
 row. 
 
 The hours of folly are measured by 
 the clock, but of wisdom no clock can 
 measure. 
 
 All wholesome food is caught with- 
 out a net or a trap. 
 
 Bring out number, weight, and 
 measure in a year of dearth. 
 
 No bird soars too high if he soars 
 with his own wings. 
 
 A dead body revenges not injuries. 
 
 The most sublime act is to set an- 
 other before you. 
 
 If the fool would persist in his folly 
 he would become wise. 
 
 Folly is the cloak of knavery. 
 
 Shame is Pride's cloak. 
 
 14 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 Prisons are built with stones of law, 
 brothels with bricks of religion. 
 
 The pride of the peacock is the 
 glory of God. 
 
 The lust of the goat is the bounty 
 of God. 
 
 The wrath of the lion is the wisdom 
 of God. 
 
 The nakedness of woman is the 
 work of God. 
 
 Excess of sorrow laughs, excess of 
 joy weeps. 
 
 The roaring of lions, the howling of 
 wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, 
 and the destructive sword, are por- 
 tions of Eternity too great for the eye 
 of man. 
 
 The fox condemns the trap, not 
 himself. 
 
 Joys impregnate, sorrows bring 
 forth. 
 
 15 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 Let man wear the fell of the lion, 
 woman the fleece of the sheep. 
 
 The bird a nest, the spider a web, 
 man friendship. 
 
 The selfish smiling fool and the 
 sullen frowning fool shall be both 
 thought wise that they may be a rod. 
 
 What is now proved was once only 
 imagined. 
 
 The rat, the mouse, the fox, the 
 rabbit watch the roots; the Hon, the 
 tiger, the horse, the elephant watch 
 the fruits. 
 
 The cistern contains, the fountain 
 overflows. 
 
 One thought fills immensity. 
 
 Always be ready to speak your 
 mind, and a base man will avoid you. 
 
 Everything possible to be believed 
 is an image of truth. 
 
 The eagle never lost so much time 
 
 z6 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 as when he submitted to learn of the 
 crow. 
 
 The fox provides for himself, but 
 God provides for the lion. 
 
 Think in the morning, act in the 
 noon, eat in the evening, sleep in the 
 night. 
 
 He who has suffered you to impose 
 on him knows you. 
 
 As the plough follows words, so 
 God rewards prayers. 
 
 The tigers of wrath are wiser than 
 the horses of instruction. 
 
 Expect poison from the standing 
 water. 
 
 You never know what is enough 
 unless you know what is more than 
 enough. 
 
 Listen to the fool's reproach; it is a 
 kingly title. 
 
 The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, 
 
 17 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 the mouth of water, the beard of 
 earth. 
 
 The weak in courage is strong in 
 cunning. 
 
 The apple tree never asks the beech 
 how he shall grow, nor the lion the 
 horse how he shall take his prey. 
 
 The thankful receiver bears a plenti- 
 ful harvest. 
 
 If others had not been foolish we 
 should have been so. 
 
 The soul of sweet delight can never 
 be defiled. 
 
 When thou seest an eagle, thou 
 seest a portion of Genius. Lift up thy 
 head! 
 
 As the caterpillar chooses the fairest 
 leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest 
 lays his curse on the fairest joys. 
 
 To create a little flower is the labour 
 of ages. 
 
 i8 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 Damn braces; bless relaxes. 
 
 The best wine is the oldest, the best 
 water the newest. 
 
 Prayers plough not; praises reap 
 not; joys laugh not; sorrows weep 
 not. 
 
 The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, 
 the genitals Beauty, the hands and 
 feet Proportion. 
 
 As the air to a bird, or the sea 
 to a fish, so is contempt to the con- 
 temptible. 
 
 The crow wished everything was 
 black; the owl that everything was 
 white. 
 
 Exuberance is Beauty. 
 
 If the lion was advised by the fox, 
 he would be cunning. 
 
