Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Selections from ‘Jerusalem’

[The Reasoning Power]

AND this is the manner of the Sons of Albion in their strength:

They take the Two Contraries which are call’d Qualities, with which

Every Substance is clothèd; they name them Good and Evil.

From them they make an Abstract, which is a Negation

Not only of the Substance from which it is derivèd,

A murderer of its own Body, but also a murderer

Of every Divine Member. It is the Reasoning Power,

An Abstract objecting power, that negatives everything.

This is the Spectre of Man, the Holy Reasoning Power,

And in its Holiness is closèd the Abomination of Desolation!