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l: Is Blake saylngtwo different things when he says,"If the doors of perceptionwere

cleansedevery thing would appearto man as it is, Infinite" (plate l4), and when he says,
"Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast" (plate 11)? Is Blake
primarily interestedin knowing what things areas they really are , which he seemsto
define as containing the infinite (plate 12) or is he interestedin what things could be
made to be like, by the deitiesof our own imagination? Blake tells us of "Giants who
formed this world into its sensualexistenceand [who] now seemto live in chains." The
"chains" aremadeby the "cunning of weak and tame minds" (plate 16). Yet Blake has
Isaialrtell us that "in agesof imaginationthis firm perswasionremoved mountains" (plate
12; emphasismine). Why mountains?--isthis the natureof the chainsmade by the
cunningof weak andtameminds? A mountainwould seemto be a thing which one
^ \
{ftfr*') might find impossibleto 'take in" andyet denyits full sensuousimpact. If tle'tnfinite"
(
-
5v is expansive,undeniablguncontainable,energy,is a mountainan apt symbolof the
infinite? If it is, then is Blake implying that evenif our senseswere cleansedso we could
not be blinded to nature'sfull sensuouscharacter,so we would be like "the ancientPoets
Who animatedall sensibleobjectswith Godsor Geniuses,calling themby the namesand
adomingthem with the propertiesofwoods, rivers, mountains,lakes,cities, nations,and
whatevertheir enlargedandnumeroussensescould perciefi (plate I l; emphasismine),
of things in the world,
that we could move or rqrlace eventhis "larger" undemtanh"ng
with somethinggreater?Is Blaketelling us whatwe would perceivewith enlargedand
numeroussenses?He seemsto. Doesthis leavethe act of animatinginto a kind of
passive,automaticactivity, that follows oncewe haveaccuratelypercievedthe true
e natureof things? It seemsto-yet this seemsto offer us a limited conceptionof
ar\ . I rr
l\ i-"ei*,iot whereit serves'trerely''to recognize"Platonic" formftre "one thougtrt
:.?. _
{ ( ., tcN [that] fills immensity''(plate l0) is God's thoughtor our own. If it is God's, then our
-{\^,ea
purposeshouldbe to assignappropriatenamesto objects,like a'lnountain", that take
into considerationtheir God-givensensualproperties. If is our own thought,might we
t\{)
.'_ .rl \h' ^ ' i-ugr" it asmoving mountains?Doesit matterhow many senseswe have,andhow
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J cleanthey are,if we havean energeticimagination?
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 'lYanityoflluman Wishes"wastakenin light
#2: I amcuriousto knowhowJohnson's
Fabteof theBrr(:fl{;dlKk{aiculating
of Mandeville's thatthebusyhive--a
metaphor which seemsto be apt for Johnson'ssurvey of mankind. Johnson,like
Mandeville, observes"How rarely reasonguides the stubborn choice" (line I I ), but
Mandeville believes that, contra Johnson, that taken 'lvith [an] extensiveview," (line 1)
there is a kind of order formed out of the chaos: it builds a wealthy, successfulstate.
/
Hume argued something similar, where luxury seizedto be something (someoneactually-
-a insatiable woman) which ruined statesand insteadprovided the funding to sustain an

armed force more protective of a nation, than a Spartannation of men-at-arms.

#3: I agreewith your own experiencethat I will need to re-readmany of theselonger

poems before I can fairly say that I have read them: theseare very "thick" imaginative
worlds. Yet, after my first reading of "Vanity'' my first, and continuing feeling, is to end
the journey--Napofelnf Johnsonis akin to Blake's Swedenborgangel in that he seemto
want to end our own journey; he clearly doesnot believe that "the road of excels leads to
the palaceof wisdom" (pluf 7). Or doeshe? He could only tell us of the consequences
of desiresafter some acquaitancewith them. Is is that he "observes" and not
*o"tdrdtnJf;gf\is
desire?ferh$s whatJohnson
"experience" Blake'sproverbof
but actsnotbreeds
Hell: Heiho desires pestil htlJiy .!.3, ,ho.rldI explore
"n"t.
Johnson's creation.I guessit depends
expansive onwhetherI agreewith Blakethat
to learnof thecrow"(plate
"Theeagleneverlostsomuchtime,aswhenhesubmitted
10). And if even if it agreewith this, I must decide if Johnsonmore a crow than an
eagle--or somewherein between.