FURTHER IDEAS (OF GOOD AND EVIL) INTRODUCTION, Keys, and EpiloOGUE TO THE GATES OF PARADISE "FOR CHILDREN' (ENGRAVED 1793) WITH AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE, VERSES FROM LETTERS, ETC. 'The Gates of Paradise' is the title of a set of small engravings, some of which have been reprinted in Gilchrist's ‘Life.' A man drowning, one walking quickly near trees, a boy knocking down a Cupid like a butterfly with his hat, a caterpillar with a baby's face, some one wishing to mount to the moon, and other scattered fancies. There is no coherence in them. The verses here following were to serve as explanation. Sketches for the engravings occur in the centres of the pages of the manuscript book, and it must remain doubtful whether the title given since to the poems of various kinds written on the margins was not really designed by Blake for the engravings. The sixteenth line of the Keys of the Gates' gives colour to the suggestion. However this may be, Blake did not print the words Ideas of Good and Evil" at the head of these lines, nor did he cross them out, but left them, covering a whole page of his book, to the mercy of posterity, along with the mass of unsorted poetry that he wrote after them during a period of between ten and fifteen years. INTRODUCTION TO THE GATES MUTUAL forgiveness of each vice, Against the Accuser's chief desire, THE KEYS OF THE GATES THE caterpillar on the leaf In vain-glory hatched and nursed, Holy and cold, I clipped the wings EPILOGUE TO THE ACCUSER, WHO IS THE GOD OF THIS WORLD TRULY, my Satan, thou art but a dunce, And dost not know the garment from the man ; Every harlot was a virgin once, Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan. Though thou art worshipped by the names divine Of Jesus and Jehovah, thou art still The son of morn in weary night's decline, The lost traveller's dream under the hill. 2 3 5 AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE (Not printed or engraved by Blake. Date about 1793-4.) To see a world in a grain of sand, The following were perhaps meant to be called Auguries of Innocence also. Mr. Herne Shepherd, who seems to have had access to Blake's manuscript of the piece, thinks so, as does Mr. Rossetti. Mr. Shepherd's text is here followed blindly, as he is more generally strict than Mr. Rossetti. Mr. Yeats's suggestion to call the couplets proverbs is not adopted, as there is no Blakean authority for it, and it might add a difficulty of reference on account of the 'Proverbs of Hell,' Blake's own title for a section of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell.' A ROBIN REDBREAST in a cage A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state. A horse misused upon the road A skylark wounded on the wing Doth make a cherub cease to sing. The game-cock clipped and armed for fight 7 8 |