I may remark that Blake did not think he had invented new values, like
Nietzsche, in his indictment of the virtues. His language was his own, but
his conclusions were precisely the same as those of Wesley, Whitefield,
Bunyan, St Paul, when they, in effect, speak of man's righteousness as
filthy rags, and of his need to be clothed with the _living_ righteousness
of Christ before his garment can be reckoned beautiful and clean.
A few quotations from _Milton_ may be given as Blake's final word on
Hayley. I will write Hayley for Satan, and Blake for Palamabron.
"Blake, reddening like the Moon in an eclipse,
Spoke, saying, You know Hayley's mildness and his self-imposition;
Seeming a brother, being a tyrant, even thinking himself a brother
While he is murdering the just."
"How should Hayley know the duties of another?"
"Hayley wept,
And mildly cursing Blake, him accused of crimes himself had wrought."
"So Los said: Henceforth, Blake, let each his own station
Keep; nor in pity false, nor in officious brotherhood, where
None needs be active."
"But Hayley, returning to his Mills (for Blake had served
The Mills of Hayley as the easier task), found all confusion,
And back returned to Los, not filled with vengeance, but with tears.
Himself convinced of Blake's turpitude."
"Blake prayed:
O God protect me from my friends."
"For Hayley, flaming with Rintrah's fury hidden beneath his own mildness,
Accused Blake before the Assembly of ingratitude and malice."
"When Hayley, making to himself Laws from his own identity,
Compelled others to serve him in moral gratitude and submission."
"Leutha said: 'Entering the doors of Hayley's brain night after night,
Like sweet perfumes, I stupefied the masculine perceptions,
And kept only the feminine awake; hence rose his soft
Delusory love to Blake.'"
"The Gnomes cursed
Hayley bitterly,
To do unkind thinks in kindness, with power armed; to say
The most irritating things in the midst of tears and love--
These are the stings of the Serpent!"
These are enough to show Blake's method, and his remorseless understanding
of Hayley. There is present an irresistible touch of humour which
preserves them from being too bitter.
For the rest, the poem narrates Milton's encounter with Urizen; his going
down into self-annihilation and death; his judgment, and final redemption
as he ascends to the heaven of the imagination. Milton's heaven is then
the heaven of Jesus, and his hell remains its irreconcilable contrary.
In this poem Blake's full-grown mythology appears. The mythical persons,
places, states are ominously present; but since they appear with much more
particularity in _The Four Zoas_ and _Jerusalem_, I may pass to them to
extract what is necessary for understanding the mature Blake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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