William Blake,
Milton — Book the Second
(1811)
“ Satan & Adam are States Created in Twenty-seven Churches, And thou, O Milton, are a State about to be Created Called Eternal Annihilation, that none but the Living shall Dare to enter; & they shall enter triumphant over Death And Hell & the Grave: States that are not, but ah! Seem to be. ‘Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore, What is Eternal & what Changeable, & what Annihilable? The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself. Affection of Love becomes a State when divided from Imagination. ”
