June Singer – William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell”: A Jungian Commentary
The “Proverbs”
The essential elements of William Blake’s credo are already discernible in his early work, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, of which· ·one section is entitled “Proverbs of Hell.m Later, in the prophetic books, he expanded this credo and followed it through all its ramifications but the essential nuclei of meaning are, as we shall see, scattered through the “Proverbs.”
They appear particularly evident in the following precepts,2 which have been chosen for discussion:
“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of
Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the
stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity,
too great for the eye of man.
Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet watch the roots; the lion,
the tyger, the horse, the elephant watch the fruits.
The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.
One thought fills immensity.
Every thing possible to be believ’ d is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn
of the crow.
The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep
in the night.
As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more
than enough.
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard
of earth.
- The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow; nor the
lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
The soul of sweet delight can never be defil’ d.
When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; lift up
thy head!
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on.,
so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!
Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands
& feet Proportion.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox., he would be cunning.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not., nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood., and not be believ., d.
Enough! or Too much.-‘.,
The ·”Proverbs” have their sources in many different places. The very first: “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter en joy,” immediately calls to mind Ecclesiastes III: 1: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted . . .
” Blake has taken the familiar words and recast them in a new form, with that special air of effrontery to authority which typifies the “Proverbs of Hell.” It is, of course, the infernal view, and as such must turn everything over ·and look at it from the underside.
Most of Blake’s “Proverbs” were provoked by a popular book, Lavater’s Aphorisms on Man. Blake had annotated it about 1788, and obviously took issue with Lavater on many points. The vogue for aphorisms in the last days of the eighteenth century suggested that the individual does not need to think out his own morality. ‘As
might be expected, Blake took this attitude as a challenge, and acted upon it with vigor. Other well-read works of the day were the sayings of Fuseli, Ben Franklin’s Poor Richarid.,s Almanac., and Bishop Hall’s Meditations. Blake read and reacted to all of these, and the “Proverbs of Hell” reflected his reactions.
The key to his satire is his use of the very word “proverbs,” a word which denotes the imprimatur of time. There is insolence in his calling his new ideas “proverbs,” yet Blake writes with the devil’s authority which, it could be argued, has been accepted in certain circles since the beginning of time.
Blake’s work shows his reaction to the currently fashionable insistence up<:m. the virtues of moderation, humility, and self-denial.
He does not stop with questioning these values-,-he destroys them categorically with short, biting sentences, and in their place he leaves sharp challenge to the individual to pursue the path which is uniquely his.
Blake does not present an ordered plan for differentiating the various aspects of the individual man. Yet, in his spontaneous and inspired way he indicates a method of arranging the chaos that is hidden in the dim regions beyond man’s conscious awareness.
To comprehend Blake’s intention it is necessary to find the several threads of meaning which connect the “Proverbs” with one another. These are the threads that Blake wove into a shimmering cloth; they are the “stuff,” the material, of the creative process. The language is imagery,
pregnant with symbolic mystery, calling up far more in the way of emotional response than can be dealt with, here. However, it is hoped that by identifying some of the major themes. in the “Proverbs of Hell,” and discussing some other materials comparable to them, clues may be found to Blake’s understanding of man’s connection with the sources of energy available to him for creative activity.
Some
of the basic ordering themes that seem to be suggested by the
“Proverbs” are:
- The fourfold nature of man and of his relationship to the divine.
- The recognition that man ·must follow his inner necessity, as expressed in the desire that he feels.
III. The meaning and intrinsic value of each man’s individuality.
- The essential subjectivity of perception through the five senses, plus the non-sensory dimension of perception which is imagination.
- The necessity of knowing excess in order to approach balance.The establishment in life of an orderly system of alternation between purposive activity and restorative passivity, that is, between progression and regression. ~June Singer – William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell”: A Jungian Commentary
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