Gleaning the Critical Work of WILLIAM BLAKE

Manuel Reis

Gleaning the Critical Work of

WILLIAM BLAKE

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N.B.: The reflections and notes that we are going to gather are based on Joanne Paisana’s study (M.U./Braga/Portugal) (which can be read with advantage) entitled ‘The Religious Face of William Blake’ (based on a paper integrated in the cycle of conferences in Feb., 2011 at Minho University on the general theme Literature and Religion): cf. review Diacrítica, nr.25/3, Center of Humanistic Studies, 2011, pp.9-22).

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William Blake was born in London, during the Enlightenment, in a family with a small business and whose parents, though moving in the orbit of Christendom, were already critical towards religion. William Blake, an autodidactic in the sphere of basic and secondary education, was, therefore, able to deepen, in this context, his personal/ social and cultural autonomy, reading freely and developing in various areas. In this perspective, we must take into account, in his work, that he exercised, with enormous success, three professions that can be considered distinct: an engraver, a designer of graphic art and a writer of prose and lyric poetry.

In terms of a critical world-view, his development proceeded, especially, from the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and John Locke (1632-1704); in relation to the great Isaac Newton (1642-1727), William Blake did not restrain from criticizing him in some points.

William Blake, along with John Donne (1571-1631) (the poet, par excellence, of the school that the Britons called ‘metaphysical poetry’) and the epic poet John Milton (1608-1674), constitute, without a doubt, the personalities/standard of modern English Thought, which come closer to the grammar of the original Judeo-Christian Gnostic Thought and of the ancient School of Alexandria.

In this horizon, one can affirm, without ambiguities, that the three poets/thinkers were able to critically show themselves as post-modern thinkers, though living in the Modern Age… in other words, they didn’t fall into what the CEHC has called the ‘structural contradictions of Modernity’. John Donne, for example, manages to be, in the history of occidental culture, the first thinker (to our knowledge) to speak to us, clearly and argumentatively, of ‘Christ’s suicide’ (it still isn’t the confirmation of Jesus’ and Socrates’ suicides).

In the area of the religious problem in William Blake’s work, the following books must be pointed out: ‘All Religions are One’ (ca. 1788), ‘There is No Natural Religion’ (ca. 1788), ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ (1790), ‘Jerusalem’ (1804-18), ‘Vision of the Last Judgement’ (ca. 1810), and ‘The Everlasting Gospel’ (ca. 1818).

A brief comparison between William Blake ((1757-1827) and Immanuel Kant ((1724-1808) must be kept in mind: we are obviously referring to the opuscules of William Blake, ‘All Religions Are One’ and ‘There is No Natural Religion’, on the one hand, and, on the other, I.K.’s book, ‘Religion Inside the Limits of Pure or Natural Reason’. Both authors are spokesmen of the Enlightenment, the new ideological atmosphere that is called Lumières, Enlightenment, Aufklärung. But there are important differences between the two 3

authors. One cannot forget that, in spite of the importance of the Könisberg philosopher in the court of the Emperor Frederick William II (Voltaire’s friend), he censored, somewhat officially, I.K.’s book.

Meanwhile, the differences between the two authors can be condensed in the following axiom: though both are placed under the spotlights of the influences of the Enlightenment of the times, which led them to assume the phenomenon of Religion as a key to and at the service of Morals and Ethics, W.B. manages to implicitly surpass and surmount the Magna Quaestio of Potestas d’abord facing the universe of philosophical and scientific knowledge; whereas in I.K., the Question of Power continues latent and unresolved.

Confirming what we say in the trenches of the latter, the view stands out where I.K. distinguishes and logically confronts positive/revealed religion (in whose name was censored by the Emperor…) and Religion inside the limits of Natural Reason. The Potestas of the Pope and of the Emperor remained untouchable!...

On the other hand, you should be advised that Karl Marx himself (18181883) was also incapable of facing and adequately solving the Question of Power-Domination d’abord (a question which is structural/structuring in the whole Human Universe!...), when he established his very well known and divulged axiom: ‘Religion is the people’s opium’. There is here a flagrant error of interpretation and lexicology: that is why, from that, an entire demagogical process results that inexorably continues to serve the Established Powers (religious or profane and lay). What K.M. should have said and proclaimed is a very different sentence: ‘Institutionalized Religion (whatever it is…) is the people’s opium’.

Learning from what happened to Kant (with the emperor…) the following conclusion constitutes a categorical imperative: All (impenitent) metaphysics end up betraying Humans and their psycho-socio-anthropological Universe… and the betrayal occurs in the name of the lay and spurious religion of Objective-Objectualism, whose banner is always hoisted by the holders of the Established Powers. That is why the only World Absolute is IndividualPersonal Conscience of all and every Human Being, composed of free and responsible persons.

Therefore, the critical world-view of the original Judeo-Christian Gnostics was correct ─ to which W.B. sought to come near in his work. As a Gnostic, W.B. configures Imagination and its functions above Reason itself… but it is obvious that, there, it is about creative Imagination, where Rationality functions, in some way, as the ‘prompter’ in theater.

Evidence of such a thesis can be found in: ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’; ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’; in the lengthy poem with the title ‘Jerusalem’, where the theme stands out: England (Albion) will only be saved if it comes to unite with Jerusalem, where, at last, all Humanity will be united by Love.

In ‘Age of Reason’, William Blake even rails at Thomas Paine’s deism, which he still considers as a product (good-for-nothing…) of the unredeemed 4

revealed religions. At bottom, for reasons analogous to those in the above text led us to prefer, in comparison, W.B. to I.K..

In his opuscule ‘All Religions are One’, filled with colorful decorations, W.B., at 31 years of age, already maturely and critically enlightened, argues in favor of ‘the existence of a universal and supra-rational ‘Poetic Genius’ that expressed itself through the shared (though ever various) forms of all religions’ (Eaves & Viscomi, cit. by J.P., op. cit., p.16). One could say that the ‘Father’ to whom Jesus refers in the canonical Gospels and in the Apocrypha, can fit very well in this ‘wardrobe’ of W.B.’s ‘Poetic Genius’.

His identification is done in Principle 1 of the referred opuscule, namely: “That the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their genius, which by the ancients was called an Angel and Spirit and Demon” (J.P., op. cit., p.17). The ‘Deus sive Natura’ of Baruch de Espinosa is configured in the same critical horizon of the original Judeo-Christian Gnostics.

Principle 5 of W.B.’s list in the referred to opuscule says the following: “The religions of all nations are derived from each nation’s different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is everywhere called the Spirit of Prophecy” (op. cit., ibidem).

Principle 7 establishes the following: “As all men are alike (though infinitely various) so all religions ─ and, as all similar, have one source.

“The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius” (ibidem).

In short, the entire Human Universe, as such, proceeds from the ‘faculty that experiences’, and this is, at the same time, sensorial and rational. In this sphere, the Poetic Genius is introduced by W.B. as the first principle of the Human Universe, “by establishing that man’s exterior has its origin in his interior Poetic Genius ─ which is made plain by the ancient belief that every exterior form proceeds from an internal ‘essence’, non-physical . This is valid for all living beings. Various religions call this spirit ‘Angel’, ‘Spirit’ or ‘Demon’ (J.P., op. cit., pp.17-18).

“Locke and others located the origins of human knowledge in the experience of a natural world governed by fixed and definable laws. In There is No Natural Religion, Blake talks of the ratio and the experimental as being constrictive, condemning Man to ‘repeat the same dull round over again’, whereas the poetic or prophetic opens the doors of infinity to knowing God” (eadem, op. cit., p.19).

The following principal characters or mythological figures, by William Blake, became forever famous, because of their semantic power: ‘Urizen’ (the repressive and controlling God of the O.T., which is the precursor ─ do not forget ─ of the ‘Demiurge’ of the Gnostics; it fulfills the semiological function of Restrictive Reason, that represents through antonomasia, and constitutes the foundation (traditional) of the so characteristic as well as hated Political Repression of the different governments of states. ‘Albion’s angel’ and 5

‘London’s Guardian’ (the forces of British Government). ‘Orc’ (the inexhaustible spirit of revolt of the singular and concrete human beings facing injustices…).

‘Los’ (represents the Imagination that can never abandon its creative lever).

‘Enitharmon’ (it is used to designate the feminine part of ‘Los’).

However, William Blake, in spite of having created roots through a prodigious creative Imagination in the classical universe of the original JudeoChristian Gnostics, precisely for having been born in the Great Household of Christianity, ended up, en passant, betraying the critical word-view of the Gnostics, by admitting notions, like creation, fall, resurrection (in a Christian sense…) and last judgement. In fact, Paul’s ideological architecture is not outside his horizon, whose synopsis can be found in the Epistle to the Hebrews ( which is not Paul’s but of his school) and in the Apocalypse (understood and read according to the traditional hermeneutic way, and not according to the Pesher rules, as Barbara Thiering did very well). Aliquando dormitat Homerus!...

Persisting in Constructing a Future!

For a Humanity, absorbed in contradictions and structurally disoriented by pseudo-learned demagogues, incapable of reading another catechism that is no other than the Culture of Power-Domination d’abord; ─ a Humanity, in short, imprisoned by the theories of the ‘Confidence Trick’ and by the practices of construction of the tumultuous ‘World Empire’.

And, in the Culture/Civilization Abode of the Occident, however, there are prolific sources that have forgotten and ignored for two and a half millennia: The twin messages of Socrates and Jesus; the doctrine and the critical world-view of the original Judeo-Christian Gnostics, that the R.C.C. never wanted to admit and accept and always repudiated as heretics.

The propaedeutic grammar (of a gnoseo-epistemological nature) of the Gnostics can be schematized and condensed in the following way: A) Irreplaceable source of Thinking and Acting: the reflexive and critical Conscience of Individuals/Persons.

B) Utilized set of instruments: 1. ─ Intelligence (imagination with the seal of intuition: intus+legere is the latter’s semantic root).

2. ─ Pan-involving sensibility.

3. ─ Rationality in every quadrant.

N.B.: These three instruments are here expressed in agreement with their axiological order (of values and respective operational functions).

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W.B. is correct in establishing the axiom: No Natural Religion Exists, institutionalized or to be institutionalized, since ─ as we teach in the CEHC ─ Power is always, at bottom or in conclusion, only one. That is why Humanity (mature and critical) can completely dispense with the powers of institutionalized religions because they are essentially bureaucratic (useless) and the origin of every bureaucracy!... That is why no one (or few...) sees that the king is naked!... And also why no one (or very few…) is conscious of the Quaestio Potestatis d’abord (that does not appear on stage, but operates backstage, commanding everything.)

The Rational Natural Law is another very different reality facing institutionalized Natural Religion. The former is written in the heart and mind of each Human Being, as a person endowed with a reflexive and critical Conscience.

And we need it (today and for the future) in absolute terms, since Natural Law is the origin and the foundation of all positive laws. We are, therefore, against all juridical positivisms (especially since Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt) exactly in the name of the principles and the regime of Democracy.

The ‘fatwa’ of Shiite Iran against ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1992, that made Sal-man Rushdie exile himself in London (and that, 10 years later, the Government of Iran had the courage to annul…), is a good paradigmatic example of juridical positivism (re-ligious or civil) without a face nor good sense (based only on Potestas d’abord) that every political regime that honors Democracy should repudiate. It is not with trials of sentencing to death of the author of a book on Literature (or Philosophy) that one can guarantee and defend Freedom of Thought and Expression and a citizen’s freedom to criticize the constituted powers and the wrong governance, which is a fundamental human exigency. The solution that the grammar of Democracy teaches was, is and will always be the Discussion of Ideas, though they be very different and contrary to our position!...

At the present time, the ‘Adamastores’ that prevent human societies from moving forward to a worthy future, this is social entropy, are societal inertias that made up the theories of the ‘has to be’ and the doctrines of resignation; ─ such ‘Adamastores’ are weightier than the political desire of the governments of nations, that, for a long time, do not listen to the people’s wishes… and remain calm and tranquil in the name of the so-called scientific system of ObjectiveObjectualism, revolved in the sacrosanct religion of the Established Powers.

