33

Capable only of finite perception, he considers himself to be an auton­omous agent and a guardian of Enion's moral values: "If thou hast sinn'd & art polluted, know that I am pure/And unpolluted, & will bring to rigid strict account/All thy past deeds" (K. I. 151-153). The fall into division is emphasized by Blake's depiction of the Spectre's inverted inward vision:

"This world is Thine in which thou dwellest; that

within thy soul,

155 "That dark & dismal infinite where Thought roams

up and down,

"Is Mine, & there thou goest when with one Sting

of my tongue

"Envenom"d thou roll'st inwards to the place [of death & hell del.] whence I emerg'd."

(K. I. 1S4-1S7)

Inward vision is no longer a window into the infinite. Since the closing of the gate of the tongue, the organ of visionary truth is now "Envenom'd" and is within a "dark & dismal infinite where Thought roams up & down." Finally, the Spectre and Enion fuse in pain and torment:

Half Woman & half Spectre; all his lovely changing colours

mix

185 With her fair crystal clearness; in her lips & cheeks his

poisons rose

In blushes like the morning, and his scaly armour softening,

A monster lovely in the heavens or wandering on the earth,

[With spectre voice incessant wailing, in incessant thirst,

Beauty all blushing with desire, mocking her fell despair. (K. I. 184-189)