ABSTRACT
William Blake regarded the Christianity of his day as the spiritual atavism Jesus came to destroy. Blake saw the crux of the whole matter lay in the denial of spiritual purpose to instinctive life. From the Songs of Innocenceto The Ghost of Abel, Blake’s work may be described as one continuous effort to restate what he believed to be the truth of the Christian religion Blake was a sensitive, generous, sociable being whose heart found exercise with every social contact he made. Blake saw it in the image of Lucifer and his fall from heaven, and in the image of Prometheus who stole the sacred fire. His own symbol for human instinct is Orc, who first appears unnamed in that fire-barred gate of symbolism with which Blake concludes The Marriage—A Song of Liberty. The Christianity that was based upon the Ten Commandments appeared to exist chiefly to exercise this restraint upon human instinct.
