The cover of this book was created by the transcriber and is placedin the public domain.
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN
AND HELL
THE MARRIAGE OF
HEAVEN AND HELL
BY
WILLIAM BLAKE
BOSTON
JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY
1906
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN
AND HELL
THE ARGUMENT
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
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.
And a river and a spring
On every cliff and tomb;
[6]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.
In mild humility;
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
As a new heaven is begun, and it isnow thirty-three years since its advent,the Eternal Hell revives. And lo!Swedenborg is the angel sitting atthe tomb: his writings are the linenclothes folded up. Now is the dominionof Edom, and the return of Adaminto Paradise.—See Isaiah xxxiv. andxxxv. chap.
Without contraries is no progression.Attraction and repulsion, reasonand energy, love and hate, arenecessary to human existence.
From these contraries spring whatthe religious call Good and Evil.Good is the passive that obeys reason;Evil is the active springing fromEnergy.
Good is heaven. Evil is hell.
THE VOICE OF THE DEVIL
All Bibles or sacred codes have beenthe cause of the following errors:—
1. That man has two real existingprinciples, viz., a Body and a Soul.
2. That Energy, called Evil, is alonefrom the Body; and that Reason, calledGood, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment man inEternity for following his Energies.
But the following contraries tothese are true:—
1. Man has no Body distinct from hisSoul. For that called Body is a portionof Soul discerned by the five senses,the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life, and is fromthe Body; and Reason is the boundor outward circumference of Energy.
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