Besides, the Original Sin of human societies, politically organized according to the capitalist system, resides precisely in that absolute incapacity of facing and resolving any crisis and all crises, having recourse to the redistribution of riches and to the overcoming of social inequalities between the different social classes. Once it rests on the reinforcement of individual egotisms and expects (falsely and fallaciously) to re-solve the problems of poverty and wretchedness through a simple rule of the statistical growth of the GNP, capitalism is a politico-economic system incapable of programmatically applying the distribution (socially just) of the produced riches: here, it is not 7

about, firstly, the distribution of produced merchandise to the whole population; but, also firstly, a non-distribution of a fair salary to workers, promoting, in this way, the appropriate consumption of the population of a country. In the XXth century, J. May-nard Keynes understood this problem and acted with some positive consequences for the so-called ‘Glorious Thirty’.

The situation of public calamity that, in general, human societies and humanity reached at the present time is such that the Question itself of Truth and Lies (in language and current speech) became a game of blindman’s buff; and populations, in general, resignedly accept being systematically fooled by demagogic leaders: it’s the known ‘two-thirds of society’, inexorably commanded by the Culture of Condominium Power and ruled by the ObjectiveObjectualism system. Poverty and wretchedness and epidemic illnesses (that reach much more than a third of societies…) appear every now and then in government programs… but they are never taken seriously!...

In the history of humanity, the structural-structuring problem of the present day directly touches the binding paradigm of psycho-socio-anthropos: Instead of ‘Homo Sapiens tout court’ (descendant of ‘Neanderthal Man’, we have to acknowledge that psycho-socio-anthropogenesis has brought us to the platform of ‘Homo Sapiens//Sapiens’ (descendant of ‘Cro-Magnon Man’ from about 60,000 years).

At this moment, precisely because human societies continue to be conceived and organized in agreement with the ancient paradigm of evolution, we continue, piously and resignedly, to worship the Culture of PowerDomination d’abord, to admit and to practice Adam Smith’s system, that transformed private defects into public virtues and vice versa, following the catechism of modern capitalism.

We were not aware that the modern capitalist system is, intrinsically, the most inhuman and predatory of all economic-political systems in the entire History of Civilizations. As humans have gotten more used to (through a vital instinct...) bondage and to slavery than to autonomous reflection and responsible freedom, we let Education fade away and educational systems become irrelevant… after all, at the present time, they exist only to instruct and to domesticate professionally!... In favor of the Established Powers.

The capitalist system was in such a way re-blessed in its new modality of global capitalist neoliberalism after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of the ‘conventional socialisms’ (Willy Brandt) after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, that no one dares, at the present time, to discuss and debate capitalism: it has become the unavoidable dogma of human societies.

And the catechism of interminable lies and tricks continue to spread everywhere, beginning from the academic world itself. W.B. called the models practiced in the U.S.S.R, in China and elsewhere ‘conventional socialism’, because his intuition of the phenomenon was critical, not dogmatic. However, in the 60s of the XXth century, John Kenneth Galbraith (in ‘The New Industrial State’) was already raising the veil and was critically revealing that the Soviet 8

and Chinese models were nothing more than a capitalist modality, the so-called state monopolistic capitalism.

That is why universities and governments have continued to illude and deceive populations on two conjugated levels: a) giving the false name of ‘alternatives’ to the so-called socialist/communist models that the historicalcivilizational process caused to fail; b) inducing populations to consider that capitalism had been proven by contemporary history as the only legitimate and efficacious solution. In one word, the eternal Lie triumphing over Truth in the historical process. Until when?!...

Meanwhile, in the matter of anthropogenic Climatic Alterations (i.e., as effect and consequence of the civilizing process), what has been done in the last three decades? The strong point of the summits on Environment has almost been limited (cynically) to the buying and selling of points, so that the lesspollutant countries can yield them to the most-pollutant ones. And the phenomenon of atmospheric pollution and of the melting of glaciers on the poles of the planet were already known in the 50s of the XXth century…

2007/8-2012: in a situation already truly problematical in structural terms, the financial/economic crises intervened. And especially in this E.U. (which still doesn’t know what it intends to be in the future: if a real Confederation of Sovereign States or if a Capitalist Empire to rival with that of the U.S.A. or of China…), the German-French Directorate hasn’t come to an understanding (will it now, with the new French president, F. Hollande, that the situation will change?...). The result is obvious: the countries with an external debt, with the support of the ‘Troika’, have to carry out a rigid program of Austerity (= no growth…), as if such a thing (Austerity without growth) were possible in the classical grammar of political economy, without creating slavery.

In this new context, with the intervention of crises, all the grave problems on environment and climatic alterations were eclipsed and ostracized. Once again, the intrinsically contradictory, destructive and predatory character of the capitalist system was illuded or concealed. And one more time, the downright lies distilled by the system appear and were credulously admitted and practiced as religious beliefs by the alternate governments. We are referring to, for example, the dictatorship of the financial markets that the E.U. governments (starting with the Directorate…) interpret as a ‘democracy of the capital markets’!...

A barbarous and not under adequate political control capitalist system reigns, today, absolutely and unconditionally over the world. The insensate and monstrous catechism of Objective-Objectualism reigns dapertutto under the banner of the inevitable Culture of Power-Domination d’abord. That is why Democracy collapses and it is not that easy to establish democratic regimes!...

Speaking of democracy and of access to a democratic regime, we must know that predisposition and responsible consent for this way of organizing a society needs to be promoted and taught in family education and in school, in the national educational systems. Momen Hassan (an Egiptian army recruit told 9

a foreign journalist: “I’m not against them, but I’m definitely not for them [the Tahrir Square revolutionaries]. Democracy is good, but we can’t rush it. If you let the leash go completely loose, people will do whatever they want. We need a firm hand”. (Cit. in ‘National Geographic’, May of 2012, p.79).

What do we expect to do in the near future in the exigent environment of the more and more alarming climatic alterations?! At the end of 2012, the program in force established in Copenhagen (very inferior and frustrating) is going to end for the septennium beginning in 2005. What is going to be done in order to save the Habitat of the Blue Planet, which is still (volentes/nollentes) the natural Abode of humans and their societies?!... ● “So a child was born, a son was given us, that received an empire on his shoulders; we give him this name: marvelous Adviser, strong God, eternal Father, Prince of Peace [that Christian and ‘Jesuanic’ tradition has identified as the true Emanuel = God with us]. The empire will extend in infinite peace for the throne of David and his royalty, that he established and made firm in law and in justice. From now on and forever, the attentive love of Yahweh-Sabaot will do that. [Yahweh’s revenge is exercised over Samaria and the reign of the North] The Lord casts a word against Jacob and it will fall on Israel.” (Isaiah, 9, 5-7).

“The wolf cohabits with the lamb, the panther leis down near the kid, the calf and young lion graze together, led by a young boy. The cow and the bear become friends, their young lie down together. The lion eats straw with the bull.

The nursling plays in the serpent’s hole; the child sticks his hand in the viper’s hiding place. There is no harm done nor harmful destruction in my whole saintly mountain, since the whole country is complete with knowledge of Yahweh, the same way that the waters fill the sea.” (Isaiah, 11, 6-9).

What does Yahweh say, summarily, in the mouth of the prophet Isaiah?

“The wolf and the lamb will graze together, the lion will eat straw with the bull, and the serpent will feed on dust. No harm will be done nor harmful destruction in my whole saintly mountain, Yahweh asserts.” (Isaiah, 65, 25).

What is proposed in this prophetic picture? In a condensed form: the restoration of harmony (broken… not by Original Sin, but, in philosophical terms, by the Culture of Power-Domination d’abord) between Humans and Nature, between Man and Woman, between all human beings. The so-called Messianic era will bring the forgiveness of sins (in the Christian horizon…) and true and universal Justice (in the critical horizon of the Gnostics); in short, ‘paradisaical peace’. In Christian terms, we could say that the future restoration will function as a new creation!... In the two perspectives, one can perfectly affirm the Latin axiom: ‘Opus Justitiae vera Pax est’: the true and authentic Peace will always be the work of integral Justice (between Human Beings with a free and responsible conscience, and, consequently, treated equally).

In this sphere, the Ebionites (of the first four centuries of the Christian Era), with their primary vegetarian diet, were, in ideological terms, on the right path. The passages cited of the Prophet confirm the exigency of that food orientation.

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Indeed, the useless suffering (and imprisonment of wild animals…), inflicted by humans on animals (and live beings in general), constitutes negative energies that will bury the human species. ● It will never be enough to remember and to retain this surprising oxymoron, calamitous in its effects, which is patent to a reflexive and critical mind: Medieval scholasticism and ballistics sought to demonstrate in cosmology areas that ‘non datur actio in distans’: there is no action with distant effects!... Today, the latter was one more conclusion that science (positive and experimental) proved wrong since I. Newton’s classical physics. At the present time, our knowledge of astrophysics and more advanced technologies in ballistic missiles and spacecrafts manages, for example, starting in a chair (in the Pentagon) and using a computer, in a scheme of remote control, to launch drones over Afghanistan or Pakistan (or elsewhere…), and necessarily including civilians as victims!... They have also managed to place a space station/astronomical laboratory in orbit in the peripheral limits of the solar system (be-yond the planet Neptune) with the principal objective of measuring and evaluating the ‘solar storms’.

As if, someday, it would be possible for Humanity to control and completely dominate the negative and positive effects of that Great Star, which is our Sun!...

In the hemisphere of physico-natural sciences (notably in classical physics and astrophysics, as in quantic and nuclear physics), it seems that research continues to take for granted that there are no limits, that is to say, there is always a ‘last frontier’ to conquer. And in the other hemisphere of psycho-social and/or human sciences?!... There, the governments of statesnations (led by universities and academies that are tuned to the Culture of Power-Domination d’abord…) continue to not know how to suitably organize human societies; continue to ignore the essential and the decisive in what the basis of organization and good functioning of human societies, as such, are concerned: the (reflexive and critical) Conscience of IndividualsPersons/Citizens. Among humans, one only respects whomsoever makes himself be respected!...

There you have the bearer of good news and advancing to astound or duly warn consciences: the fabulous Objective-Objectualism and the impenitent Epistemic Monism in those ‘9 Things that will disappear in our Lifetime’ (divulged on the Internet 12.5.2012). They are: 1. The Post Office; 2. The Check (that substitutes paper money in commercial trading); 3. The Newspaper; 4. The Book: 5. The Landline Telephone; 6. Music: 7. Television: 8. The ‘Things’ that You own: many of our material belongings that will disappear in the near future. When there won’t be a distinction between hardware and software, all of us will be in the virtual world of ‘the cloud’. 9. Privacy: This will end!... Will only individual memories remain that the new equipment won’t destroy?!...

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Obviously, everything is measured and weighed, in abstracto, following the catechism of cheapening the new merchandise substituting the one existing before, with-out even paying adequate attention to the real value of use of the former merchandise still working (Karl Marx dixit!). It is the ‘Appetite for SelfDestruction’ as Steve Knopper denounced very well in his referred to book. The new horizon is, indeed, of barbarus financial capitalism tout court; economic capitalism is over!...

We mustn’t forget this critical reflection of phyco-sociological grammar of Ralf Dahrendorf (sociologist, philosopher and politician): “Beyond all psychology and sociology, the oppression of society is a question of the quantity of freedom of choice, which is left to man by the constraints that invade everything in society, or ─ putting the question in a more active way ─ of the quantity that he can claim. In its more frightening aspect, the word of homo sociologicus is a ‘wonderful new world’ or a ‘1984’ one, a society in which all human behavior can be-come calculable, predictable and subject to permanent control.” (Cit. in ‘Homo Sociologicus’ de R.D., Quetzal, Lisbon, 2012, p.3). ─ Why not ‘dar retta’ to the courageous movement of the ‘Indignant’ of every country, to the mature anarquists?!... Personal experiences and individuals-persons’ consciences have been eclipsed and annihilated throughout the whole History of Civilizations, in the name of the eternal Culture of Power-Domination d’abord and its methodology: the religion (lay and secular) of Objective-Objectualism.

Pro-banner of the CEHC in operative terms in the sphere of knowledge

N.B.: What we (a plural of the Great Group that, starting in Guimarães and São Paulo, feels is operating in the same critical sphere and spreading its messages with the desire and the intention of radically renovating the World and Human Societies) are founding and projecting/constructing, in the Center of Studies of Critical Humanism, has nothing to do with the Christian/pauline N.T. (which, mutatis mutandis, proceeded to mix and to confuse, throughout two millennia of Christianism and Christianity, with the Hebrew/ Jewish O.T..

