But the notes here have no room for an interpretation of Blake, and only aim at giving useful hints as to what mood of our own minds to seek in, or what habit of his pen to study, or portion of his books to read when interpreting suggestions are desired.

'Reason once fairer than the light' is of course the germ of the idea to be called Urizen presently, and the Melancholy, that Conscience (first set as his guard) brought down, is partly the parent idea of Ahania, who afterwards had visions that were full of wisdom, though Urizen cast her down and cast her out, when he became 'fouled in Knowledge's dark prison-house.'

Conscience is not, in Blake's language, the attribute which our newspapers teach us to attribute especially to Nonconformists. He has himself said in a prose paragraph that he means by it Innate Science, by which he seems to have meant transcendental intuition, or the faculty that Swedenborg called the 'celestial man.' This explains the last line of 'Vala.'

The lake called Oblivion afterwards revealed itself as the lake called Udan Adan in Jerusalem,' into which man should cast his selfish reasoning power that teaches him to be separate from his fellow man, and that Blake calls his 'spectre.'

The passage about Knowledge driving Innocence away helps to show Blake's idea of Knowledge, as meaning the source of argument, the 'knowledge of good and evil.' Argument is symbolised by the sexual warfare, and must be read with this later dictum 'Innocence dwells with wisdom, but not with ignorance.' 'Conscience,' or 'innate science,' is, of course, not 'ignorance.'

In the passage where the song goes on telling how Pride against her father warred,' we see into that part of Blake's mind where the foundation of the myth of Urizen and the Net of Religion was laid. Shame and Pride are both Rahab afterwards, and_the_binding fast done by the spirits (or gods) of the thunder-cloud is the enrooting round Urizen of the Tree of Mystery. There are (we shall learn) two clouds, that of blood and that of human souls. The blood-cloud (Rahab's red cord in the window) is now sending out its 'bands of influence' against Urizen-now the Father of Pride. Rahab is herself the Tree, and Shame is part of her Mystery.

But so paradoxical are the generations of these human qualities that they act just as living people do who, when their families are of the nobility or gentry, and have self-admiring thoughts about their name and order, that make nine out of ten of them brave, delicate, kind, and true, and the tenth the blackest of black sheep. That is because Men they seem to one another.' See Vala,' Night VIII., line 119, and Blake's'

notes to Swedenborg, printed in 'The Real Blake,' published also by Mr. Grant Richards.

In this poem the qualities change their sexes at will. Shame opposing' and 'hovering o'er' fructifies, as a male, Pride, who is female, and who consequently had issue-she 'brought forth Rage.' Shame becomes female, bears ‘Honour,' and makes league with' Pride, the two fusing once more into what will later on be the state called Rahab. Such is the result of the amazing liberty of mind that we have in considering these symbols, after allowing to them the qualities described in the opening lines here-qualities that are natural in snails, perhaps, who are all Hermaphrodites, but inconceivable except in a mystic sense if applied to human beings. But if we keep the mystic sense close before us-that is to say, keep thinking of the actual facts of human states underlying the type, while not forgetting the appearance of the type-we shall not lose our way. Blake did not lose his, though there seem to be here and there contradictions at first sight; for example, it will be seen later that the 'spectre' is a guard in Jerusalem,' and that an emanation, 'Leutha,' is a guard in 'Milton.'

The Song of Experience called To Tirzah,' and the whole of the Prophetic Books,' especially 'Jerusalem,' are elaborations of the story of Shame and Pride, of wh a portion is found in this early and fragmentary poem.

POETICAL SKETCHES, ETC.

VOL 1,

3

POETICAL SKETCHES

8 173

TO SPRING

O THOU with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills do tell each other, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth,
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

Oh deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languished head,
Whose modest tresses were bound up for thee!

TO SUMMER

O THOU who passest through our valleys in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! Thou, O
Summer,