 Improvement makes straight roads, 
 but the crooked roads without Improve- 
 ment are roads of Genius. 
 
 19 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 Sooner murder an infant in its 
 cradle than nurse unacted desires. 
 
 Where man is not, nature is barren. 
 
 Truth can never be told so as to be 
 understood and not to be believed. 
 
 Enough! or Too much. 
 
 The ancient poets animated all sen- 
 sible objects with Gods or Geniuses, 
 calling them by the names and adorn- 
 ing them with properties of woods, 
 rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, na- 
 tions, and whatever their enlarged 
 and numerous senses could perceive. 
 And particularly they studied the 
 Genius of each city and country, 
 placing it under its mental deity. Till 
 a system was formed, which some 
 took advantage of and enslaved the 
 vulgar by attempting to realize or 
 abstract the mental deities from their 
 objects. Thus began Priesthood. 
 
 20 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 Choosing forms of worship from 
 poetic tales. And at length they pro- 
 nounced that the Gods had ordered 
 such things. Thus men forgot that 
 all deities reside in the human breast. 
 
 21 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 A MEMORABLE FANCY 
 
 The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel 
 dined with me, and I asked them how 
 they dared so roundly to assert that 
 God spoke to them, and whether they 
 did not think at the time that they 
 would be misunderstood, and so be 
 the cause of imposition. 
 
 Isaiah answered: "I saw no God, 
 nor heard any, in a finite organical 
 perception: but my senses discovered 
 the infinite in everything; and as I 
 was then persuaded, and remained 
 confirmed, that the voice of honest 
 indignation is the voice of God, I cared 
 not for consequences, but wrote.'* 
 
 Then I asked: "Does a firm per- 
 suasion that a thing is so, make it 
 so?" 
 
 He replied: "All poets believe that 
 
 22 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 it does, and in ages of imagination 
 this firm persuasion removed moun- 
 tains; but many are not capable of a 
 firm persuasion of anything." 
 
 Then Ezekiel said : " The philosophy 
 of the East taught the first principles 
 of human perception; some nations 
 held one principle for the origin, and 
 some another. We of Israel taught 
 that the Poetic Genius (as you now 
 call it) was the first principle, and all 
 the others merely derivative, which 
 was the cause of our despising the 
 Priests and Philosophers of other 
 countries, and prophesying that all 
 Gods would at last be proved to origi- 
 nate in ours, and to be the tributaries 
 of the Poetic Genius. It was this that 
 our great poet King David desired so 
 fervently, and invokes so pathetically, 
 saying by this he conquers enemies 
 and governs kingdoms; and we so 
 loved our Ggd that we cursed in His 
 
 i3 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 name all the deities of surrounding 
 nations, and asserted that they had 
 rebelled. From these opinions the 
 vulgar came to think that all nations 
 would at last be subject to the Jews. 
 
 "This," said he, "like all firm per- 
 suasions, is come to pass, for all 
 nations believe the Jews' code, and 
 worship the Jews' God; and what 
 greater subjection can be?" 
 
 I heard this with some wonder, and 
 must confess my own conviction. 
 After dinner I asked Isaiah to favour 
 the world with his lost works; he said 
 none of equal value was lost. Ezekiel 
 said the same of his. 
 
 I also asked Isaiah what made him 
 go naked and barefoot three years. 
 He answered: "The same that made 
 our friend Diogenes the Grecian." 
 
 I then asked Ezekiel why he ate 
 dung, and lay so long on his right and 
 
 24 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 left side. He answered: "The desire 
 of raising other men into a perception 
 of the infinite. This the North Ameri- 
 can tribes practise. And is he honest 
 who resists his genius or conscience, 
 only for the sake of present ease or 
 gratification?" 
 
 The ancient tradition that the world 
 will be consumed in fire at the end of 
 six thousand years is true, as I have 
 heard from Hell. 
 