Indeed, the sphere, which the C.E.H.C. is looking to open and identify/configure, is what we could designate as the true and authentic Jesuanic (and Socratic) = universal New Testament, directed towards the whole human species, in agreement with the holistic (philosophical) grammar of Psycho-Socio-Anthropos. It was what we attempted to clarify and demonstrate 12

in our book entitled ‘Taking Paulo out of the New Testament under the Sign of Jesuanism’ (Brasilian edition) or ‘The Betrayal of Saint Paul’ (Portuguese edition).

This means that, finally, Homo Sapiens//Sapiens, with a reflexive and critical Conscience (individual-personal) is emerging; and, at the same time, that we are over-coming the conservative/conforming traditionalism of a lesser humanity, conceived and organized according to the catechism of Homo Sapiens tout court, where the word and universe of humans only function according to the rules of Epistemic Monism and of Objective-Objectualism, both in the orbit of the sphere of religions and in the orbit of the sphere of the socalled positive and experimental sciences.

Lenine himself (Vladimir Ulianov) left, one day, a surprising written axiom that the Enduring Philosophy itself (the one that doesn’t allow being silenced or betrayed by the ‘tempora et mores’!...) doesn’t reject after all: “Ethics is the aesthetics of the Future.” Attempting to understand and to interpret the said axiom, the North-American artist Laurie Anderson (multifaceted and performance friendly) expressed herself as follows: “We will manage to be so good to each other and to communicate in such a clear way that we will be able to dispense all those things that, nowadays, we place in the category of ‘beauty’ (cit. in ‘Expresso/Atual’, 19.5.2012). The best medieval scholastic philosophy already taught us that ‘Ens, verum, bonum et pulchrum convertuntur’!... The only thing missing is for humans and their societies to assume these principles as their own.

It is obvious that words and sentences, by themselves, will not change the world… But they can (and should) help us to project and construct a true and adequate Alternative World, facing the contradictions, the wretchedness and the misfortune that exist!... In what way? Placing us in communication and communion with each other. * 1. ─ Physics/Astrophysics and Philosophy They constitute the two branches of the same Live Organism, exactly like the union of spirit and matter, soul and body in the philosophical horizon of the Aristotelian Hylomorphism.

Similar to the two shafts of a cart, we can evoke, having to do with philosophy, Emmanuel Lévinas: ‘Totalité et Infini’ (Essai sur L’Extériorité), Martinus Nijhoff, La Haye, 1965, 2.me edition).

The notion of Totality is, there, elaborated and constructed in the area of Objects (objective-objectual). On the other hand, the notion of Infinite is elaborated and identi-fied in the universe of Beings (thinking and conscious).

In the area of Physics/Astrophysics, we can evoke Stephen Hawking and Leo-nard Mlodinov: ‘The Grand Design’ (New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life), Bantam Books, London, etc…., 2011.

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2. ─ Instead of nothing… things, live beings and the universe exist. And inside the latter (in its nuclear center), giving it form and meaning, We, Human Beings, exist. Though knowing there is a structure (linked) of ‘architectural’ laws to secure the permanence and evolution of Life and of the ‘Psycho-SocioAnthropos’, We, Humans, also know that the form and meaning of the Universe will have to be activated and completed in agreement with the guidelines of our Decisions (intelligent) and Choices (per-formative).

That is why, for us (in the C.E.H.C.), there are no gods outside the Evolving Universe marked by the increasing Complexity, beginning at the supposed original/ originating Big Bang. That Responsibility of helping to develop and complete the Grand Design, starting from a Free Choice, was left to Humanity!

3. ─ A) The Dialectic of at the top and at the bottom. B) The Dialectic of the interior and of the exterior. Which of them is more important and decisive for the humanization of the species? The answer, for us, is obvious and inescapable: the second. ● “What is at the top is equal to what is at the bottom, so that the unity mystery can be fulfilled.” (Hermes Trismegisto: denomination attributed, by the Greeks, to the Egiptian god Toth, of the IV/III millennium B.C., that they recognized as the author of the 17 mystical books of the so-called Corpus Hermeticum). ● From Thomas’ Gospel (regarding the breast-fed children, who are similar to those that enter the Kingdom), ─ logion 22: “When you make two one, and when you make inside like outside and outside like inside, and at the top like at the bottom, and when you make man and woman only one and the same, so that man stops being man and a woman stops being woman, and when you adapt eyes in the place of one eye and your hands in the place of one hand and your feet in the place of one foot, and similarities in the place of one similarity; ─ then you will enter the Kingdom”. ● “One divides into two. It is a sign of life. Two become one ─ it is an expression of death”. (Hermes Trismegisto). N.B.: The supplement referred to from Thomas’ Gospel shapes itself in the passage to Culture. The cited axiom of Hermes Trismegisto is situated on the biological plane of Nature. Mixing and confusing the two planes is what, today, the much promulgated juridical Positivism does… it is the ruin and the misfortune of the human species and of human societies, as such, and the all-involving Nature itself. The catastrophe is already in progress in the ideological atmosphere that we are now breathing, polarized in the very dissolution of Reality, that, in the natural light of human reason, already seems not to count for anything in the Establishment universe. *

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(Sonnet: summary) With what is at the top and at the bottom all hierarchies are constructed…

They are always, always the same solutions of the ancient very old manias!...

Therefore, between my interior world and there, which is the exterior world, the difference is enormous, of abysses…

Between the two only earthquakes can appear!...

All science ignores all the facts; it reduces everything, everything to objects… amassed in false projects.

But true conscience doesn’t ignore them, that in its mode of operating and courses, always acts with more Wisdom!

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Centro de Estudos do Humanismo Crítico CEHC Portugal e América Latina

SEDE Guimarães/Portugal

16

Centro de Estudos do Humanismo Crítico Portugal & América Latina

Joanne Paisana e Manuel Reis

THE RELIGIOUS FACE OF

WILLIAM BLAKE A FACE RELIGIOSA DE WILLIAM BLAKE

17

ÍNDICE

THE RELIGIOUS FACE OF WILLIAM BLAKE …………………

Respigando a Obra crítica de WILLIAM BLAKE ……………...

Teimando em construir Futuro! …………………………………

Uma Curta Selecção de Livros Recomendados ……………..

Pró-Bandeira do C.E.H.C. em termos operativos 18

no horizonte do Saber ……........................................................…

THE RELIGIOUS FACE OF WILLIAM BLAKE* A FACE RELIGIOSA DE WILLIAM BLAKE Joanne Paisana

* Adapted from a presentation given in February 2011 as part of the ‘Literatura e Religião’cycle of conferences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. ** Institute of Arts and Humanities, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.

The objective of this paper, after exploring the multifaceted nature of William Blake’sartistic creativity, is to reveal some of Blake’s religious views, in particular his ideasconcerning Natural and Revealed Religion, through an analysis of the philosophicalaphorisms of There is No Natural Religion and All Religions are One. Keywords: William Blake; Natural Religion; Poetic Genius.

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O objectivo deste paper é explorar a natureza multifacetada da obra artística de William Blake, com especial ênfase nas suas ideias sobre Religião Natural e Religião Revelada, através de uma análise dos princípios filosóficos expressos em There is No Natural Religion e All Religions are One. Palavras-chave: William Blake; Religião Natural; Génio Poético.

William Blake was without doubt a religious man despite abjuring churchesduring the last decades of his life. His strong beliefs concerning God and Christianity were based on a profound study of the Bible and other relevantsources and led him to reject many of the tenets of established religion.This paper will examine both his multifaceted nature and his early religiousviews as expressed in the brief statements and counter-statements of There is No Natural Religion and All Religions are One.

William Blake (1757-1827), a Londoner born and bred, was a complicated,even eccentric man. A debt is owed to Alexander Gilchrist whorescued Blake from anonymity thirty-six years after his death, in 1863,through the publication of Life of William Blake, “PictorIgnotus”. William Blake’s name thereafter became a household word in the English-speaking countries.

Despite the relative ease which today’s reader can access the work of the multifaceted Blake, he remains a difficult subject of analysis. Mason attests to the apparent ambivalence in his beliefs, which means critics disagree on the very nature of those convictions (Mason, 1988). This may be responsible for the temptation to address his work in a partial manner - lyrics, illustration, narrative writing etc. E.P. Thompson refers to the “multitude of individual studies, each adding some minute particles to the sum”(Thompson 1993: xv). Philippa 20

Simpson, curator of the 2010 Blake Displayat the Tate Britain, London, explains the partial nature of the critical analysis often associated with Blake as due to his being an indefinable artist who: “doesn’t belong to any system or movement so he doesn’t get looked at in a broader context” [1]. This is certainly true, for Blake was singular in the extreme, as will be shown.

Classifiable as one of England’s greatest figures of art and literature, one of the mostinspired and original Englishmen of all times, an ambitious, urban artist, Christian radical and visionary [2], creator of mythical worlds peopled by memorable characters, Blake revered ancient civilizations, the heroes of Old England and especially the Bible, and through these means he was committed to revealing Truth. A man of radical ideas, most notably on religion and politics [3], it can be argued that Blake was primarily concernedwith the mammoth task of showing fallen Humankind the right path to Redemption while simultaneously indicating which paths to avoid. Upholder of a belief in the primacy of the imagination, railing against those who put reason before it, Blake famously put the following words into themouth of Los in his prophetic book Jerusalem. The Emanation of the GreatAlbion, “I must create a system, or be enslav’d by another man’s. I will not reason & compare: my business is to create” (plate 10).

His creativity must surely have been stimulated by his refusal to be bound by the educational practices of his day. Indeed, according to T. S.Eliot, the origin of Blake’s honesty and the foundation of his mastery was his auto-didactic education which allowed him to follow his true interests, to learn what he chose and not what was considered by others worthy of study (Eliot, 1922). Blake himself condemned the imitative rote-learning traditions thus, “Thank God I never was sent to school, To be flogged into following the Style of a Fool.” (apud Ackroyd, 1995: 23). Believing that Mancame into the world already in possession of what was really needed – no tabula rasa for him – Dames schools and even Dissenting academies were eschewed in favour of solitary reading and reflection [4]. Here he has a possible debt to Rousseau who rejected as oppression the idea of a uniform education for all, regardless of talent. Few are able to ascertain, as Blake does, “I read Burke’s Treatise when very young at the same time I read Locke on Human Understanding & Bacon’s Advancement of Learning ... I felt the Same Contempt & Abhorrence then, That I do now” (Ackroyd, 1995: 25). Indeed, while other poets were content to make use of the customary Biblical characters, or those from well-known Greek and Roman mythology, and while Blake did not ignore these, he created his own legends populated by a host of beings that he himself had either invented or reinterpreted. The fact is, he was aware of his difference without delighting in it.

He lamented in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “O why was I born with a different face? Why was I not born like the rest of my race?”

Blake had three professional careers: engraver [5], artist/graphic designer [6] and lyricist/prose writer. His engraving was recognized as having some merit by those in the profession, and for certain periods of time he managed to live fairly comfortably from it, doing work on commission, or “drudgery of business”, as he called it in a letter to his friend and patron Thomas Butts (Mason, 1988: 67). His artwork and designs were less known, and after 1796 only connoisseurs in London and a few patrons of watercolours and of his spectacular illustrated work Grave (forty commissioned illustrations for Robert Blair’s poem), acknowledged him. Blake wanted to return English art to its medieval and sacred origins. In 1804, his intellectual vision had revived after seeing in London 21

the Truchsessian Gallery paintings (he was too poor to travel to the continent to see the great paintings by his inspirational masters Michelangelo, Durer, etc).

Indeed, he was encouraged to pursue the new medievalism or new Gothic in later life by the self-styled group “The Ancients” a group of young artists devoted to Blake in his later years [7]. He deplored Rubens and the Venetian painters, not least for their treatment of light, shade and colour (he spent two years intensely studying these aspects on his own), and compared his own work to the highest standards of Carracci and Rafael in a letter of 1802 to Thomas Butts, “I say they are equal to Carracci or Rafael, or else I am blind, stupid, ignorant […]” (Mason, 1988:69).

