SOURCE: An introduction to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake, University of Miami Press, 1963, pp. 8-31.

In this excerpt Emery finds The Marriage of Heaven and Hell chaotic in form yet full of energy and an important first step in the creation of Blake's universe.

Blake had not yet created his new universe when, in 1790 (or thereabouts—its date is not certain), he set about his Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Yet, insofar as the work represents an ordering of a chaos of ideas and a firm statement of a position never afterward to be negated, it is an important initial step toward that creation. It is, as it were, a jotting of ideas in terms of which the later structure can be built. But the ideas are such, and Blake's mind is such, that a mere exhortatory self-memorandum was out of the question. Though...