 For the cherub with his flaming 
 sword is hereby commanded to leave 
 his guard at [the] tree of life, and 
 when he does, the whole creation will 
 be consumed and appear infinite and 
 holy, whereas it now appears finite 
 and corrupt. 
 
 This will come to pass by an im- 
 provement of sensual enjoyment. 
 
 But first the notion that man has 
 
 25 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 a body distinct from his soul is to be 
 expunged; this I shall do by printing 
 in the infernal method by corrosives, 
 which in Hell are salutary and medici- 
 nal, melting apparent surfaces away, 
 and displaying the infinite which was 
 hid. 
 
 If the doors of perception were 
 cleansed everything would appear to 
 man as it is, infinite. 
 
 For man has closed himself up, till 
 he sees all things through narrow 
 chinks of his cavern. 
 
 26 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 A MEMORABLE FANCY 
 
 I was in a printing-house in Hell, 
 and saw the method in which knowl- 
 edge is transmitted from generation 
 to generation. 
 
 In the first chamber was a dragon- 
 man, clearing away the rubbish from 
 a cave's mouth; within, a number of 
 dragons were hollowing the cave. 
 
 In the second chamber was a viper 
 folding round the rock and the cave, 
 and others adorning it with gold, silver, 
 and precious stones. 
 
 In the third chamber was an eagle 
 with wings and feathers of air; he 
 caused the inside of the cave to be 
 infinite; around were numbers of 
 eagle-like men, who built palaces in 
 the immense cliffs. 
 
 In the fourth chamber were lions 
 
 27 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 of flaming fire raging around and 
 melting the metals into living fluids. 
 
 In the fifth chamber were unnamed 
 forms, which cast the metals into the 
 expanse. 
 
 There they were received by men 
 who occupied the sixth chamber, and 
 took the forms of books, and were 
 arranged in libraries. 
 
 The Giants who formed this world 
 into its sensual existence and now 
 seem to live in it in chains are in 
 truth the causes of its life and the 
 sources of all activity, but the chains 
 are the cunning of weak and tame 
 minds, which have power to resist 
 energy, according to the proverb, 
 "The weak in courage is strong in 
 cunning." 
 
 Thus one portion of being is the 
 
 28 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 Prolific, the other the Devouring. To 
 the devourer it seems as if the pro- 
 ducer was in his chains; but it is not 
 so, he only takes portions of existence, 
 and fancies that the whole. 
 
 But the Prolific would cease to be 
 prolific unless the Devourer as a sea 
 received the excess of his delights. 
 
 Some will say, "Is not God alone 
 the Prolific?" I answer: "God only 
 acts and is in existing beings or 
 men." 
 
 These two classes of men are always 
 upon earth, and they should be ene- 
 mies: whoever tries to reconcile them 
 seeks to destroy existence. 
 
 Religion is an endeavour to recon- 
 cile the two. 
 
 Note. — Jesus Christ did not wish 
 to unite but to separate them, as in 
 the parable of sheep and goats; and 
 
 29 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 He says : " I came not to send peace, 
 but a sword." 
 
 Messiah, or Satan, or Tempter, was 
 formerly thought to be one of the 
 antediluvians who are our Energies. 
 
 30 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 A MEMORABLE FANCY 
 
 An Angel came to me and said: "0 
 pitiable foolish young man! hor- 
 rible, dreadful state! Consider the 
 hot burning dungeon thou art prepar- 
 ing for thyself to all Eternity, to which 
 thou art going in such career." 
 
 I said : " Perhaps you will be willing 
 to show me my eternal lot, and we 
 will contemplate together upon it, and 
 see whether your lot or mine is most 
 desirable.'* 
 
 So he took me through a stable, and 
 through a church, and down into the 
 church vault, at the end of v/hich was 
 a mill; through the mill we went, and 
 came to a cave; down the winding 
 cavern we groped our tedious way, 
 till a void boundless as a nether sky 
 appeared beneath us, and we held by 
 
 31 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 the roots of trees, and hung over this 
 immensity; but I said: "If you please, 
 we will commit ourselves to this void, 
 and see whether Providence is here 
 also; if you will not, I will." But he 
 answered : " Do not presume, young 
 man; but as we here remain, behold 
 thy lot, which will soon appear when 
 the darkness passes away." 
 
