I was once a follower of Swedenborg. Catherine and I signed the register of the New Church in April of eighty-nine. We believed then that he had seen Heaven and conversed with Angels.

But I have read further, and I find that Swedenborg has not written one new truth. He has written all the old falsehoods.

Swedenborg writes: "That the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, proceeding from the Lord, appear as a Sun."

Blake: He tells us that God is a Sun, and that Heaven is a place. But I say that every Bird that cuts the airy way is an immense world of delight, closed by your senses five. Heaven is not a place but a state.

Swedenborg writes: "That there are degrees of love and wisdom."

Blake: Here Swedenborg speaks like a predestinarian. He says some souls are closer to God than others. But I say that all souls are equal in the sight of Eternity. One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression.

Swedenborg writes: "That the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and all things therein by means of the sun of the spiritual world."

Blake: Lies & Priestcraft. He supposes that God created the world as a watchmaker creates a watch — from the outside. But Creation is from within — the Poetic Genius in every man is the true God.

I have now perused the whole of Swedenborg's theological works. Good and Evil are here both Good and the two contraries Married. But there is no progression. Swedenborg's Angels are dull. He has described to us a Heaven where a man may be virtuous and comfortable for ever, but not a Heaven where he may burn with desire and create without ceasing.

Without Contraries is no progression.