Blake’s unpleasantly great poetry, to paraphrase Eliot [8], is today probably the best known facet of Blake, despite being almost entirely ignored until after his death. The few contemporary, casual judgments made of his work referred to such characteristics as “wildness” and “originality” (the latter decidedly derogatory). Works are classified variously as “idle and superfluous” or having a “wild charm” (Bentley: 5-6). Concerning his poetical work, Poetical Sketches, 1783, and Songs of Innocence and of Experience,1794, are without doubt the most commented on and appreciated [9]. Being the most easily understood and conventional both at the time of writing and now, this is not surprising. Differing opinions exist regarding the very long poem Jerusalem, written between 1804 and 1820, described in the nineteenth century as incomprehensible – “a perfectly mad poem” (Bentley: 10), while today many consider it a masterpiece.

Blake himself considered Jerusalem to be his finest poem. Here, the role of religion is greatly deprecated for it is said to exist merely to help the monarchy and clergy exploitthe lower classes. Greed and war have obscured the true message of Christ resulting in dehumanizing excesses. Albion (England) is infected with a “soul disease” and her “mountains run with blood” in consequence of the Napoleonic wars. Salvation is possible only if Albion can be reunited with Jerusalem, when all humanity would once again be bound by love.

Blake’s Descriptive Catalogue constitutes his sole attempt at describing his own work for the public, and it was done for his first and only individualexhibition at his brother’s hosiery shop in Broad St, London, in 1809. This exhibition, which attracted very few visitors, shows that he sought the public’s appreciation of his work, an assertion reinforced by the fact that he also submitted work to the Royal Academy. He was not a man who strove to be enclosed in his own private world, even if that was the consequence of his actions. The private exhibition was important for it allowed Blake to showcase his best work and left a valuable written legacy in the form of the aforementioned catalogue. This was significant because his non-commissioned work was slow to come to fruition not only because of constant reworking but also due to his method of production [10]. His invention of illuminated printing, uniting relief-etched designs and text on the same page, togetherwith doing his own etching, binding, printing and selling, meant production of his work was slow and laborious. Many of Blake’s works were made in small numbers and were therefore appreciated by only a small circle of admirers. Relatively few have survived in their original form or have been commented on by others [11].

Blake’s Prophecies united the contemporary critics “in bewilderment” (Bentley: 9). America a Prophecy constitutes an example of the illuminatedprinting aforementioned. It is one of his “Continental Prophecies” (see also Europe and The Song of Los) in which he explores the radical paradigms of political 22

repression and revolt through an imaginative, visionary, treatment of the American Revolution. The revolt of Britain’s thirteen American colonies is viewed as a harbinger of universal epistemological and politicalrevolution, and indeed not many years passed before Europe celebrated the most famous struggle for liberty and equality in 1789. Blake shows he is no ‘mere’ writer of political pamphlets in the Painite [12] or any other style, by unorthodoxly juxtaposing historical figures such as General Washington,Newton, Rousseau, Voltaire and Thomas Paine with his own imaginary mythological figures, including “Albion’s Angel” and “London’s Guardian” (forces of the Brit-ish government), Orc (the spirit of revolt), Los (representing imagination), Enitharmon (the female part of Los), and Urizen (the repressive God of the old testament representing restrictive reason and the origin of political repression).

Blake’s radical political bent is also evident in his defence of the common origin of religions, evident in Principles 5 and 7 of All Religions are One (see below), which although not a new idea, challenged the hierarchical claims of church and state. Hindsight and received critical analysis make interpreting the prophecies today somewhat easier [13], but the reader is still required to make a concerted mental effort in order to follow the reasoning of what Blake called his “visionary studies” (Mason, 1988:70).

For Mason, Blakean religion was largely “a matter of denying certainother positions” (Mason, 1988: xvi). Indeed, Blake spends a lot of time in refutation, disproving ideas whose progressive general acceptance probably seemed unstoppable. Living in the world of the rational empiricists and not wishing to completely deny the philosophical and scientific ideas inherent therein, Blake tried to reconcile his belief in a supernatural existence with the materialistic and sceptical viewpoint of Bacon, Locke and the like, especially as expressed in Locke’s Essay Concerning Humane Understanding [14]. His chief employer as an engraver was Joseph Johnson, publisher of scientific books and journals, the man at the centre of the rationalist liberal circle which counted Mary Wollstonecraft , Joseph Priestly, William Nicholson, Thomas Paine and William Godwin among its members. They all propagated the Baconian and Lockean traditions and Blake must have been at least on the fringes of the group. In addition to this intriguing milieu, knowledge of his upbringing is essential to an understanding of his religious ideas.

Apart from his peculiar education, aforementioned, Blake was nurtured on Dis-senting religious principles. His parents, James and Catherine, hosiers, made sure their third son William was strongly imbued with piety, enthusiasm and vision. Indeed, they are ever present in Blake’s work [15].

Despite turning his back on the institutional church, Blake considered himself a Christian. For a time he followed Swedenborg, and the SwedishChristian mystic and Blake shared certain characteristics. Both were visionaries, for Blake claimed he was accompanied throughout his lifetime by angels and other visions, being able to “converse” with the dead. These visions also included prophets and Christ the Redeemer. A commonly related episode is that while illustrating Edward Young’s Night Thoughtsbetween 1795 and 1797, Blake painted an angel whom he said had appeared and spoken to him. His earliest vision – of a tree full of angels – had been while out walking on the outskirts of London, at the age of eight or nine. He would be occasionally punished by his parents for “telling lies” there-after. After he “saw” his beloved brother Robert’s spirit leave his body on his death in 1787, he claimed to have seen and talked 23

to him on many subsequent occasions. Blake’s later poetry collections were printed usingan engraving process which Robert had allegedly described during one of these post-mortem conversations. His 1805 illustrations for Robert Blair’s poem The Grave tried to delineate souls and spirits, but was called “absurd”by The Examiner at the time, this being the standard attack on this visionary artist [16]. The non-chalant way in which Blake talked of his visions encouragedsome people to label him as insane although his general behavior belied this.

Without doubt, the greatest influence on Blake must have been the Bible, the mainstay of his Dissenting family and the object of intense and continued group and personal study. He aligned himself with the Biblicalprophets, especially Jesus, but rejected the Bible’s authenticity as literal history, preferring to give his personal interpretation rather than a received,orthodox one. He argued that all religions are derived from what he called the “Poetic Genius” (see the analysis of All Religions Are One below). He believed that the function of history is to clarify the relationship betweenhumanity and divinity, that human life is generally spiritually barren, and that the Fall will eventually lead to the Resurrection. For Blake, the biblical account of Creation, Fall and Last Judgement provided the most comprehensive and penetrating vision of human destiny [17].

Blake rejected the deistic notions inherent in the school of Bacon andLocke concerning God and Nature (Natural Religion), disbelieving the idea that God withdrew after creating the universe, leaving natural laws to dictate events, rejecting simultaneously the attempt to prove the existence of God on the basis of sensate experience and its rational investigation. Likewise, he rejected what later would be the essence of the Romantic notions of art and the divine, labelling Wordsworth’s worship of nature, for example, as atheism. He argued that for the artist especially, the Divine Spirit should be the object of worship rather than Nature. For Blake, knowledge of God depends on Revelation, on the supernatural, the real cause of events being spiritual and not corporeal, invisible to what he calls the “Vegetative Eye” (the physical, decaying, eye) – the mere natural sense of sight. For Blake, followers of Natural Religion choose to remain on the level of the material, partaking in “vegetative life” [18].

Blake’s major works on religion are the following:All Religions are One,c.

1788, There is No Natural Religion, c. 1788, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790, Jerusalem, 1804-18, Vision of the Last Judgment, c. 1810, and The Everlasting Gospel, c. 1818. In All Religions are One (see below) the first ofBlake’s illuminated books, the simple designs and limited range of motifs arecomplemented by the aphorisms themselves. The thirty-one-year-old Blakeargued for “the existence of a universal and supra-rational ‘Poetic Genius’that expressed itself through the shared (though ever various) forms of allreligions” (Eaves, Essick and Viscomi, 1993: 27).

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ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE

(c. 1788) The voice of one crying in the wilderness

[19]

THE ARGUMENT As the true method of knowledge is experiment the true faculty of knowing must be the faculty which Experiences. This faculty I treat of.

PRINCIPLE 1 That the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their genius, which by the ancients was called an Angel and Spirit and Demon.

PRINCIPLE 2 As all men are alike in outward form, so (and with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic Genius.

PRINCIPLE 3 No man can think, write or speak from his heart, but he must intend truth.

Thus all sects of philosophy are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the weakness of every individual.

PRINCIPLE 4 As none by travelling over known lands can find out the unknown, so from already acquired knowledge Man could not acquire more. Therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists.

PRINCIPLE 5

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The religions of all nations are derived from each nation’s different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is everywhere called the Spirit of Prophecy.

PRINCIPLE 6 The Jewish and Christian testaments are an original derivation from the Poetic Genius. This is necessary from the confined nature of bodily sensation.

PRINCIPLE 7 As all men are alike (though infinitely various) so all religions similar, have one source.

The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius.

and, as all

Blake begins by referring to the interlocutor as “The voice of one cryingin the wilderness”. The connection is immediately made to the devil’s temptation of Jesus during his forty days and nights in the wilds, the subsequent resistance and ultimate rejection of temptation (Matthew 4:1). The temptation here could be the attractive Newtonian discourse. KathleenRaines asserts the interlocutor is John the Baptist, the prophet of Jesus (Raines, 2002). The succinct ‘Argument’ that follows refers to the “faculty which experiences”, at first sight the experimental faculty, the sensorial and the rational together. However, Blake introduces his Poetic Genius as his first principle, stating that man’s exterior originates in his interior/Poetic Genius, which is backed up by ancient belief that all exterior form comes from an internal, non-physical “essence” [20]. This holds for all living things. Various religions call this spirit “Angel”, “Spirit” or “Demon”.

Blake thus reiterates both the commonality of the origin of all religions and the longevity of his belief. According to Eaves et al, only two years after writing All Religions are One, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake explores “the ways political and religious institutions have severed the original bond between spirit and form” (20), thereby showing the bond between the two was subsequently broken. The second principle stresses the causal relationship between Poetic Genius and man’s out-ward appearance, albeit infinitely variable. Blake’s adherence to the principles of physiognomy may be relevant here. According to the third principle, human essence adapts to each man’s “weaknesses” i.e. his religious sect, while remaining the same within each one, for the deep-felt and heartfelt expressions are sincere/true. Different sects originate in indi-vidual and even cultural differences, not in the essential spirit of man. The fourth principle rests on the implication that man increases his pool of knowledge. Proof of Poetic Genius lies in the assertion that no new knowledge can come from knowledge already acquired, it must come from somewhere else. The fifth principle is similar to the third, extending the varieties of sects to nations in connection with the proliferation of religions, while intimating their basic similarity. Next, the Jewish and Christian faiths are said to originate from the same primary source, Poetic Genius, because they are more than “bodily sensation”, or the senses, can determine. This is said to be Blake’s rebuttal of those who doubted the divine authority of the Bible. He criticised the subsequent misappropriation of the Bible on the part of some institutionalized churches (as did Paine and others), but insisted on its authenticity because of its original inspiration (Eaves et al, 1993). The final principle emphasises once again the common root of all religions, residing in the essence of Man, for “all similar have one source”.

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In There is no Natural Religion Blake states a series of propositions and accompanying emblem-like designs, divided into two groups of numberedproposals, designated by modern editors as “series a” and “series b.”

Blake isironic concerning Lockean philosophy and natural religion, proposing hisown version of revealed religion. He first states the basic Lockean principles concerning physical perception, reason, and the limits of knowledge, but in the second series redefines and confutes his statements and argues for the infinitude of spiritual perceptions. The Newtonian “single vision” i.e. consciousness bound by the assumption that there is a single unified world of truth behind appearances, a world against which subjective impressions must be judged, is derided. Locke and others located the origins of human knowledge in the experience of a natural world governed by fixed and definable laws. In There is no Natural Religion Blake talks of the ratio and the experimental as being constrictive, condemning Man to “repeat the same dull round over again” whereas the poetic or prophetic opens the doors of infinity to knowing God.

THERE IS NO NATURAL RELIGION

[21]

The Argument Man has no notion of moral fitness but from Education.

Naturallyhe is only a natural organ subject to Sense.

I Man cannot naturally Perceive, but through his natural or bodily organs.

II Man by his reasoning power. can only compare & judge of what he hasalready perceiv’d.

III From a perception of only 3 senses or 3 elements none could deduce a fourth or fifth.