 So I remained with him sitting in 
 the twisted root of an oak; he was 
 suspended in a fungus, which hung 
 with the head downward into the 
 deep. 
 
 By degrees we beheld the infinite 
 abyss, fiery as the smoke of a burning 
 city; beneath us at an immense dis- 
 tance was the sun, black but shining; 
 round it were fiery tracks on which 
 revolved vast spiders, crawling after 
 their prey, which flew, or rather 
 swum, in the infinite deep, in the most 
 
 32 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 terrific shapes of animals sprung from 
 corruption; and the air was full of 
 them, and seemed composed of them. 
 These are Devils, and are called powers 
 of the air. I now asked my com- 
 panion which was my eternal lot. 
 He said: "Between the black and 
 white spiders.'' 
 
 But now, from between the black 
 and white spiders, a cloud and fire 
 burst and rolled through the deep, 
 blackening all beneath so that the 
 nether deep grew black as a sea, and 
 rolled with a terrible noise. Beneath 
 us was nothing now to be seen but a 
 black tempest, till looking East be- 
 tween the clouds and the waves, we 
 saw a cataract of blood mixed with 
 fire, and not many stones' throw from 
 us appeared and sunk again the scaly 
 fold of a monstrous serpent. At last 
 to the East, distant about three degrees, 
 appeared a fiery crest above the waves ; 
 
 33 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 slowly it reared like a ridge of golden 
 rocks, till we discovered two globes 
 of crimson fire, from which the sea 
 fled away in clouds of smoke; and 
 now we saw it was the head of Le- 
 viathan. His forehead was divided 
 into streaks of green and purple, like 
 those on a tiger's forehead; soon we 
 saw his mouth and red gills hang just 
 above the raging foam, tinging the 
 black deeps with beams of blood, ad- 
 vancing toward us with all the fury 
 of a spiritual existence. 
 
 My friend the Angel climbed up 
 from his station into the mill. I 
 remained alone, and then this ap- 
 pearance was no more; but I found 
 myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside 
 a river by moonlight, hearing a harper 
 who sung to the harp; and his theme 
 was: "The man who never alters his 
 opinion is like standing water, and 
 breeds reptiles of the mind." 
 
 34 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 But I arose, and sought for the 
 mill, and there I found my Angel, 
 who, surprised, asked me how I 
 escaped. 
 
 I answered: "All that we saw was 
 owing to your metaphysics; for when 
 you ran away, I found myself on a 
 bank by moonlight, hearing a harper. 
 But now we have seen my eternal 
 lot, shall I show you yours?" He 
 laughed at my proposal; but I by 
 force suddenly caught him in my 
 arms, and flew Westerly through the 
 night, till we were elevated above the 
 earth's shadow; then I flung myself 
 with him directly into the body of the 
 sun; here I clothed myself in white, 
 and taking in my hand Swedenborg*s 
 volumes, sunk from the glorious clime, 
 and passed all the planets till we came 
 to Saturn. Here I stayed to rest, and 
 then leaped into the void between 
 Saturn and the fixed stars. 
 
 35 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 "Here," said I, "is your lot; in this 
 space, if space it may be called." 
 Soon we saw the stable and the church, 
 and I took him to the altar and opened 
 the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, 
 into which I descended, driving the 
 Angel before me. Soon we saw seven 
 houses of brick. One we entered. In 
 it were a number of monkeys, baboons, 
 and all of that species, chained by the 
 middle, grinning and snatching at one 
 another, but withheld by the shortness 
 of their chains. However, I saw that 
 they sometimes grew numerous, and 
 then the weak were caught by the 
 strong, and with a grinning aspect, 
 first coupled with and then devoured 
 by plucking off first one Umb and then 
 another till the body was left a help- 
 less trunk; this, after grinning and 
 kissing it with seeming fondness, they 
 devoured too. And here and there I 
 saw one savourily picking the fiesh off 
 
 36 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 his own tail. As the stench terribly 
 annoyed us both, we went into the 
 mill; and I in my hand brought the 
 skeleton of a body, which in the mill 
 was Aristotle's Analytics. 
 
