Blake's Tyger

Postscript

Six years after this Preface, Miss Raine's monumental work was published: Blake and Tradition, Two Volumes (Bollingen Series XXXV. 11, Princeton University Press, U.S.A., 1968). In two places in her notes at the end of the work she has done me the honour of referring to my essay.

On p. 230 of Vol. I, in the course of her own thesis, she has the statement: "Blake's Tyger is another fiery beast, created in the furnaces of the demiurge by the theft of 'fire,' the solar spiritual principle.⁷⁸" Her note 78 on p. 407 reads: "K. D. Sethna has written a fine exposition of this theme, still unpublished at the time of writing."

Vol. II, p. 5, finds her saying: "If Lamb and Tyger are alike expressions of the divine energy, under what conditions does the Tyger come into existence? If the 'fires' are the First Principle of the Divine Essence (as Boehme taught), does some agency other than the supreme God impose a form of evil upon the primal energy?⁴"

P. 285 has note 4 as follows:

"Mr. K.D. Sethna, who kindly allowed me to read his unpublished essay on The Tyger, also sees the 'fires' of the Tyger as a manifestation of the Divine Essence, and his conclusion is in accord with what we know of Blake's indebtedness to Boehme and the alchemists. I cannot accept all Mr. Sethna's conclusions, but many of them, reached by lines of thought different from those followed in this work, strikingly confirm what had been the inevitable outcome of a retracing of Blake's reading. After becoming acquainted with Mr. Sethna's essay I found myself obliged to rewrite some pages of this study, not so much in order to adopt his conclusions as, in one or two particulars, to strengthen my reasons for not doing so. I must therefore thank Mr. Sethna for what I have learned from him through a correspondence that has, apart from its application to

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this theme, confirmed me in the belief that a knowledge of tradition, such as he possesses (though in a form unknown to Blake), is of more value in giving insight into his work than the profane 'learning' of academic critics who are ignorant of the order of reality that Blake is at all times attempting to communicate."

From Miss Raine's comment, it would seem that the choice for a final interpretation of The Tyger lies between her conclusions and those towards which I worked my way. The latter stand mightily besieged. Whether they can hold out is an issue not to be prejudged by their author. All he can hug to his heart is the keen joy of living dangerously face to face with so gallant an enemy.

October 10, 1983

K.D.S.

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