The Prophetic Books of William Blake: Jerusalem (Classic Reprint)

Prophetical JB ooks engraved by WILLIAM BLAKE, was first published in the form of one hundred pages of text and illustrations, dated from South Molton Street, 1804, though this date represents rather the beginning than the conclusion of its composition. It has been twice reproduced in facsimile, once separately, and once (much reduced), in the three volume edition of Blake sworks by Messrs. Ellis and Yeats in 1893, but it has never hitherto been printed in ordinary type; and those who have tried to study the Prophetical Books will realize the need for such a text if reading and reference are to be possible without the inordinate strain and fatigue involved in the use of a. facsimile. It is only when the complete works of Blake are readily accessible and legible that we may hope that the greatest of English mystics will be adequately studied and appreciated; and if this is to be, the divorce of the poem from its illustrations is an imperative, though none the less regrettable necessity. It has been our endeavour in the present edition to produce a text which shall be above all else scrupulously faithful to the original, for easy reference to which we have retained the division and numbering of its pages. The text, down to the very eccentricities and inconsistencies of Blake sspelling, is as accurate as we have been able to make it. In the very few instances where we have inserted a necessary word or letter it has been inclosed in square brackets; while the accidental repetitions (marvellously few, when we consider the difficulties of the reversed writing entailed by Blake sprocess) have been marked by round brackets. In what is practically the editio princefs we have felt this scrupulosity to be essential, even at the risk of incurring the accusation of confusion and pedantry. We would acknowledge our indebtedness, in common with all students of Blake, to the
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)