Plate 3 [Preface] (Illustration I)
Sheep goats
To the Public
After my three years slumber on the banks of the Ocean, I again
display my Giant forms to the Public: My former Giants & Fairies
having reciev'd the highest reward possible: the <love> and
<friendship> [5]
of those with whom to be connected, is to be <blessed>: I cannot
doubt that this more consolidated & extended Work, will be as kindly
recieved **************** The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the
Author hopes <*no** Rea*der will think presumptuousness or
arroganc[e] when he
is reminded that the Ancients entrusted*** their love to their
Writing, to [10]
the full as Enthusiastically as I have ** who Acknowledge mine for my
Saviour and Lord, for they were wholly absorb'd in their Gods.> I also
hope the Reader will be with me, wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who
is the God <of * Fire> and Lord <of * Love *> to whom the
Ancients
look'd
and saw his day afar off with trembling & amazement. [15]
The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who waits to
be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom, the Divine Body;
will never enter there. I am perhaps the most sinful of men! I pretend not
to holiness! yet I pretend to love, to see, to converse with daily, as man
with man, & the more to have an interest in the Friend [20]
of Sinners. Therefore <Dear> Reader, <forgive> what you
do not
approve, &
<love> me for this energetic exertion of my talent.
<** ** ** ** ** **>
Reader! <lover> of books! <lover> of heaven,
And of that God from whom <all books are given,>
Who in mysterious Sinais awful cave [25]
To Man the wond'rous art of writing gave.
Again he speaks in thunder and in fire!
Thunder of Thought, & flames of fierce desire:
Even from the depths of Hell his voice I hear,
Within the unfathomd caverns of my Ear. [30]
Therefore I print; nor vain my types shall be:
Heaven, Earth & Hell, henceforth shall live in harmony
********
**Of the Measure, in which***
the following Poem is written [34]
We who dwell on Earth can do nothing of ourselves, every thing is
conducted by Spirits, no less than Digestion or Sleep. <to[ ]> **
<the best words of Jesus, [ ]> ****When this Verse was first
dictated to me I consider'd a Monotonous Cadence like that used by Milton
& Shakspeare & all writers of *English *Blank Verse, derived***
[40] from the modern bondage of Rhyming; to be a necessary and
indispensible part of Verse. . . .
The "Sheep" and "goats" at the top, presumably divisions of "the
Public", are words not etched but engraved. They may have been added
when Blake was scratching out the terms of love addressed enthusiastically
to the Public in his first paragraphs.[13]
All copies seem to have been printed from the same state of the plate,
the relatively greater legibility of the deletions in the Morgan copy and (at
some points) in posthumous copies being the result merely of differences
in inking. The single deletions in lines 5, 6, 14, 21, 22, 23 can be read in
most copies; they are correctly transcribed in Keynes except for the capital
D in "Dear Reader" (line 21). In the Harvard copy the large
deletion of lines 9-12 is partly covered by drawings of vines, as also the
deletion in line 24, but the same impression marks are discernible beneath.
So are they in the Mellon copy, beneath washes and lines of color. Some
of the other deletions in the Morgan copy are hidden with vines, but not
these; for whatever reason the plate seems to have been inked and
impressed with particular care.
Details of restoration are given in my introductory remarks. Only the
final e of "arrogance" leaves no trace in any copy. The
deletions at the end of line 36 and in the second half of line 37 remain
baffling, although crumbs of some specific letters are visible and we are
obviously faced with deleted text, not ornament. In line 36 the phrase may
be "to Hear" or "to Note". In 37 the lower edge of a g seems
attached to the first d of "dictated" in the next line; another
g or a y is evident above the word "me".
Certain
ascending strokes are also to be made out.
It should be observed that the period given after "Sleep" in line 36
might be a comma. Blake used a dot-like mark that must be read sometimes
as comma, sometimes as period.
