Blake in Felpham

In 1800 the dinner table at the Blake's house was quite
lean;  William had written magnificent poems, but with
little financial recompense.  His artistic creations were
virtually unknown.

In spite of that Blake was no recluse and had quite a
number of friends.  Among them was a man named Hayley,
known as a poetaster, who lived on the sea in Felpham.
Hayley befriended Blake and deigned to sponsor him; his
sponsorship consisted among other things in providing him
a cottage in Felpham.  He also attempted to  steer Blake in
the direction of artistic success and profit.

On first arrival at the cottage Blake was delighted.  He wrote
to a true friend, Thomas Butts as follows:

      " Work will go on here with God speed--. A roller & two
harrows lie before my window. I met  a  plow on my first going
out at my gate the first morning after my  arrival & the Plowboy
said to the Plowman. "Father The Gate is  Open" (Letter to Butts
Erdman 711) (Is this where he got the idea for the plow and harrow
in Milton?)
   
Every artist has the dilemma of becoming 'commercial' or
starving to death. Blake had been dealing with this all
his life.  Hayley meant to show him how to succeed and put
him to work painting miniatures.  But Blake came to realize
that it betrayed his true (and higher) calling.

("Mark well my words! Corporeal Friends are Spiritual
Enemies)" (M4.26; E98|

"O God protect me from my friends, that they have not
power over me Thou hast giv'n me power to protect myself
from my bitterest enemies." (M9.5-6;   E102) 

Blake eventually chose poverty in London  over Hayley's form
of 'success'--lucky for us if not for his dinner.

Blake in Felpham

In 1800 the dinner table at the Blake's house was quite
lean;  William had written magnificent poems, but with
little financial recompense.  His artistic creations were
virtually unknown.

In spite of that Blake was no recluse and had quite a
number of friends.  Among them was a man named Hayley,
known as a poetaster, who lived on the sea in Felpham.
Hayley befriended Blake and deigned to sponsor him; his
sponsorship consisted among other things in providing him
a cottage in Felpham.  He also attempted to  steer Blake in
the direction of artistic success and profit.

On first arrival at the cottage Blake was delighted.  He wrote
to a true friend, Thomas Butts as follows:

      " Work will go on here with God speed--. A roller & two
harrows lie before my window. I met  a  plow on my first going
out at my gate the first morning after my  arrival & the Plowboy
said to the Plowman. "Father The Gate is  Open" (Letter to Butts
Erdman 711) (Is this where he got the idea for the plow and harrow
in Milton?)
   
Every artist has the dilemma of becoming 'commercial' or
starving to death. Blake had been dealing with this all
his life.  Hayley meant to show him how to succeed and put
him to work painting miniatures.  But Blake came to realize
that it betrayed his true (and higher) calling.

("Mark well my words! Corporeal Friends are Spiritual
Enemies)" (M4.26; E98|

"O God protect me from my friends, that they have not
power over me Thou hast giv'n me power to protect myself
from my bitterest enemies." (M9.5-6;   E102) 

Blake eventually chose poverty in London  over Hayley's form
of 'success'--lucky for us if not for his dinner.

Fourfold Vision

At the end of his letter To Thomas Butts, 22 November 1802
(Erdman #22 pages 720-22) we read:

"Now I a fourfold vision see
And a fourfold vision is given to me
Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And three fold in soft Beulahs night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newtons sleep"

There he explains as best one can what he meant by the
four kinds of vision:

By single vision he meant a purely materialistic outlook,

without any comprehension of any non material things such

as love, intellect, etc. A great many people live on this

level; as Paul would say, 'their God is their belly'.

With a minimal inkling of the non material one might be

said to have twofold vision, an awareness that there's

something beyond dollars and things-what Ellie would call

a reasoning mind.

But Blake in an earlier passage of the same letter has

this to say,

"For double the vision my Eyes do see

And a double vision is always with me

With my inward Eye 'tis an old Man grey

With my outward a Thistle across my way"

(You might say that Blake started the poem with a duality

and ended it with a quaternity.)

By threefold vision Blake has referred to those at the

doorstep of Eternity, moving toward it or coming from it;

Beulah is a pleasant place for Eternals, but a dangerous place.

The danger is lapsing into the mortal sleep that robs one

of the eternal consciousness and drives him back to single

vision.

So there's a parallel between the four kinds of vision and

the four levels of being:

Single vision is associated with Ulro (Blake called it hell).

Double vision is associated with Generation.

Threefold vision is associated with Beulah.

Fourfold vision is associated with Eternity (or heaven).

(Generation is one of Blake's most difficult concepts.

Damon (150-51) gives us many occurrences of it. One clue

is found in Plate 7 of Jerusalem:

64 "And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction

65 Of Jerusalem, become her covering. till the time of the End.

66 O holy Generation! [image] of regeneration!

67 O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!

68 Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!"

Generation enables incarnation. We are all incarnated

and potential lambs of His flock, even the Tyger.

All of Blake's works might be considered in the form of an

admonition "AWAKE! AWAKE!", the same one that was

constantly on the lips of Jesus.

Fourfold Vision

At the end of his letter To Thomas Butts, 22 November 1802
(Erdman #22 pages 720-22) we read:

 "Now I a fourfold vision see
     And a fourfold vision is given to me
     Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
     And three fold in soft Beulahs night
     And twofold Always.  May God us keep
     From Single vision & Newtons sleep"

There he explains as best one can what he meant by the
four kinds of vision:

By single vision he meant a purely materialistic outlook,

without any comprehension of any non material things such

as love, intellect, etc. A great many people live on this

level; as Paul would say, 'their God is their belly'.

