To Mercy Pity Peace and Love

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

all pray in their distress,

and to these virtues of delight

return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

is God our Father dear;

and Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

is Man, his Child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity, a human face,

and Love, the human form divine.

and Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,

that prays in his distress,

prays to the human form divine,

Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,

in heathen, Turk or Jew;

where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell,

there God is dwelling too.

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This beautiful song has been written by William Blake (1757-1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th- century. Blake has recorded that from his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks and that he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures. Misunderstanding shadowed his career as a writer and artist and it was left to later generations to recognize his importance. This song defines the essence of humanity and divinity in terms that include no reference to reason or justice. In looking beyond the forms that distinguish creeds to the human form that unites them, it works against the divisive assumptions of more orthodox chirstian writers such as Issac Watts. In "Praise for the Gospel" Watts wrote:

Lord, I ascribe it to thy Grace

And not to chance, as others do

That I was born of Christian Race

And not a Heathen, or a jew.

Blake's song not only asserts that all creeds have the same emotional basis but implies that all are essentially

Christian. Its view of the relationship between humanity and divinity is compareable to that in I John 4.16: "God id Love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, And God in him". As in other poems of innocence, the human and the divine are seen as one.

William Blake (1757-1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th- century. Blake has recorded that from his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks and that he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures. Misunderstanding shadowed his career as a writer and artist and it was left to later generations to recognize his importance.

Blake was born in London, where he spent most of his life. His father was a successful London hosier who encouraged Blake's artistic talents. Blake was first educated at home, chiefly by his mother. In 1767 he was sent to Henry Pars' drawing school. Blake has recorded that from his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks and that he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures.

At the age of 14 Blake was apprenticed for seven years to the engraver James Basire. Gothic art and architecture influenced him deeply. In 1783 he married Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a market gardener. Blake taught her to draw and paint and she assisted him devoutly.

Blake's first book of poems, Poetical Sketches, appeared in 1783 and was followed by Songs of Innocence (1789), and Songs of ExperienceE (1794). His most famous poem "The Tyger", was part of his Songs of Experience. In these works the world is seen from a child's point of view, but they also function as parables of adult experience.

Blake engraved and published most of his major works himself. Famous among his "Prophetic Books"