IV None could have other than natural or organic thoughts if he had none butorganic perceptions.

V Mans desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he hasnot perceiv’d.

VI The desires & perceptions of man untaught by any thing but organs of sense, must be limited to objects of sense.

I Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception, he perceivesmore than sense [thou ever so acute] can discover.

II Reason or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that itshall be when we know more [Plate b5, numbered III, lacking] IV The bonded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round even of auniver[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.

V If the more become the same as the few, when possess’d, ‘More! More!’Isthe cry of a mistaken soul; Less than All cannot satisfy Man. VI If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must behis eternal lot.

VII The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite and himselfInfinite.

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CONCLUSION If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character, the Philosophic and Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things & stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again.

APPLICATION He who sees the infinite in all things, sees God. He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only. Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is.

The symbiotic nature of Blake’s artistic work can be seen in the pencil drawing of Newton, 1795, (fig.1), which was a preparation for his coloured Newton.

Blake shows the naked eighteenth-century philosopher-scientist alone, intently using his scientific instrument (compass) to measure and calculate [22]. He sits on a rock which in the final coloured print moulds his lower body. Many interpretations have been suggested for this depiction, most centring on the fact that Newton is both “one” with the rock/nature and yet has his back to it.

Paolozzi’s sculpture “Newton”, 1995, draws upon William Blake’s print and was commis-sioned for the British Library’s new home in St Pancras. It can be found in the plaza out-side. It is an apt choice of subject for Britain’s national repository of knowledge!

Fig. 1 Pencil study for Newton, 1795

This paper acknowledges the great amount of scholarly work already available on the various facets of William Blake. One may wonder at 28

thetardiness of his public recognition (twentieth century) and yet the reasonsfor his obscurity are quite obvious. As has been shown, an unorthodox life coupled with a dogged determination to “do things his way” were not the best handmaidens for the success he so desired. Few could understand him. A small number of patrons and loyal acolytes was the most he achieved. This paper has lifted a corner of the veil on his religious views by examining his thoughts on natural religion through a reading of his statements and counter-statements in There is no Natural Religion and All Religions are One. In the former he refutes commonly held ideas concerning reason and knowledge by stating the supremacy of the Poetic or Prophetic. No ‘proof’ is offered (the Newtonians had the monopoly on experiments), and the reader is expected to take Blake’s bold assertions at face value. They are purportedly the way to God. The latter comprises a set of principles which focus on the common origin of religions and men. At a time when millennial apocalypse was forewarned and religious sects multiplied at an alarming rate, Blake was anxious to highlight the importance of what he called the “Poetic Genius”, although the logic for its existence (Principle 4) is somewhat obtuse. Only an analysis of subsequent poets up to the present day can confirm the accuracy of Peter Ackroyd’s claim that Blake is “the last great religious poet in England” (Ackroyd 1995: 18), but it is hoped that at the very least Blake’s singularity and creative mind have been revealed, even if incipiently.

1 Guardian online 12 Aug. 2010.

2 George Richmond closed Blake’s eyes after he died precisely ‘to keep the Vision in’ (Ackroyd, 1995: 369).

3 Despite noticeable affinities with the political Radicals of his day, (his good friends Stothard, Cumberland, Sharp and Flaxman were members of the Society for Constitutional Information,for example), Blake did not try to enter active politics, something which his adverse financial and low social status would have made very difficult, if not impossible.

See Ackroyd, 1995: pp.72-75.

4 “‘Jesus supposes every Thing to be Evident to the Child & to the Poor & Unlearned. Such is theGospel.’ The child is not waiting for imprints from a physical environment, but a living essence.” (Raine, 2002: 105).

5 He completed a 7 year apprenticeship with the master Basire.

6 A great appreciator of Gothicart, of Chatterton and Ossian, he studied at the Royal Academy Schools, where the ideals of his less favoured classical art and historical painting were pursued. He was an assiduous and dedicated student, according to Ackroyd (1995), receiving an orthodox and classical education including painting, anatomy, perspective and architecture. Hedespised life drawing but nevertheless learned the techniques which would stand him in good stead in the future (see ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ for example).

7 A Vision of the Last Judgement, a huge painting now lost to us, shows his reverence for medieval sacred art and his devotion to Michelangelo, incorporating over 1,000 figures. It was designedin 1808 and was to be shown in an 1810 exhibition. This plan was dropped after the exhibition was cancelled, and the painting subsequently disappeared.

8 “Blake’s poetry has the unpleasantness of great poetry”, Eliot, 1922.

9 Most twentieth century schoolchildren could chant from ‘Tiger’ (Songs of Experience): “Tiger Tiger, burning bright, In the forests of the night”, making it one of the most famous of Blake’slyrics. Arguably the most famous lyric of all, however, is from the preface to the epic poem Milton, “And did those feet in ancient times, Walk upon England’s mountains green? [...]”, considered by many as the unofficial English national anthem.

10 For a detailed description of the relief-etching process see Viscomi Art of Blake’s Illuminated Prints [Manchester]: Manchester Printing Workshop, 1983, apud Bindman, 1993: 9.

11 They still appear, albeit rarely. Eight small etchings were found on the back of a timetable and certified as Blake’s in 2010 and are now in Tate Britain.

12 He would later rail against Paine’s deism as revealed in Age of Reason.

13 See, for example, David Erdman’s seminal Blake. Prophet Against Empire, 1991, Dover, New York.

14 “Man has no notion of mortal fitness but from Education. Naturally he is only a natural organ subject to sense.” ( apud Raines, 2002: 104).

15 There is little evidence he had much time or affection for his family, with the exception of his brother Robert .

However, Blake’s first biographer Frederick Tatham reflects on thesupportive nature of both parents vis -a-vis his creative efforts and willful rejection of authority in the form, for example, of school regulations (Ackroyd, 1995).

16 According to The New York Times, Feb. 20, 2006, “In 1805, William Blake, the poet and artist, was hired to engrave a series of 20 of his own watercolor illustrations for Robert Blair’s poem “The Grave.” This was an important opportunity for Blake. “What is Good must Succeed first or last,” he wrote to a friend. Blake has indeed succeeded — he looms large in our understandingof the artist’s imagination — but the commission for “The Grave” was doomed. The publisher hired another engraver in Blake’s place. The original watercolors more or less vanished until 2001, when 19 were discovered as a group in a Glasgow bookshop. A tangled tale ensued. And now for the unhappy final chapter. They are to be broken up and sold at auction at Sotheby’s.”

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17 After the Restoration in 1660, the fight over the Biblical meaning of faith subsided and the Bible began to lose its overriding importance, especially after Newton and Locke’s successful propagation of faith in the five senses rather than the metaphysical visions.

18 According to Eaves et al, Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural religion, published in 1779, furnish arguments for natural religion which may well have influenced Blake’s own expositionson the subject.

19 This version is from Mason, 1988: 5-6; according to Kathleen Raine (2002: 103), these aphorismsresemble a summary of Thomas Taylor’s work.

20 The term “essence” is borrowed from Eaves et al, being considered the best description for what Blake describes in the first principle.

21 There are many versions of this text, and some argument as to the order of the aphorisms. This is The Tate Gallery and William Blake Trust version as reproduced in Eaves et al. 1993: 25-26.

The original punctuation is kept.

22 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Blake_Newton_drawing.jpg

References Ackroyd, Peter (1995), Blake, London, QPD. Bently Jnr., G. E (1995), William Blake. The Critical Heritage, New York & London, Routledge [1975].

Brown, Mark (2010), «Tate Britain makes room for William Blake art found in railway timetable» in Guardian online, http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/aug/12/ tate-britain-william-blake-romantics-rehang [accessed on 14.06.11].

Eaves, Morris ESSICK Robert & VISCOMI Joseph (1993), The Early Illuminated Books, vol. 3, London, Th e Tate Gallery Publications.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, in Bartelby.com www.bartleby.com/200/sw13.html [accessed on 15.06.11].

Mason, Michael (1988), William Blake, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Blake, William (1795), Newton, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_ Blake_Newton_drawing.jpg. [accessed on 2.02.11].

Raine, Kathleen (2002), Blake and Tradition vol. II, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul [1969].

Tate Britain Online, www.tate.org.uk/learning/worksinfocus/blake/ [accessed on 1.02.11].

The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2006/02/20/opinion/20mon4.html [accessed on 2.02.11].

William Blake (1757 – 1827), The Poetical Works, www.bartleby.com/235/1000.html [accessed on 14.06.11].

Thompson, Edward Palmer (1994), Witness Against the Beast. William Blake and the Moral Law, Cambridge, University of Cambridge.

Joanne Paisana jpaisana@ilch.uminho.pt

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Respigando a Obra crítica de WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827) Manuel Reis

N.B.: Na base das reflexões e apontamentos, que vamos coligir, pode ler-se, com muito proveito, o estudo de Joanne Paisana (U.M./Braga/Portugal), titulado ‘The Religious Face of William Blake / A Face Religiosa de William Blake’ (elaborado a partir de uma prelecção, integrada no ciclo de conferências de Fev. de 2011, na Universidade do Minho, em torno do tema geral Literatura e Religião): cf. Rev. Diacrítica, nº25/3, Centro de Estudos Humanísticos, 2011, pp.9-22).

William Blake nasce em Londres, de uma família do pequeno comércio, em ple-na idade do Enlightenment, cujos pais, muito embora gravitassem na órbita da Cristandade, já se mostravam críticos perante a Religião. W.B., que teve uma educação de auto-didacta, no âmbito da escolaridade básica e secundária, pôde, assim, aprofundar, neste contexto, a sua autonomia pessoal/social e cultural, lendo livremente e cultivando-se em várias vertentes.

Nesta perspectiva, tenha-se em conta que, nas suas obras, ele pôs em exercício, com enorme sucesso, três profissões que podem considerar-se distintas: a de gravurista, designer de artes gráficas e escritor de prosa e poesia lírica.

Em termos de mundividência crítica, a sua formação foi desenvolvida, muito especialmente, a partir das obras de Francis Bacon (1561-1626) e de John Locke (1632-1704); relativamente ao grande Isaac Newton (1642-1727), W.B. não se coibiu de o criticar em alguns pontos.

William Blake, juntamente com John Donne (1571-1631), (o poeta, par excellence daquela escola a que os britânicos deram o nome de ‘poesia metafísica’), e o poeta épico John Milton (1608-1674), constituem, sem dúvida, as personagens/padrão do Pensamento moderno inglês, que mais se aproximaram da gramática de Pensamento dos Gnósticos judeo-cristãos primevos e da antiga Escola de Alexandria.

Neste horizonte, poderá afirmar-se, sem ambiguidades, que os três poetas/pensadores puderam configurar-se, criticamente, como pensadores 31

pós-modernos, vivendo, embora, na Idade Moderna… por outras palavras, não cairam nas armadilhas próprias do que o CEHC tem chamado as ‘contradições estruturais da Modernidade’. John Donne, por exemplo, consegue ser, na história da Cultura do Ocidente, o primeiro pensador (de nosso conhecimento) a falar-nos, clara e argumentadamente, do ‘suicídio de Cristo’ (ainda não se trata da homologação do suicídio de Jesus e do suicídio de Sócrates).

Na vertente da problemática religiosa, na obra de W.B. são de salientar os livros seguintes: ‘All Religions are One’ (ca. 1788), ‘There is No Natural Religion’ (ca. 1788), ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ (1790), ‘Jerusalem’ (1804-18), ‘Vision of the Last Judgement’ (ca. 1810), e ‘The Everlasting Gospel’ (ca. 1818).

Um confronto sumário a reter entre William Blake (1757-1827) e Immanuel Kant (1724-1808): estamos, obviamente, a referir-nos aos opúsculos de W.B., ‘All Religions are One’e ‘There is No Natural Religion’, dum lado, e do outro, ao livro de I.K., ‘A Religião dentro dos Limites da Razão Pura ou Natural’.

Ambos os autores são tributários das Luzes, da nova atmosfera ideológica, que dá pelos nomes de Lumières, Enlightenment, Aufklärung. Mas há, aí, entre os dois autores, diferenças de tomo. Não esquecer que, apesar da importância do Filósofo de Könisberg na própria Corte do Imperador (que era amigo de Voltaire), Frederico Guilherme II, de seu nome, censurou, de algum modo, oficialmente, o livro em causa de I.K..

