The Marriage of Heaven and HellLuciferianismMystical / EsotericEnglishShareThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell 5Project Gutenberg - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableProject GutenbergLanguageEnglishEspañol‹The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 2The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 3The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 4The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 5The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 6The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 7The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 8The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 9The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 10›A Memorable FancyThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell 5ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spoke to them, and whether they did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood, and so be the cause of imposition. 2Isaiah answered: "I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception: but my senses discovered the infinite in everything; and as I was then persuaded, and remained confirmed, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences, but wrote." 3Then I asked: "Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?" 4He replied: "All poets believe that it does, and in ages of imagination this firm persuasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm persuasion of anything." 5Then Ezekiel said: "The philosophy of the East taught the first principles of human perception; some nations held one principle for the origin, and 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 and Philosophers of other countries, and prophesying that all Gods would at last be proved to originate in ours, and to be the tributaries of the Poetic Genius. It was this that our great poet King David desired so fervently, and invokes so pathetically, saying by this he conquers enemies and 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. 6"This," said he, "like all firm persuasions, is come to pass, for all nations believe the Jews' code, and worship the Jews' God; and what greater subjection can be?" 7I heard this with some wonder, and must confess my own conviction. After dinner I asked Isaiah to favour the world with his lost works; he said none of equal value was lost. Ezekiel said the same of his. 8I also asked Isaiah what made him go naked and barefoot three years. He answered: "The same that made our friend Diogenes the Grecian." 9I then asked Ezekiel why he ate dung, and lay so long on his right and left side. He answered: "The desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite. This the North American tribes practise. And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience, only for the sake of present ease or gratification?" 10The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell. 11For 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 and corrupt. 12This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment. 13But 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. 14If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. 15For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern. ‹Previous chapterThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell 4Next chapterThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell 6›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the United States via Project Gutenberg