William Blake "If the doors of perception were cleansed,  Galleryeverything would appear to man as it is: Infinite." Extracts from a letter to William Hayley, October 7, 1803 "Art in London flourishes. Engravers in particular are wanted. Every engraver turns away work that he cannot execute from his superabundant employment. Yet no one brings work to me. I am content that it shall be so as long as God pleases... Yet I laugh & sing, for if on earth neglected I am in heaven a prince among princes, & even on earth beloved by the good as a good man... For as man liveth not by bread alone, I shall live altho' I should want bread - nothing is necessary to me but to do my duty & to rejoice in the exceeding joy that is always poured out on my Spirit, to pray that my friends & you above the rest may be partakers of the joy that the world cannot conceive, that you may still be replenish'd with the same & be as you always have been, a glorious & triumphant dweller in immortality... Some say that happiness is not good for mortals, & they ought to be answer'd that sorrow is not fit for immortals & is utterly useless to any one; a blight never does good to a tree, & if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit, let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight." On Knowledge and Discrimination The writings of great philosophers are normally addressed to our rationality but sometimes they are not. Many facets of reality cannot be comprehended by the brain and so we need to have experiences rather than thoughts. The words are then intended to be absorbed by our heart or intuition or by our Spirit. Thus William Blake wrote: "Knowledge is not by deduction, but immediate by perception or sense at once. Christ addresses himself to the man, not to his reason. Plato did not bring life & immortality to light. Jesus only did this... Jesus supposes everything to be evident to the child & to the poor & unlearned. Such is the Gospel." Leo Tolstoy "The more everybody lives, the more life reveals to him; What was unknown becomes known." |
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