William Blake (
1757-
1827)
All Religions Are One
The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness
THE ARGUMENT. As the true method of knowledge is experiment, the true faculty of knowledge must be the faculty which experiences. This faculty I treat of.
PRINCIPLE 1st. That the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their Genius, which by the Ancients was call'd an Angel & Spirit & Demon.
PRINCIPLE 2d. All men are alike in outward form, So (and with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic Genius.
PRINCIPLE 3d. No man can think or write or speak from his heart, but he must intent truth. Thus all sects of Philosophy are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the weaknesses of every individual.
PRINCIPLE 4. As none by travelling over known lands can find out the unknown, So from already acquired knowledge Man could not acquire more; therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists.
PRINCIPLE 5. The religionsof all Nations are derived from each Nations's different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is every where called the Spirit of Prophecy.
PRINCIPLE 6. The Jewish and Christian Testaments are An original derivation from the Poetic Genius. This is necssary from the confined nature of bodiliy sensation.
PRINCIPLE 7th. As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various) So all Religions & as all similars have one source:
The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius.