Песни Невинности и Опыта - Страница 16
How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?
Proverbs of Hell.
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity. He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time. The busy bee has no time for sorrow. The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no measure.
All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap. Bring out number weight measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high. if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body. revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Prides cloke.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of 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.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself. Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
Let man wear the fell of the lion. woman the fleece of the sheep.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
The selfish smiling fool. the sullen frowning fool shall be both thought wise. that they may be a rod.
What is now proved was once, only imagin'd. The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet; watch the roots, the the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits.
The cistern contains: the fountain overflows One thought. fills immensity. Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
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
The fox provides for himself. but God provides for the lion. Think in the morning, Act in the noon, Eat in the evening, Sleep He who has sufferd you to impose on him knows you. As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction
Expect poison from the standing water.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than
Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the
The weak in courage is strong in cunning. The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the how he shall take his prey. The thankful reciever bears a plentiful harvest.
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 As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, lays his curse on the fairest joys.
To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
Damn. braces: Bless relaxes.
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 Proportion.
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl, that every thing
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox. he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius. t148
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
Enough! or Too much
The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged numerous senses could percieve. And particularly they studied the genius of each city country. placing it under its mental deity. Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood. Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things. Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.
A Memorable Fancy.
The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert. that God spake to them; and whether they did not think at the time, that they would be misunderstood, so be the cause of imposition. Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God. nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded. remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote. Then I asked: does a firm perswasion that a thing is so, make it He replied. All poets believe that it does, in ages of
this firm perswasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm perswasion of any thing. Then Ezekiel said. The philosophy of the east taught the first principles of human perception some nations held one principle for the origin some another, we of Israel taught that the Poetic Genius (as you now call it) was the first principle and all the others merely derivative, which was the cause of our despising the Priests Philosophers of other countries, and propheying that all Gods would at last be proved. to originate in ours to be the tributaries of the Poetic Genius, it was this. that our great poet King David desired so fervently invokes so patheticly, saying by this he conquers enemies governs kingdoms; and we so loved our God. that we cursed in his name all the deities of surrounding nations, and asserted that they had rebelled; from these opinions the vulgar came to think that all nations would at last be subject to the jews. This said he, like all firm perswasions, is come to pass, for all nations believe the jews code and worship the jews god, and what greater subjection can be I heard this with some wonder, must confess my own conviction. After dinner I ask'd Isaiah to favour the world with his lost works, he said none of equal value was lost. Ezekiel said the same of his. I also asked Isaiah what made him go naked and barefoot three years? he answerd, the same that made our friend Diogenes the I then asked Ezekiel. why he eat dung, lay so long on his right left side? he answerd. the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite this the North American tribes practise. is he honest who resists his genius or conscience. only for the sake of present ease or gratification? The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true. as I have heard from For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite. and holy whereas it now appears finite corrupt. This will come to pass by a improvement of sensual enjoyment. But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.