With a minimal inkling of the non material one might be

said to have twofold vision, an awareness that there's

something beyond dollars and things-what Ellie would call

a reasoning mind.

But Blake in an earlier passage of the same letter has

this to say,

   "For double the vision my Eyes do see

     And a double vision is always with me

     With my inward Eye 'tis an old Man grey

     With my outward a Thistle across my way"

(You might say that Blake started the poem with a duality

and ended it with a quaternity.)

By threefold vision Blake has referred to those at the

doorstep of Eternity, moving toward it or coming from it;

Beulah is a pleasant place for Eternals, but a dangerous place.

The danger is lapsing into the mortal sleep that robs one

of the eternal consciousness and drives him back to single

vision.

So there's a parallel between the four kinds of vision and

the four levels of being:

Single vision is associated with Ulro (Blake called it hell).

Double vision is associated with Generation.

Threefold vision is associated with Beulah.

Fourfold vision is associated with Eternity (or heaven).

(Generation is one of Blake's most difficult concepts.

Damon (150-51) gives us many occurrences of it.  One clue

is found in Plate 7 of Jerusalem:

64 "And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction

65 Of Jerusalem, become her covering. till the time of the End.

66 O holy Generation! [image]  of regeneration!

67 O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!

68 Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!"

Generation enables incarnation.  We are all incarnated

and potential lambs of His flock, even the Tyger.

All of Blake's works might be considered in the form of an

admonition "AWAKE! AWAKE!", the same one that was

constantly on the lips of Jesus.

PUTTING OFF ERROR

In reading Blake we may be reminded of the popular phrase 'deja vu, all over again.' Blake is trying to involve us in a process of relinquishing errors, of being melted down and remolded by Los into forms which can live the Imaginative life. Blake recognizes that becoming the selves we are meant to be, is not a one or two step process but involves multi-steps. The process he describes involves putting off errors by allowing them to take form and be recognized as error. When the error is shown to be unproductive, to be a determent to living as we want to live, we are better able to deal with it. We find that some errors repeatedly return, requiring us to expose them to the light more than once. In Blake's myth, Los is patient, casting forms into the furnace through 'six thousand years,' so that the the material can be hammered into the Human or Divine shape.

Los at His Furnace

In Vision of the Last Judgment (E562), Blake states:

"All Life consists of these Two Throwing off Error <& Knaves
 from our company> continually
& recieving Truth  Continually. he who is out of the Church &
opposes it is
no less an Agent of Religion than he who is in it. to be an Error
& to be Cast out is a part of Gods Design    No man can Embrace
True Art till he has Explord & Cast out False Art  or he will be
himself Cast out by those
who have Already Embraced True Art    Thus My Picture is a
History of Art & Science [& its]  Which is Humanity itself.  What
are all the Gifts of the
Spirit but Mental Gifts whenever any Individual Rejects Error &
Embraces Truth a Last Judgment passes upon that Individual"

Here is a quote from a Jungian psychologist, Rodney Ravenswood, which reflects Blakean themes of undergoing the changes necessary for transformation.

"To the extent that the persona is founded upon processes of denial it must eventually be shed/shattered in order to make way for any real growth in the personality. This is as true of the collective persona of national identity as it is of the individual self image. If the persona is to realise its potential to be that through which one's more authentic nature sounds (persona = to sound through), it must be grounded in an embrace and dialogue with the shadow as inner other."

Link to Ravenswood

PUTTING OFF ERROR

In reading Blake we may be reminded of the popular phrase 'deja vu, all over again.' Blake is trying to involve us in a process of relinquishing errors, of being melted down and remolded by Los into forms which can live the Imaginative life. Blake recognizes that becoming the selves we are meant to be, is not a one or two step process but involves multi-steps. The process he describes involves putting off errors by allowing them to take form and be recognized as error. When the error is shown to be unproductive, to be a determent to living as we want to live, we are better able to deal with it. We find that some errors repeatedly return, requiring us to expose them to the light more than once. In Blake's myth, Los is patient, casting forms into the furnace through 'six thousand years,' so that the the material can be hammered into the Human or Divine shape.

Los at His Furnace

In Vision of the Last Judgment (E562), Blake states:

"All Life consists of these Two Throwing off Error <& Knaves from our company> continually
& recieving Truth  Continually. he who is out of the Church &
opposes it is
no less an Agent of Religion than he who is in it. to be an Error
& to be Cast out is a part of Gods Design    No man can Embrace
True Art till he has Explord & Cast out False Art  or he will be
himself Cast out by those
who have Already Embraced True Art    Thus My Picture is a
History of Art & Science [& its]  Which is Humanity itself.  What
are all the Gifts of the
Spirit but Mental Gifts whenever any Individual Rejects Error &
Embraces Truth a Last Judgment passes upon that Individual"

Here is a quote from a Jungian psychologist, Rodney Ravenswood, which reflects Blakean themes of undergoing the changes necessary for transformation.

"To the extent that the persona is founded upon processes of denial it must eventually be shed/shattered in order to make way for any real growth in the personality. This is as true of the collective persona of national identity as it is of the individual self image. If the persona is to realise its potential to be that through which one's more authentic nature sounds (persona = to sound through), it must be grounded in an embrace and dialogue with the shadow as inner other."

Link to Ravenswood