a memorable fancy, plates 12-13

the prophets isaiah and ezekiel dined with me

and i asked them how they dared so roundly to assert

that god spoke to them; and whether they did not think at the time

that they would be misunderstood

and so be the cause of imposition

isaiah answer'd

i saw no god

nor heard any

in a finite organical perception

but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing

and as i was then perswaded

and remain confirm'd

that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of god

i cared not for consequences but wrote

then i asked: does a firm perswasion that a thing is so

make it so?

he replied

all poets that it does

and in ages of imagination this firm perswasion removed mountains

but many are not capable of a firm perswasion of any thing

then ezekiel said

the philosophy of the east taught the first principles of human perception: some nations held one principle for the origin and some another

we of israel taught that the poetic genius

was the first principle and all other others merely derivative

which was the cause of our despising the priests and philosophers of other countries

and prophecying that all gods would at last be proved to originate in ours and to be the tributaries of the poetic genius

it was this that our great poet king david desired so fervently and invokes so patheticly

saying by this he conquers enemies and governs kingdoms

and we so loved our god

that we cursed in his name all deities of surrounding nations

and asserted that they had rebelled

from these opinions the vulgar came to think that all nations would at last be subject to the jews

this said he

like all firm perswasions

is come to pass

for all nations believe the jews code and worship the jews god

and what greater subjection can be?

i heard this with some wonder

and must confess my own conviction

after dinner i ask'd isaiah to favour the world with his lost works

he said none of equal value was lost. ezekiel said the same of his

i also asked isaiah what made him go naked and barefoot three years?

he answer'd

the same that made our friend diogenes the grecian

i then asked ezekiel

why he eat dung

and lay so long on his right and left side?

he answer'd

the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite

this the north american tribes practise

and is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratification?