Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/25

 Rh power of the passions, whether devouring loves or destructive angers, when mind has gone down into the darkness of experience from the light of imagination, as when "Urizen fell as the midday Sun falls down into the West" ("Vala," Night VI., 1. 258). The last verse tells of regeneration. The lion is Bintrah, with the companion symbol " gold," and stands for the re-risen Urizen. The lions and tigers, &c., are "animal forms of wisdom" ("Vala," Night IX., 11. 701, 830).

The "Infant Joy" is the same referred to in "Vala," Night I., 1. 48, and "Jerusalem," p. 22, 1. 22.

In "A Dream," the next song, a story is told of insects that is evidently the same as that of the "Little Boy Lost." The "human forms" of these insects are referred to, for when they feel, God feels, Humanity, who " suffers with those that suffer" ("Jerusalem," p. 25, 1. 7), and "Man looks out in tree and herb and fish and beast," for these contain the "scattered portions of his immortal body" ("Vala," Night VIII. 1.553, &c). When the dead wake these scattered portions, furious forms of Tharmas, humanize, with joy,—"Vala," Night IX., 1. 607,—their description is in the lines immediately preceding—590-606.

The song, "On another's Sorrow," is practically an explanation of " Night," as the words,

" . . sit beside the nest, Pouring pity in their breast,"

indicate, with their parallel expression,

"Pour sleep on their head, And sit down by the bed."

The former line being the subject of the first illustration to the First Night of Young's "Night Thoughts."

In the last, the " Voice of the Ancient Bard," the symbolic intention of all is made clear. Morn is identified with the Image of Truth. The word Image here explains the use of the term Imagination, as equivalent to Christ as a spiritual body divinely present in each heart. Doubt, Clouds, and