Entretanto, as diferenças entre os dois Autores podem condensar-se na axiomática seguinte: Posicionando-se, embora, ambos, sob os holofotes das influências do Iluminismo da época, que os levava a assumir o fenómeno da Religião em chave de e ao serviço da Moral e da Ética, W.B. consegue ultrapassar e superar (implicitamente) a Magna Quaestio da Potestas d’abord, face ao universo do Saber filosófico e científico; ao passo que, em I.K., a Questão do Poder continua latente e por resolver. A confirmar o que dizemos, nas trincheiras do segundo, avulta o quadro onde I.K. distingue e contrapõe, logicamente, a Religião positiva/revelada (em nome da qual foi censurado pelo imperador…) e a Religião dentro dos Limites da Razão Natural. A Potestas do Papa e do Imperador ficaram intocáveis!...

Por outro lado, convirá advertir que o próprio Karl Marx (1818-1883), também não foi capaz de enfrentar e resolver (adequadamente!...) a Questão do Poder-Domi-nação d’abord (uma Questão que é estrutural/estruturante em todo o Universo Humano!...), quando estabeleceu o seu axioma muito conhecido e divulgado: ‘A Religião é o ópio do povo’. Há, aqui, um Erro flagrante de interpretação e lexicologia; por isso, o que daí tem de resultar é todo um processo demagógico, que prossegue, inexorávelmente, ao serviço dos Poderes Estabelecidos (religiosos ou profanos e laicos). O que K.M. deveria ter dito e proclamado é uma Frase muito diferente: ‘A Religião institucionalizada (qualquer que ela seja…) é o ópio do Povo’.

Tomando a Lição do que aconteceu a Kant (perante o imperador…), constitui umimperativo categórico a conclusão (metodológica) seguinte: Todas as metafísicas (impenitentes) acabam por atraiçoar os Humanos e o seu Universo psico-sócio-antropológico… e a traição ocorre em nome da religião laica e bastarda do Objectivo-objectualismo, cuja bandeira é sempre hasteada pelos detentores dos Poderes Estabelecidos. Por isso mesmo, o único Absoluto do Mundo é a Consciência Individual-Pessoal de todos e cada um dos Seres humanos, constituídos em Sujeitos livres e responsáveis.

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Estava certa, por conseguinte, a mundividência crítica dos Gnósticos judeocristãos primevos, dos quais se procurou aproximar William Blake, na sua Obra. Enquanto gnóstico, W.B. configura a Imaginação e suas funções acima da própria Razão… mas é óbvio que se trata, aí, de uma Imaginação criadora, onde a Racionalidade funciona, de algum modo, como ‘o ponto’ no teatro.

Evidências de um tal tesário podem ser encontradas em: ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’; ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’; no longo poema com o título ‘Jesusalem’, onde ressalta o mote: a Inglaterra (Albion) só será salva se vier a reunir-se com Jerusalem, onde, por fim, toda a Humanidade se há-de encontrar unida pelo Amor.

Em ‘Age of Reason’, William Blake chega a invectivar o deísmo de Thomas Paine, que ele considera, ainda, como um produto (pechisbeque…) das irredentas religiões reveladas. No fundo, por razões análogas às que, no texto supra, nos conduziram a preferir, no quadro de confronto, W.B. a I.K..

Com 31 anos, no seu opúsculo recheado de iluminuras, ‘All Religions are One’, W.B., já madura e criticamente esclarecido, argumenta a favor de ‘the existence of a universal and supra-rational ‘Poetic Genius’ that expressed itself through the shared (though ever various) forms of all religions’ (Eaves & Viscomi, cit. por J.P., op. cit., p.16). Dir-se-ia que o ‘Pai’, a quem se refere Jesus nos evangelhos canónicos e nos apócrifos, pode muito bem caber neste ‘guarda-roupa’ do ‘Génio Poético’ de W.B..

A sua identificação é feita no Princípio 1 do opúsculo em referência, a saber: “That the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward formof Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their genius, which by the ancients was called an Angel and Spirit and Demon” (J.P., op.cit., p.17). O ‘Deus sive Natura’ de Baruch de Espinosa configura-se no mesmo horizonte crítico dos Gnósticos judeo-cristãos primevos.

O Princípio 5 da pauta de W.B., no opúsculo em referência, diz o seguinte: “The religions of all nations are derived from each nation’s different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is everywhere called the Spirit of Prophecy” (op.cit., ibidem).

O Princípio 7 estatui o seguinte: “As all men are alike (though infinitely various) so all religions and, as all similar, have one source.

“The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius” (ibidem).

Em suma, todo o Universo humano, qua tal, procede da ‘faculdade que experiencia’, e esta é, a um só tempo, sensorial e racional. Neste horizonte, o Génio Poético é introduzido por W.B. como o primeiro princípio do Universo Humano, “ao estabelecer que o exterior do homem tem a sua origem no seu interior Génio Poético, o que é respaldado pela crença antiga de que toda a forma exterior procede de uma ‘essência’ interna, não-física. Isto é válido para todos os seres vivos. Várias religiões chamam a este espírito ‘Anjo’, ‘Espírito’ ou ‘Demónio’” (J.P., op.cit., pp.17-18).

“Locke and others located the origins of human knowledge in the experience of a natural world governed by fixed and definable laws. In There is No Natural Religion, Blake talks of the ratio and the experimental as being constrictive, condemning Man to ‘repeat the same dull round over again’, whereas the poetic or prophetic opens the doors of infinity to knowing God” (idem, op.cit., p.19).

De William Blake, ficaram para sempre famosas, em virtude da sua pregnância semântica, as seguintes personagens principais ou figuras 33

mitológicas: ‘Urizen’ (o Deus repressivo e controleiro do A.T., que é o precursor não esquecer do ‘Demiurgo’ dos Gnósticos); exerce as funções semiológicas da Razão restrictiva, que representa por antonomásia, e constitui o fundamento (tradicional) da tão característica como odiada Repressão política dos diferentes Governos dos Estados. ‘Albion’s Angel’ e ‘London’s Guardian’ (as forças da Governação Britânica). ‘Orc’ (o inesgotável espírito de revolta dos Sujeitos humanos singulares e concretos, diante das Injustiças…).

‘Los’ (representa a Imaginação, que nunca pode abandonar a sua alavanca criadora). ‘Enitharmon’ (é empregue para designar a parte feminina de ‘Los’).

Todavia, William Blake, apesar de ter criado raízes, mediante uma prodigiosa Imaginação criadora, no universo clássico dos Gnósticos judeo-cristãos primevos, precisamente por ter nascido na Grande Casa da Cristandade, ele acabou en passant, por atraiçoar a mundividência crítica dos Gnósticos, ao admitir noções como criação, queda, ressurreição (em sentido cristão…) e último juízo. De facto, não está fora do seu horizonte a arquitectura ideológica de Paulo, cuja sinopse se pode encontrar na Epístola aos Hebreus (que não é de Paulo, mas é da escola paulina) e no Apocalipse (entendido e lido segundo a grelha hermenêutica tradicional, e não segundo as regras do Pesher, como fez, muito bem, Barbara Thiering). Aliquando dormitat Homerus!...

Teimando em construir Futuro!

Para uma Humanidade, embrenhada em contradições e estruturalmente desnorteada por pseudo-mestres demagogos, incapazes de ler outro catecismo que não seja o da cultura do Poder-Dominação d’bord; uma Humanidade, em suma, aprisionada às teorias do ‘Conto do Vigário’ e às práticas da construção do babélico ‘Império mundial’.

E, não obstante, na Casa da Cultura/Civilização do Ocidente, há fontes fecundas que têm sido esquecidas e ignoradas, há dois milénios e meio: As Mensagens gémeas de SÓCRATES e de JESUS; a doutrina e a mundividência crítica dos Gnósticos judeo-cristãos primevos, que a I.C.R. nunca quis admitir e aceitar e sempre repudiou como heréticos.

A gramática propedêutica (de índole gnoseo-epistemológica) dos GNÓSTICOS pode esquematizar-se e condensar-se no quadro seguinte: Fonte (insubstituível) do Pensar e do Agir: a Consciência reflexiva e crítica dos Indivíduos-Pessoas.

Instrumentário utilizado: Inteligência (Imaginação com a chancela da Intuição: intus+legere é o étimo semântico daquela).

Sensibilidade pan-envolvente.

Racionalidade em todos os azimutes.

N.B.: Estes três instrumentos são, aqui, enunciados de acordo com a sua ordem axiológica (de valores e respectivas funções operatórias).

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W.B. tem razão em estabelecer o axioma: Não há nenhuma Religião Natural, institucionalizada ou a institucionalizar, visto que como nós ensinamos no CEHC – o Poder é sempre, em última análise, ou instância, um só. Por isso mesmo, a Humanidade (adulta e crítica) pode perfeitamente dispensar os poderes das religiões institucionalizadas, porque estes são essencialmente burocráticos (inúteis…) e a origem de toda a burocracia!... Eis por que ninguém (ou poucos…) vê que o rei vai nú!... Eis, igualmente, por que ninguém (ou muito poucos…) se dá conta da Quaestio Potestatis d’abord (que não aparece em palco, mas opera atrás dos bastidores, comandando tudo).

A Lei Natural Racional é outra realidade muito diferente, perante a Religião Natural (institucionalizada). Aquela está inscrita no coração e na mente de cada Ser humano, enquanto Sujeito dotado de Consciência reflexiva e crítica.

E precisamos (hoje e para o futuro) dela, em termos absolutos, uma vez que a Lei Natural é a origem e o fundamento de todas as leis positivas. Estamos, pois, contra todos os positivismos jurídicos (muito especialmente desde Hans Kelsen e Carl Schmitt), justamente em nome dos princípios e do regime da Democracia.

A ‘fatwa’ do Irão shiita contra ‘Os Versículos satânicos’, em 1992, que obrigou Salman Rushdie a exilar-se em Londres (e que 10 anos depois o Governo do Irão teve a coragem de anular…), é bem o exemplo paradigmático do positivismo jurídico (religioso ou civil) sem rosto nem sensatez (baseado apenas na Potestas d’abord), que todo o regime político, que honra a Democracia, deve repudiar. Não é com julgamentos de condenação à morte do Autor de um Livro de Literatura (ou de Filosofia), que se pode assegurar e defender a Liberdade de Pensamento e de Expressão e a liberdade cidadã de criticar os Poderes constituídos e a governação errada, que é uma exigência humana fundamental. A Solução, como ensina a gramática da Democracia, foi, é e será sempre o Debate de Ideias, por mais diferentes e opostas que elas se apresentem perante a nossa posição!...

Hoje em dia, os Adamastores, que impedem as Sociedades humanas de rumar para um Futuro digno do nome, é a entropia social, são os inércias societárias, que engendraram as teorias do ‘tem de ser’ e as doutrinas da resignação; tais Adamastores pesam muito mais do que a Vontade política dos Governos das Nações, que já não escutam, desde há muito, a Vontade dos Povos… e ficam serenos e tranquilos, em nome da cartilha dita ‘científica’ do Objectivo-Objecturalismo, volvido na religião sacros-santa dos Poderes Estabelecidos.

De resto, o Pecado Original das Sociedades humanas, politicamente organizadas segundo o Sistema capitalista, reside precisamente nessa absoluta incapacidade de encarar e resolver (qualquer Crise e todas as Crises), socorrendo-se da gramática da redistribuição da riqueza e da superação das desigualdades sociais (entre as diferentes classes sociais).

Uma vez que assenta no reforço dos egoísmos individuais e espera (falsa e falaciosamente…) resolver os problemas da pobreza e da miséria, mediante a simples Regra do crescimento estatístico do P.I.B., o Capitalismo é um Sistema (político-económico) incapaz de se aplicar, programaticamente, na distribuição (socialmente equitativa) da Riqueza produzida: não se trata, aqui, em 1º lugar, da distribuição de mercadorias produzidas por toda a população; mas, 35

outrossim, em 1º lugar, do salário justo dos Trabalhadores, promovendo, assim, o adequado consumo de toda a população de um País. No séc. XX, J. Maynard Keynes percebeu esta problemática e actuou, com algumas consequências positivas para os chamados ‘Trinta Gloriosos’.

