Cosmic Consciousness; a Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...case of Jacob Behmen there was the initial earnestness of character which belongs to the class of men of whom this book treats. b. There was (almost certainly), though we are not told of it in so many words, the subjective light. c. There was extraordinary intellectual illumination. d. And equal moral elevation. e. There was the sense of immortality. f. Loss of the fear of death (if he ever had it, as is likely, since he seems to have been quite an ordinary boy and young man). g. There was the suddenness, the instantaneousness, of the awakening of the new life. At the time of his illumination he was at the typical age--namely, thirty-five years. Chapter 11. William Blake. Born 1757; died 1827. If Blake had Cosmic Consciousness the words written above as to the vastly greater scope and variety of this than of self consciousness will receive from his case illustration. The few short extracts from his writings, below quoted, almost prove that he had the Cosmic Sense, which he called "Imaginative Vision" 95: 166, and he must have attained to it within a very few years after reaching the thirtieth of his age. There do not appear to be any details extant of his entrance into it, but his writings may fairly be allowed to prove the fact of possession. I. W. M. Rossetti, in the "Prefatory Memoir" to "The Poetical Works of William Blake" 52, gives an admirable sketch of Blake's actual life and apparently a fair estimate of his abilities and defects. The following extracts therefrom will materially assist us in the inquiry now before us; that is: Had Blake Cosmic Consciousness? The difficulty of Blake's biographers, subsequent to 1863, the date of Mr. Gilchrist's book, is of a different kind altogether. It is the...