Page:William Blake, his life, character and genius.djvu/121

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Draw in the ocean? does his eye discern the flying cloud
As the raven's eye? or does he measure the expanse like the vulture?

"Does the still spider view the cliffs where eagles hide their young?
Or does the fly rejoice because the harvest is brought in?
Does not the eagle scorn the earth and despise the treasures beneath?
But the mole knoweth what is there, and the worm shall tell it thee!"

So subtle is the blended harmony of music and thought that one is tempted to go on quoting; but the above must be sufficient, though the seductive strain continues to the end, where we have a repetition of the words that close The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

Arise, you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy!
Arise and drink your bliss! For everything that lives is holy!"

This is the prophet's justification for the advocacy of unrestrained indulgence of natural desires which is the sole and most lucidly stated motive of the poem. Many would doubtless condemn Blake for what they would consider its immoral tendency; but no one reading the poem with a pure mind can find it impure or immoral. It is simply a prophecy of what may be—of what, as he thought, will be, when humanity has grown out of its present tyrannical subjection to evil law and custom, the invention of a God (Theo) who torments (tormon). This "Prophecy" was, like the