ABSTRACT
‘The Divine Image’, in my view, is the axle upon which the Songs of Innocence turn, just as ‘The Human Abstract’ is the axle for the Songs of Experience. It is often supposed to be a profoundly Swedenborgian song, and this is what we must examine. It is certainly true that the ‘Divine Human’ was at the centre of Swedenborgian discourse at that time; indeed, it might be said to be the signature of the New Jerusalem church. When Robert Southey visited a congregation, he found that
Christ in his divine, or in his glorified human, was repeatedly addressed as the only God; and the preacher laboured to show that the profane were those who worshipped three Gods … 1
