Editing William Blake (section)

== Enlightenment philosophy ==
Blake had a complex relationship with [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] philosophy. His championing of the imagination as the most important element of human existence ran contrary to Enlightenment ideals of [[rationalism]] and [[empiricism]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2004/mayjune/feature/william-blake-visions-and-verses|title=William Blake: Visions and Verses|author-last=Galvin|magazine=Humanities|author-first=Rachel|volume=25|number=3|publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|date=2004|access-date=2 March 2017|archive-date=3 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303125228/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2004/mayjune/feature/william-blake-visions-and-verses|url-status=dead}}</ref> Due to his visionary religious beliefs, he opposed the [[Isaac Newton#Religious thought|Newtonian]] view of the universe. This mindset is reflected in an excerpt from Blake's ''[[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion|Jerusalem]]'':

[[File:Newton-WilliamBlake.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Blake's [[Newton (Blake)|Newton]] (1795) demonstrates his opposition to the "single-vision" of [[Naturalism (philosophy)|scientific materialism]]: Newton fixes his eye on a pair of compasses (recalling [[Book of Proverbs|Proverbs]] 8:27,<ref>Prov 8:27 (NRSV trans.), "When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep ..."</ref> an important passage for [[John Milton|Milton]])<ref>Baker-Smith, Dominic. ''Between Dream and Nature: Essays on Utopia and Dystopia''. 1987, p. 163.</ref> to write upon a scroll that seems to project from his own head.<ref>Kaiser, Christopher B. ''Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science''. 1997, p. 328.</ref>]]
<blockquote><poem>
I turn my eyes to the Schools & Universities of Europe
And there behold the Loom of Locke whose Woof rages dire
Washd by the Water-wheels of Newton. black the cloth
In heavy wreathes folds over every Nation; cruel Works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden: which
Wheel within Wheel in freedom revolve in harmony & peace. (15.14–20, E159)
</poem></blockquote>

Blake believed the paintings of [[Joshua Reynolds|Sir Joshua Reynolds]], which depict the naturalistic fall of light upon objects, were products entirely of the "vegetative eye", and he saw Locke and Newton as "the true progenitors of Sir Joshua Reynolds' aesthetic".<ref>*{{cite book |last=Ackroyd |first= Peter|title=Blake |year=1995 |publisher=Sinclair-Stevenson |location=London |isbn=1-85619-278-4 |page=285 }}</ref> The popular taste in the England of that time for such paintings was satisfied with [[mezzotint]]s, prints produced by a process that created an image from thousands of tiny dots upon the page. Blake saw an analogy between this and Newton's particle theory of light.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Essick
  | first = Robert N.
  | title = William Blake, Printmaker
  | url = https://archive.org/details/williamblakeprin0000essi
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher=Princeton University Press
  | year = 1980
  | location = Princeton, NJ
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/williamblakeprin0000essi/page/248 248]
  | isbn = 9780691039541
 }}</ref> Accordingly, Blake never used the technique, opting rather to develop a method of engraving purely in fluid line, insisting that:

{{Blockquote|a Line or Lineament is not formed by Chance a Line is a Line in its Minutest Subdivision[s] Strait or Crooked It is Itself & Not Intermeasurable with or by any Thing Else Such is Job. (E784)}}

It has been supposed that, despite his opposition to Enlightenment principles, Blake arrived at a linear aesthetic that was in many ways more similar to the [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical]] engravings of John Flaxman than to the works of the Romantics, with whom he is often classified.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Blake's Human Form Divine|last=Mellor|first=Anne|publisher=University of California Press|year=1974|isbn=0-520-02065-0|location=Berkeley, CA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/blakeshumanformd0000mell/page/119 119–120]|quote="Blake imitated Flaxman's austere, simple mode of pure outline engraving.  Blake's engravings for Cumberland's _Thoughts on Outline_ clearly demonstrate Blake's competency in and preference for this purely linear engraving style."|via=Google Books|url=https://archive.org/details/blakeshumanformd0000mell/page/119}}</ref> However, Blake's relationship with Flaxman seems to have grown more distant after Blake's return from Felpham, and there are surviving letters between Flaxman and Hayley wherein Flaxman speaks ill of Blake's theories of art.<ref>G.E. Bentley, The Stranger in Paradise, "Drunk on Intellectual Vision" pp500, Yale University Press, 2001</ref> Blake further criticised Flaxman's styles and theories of art in his responses to criticism made against his print of Chaucer's Caunterbury Pilgrims in 1810.<ref>Erdman, David ed. ''The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake'', Yale Anchor Press</ref>