Page:William Blake (Symons).djvu/314

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WILLIAM BLAKE

occupying his mind about political objects. Yet this did not appear to affect his estimation of Dante's genius, or his opinion of the truth of Dante's visions. Indeed, when he even declared Dante to be an Atheist, it was accompanied by expression of the highest admiration; though, said he, Dante saw Devils where I saw none.[1]

I put down in my journal the following insulated remarks. Jacob Böhmen was placed among the divinely inspired men. He praised also the designs to Law's translation of Böhmen. Michael Angelo could not have surpassed them.

'Bacon, Locke, and Newton are the three great teachers of Atheism, or Satan's Doctrine,' he asserted.

'Irving is a highly gifted man—he is a sent man;

  1. Crossed out: 'Yet this did not appear to] affect the truth of his Visions. I could not reconcile this with his blaming Wordsworth for being a Platonist not a Christian. He asked whether Wordsworth acknowledged the Scriptures as Divine, and declared on my answering in the affirmative that the Introduction to the Excursion had troubled him so as to bring on a fit of illness. The passage that offended Blake was

    'Jehovah with his thunder and the choir
    Of shouting Angels and the empyreal throne,
    I pass them unalarmed.

    '"Does Mr. Wordsworth," said Blake, "think his mind can surpass Jehovah's." I tried in vain to rescue Wordsworth from the imputation of being a Pagan or perhaps an Atheist, but this did not rob him of the character of being the great poet. Indeed Atheism meant but little in Blake's mind as will hereafter appear. Therefore when he declared [Dante to be an Atheist, etc."

    In the margin: See of Wordsworth as Blake judged of him, p. 46 et seq. (i.e. p. 296 below).