Proverbs of Hell

Bet you thought I had forgotten about this project, which I introduced about a month ago.  Or worse yet, you thought it was just another of my uncompleted projects.  Nope, just been reluctant to use the next proverb which I had committed to memory:

The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
(Plate 9)

Well, this is a proverb which can lead you some interesting places if you apply it to current events.  One might  see Our Fearless Leader as a "tyger of wrath".  Given his frequent (and persistent) malapropisms and less-than-diplomatic statements, few would confuse him with a horse of instruction. 

I simply cannot abide the thought of that divine madman and non-conformist, William Blake, being interpreted to support the Chief Executive Liar.

So, it may be necessary to step back and look at the Proverbs of Hell as a whole for a moment, before we continue. 

The "Proverbs of Hell" is part of a longer work, The Marriage of Heaven & Hell, which is the third of Blake's illuminated works.  The book is unique in any canon, including Blake's, because it is a combination of philosophy, poetry, art, prose fragments, and parody.  Blake really is trying to work out his philosophy and sense of the divine here.

Perhaps the best statement of Blake's philosophy is reflected in the "Argument" from this poem:

Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell. [plate 3]

While some might argue with his statements concerning contraries, most would agree that "Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell."  It may seem odd today to equate Heaven and Reason, but we must remember that Newton and Rousseau were the dominant philosophers of the day.  Blake is using religious language, to an extent, to attack secular philosophy.

But he is also turning religious language against the religious.  He sees religion as an environment which stifles growth and vitality. 

For Blake, then, the "horses of instruction" are both religious leaders and the philosophers of Reason; in this sense, he is echoing Jesus' charge that the Pharisees (the religious leaders of his day) were white-washed tombs.  Or, as another Proverb puts it, "Prisons are built with stones of Law; Brothels with bricks of Religion" [Plate 8].  I suspect that Blake would count himself among the prophetic "tygers of wrath".

To look at this another way for a moment, consider the choice of symbolic animals. Horses may be beautiful animals, but they are not noted for their intelligence. Tigers, however, must live by their wits.

So: to return to Our Fearless Leader.  He may want to look like a "tyger of wrath", he may even see himself as an instrument of God's wrath. Simply taking vengeful action, however, does not make one a tyger of wrath.  Taking violent action to support the dominant philosophy — e.g., U.S. hegemony — allies Our Fearless Leader more closely with the horses of instruction.

Next week:

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.