 So the Angel said; "Thy phantasy 
 has imposed upon me, and thou ought- 
 est to be ashamed." 
 
 I answered: "We impose on one 
 another, and it is but lost time to con- 
 verse with you whose works are only 
 Analytics.'* 
 
 "I have always found that Angels 
 have the vanity to speak of them- 
 selves as the only wise; this they do 
 with a confident insolence sprouting 
 from systematic reasoning. 
 
 "Thus Swedenborg boasts that what 
 he writes is new ; though it is only the 
 contents or index of already published 
 books. 
 
 37 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 "A man carried a monkey about 
 for a show, and because he was a Uttle 
 wiser than the monkey, grew vain, 
 and conceived himself as much wiser 
 than seven men. It is so with 
 Swedenborg; he shows the folly of 
 churches, and exposes hypocrites, till 
 he imagines that all are religious, and 
 himself the single one on earth that 
 ever broke a net. 
 
 "Now hear a plain fact: Sweden- 
 borg has not written one new truth. 
 Now hear another: he has written all 
 the old falsehoods. 
 
 "And now hear the reason: he con- 
 versed with Angels who are all re- 
 ligious, and conversed not with Devils 
 who all hate reUgion, for he was 
 incapable through his conceited no- 
 tions. 
 
 "Thus Swedenborg's writings are 
 a recapitulation of all superficial 
 
 38 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 opinions, and an analysis of the more 
 sublime, but no further. 
 
 "Have now another plain fact: any 
 man of mechanical talents may from 
 the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob 
 Behmen produce ten thousand volumes 
 of equal value with Swedenborg's, and 
 from those of Dante or Shakespeare an 
 infinite number. 
 
 "But when he has done this, let 
 him not say that he knows better than 
 his master, for he only holds a candle 
 in sunshine." 
 
 39 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 A MEMORABLE FANCY 
 
 Once I saw a Devil in a flame of 
 fire, who arose before an Angel that 
 sat on a cloud, and the Devil uttered 
 these words: "The worship of God is, 
 honouring His gifts in other men each 
 according to his genius, and loving 
 the greatest men best. Those who 
 envy or calumniate great men hate 
 God, for there is no other God." 
 
 The Angel hearing this became 
 almost blue, but mastering himself he 
 grew yellow, and at last white-pink 
 and smiling, and then replied: "Thou 
 idolater, is not God One? and is not 
 He visible in Jesus Christ? and has 
 not Jesus Christ given His sanction to 
 the law of ten commandments? and 
 are not all other men fools, sinners, 
 and nothings?" 
 
 40 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 The Devil answered: "Bray a fool 
 in a mortar with wheat, yet shall not 
 his folly be beaten out of him. If 
 Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you 
 ought to love Him in the greatest 
 degree. Now hear how He has given 
 His sanction to the law of ten com- 
 mandments. Did He not mock at the 
 Sabbath, and so mock the Sabbath's 
 God? murder those who were mur- 
 dered because of Him? turn away the 
 law from the woman taken in adultery, 
 steal the labour of others to support 
 Him? bear false witness when He 
 omitted making a defence before 
 Pilate? covet when He prayed for His 
 disciples, and when He bid them 
 shake off the dust of their feet against 
 such as refused to lodge them? I tell 
 you, no virtue can exist without break- 
 ing these ten commandments. Jesus 
 was all virtue, and acted from im- 
 pulse, not from rules." 
 
 41 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 When he had so spoken, I beheld 
 the Angel, who stretched out his arms 
 embracing the flame of fire, and he 
 was consumed, and arose as Elijah. 
 
