MARGINALIA, II
From NOTES ON SPURZHEIM’S “OBSERVATIONS ON THE DERANGED MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MIND, OR INSANITY” LONDON 1817
(1819)
Cowper came to me and said: “0 that I were insane
always. I will never rest. Can you not make me truly insane? I will
never rest till I am so. O that in the bosom of God I was hid. You
retain health and yet are as mad as any of us all—over us all—mad
as a refuge from unbelief—from Baoon, Newton and Locke.”
From ANNOTATIONS TO “POEMS” BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH VOL. I, LONDON 1815
(1826)
I see in Wordsworth the Natural Man rising up
against the Spiritual Man Continually, & then he is No Poet but
a Heathen Philosopher at Enmity against all true Poetry or
Inspiration.
There is no such Thing as Natural Piety Because The
Natural Man is at Enmity with God.
I cannot think that Real Poets have any
competition. None are greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven; it is so
in Poetry.
Natural Objects always did & now do weaken,
deaden & obliterate Imagination in Me. Wordsworth must know
that what he Writes Valuable is Not to be found in Nature.
I Believe both Macpherson & Chatterton, that
what they say is Ancient Is so.
I own myself an admirer of Ossian equally with any
other Poet whatever, Rowley & Chatterton also.
Imagination has nothing to do with Memory.
From ANNOTATIONS TO DR. THORNTON’S “NEW TRANSLATION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER” LONDON 1827
(1827)
I look upon this as a Most Malignant & Artful
attack upon the Kingdom of Jesus By the Classical Learned, thro’
the Instrumentality of Dr. Thornton. The Greek & Roman Classics
is the Anthichrist. I say Is & Not Are as most expressive &
correct too. [on the title-page]
Christ & his Apostles were Illiterate Men;
Caiaphas, Pilate & Herod were Learned.
If Morality was Christianity, Socrates was The
Savior.
The Beauty of the Bible is that the most Ignorant
& Simple Minds Understand it Best—Was Johnson hired to Pretend
to Religious Terrors while he was an Infidel, or how was it?
The only thing for Newtonian & Baconian
Philosophers to Consider is this: Whether Jesus did not suffer
himself to be Mock’d by Caesar’s Soldiers Willingly, & to
Consider this to all Eternity will be Comment Enough.
It is the learned that Mouth, & not the
Vulgar.
Lawful Bread, Bought with Lawful Money, & a
Lawful Heaven, seen thro’ a Lawful Telescope, by means of Lawful
Window Light! The Holy Ghost, & whatever cannot be Taxed, is
Unlawful & Witchcraft.
Spirits are Lawful, but not Ghosts; especially
Royal Gin is Lawful Spirit. No Smuggling real British Spirit &
Truth!
Give us the Bread that is our due & Right, by
taking away Money, or a Price, or Tax upon what is Common to all in
thy Kingdom.
Jesus, our Father, who art in thy heaven call’d by
thy Name the Holy Ghost, Thy Kingdom on Earth is Not, nor thy Will
done, but Satan’s, who is God of this World, the Accuser. Let his
Judgment be Forgiveness that he may be cursed on his own
throne.
Give us This Eternal Day our own right Bread by
taking away Money or debtor Tax & Value or Price, as [words
illegible] have all the Common [several words illegible]
among us. Every thing has as much right to Eternal Life as God, who
is the Servant of Man. His Judgment shall be Forgiveness that he
may be consum’d on his own Throne.
Leave us not in Parsimony, Satan’s Kingdom;
liberate us from the Natural Man & [words illegible]
Kingdom.
For thine is the Kingdom & the Power & the
Glory & not Ceasar’s or Satan’s. Amen.
Doctor Thornton’s Tory Translation, Translated out
of its disguise in the Classical & Scotch languages into the
vulgar English.
Our Father Augustus Ceasar, who art in these thy
Substantial Astronomical Telescopic Heavens, Holiness to thy Name
or Title, & reverence to thy Shadow. Thy Kingship come upon
Earth first & then in Heaven. Give us day by day our Real Taxed
Substantial Money bought Bread; deliver from the Holy Ghost
whatever cannot be Taxed; for all is debts & Taxes between
Caesar & us & one another; lead us not to read the Bible,
but let our Bible be Virgil & Shakespeare; & deliver us
from Poverty in Jesus, that Evil One. For thine is the Kingship,
[or] Allegoric Godship, & the Power, or War, & the Glory,
or Law, Ages after Ages in thy descendants; for God is only an
Allegory of Kings & nothing Else. AMEN.
MIRTH AND HER COMPANIONS
(1820)
[Engraved beneath a print of the first
subject illustrating Milton’s L’Allegro.]
Solomon says, “Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity,”
& What can be Foolisher than this?
NOTE IN CENNINI’S “TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA” ROMA. MDCCCXXI
(1822)
The Pope supposes Nature & the Virgin Mary to
be the same allegorical personages, but the Protestant considers
Nature as incapable of bearing a Child.
NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO DANTE
(1825-1827)
[On design no. 7, a map of the classical
conception of the Universe, written in the circles surrounding the
central figure of Homer.]
Every thing in Dante’s Comedia shews That for
Tyrannical Purposes he has made This World the Foundation of All,
& the Goddess Nature Mistress; Nature is his Inspirer & not
... the Holy Ghost. As Poor Shakspeare said: “Nature, thou art my
“Goddess.”
Round Purgatory is Paradise, & round Paradise
is Vacuum or Limbo, so that Homer is the Center of All—I mean the
Poetry of the Heathen, Stolen & Perverted from the Bible, not
by Chance but by design, by the Kings of Persia & their
Generals, The Greek Heroes & lastly by the Romans.
Swedenborg does the same in saying that in this
World is the Ultimate of Heaven. This is the most damnable Falshood
of Satan & his Antichrist.
On design no. 16, The Goddess
Fortune.
The Goddess Fortune is the devil’s servant, ready
to Kiss any one’s Arse.
On design no. 101, a diagram of the
Circles of Hell.
It seems as if Dante’s supreme Good was something
Superior to the Father or Jesus; for if he gives his rain to the
Evil & the Good, & his Sun to the Just & the Unjust, He
could never have Built Dante’s Hell, nor the Hell of the Bible
neither, in the way our Parsons explain it—It must have been
originally Formed by the devil Himself; & So I understand it to
have been.
This [the diagram] is Upside Down When
view’d from Hell’s gate, which ought to be at top, But right When
View’d from Purgatory after they have passed the Center.
In Equivocal Worlds Up & Down are
Equivocal.
Whatever Book is for Vengeance for Sin &
Whatever Book is Against the Forgiveness of Sins is not of the
Father, but of Satan the Accuser & Father of Hell.