A situação de calamidade pública, a que chegaram, hoje, as Sociedades humanas e a Humanidade em geral, é de tal calibre, que a própria Questão da Verdade e da Mentira (na Linguagem e no discurso corrente) tornou-se um jogo de cabra cega; e as populações, em geral, aceitam resignadamente serem ludibriadas sistemicamente por líderes demagogos: é a conhecida ‘sociedade dos dois terços’, inexoravelmente comandada pela Cultura do PoderCondomínio e regida pela cartilha do Objectivo-Objectualismo. A pobreza e a miséria e as doenças epidémicas (que atingem muito mais de um terço das Sociedades…), volta-e-meia aparecem nos programas dos Governos… mas nunca são levadas a sério!...

Na História da Humanidade, o Problema estrutural-estruturador hodierno mexe directamente com o paradigma em vigor do Psico-Sócio-Ânthropos: Em vez do ‘Homo Sapiens tout court’ (descendente do ‘Homem de Neanderthal’), temos de reconhecer que a psico-sócio-antropogénese nos trouxe para o patamar do ‘Homo Sapiens//Sapiens’ (descendente do ‘Homem de Cro-Magnon’ de há ca. de 60.000 anos).

Ora, precisamente porque as Sociedades humanas continuam a ser concebidas e organizadas segundo o paradigma antigo da Evolução, continuamos, pia e resignadamente, a prestar culto à Cultura do PoderDominação d’abord, a admitir e a praticar a cartilha de Adam Smith, que transformou os vícios privados em virtudes públicas e vice-versa, segundo o catecismo do Capitalismo moderno.

Não nos démos conta de que o Sistema capitalista moderno é, intrinsecamente, o mais desumano e predador de todos os sistemas económico-políticos, em toda a História das Civilizações. Como os humanos se habituaram (por instinto vital…) mais à servidão e à escravatura do que à Reflexão Autónoma e à Liberdade Responsável, deixámos que a Educação se dissolvesse e os Sistemas educativos se tornassem irrelevantes… afinal, hoje em dia, eles só interessam para instruir e domesticar profissionalmente!...

A bem dos Poderes Estabelecidos.

E de tal maneira foi re-abençoado o Sistema capitalista (na sua nova modali-dade do Neoliberalismo capitalista global), após a Queda do Muro de Berlim, em 1989, e o colapso dos ‘Socialismos convencionais’ (Willy Brandt), a partir do colapso da U.R.S.S., em 1991, que ninguém mais ousa, hoje em dia, discutir e debater o Capitalismo: tornou-se o dogma incontornável das Sociedades humanas.

E a cartilha das intermináveis mentiras e embustes continua a grassar everywhere, a partir dos próprios mundos académicos. W.B. chamou ‘Socialismo convencional’ aos modelos postos em prática na URSS e na China e outros, porque a sua apercepção do fenómeno era crítica, não dogmática. Ora, nos anos ’60 do séc. XX, John Kenneth Galbraith (em ‘O Novo Estado Industrial’) já levantava o véu e fazia a revelação crítica de que os modelos soviético e chinês não passavam de uma modalidade do Capitalismo, o chamado Capitalismo monopolista de Estado!...

Eis por que Universidades e Governos têm continuado a iludir e a mentir às populações, em dois patamares conjugados: a) dando o nome (falso) de 36

‘alternativas’ aos modelos ditos socialistas/comunistas, que o Processo histórico-civilizacional fez abortar; b) levando as populações a considerar que o Capitalismo havia sido comprovado, pela História contemporânea, como a única solução legítima e eficaz. Numa palavra, a eterna Mentira a triunfar sobre a Verdade, no Processo histórico. Até quando?!...

Entretanto, no capítulo das Alterações Climáticas antropogénicas (i.e., enquanto efeito e consequência do processo civilizatório), que se tem feito, nas últimas três décadas? O prato forte das cimeiras sobre o Meio-Ambiente temse quase limitado (cínicamente) à compra e venda de pontos, para que os países menos poluidores os possam ceder aos mais poluidores!... E o fenómeno da poluição atmosférica e do degelo dos glaciares nos pólos do Planeta já era conhecido na década de ’50 do séc. XX… 2007/8-2012: numa situação já deveras problemática, em termos estruturais, interpuseram-se as Crises financeiras/económicas. E, sobremaneira nesta U.E. (que ainda não sabe o que pretender ser no futuro: se uma Confederação real de Estados soberanos, ou se um Império capitalista a rivalizar com o dos U.S.A. ou da China…), o Directório germano-francês não se tem entendido (será que, agora, com o novo presidente francês, F. Hollande, irá mudar a situação?...). O resultado é óbvio: os países em dívida externa, com apoio da Troika, têm de cumprir um programa rígido de Austeridade (= não crescimento…), como se uma tal coisa (Austeridade sem crescimento) fosse possível na gramática clássica da Economia política, sem gerar servidão.

Neste novo contexto, com a interposição das Crises, toda a problemática grave sobre Ambiente e Alterações Climáticas foi eclipsada e votada ao ostracismo. Mais uma vez se iludiu ou dissimulou o carácter intrinsecamente contraditório, destrutivo e predador do Sistema Capitalista. E mais uma vez, assomam as Mentiras redondas des-tiladas pelo Sistema e credulamente admitidas e praticadas, como crenças religiosas pelos governantes de turno.

Estamos a referir-nos, por exemplo, à ditadura dos mercados financeiros, que os Governos da U.E. (a começar pelos do Directório…) interpretam como ‘democracia dos mercados de capitais’!...

Um sistema capitalista selvagem e sem controlos políticos adequados impera, hoje, absoluta e incondicionalmente, sobre o Mundo. Reina, dapertutto, a cartilha insensata e hedionda do Objectivo-Objectualismo, sob a Bandeira da incontornável Cultura do Poder-Dominação d’abord. É por isso que a Democracia colapsa e não é nada fácil instaurar regimes democráticos!...

A propósito da Democracia e do acesso ao regime democrático, é preciso sabermos que a predisposição e o consentimento responsável para este modo de organização da Sociedade, precisa de ser promovido e ensinado na Educação familiar e na Escola, nos Sistemas Educativos nacionais. Momen Hassan (um recruta do Exército egípcio disse ao jornalista estrangeiro: “I’m not against them, but I’m definitely not for them [os revolucionários da Praça Tahrir]. Democracy is good, but we can’t rush it. If you let the leash go completely loose, people will do whatever they want. We need a firm hand”.

(Cit. in ‘National Geographic’, Maio de 2012, p.79).

Que se espera vir a fazer no próximo Futuro, no horizonte exigente do Meio-Ambiente das cada vez mais medonhas Alterações Climáticas?! Vai, agora, terminar, no fim de 2012, o programa em vigor estabelecido (em Copenhaga:… muito fruste e frustrante), para o septénio a partir de 2005. Que se vai fazer em

37

ordem a salvaguardar o Habitat do Planeta Azul que ainda (volentes/nollentes) a Casa natural dos Humanos e suas Sociedades?!...

é

٠ “Pois uma criança nasceu, foi-nos dado um filho, que recebeu o império sobre os seus ombros; damos-lhe este nome: Conselheiro-maravihoso, Deusforte, Pai-eterno, Príncipe da Paz [que a Tradição cristã e jesuânica tem identificado com o vero Emanuel=Deus connosco]. O império será estendido numa paz infinita, para o trono de David e sua realeza, que ele estabeleceu e tornou firme no direito e na justiça. Desde agora e para sempre, o amor zeloso de Yahvé-Sabaot fará isso. [A vingança de Yahvé é exercida sobre Samaria e o reino do Norte] O Senhor lança uma palavra contra Jacob e esta cai sobre Israel”. (Isaías, 9, 5-7).

“O lobo coabita com o cordeiro, a pantera deita-se junto do cabrito, vitelo e leãozinho pastam em conjunto, guiados por um rapazinho. A vaca e o urso fazem amizade, os seus filhotes têm uma cama comum. O leão come palha como o boi. A criança de leite brinca no buraco da serpente; a criança mete a mão no esconderijo da víbora. Já não se faz mal nem distruição ruinosa em toda a minha montanha santa, porquanto o país está repleto do conhecimento de Yahvé, do mesmo modo que as águas enchem o mar”. (Isaías, 11, 6-9).

Que diz Yahvé, em resumo, pela boca do Profeta Isaías? “O lobo e o cordeiro pastarão em conjunto, o leão comerá palha como o boi, e a serpente alimentarse-á de poeira. Já não se fará mal nem destruição ruinosa em toda a minha montanha santa, assevera Yahvé” (Isaías, 65, 25).

Que nos é proposto, neste painel profético de Isaías? De forma condensada: a restauração da harmonia (quebrada… não pelo Pecado Original, mas, em termos filosóficos, pela Cultura do Poder-Dominação d’abord) entre Humanos e Natureza, entre Homem e Mulher, entre todos os Seres humanos.

A chamada era messiânica há-de trazer consigo o perdão dos pecados (no horizonte cristão…) e a Justiça verdadeira e universal (no horizonte crítico dos Gnósticos); em suma, a ‘paz paradisíaca’. Em termos cristãos, dir-se-á que a restauração futura há-de funcionar como uma nova criação!... Nas duas perspectivas, pode afirmar-se perfeitamente o axioma latino: ‘Opus Justitiae vera Pax est’: a vera e autêntica Paz há-de ser, sempre, obra de umaJustiça integral (entre os Seres Humanos, dotados de consciência livre e responsável, e tratados, por conseguinte, em pé de Igualdade).

Nesta órbita, os Ebionitas (dos quatro primeiros séculos da Era cristã), com a sua dieta prioritariamente vegetariana, estavam, em termos ideológicoculturais, no caminho certo. As perícopascitadas do Profeta confirmam a exigência dessa orientação alimentar. Com efeito, os sofrimentos (e cativeiros de animais selvagens…) inúteis, infligidos pelos Humanos, aos animais (e seres vivos, em geral), constituem as energias negativas, que hão-de cavar a sepultura da Espécie humana. ٠Nunca será demais lembrar e reter na mente este oxímoro surpreendente e calamitoso nos seus efeitos, como é patente para uma mente reflexiva e crítica: A Escolástica medieval e a balística procuravam demonstrar, nas áreas da Cosmologia, que ‘non datur actio in distans’: não há acção com efeitos à distância!... Hoje em dia, desde a Física clássica de I. Newton, esta foi mais uma conclusão que a Ciência (positiva e experimental) deu por errada.

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Hodiernamente, os nossos conhecimentos em Astrofísica e as Tecnologias mais vanguardistas em mísseis balísticos e naves espaciais conseguem, por ex., a partir de uma cadeira (no Pentágono) e digitalizando um computador, no esquema de super-comando à distância, lançar drones sobre o Afe-ganistão ou o Paquistão (ou elsewhere…), contando necessariamente vítimas entre os civis!... Também já conseguiram colocar em órbita uma estação espacial/observatório astronómico, nos confins periféricos do Sistema Solar (para além do planeta Neptuno), com o objectivo principal de medir e avaliar as ‘tempestades solares’.

Como se, algum dia, fosse possível à Humanidade controlar e dominar, plenamente, os efeitos negativos e positivos dessa Grande Estrela, que é o nosso Sol!...

No hemisfério das ciências físico-naturais (notadamente na Física clássica e Astrofísica como na Física quântica e nuclear) parece que a investigação continua a partir do pressuposto de que não há limites, ou seja, resta sempre uma ‘last frontier’ para vencer. E no outro hemisfério das ciências psicosociais e/ou humanas?!... Aí, os Governos dos Estados-Nações (acaudilhados por Universidades e Academias, que afinam pelo mesmo Diapasão da Cultura do Poder-Dominação d’abord…) continuam sem saber organizar, adequadamente, as Sociedades humanas; continuam a ignorar o essencial e decisivo, no concernente à base de organização e bom funcionamento das sociedades humanas qua tais: a Consciência (reflexiva e crítica) dos Indivíduos-Pessoas/ /Cidadãos. Entre os Humanos só é respeitado, quem se dá ao respeito!...

Aí está, alvissareiro, e em marcha para nos atordoar ou alertar, devidamente, as consciências, o Objectivo-Objectualismo unicórnio e o Monismo Epistémico impenitente, nessas ‘9 Things that will disappear in our Lifetime’ (divulgadas pela Internet, 12.5.2012), a saber: 1. The Post Office; 2.

The Cheque (que substitiui o papel moeda nas Trocas Comerciais); 3. The Newspaper; 4. The Book; 5. The Landline Telephone; 6. Music; 7.

