Fearful Symmetry by Northrop Frye (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 257 his soul and body? It does not appear to be so; rather, Spirit is capable of separate existence. Spirit might be that into which the individual man is elevated in the after-life; it might be that into which many men or all men are elevated in such a way as to lose their distinctive individuality to take on the individuality of Spirit. Thus the author. Not a very bright prospect for individual men and women, struggling from the grip of this world's travail. Dr. Ferre's book, however, is worth reading for one who already has an unshakable grasp of orthodox principles. It is not an easy book to read but it is, in many ways, delightful. " Evil and the Christian Faith " is part of a series. Possibly, Dr. Ferre's thought will have matured by the publication of his next work. St. Ann's M011aatery, Scranton, Pa. IGNATIUs FoRMICA, C. P. Fearful Symmetry. A Study of William Blake. By NoRTHROP FRYE. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1947. Pp. 462, with notes and index. $5.00. This, the most significant study of the English poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827) that has appeared in some years, may perhaps be considered as an extension of Mr. S. Foster Damon's earlier work, which Mr. Frye admires greatly. Mr. Damon and Mr. Frye have both attempted a synthesis of Blake's thought, especially as it is expressed in the prophetic writings, to which little extensive and serious study has been given by other Blake critics, at least with a view to essaying a sympathetic exposition of Blake's system. M. Denis Saurat, whose study is far more antagonistic, and in some senses more critical, does, however, have the disadvantage, pointed out by Mr. Frye as common to most Blake critics, of considering Blake almost entirely as a product of his sources. Mr. Frye has bent his energies chiefly toward expounding Blake as he is. It is rather astonishing to discover that Mr. Frye is himself a real disciplethat he believes Blake's view of life, art, and religion to be true, or at least profoundly significant. This complete partisanship, combined with his strong conviction that Blake's thought cannot be explained wholly in the light of his sources, produces a work valuable for readers who have the ability to make their own critical judgments. Basic to Mr. Frye's study is his instructive and certainly correct belief that the key to Blake's thought is an understanding of his position as a rebel against the tyranny of Locke and the Deists. In support of this reacti~n, Blake went chiefly to Berkeley, and opposed to the materialism and rationalism of his day an extreme idealism which saw everything as 258 BOOK REVIEWS existing in the mind of man. Blake went further into subjectivism even than Berkeley, and identified the mind of man with the mind of God. It is here that Cabalism enters into his system, so obviously that even Mr. Frye cannot deny Blake's acceptance of its strange hypotheses. Before the Fall, goes the Cabalistic myth, all men were one man, who was God. The Fall caused creation, and the dispersal of the one man into many, and therefore creation was evil. Such a monstrous concept of God and creation is so basically and obviously false that it is strange to find an intelligent critic such as Mr. Frye seemingly impressed by it. He appears especially delighted with Blake's hatred of all orthodox religions, which Blake believed to be part of the evil brought about by the fall, with their insistence upon law, reason, and morality. These he held to be somehow tied up with the fallen universe, and not necessary to the truly redeemed man. Blake is led by this belief into unfortunate blasphemies, in which God in His Old Testament aspect as a God of law and punitive justice is called "Nobodaddy" and sneered at as a creation of Pharasaical Judaism. It is unfortunate that Mr. Frye should so often cheapen his work by adding his own sneers-far more personal and petty-to Blake's unpleasant but rather more...