 Note. — This Angel, who is now 
 become a Devil, is my particular 
 friend; we often read the Bible to- 
 gether in its infernal or diabolical 
 sense, which the world shall have if 
 they behave well. 
 
 I have also the Bible of Hell, which 
 the world shall have whether they 
 will or no. 
 
 One law for the lion and ox is Op- 
 pression. 
 
 42 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 A SONG OF LIBERTY 
 
 1. The Eternal Female groan'd; it 
 was heard over all the earth: 
 
 2. Albion's coast is sick silent; the 
 American meadows faint. 
 
 3. Shadows of prophecy shiver 
 along by the lakes and the rivers, and 
 mutter across the ocean. France, 
 rend down thy dungeon! 
 
 4. Golden Spain, burst the barriers 
 of old Rome ! 
 
 5. Cast thy keys, Rome, into 
 the deep — down falling, even to 
 eternity down falling; 
 
 6. And weep! 
 
 7. In her trembling hands she took 
 the new-born terror, howling. 
 
 8. On those infinite mountains 
 of light now barr'd out by the Atlantic 
 
 43 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 sea, the new-born fire stood before the 
 starry king. 
 
 9. Flagg'd with grey-browM snows 
 and thunderous visages, the jealous 
 wings wavM over the deep. 
 
 10. The speary hand burn'd aloft; 
 unbuckled was the shield; forth went 
 the hand of jealousy among the flam- 
 ing hair, and hurl'd the new-born 
 wonder through the starry night. 
 
 11. The fire, the fire is falling ! 
 
 12. Look up! look up! citizen 
 of London, enlarge thy countenance! 
 O Jew, leave counting gold; return to 
 thy oil and wine! African, black 
 African! (Go, winged thought, widen 
 his forehead.) 
 
 13. The fiery limbs, the flaming hair 
 shot like the sinking sun into the 
 Western sea. 
 
 14. WakM from his eternal sleep, 
 the hoary element roaring fled away. 
 
 44 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 15. Down rush'd, beating his wings 
 in vain, the jealous king, his grey- 
 brow'd councillors, thunderous war- 
 riors, curl'd veterans, among helms 
 and shields, and chariots, horses, ele- 
 phants, banners, castles, slings, and 
 rocks. 
 
 16. Falling, rushing, ruining; 
 buried in the ruins, on Urthona's 
 dens. 
 
 17. All night beneath the ruins; 
 then their sullen flames, faded, emerge 
 round the gloomy king. 
 
 18. With thunder and fire, leading 
 his starry hosts through the waste 
 wilderness, he promulgates his ten 
 commandments, glancing his beamy 
 eyelids over the deep in dark dismay. 
 
 19. Where the Son of Fire in his 
 Eastern cloud, while the Morning 
 plumes her golden breast, 
 
 20. Spuming the clouds written 
 
 45 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF 
 
 with curses, stamps the stony law to 
 dust, loosing the eternal horses from 
 the dens of night, crying: "Empire is 
 no more! and now the lion and wolf 
 shall cease." 
 
 46 
 
HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 CHORUS 
 
 Let the Priests of the Raven of 
 Dawn, no longer in deadly black, with 
 hoarse note curse the Sons of Joy. 
 Nor his accepted brethren whom, 
 tyrant, he calls free, lay the bound or 
 build the roof. Nor pale religious 
 lechery call that virginity that wishes, 
 but acts not ! 
 
 For everything that lives is holy. 
 
 47 
 
W2 
 

 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 ■»• 
 
 
 
 •.»* ^^ 
 
 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: March 2009 
 
 PreservationTechnologiej 
 
 \^^ *0 • » A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESER VATIC 
 
 "*■ 111 Thomson Park Drive 
 
 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 (724)779-2111 
 
 A«\.Oil 
 

 
 /^i;^%'^^?""v< 
 
 ■^0