Television; 8. The ‘Things’ that You own: muitos dos nossos pertences materiais, que irão desaparecer no futuro próximo. Quando já não houver distinção entre o hardware e o software, estaremos todos no mundo virtual de ‘the cloud’. 9. Privacy. Esta irá acabar!... Será que só restarão as ‘memories’ individuais, que a nova Aparelhagem não vai destruir?!...

Como é óbvio, tudo é medido e pesado, in abstracto, segundo o catecismo do embaratecimento da nova mercadoria de substituição da anterior, sem, sequer, se prestar a atenção adequada ao valor real de uso da mercadoria anterior ainda em função (Karl Marx dixit!). É o ‘Appetite for SelfDestruction’, como foi muito bem denunciado por Steve Knopper, no seu livro (aí referido). O novo horizonte é, bem, o do selvagem capitalismo financeiro tout court; o capitalismo económico is over!...

Não esquecer esta reflexão crítica da gramática psico-sociológica de Ralf Dahrendorf (sociólogo, filósofo e político): “Para além de toda a psicologia e sociologia, a opressão da sociedade é uma questão da quantidade de liberdade de escolha, que é deixada ao homem pelas coacções que invadem tudo na sociedade, ou colocando a questão de modo mais activo de quanto ele se pode arrogar. No seu aspecto mais assustador, o mundo do homo sociologicus é um ‘admirável mundo novo’ ou um ‘1984’, uma sociedade em que todo o comportamento humano se tornou 39

calculável, previsível e sujeito a controlo permanente”. (Cit. in ‘Homo Sociologicus’ de R.D., Quetzal, Lisboa, 2012, p.3).

Como não ‘dar retta’ ao movimento corajoso dos Indignados de todos os Países, aos anarquistas amadurecidos?!... As Experiências pessoais e as Consciências dos Indivíduos-Pessoas têm sido eclipsadas e aniquiladas, ao longo de toda a História das Civilizações, em nome da sempiterna Cultura do Poder-Dominação d’abord e da sua metodologia: a religião (laica e profana) do Objectivo-Objectualismo.

UMA CURTA SELECÇÃO DE LIVROS RECOMENDADOS A) Autores(de fora do C.E.H.C.): AKERS, Keit: ‘The Lost Religion of Jesus’: (Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity). Lantern Books, New York, 2000.

EISLER, Riane: ‘O Cálice e a Espada’: (A nossa História, o nosso Futuro), Via Optima, Porto 2003, 2ª edição.

‘La Bible de Jerusalem’, Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1955.

ROSENBERG, Marshall B., Ph.D.: ‘Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion’, PuddleDancer Press, USA, 1999.

Algumas Obras do C.E.H.C.: ‘Sócrates e Jesus’: Esses Desconhecidos…! (As Duas Revoluções Gêmeas), por Manuel Reis. Edicon, São Paulo, 2001.

‘Sócrates e Jesus: Esses Desconhecidos!...’ (As Duas Revoluções Gêmeas), por Manuel Reis. Estante Editora, Aveiro, 2006.

‘Despaulinizar o Novo Testamento, sob o Signo do Jesuanismo’, por Manuel Reis. Edicon, São Paulo, 2007.

‘Traição de São Paulo’, por Manuel Reis. Editora Ideal e C.E.H.C., Guimarães, 2007.

Debates Paralelos (Vol. 4): ‘A Palavra Jesuana, Textos Gnósticos & Outras Opiniões’, por Manuel Reis, Figuera de Novaes, Francisco Teixeira, J.C. Macedo, Maria Vidal, Carlota M. Moreyra, João Barcellos, M. Branco de Matos. Edicon, São Paulo, 2007.

Debates Paralelos (Vol. 5): ‘Q. JESUÂNICA’ (História, Igreja-Estado, Política, Gnosticismo, Filosofia), por Maria Vidal, Johanne Liffey, Manuel Reis, J.C. Macedo, Ruy Hernandez, Mary O’Connor, Alexandre A.F. Moreira, João Barcellos, Maria C. Arruda, Carlos Firmino, M. Branco de Matos, Mariana d’Almeida y Piñon. Edicon, São Paulo, 2009.

Palavras Essenciais (Políticas Educacionais + Cultura de Raiz = Projecto Nacional). Textos e Manifestos de Hélio J.S. Alves, Magnus Nogueira, Grupo Granja, João Barcellos e Manuel Reis. Edicon, São Paulo 2003.

Palavras Essenciais (Vol. 3): ‘Coronel Herculano (o Comandante da Força Pública que teve a coragem de assumir a salvação da São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, acenando com o Armistício às tropas da Ditadura getulista) & Outros Textos’. (Homenagem ao Filósofo Manuel Reis). Por Johanne Liffey, Carlos Firmino, Maria Vidal, João Barcellos, Rosemary O’Connor, Manuel Reis, Celine Abdullah, Mariana d’Almeida y Piñon, Cássia Winckler.Edicon, São Paulo, 2008.

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PRÓ-BANDEIRA DO C.E.H.C. EM TERMOS OPERATIVOS NO HORIZONTE DO SABER N.B.: O que nós (um plural do Grande Grupo que, a partir de Guimarães e São Paulo, se sente a operar no mesmo Diapasão crítico e difunde as suas mensagens, com a vontade e a intenção de renovar radicalmente o Mundo e as Sociedades Humanas) estamos a fundar e a projectar/construir, no Centro de Estudos do Humanismo Crítico, não tem nada a ver com o N.T. cristão/paulino (o qual, mutatis mutandis, se veio a misturar e a confundir, ao longo de dois milénios de Cristianismo e de Cristandade, com o A.T. hebraico/judaico.

Na verdade, o horizonte, que o C.E.H.C. está a procurar abrir e a identificar/configurar, é o que podemos designar pelo vero e autêntico Novo Testamento jesuânico (e socrático) = universal, dirigido a toda a Espécie humana, de acordo com a gramática (filosófica) holística do Psico-SócioÂnthropos. Foi o que procurámos esclarecer e demonstrar no nosso Livro titulado ‘Despaulinizar o Novo Testamento sob o signo do Jesuanismo’ (ed. brasileira), ou ‘Traição de São Paulo’ (ed. portuguesa.)

Quer isto dizer que está emergindo, finalmente, o Homo Sapiens//Sapiens, dotado de Consciência (individual-pessoal) reflexiva e crítica; e, ao mesmo tempo, que estamos superando o tradicionalismo conservador/conformista de uma humanidade menor, concebida e organizada segundo o catecismo do Homo Sapiens tout court, onde o Mundo e o universo dos Humanos só funcionam segundo as pautas do Monismo Epistémico e do ObjectivoObjectualismo, tanto na órbita do horizonte das religiões, como na órbita do horizonte das chamadas ciências positivas e experimentais.

O próprio Lénine (Vladimir Ulianov) deixou, um dia, escrito um axioma surpreendente, que a própria Filosofia Perene (aquela que não se deixa amordaçar e trair pelos ‘tempora et mores’!...) não enjeita, no fim de todas as contas: “A ética é a estética do Futuro”. Procurando entender e interpretar o dito axioma, a artista norte-americana Laurie Anderson (multifacetada e amiga das performances) exprimia-se como segue: “Conseguiremos ser tão bons uns para os outros e comunicar de uma forma tão clara que poderemos dispensar todas aquelas coisas que, hoje, colocamos na categoria de ‘beleza’” (cit. in ‘Expresso/Atual’, 19.5.2012, p.22). O melhor da Filosofia escolástica me-dieval já nos ensinava que ‘Ens, verum, bonum et pulchrum convertuntur’!... Só falta que os Humanos e suas Sociedades assumam esta principiologia como sua. É óbvio que as palavras e as frases, só por si, não vão alterar o Mundo…

Mas elas podem (e devem…) ajudar-nos a projectar e a construir um vero e adequado Mundo Alternativo, perante as contradições, a miséria e a desgraça que há!... De que modo? Pondo-nos em comunicação e comunhão uns com os outros.

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* Física/Astrofísica e Filosofia Constituem os dois braços do mesmo Organismo Vivo, tal como acontece com a uniãode espírito e matéria, alma e corpo, no horizonte filosófico do Hilemorfismo aristotélico. À semelhança dos dois barais da carroça, podemos evocar, na vertente da Filosofia, Emmanuel Lévinas: ‘Totalité et Infini’ (Essai sur L’Extériorité), Martinus Nijhoff, La Haye, 1965 (2.me édition).

A noção de Totalidade é, aí, elaborada e construída no horizonte dos Objectos (objectivo-objectuais). Por sua vez, a noção de Infinito é elaborada e identificada no universo dos Sujeitos (pensantes e conscientes).

Na vertente da Física/Astrofísica, podemos evocar Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinov: ‘The Grand Design’ (New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life), Bantam Books, London, etc…., 2011.

Em vez de nada… existem as coisas, os seres vivos e o Universo. E, dentro deste (no seu centro nuclear), imprimindo-lhe forma e sentido, existimos NÓS, Seres Humanos. Sabendo, embora, que há uma estrutura (em rede) de leis ‘arquitecturais’ para assegurar a permanência e a Evolução da Vida e do ‘Psico-Sócio-Ânthropos’, Nós, Humanos, sabemos, igualmente, que a forma e o sentido do Universo terão de ser acti-vados e completados, segundo as pautas das nossas Decisões (inteligentes) e Escolhas (performativas).

Eis por que, para nós (no C.E.H.C.), não há Divindades exteriores ao Universo em Evolução, marcada pela Complexidade crescente, a partir do pressuposto Big-Bang original/originante. Essa Responsabilidade de ajudar a desenvolver e completar o Grand Design, a partir de uma Escolha Livre, ficou entregue à Humanidade!

A) Dialéctica do em cima e do em baixo. B) Dialéctica do interior e do exterior. Qual delas é mais importante e decisiva para a humanização da Espécie? A resposta, para nós, é óbvia e insofismável: a segunda. ٠ “O que está em cima é igual ao que está em baixo, para que se possa cumprir o mistério da unidade”. (Hermes Trismegisto: designação atribuída, pelos Gregos, ao deus egípcio Toth, do IV/III milénio a.E.C., que eles reconheciam como autor dos 17 livros místicos do chamado Corpus Hermeticum). ٠ Do Evangelho de Tomé (a propósito das crianças amamentadas, às quais são semelhantes os que entram no Reino), lóguion 22: “Quando fizerdes dois de um, e quando fizerdes de dentro como de fora e de fora como de dentro, e de em cima como de em baixo, e quando fizerdes do homem e da mulher um único e o mesmo, para que o homem deixe de ser homem e a mulher deixe de ser mulher, e quando adaptardes os olhos no lugar de um olho, e as mãos no lugar de uma mão, e os pés no lugar de um pé, e as semelhanças no lugar de uma semelhança; então entrareis no Reino”. ٠ “Um divide-se em dois, é sinal de vida. Dois fundem-se em um, é expressão de morte”. (Hermes Trismegisto). N.B.: O parergo referido do 42

Evangelho de Tomé configura-se no patamar da Cultura. O axioma, ora citado, do Hermes Trismegisto situa-se no plano da Natureza (biológica).

Misturar e confundir os dois planos é o que faz, hoje, o tão proclamado Positivismo jurídico… é a ruína e a desgraça da Espécie humana e das Sociedades humanas, qua tais, bem como da própria Natureza pan-envolvente. A catástrofe já está em marcha, na atmosfera ideológica que hoje se respira, polarizada na própria dissolução da Realidade que, à luz natural da Razão humana, parece já não contar para nada no universo do Establishment.

* (Soneto: painel de resumo) Com o que ‘stá em cima e o em baixo se constróiem todas as Hierarquias…

São sempre, sempre as mesmas soluções das antigas velhas/relhas manias!...

Assim, entre o meu mundo interior e além, o que é do mundo exterior, a dif’rença é enorme, é de abismos…

Entre os dois só podem emergir sismos!...

Ignora os factos toda, toda a ciência; que tudo, tudo reduz a objectos… amontoados em falsos projectos.

Mas não os ignora a vera Consciência, que no seu modo de op’rar e trajectos, actua sempre com mais Sapiência!

Guimarães, 22 de Maio de 2012.

Manuel Reis (presidente do CEHC): autoria.

Lillian Reis (digitalização e revisão de provas).

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