CHAPTER III

The Pre-lapsarian State: the Opening Perspective of the Four Zoas

The structure of The Four Zoas, as given in Chapter II, indicates that Blake designed a unique cosmology for the purposes of the poem. This cosmology permitted him to create a symbolic context which rejected the contemporary moral and spiritual implications of the relations between God, nature, and man that were contained in the empirically validated discoveries of Newton. In other terms, Blake set out to create an imaginative context to reject Deism or Natural Religion (see appendix I). It is important to approach the opening lines of the poem from the perspective of this imaginative context.1

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The opening lines are much emended and since the manuscript was never completed, a text that claims to be definitive is not possible. For example, the two deleted lines (K. I. 3-4) indicate that the work is of prophetic quality directed to the intellect and written as a commentary on the Bible. Another example, lines 25-29 which describe the fall, contain deletions which aid an understanding of the opening lines. If the deleted passages are considered, and the passage read with Enion as its central figure, Tharmas calls for Enion to "come forth," for she has been hidden in "jealous despair." Tharmas promises to build a "Labyrinth" where the two will "remain for ever alone." The implications of this narrative are entirely different from a reading in which Jerusalem is the central figure. If the deletions are not considered, Jerusalem is hidden in "silent Cont­rition," where no thought of a maze in which Tharmas and Enion are alone occurs. In the first reading, Tharmas calls for Enion to become an entity, an Emanation, and with separate identities Tharmas promises a secret existence. The second reading implies that Jerusalem has fallen and has taken refuge in the life/death impulse of Tharmas, in a process that Enion -ill be drawn into. The analysis is deliberately brief and is intended to indicate the significance of reading The Four Zoas from the manuscript in full . Since consideration of such emendations aids considerably in an understanding of the manuscript as a whole, Keynes' edition, which gives time emendations in the body of the text, is preferred. Additional reference to the Stevenson-Erdman edition is made where helpful.

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