[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 Whatever They Did

Not Think At The Time That They Would Be So Misunderstood,& 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 Persuaded,& 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 Believe That It Does,&

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,& Some

Another; We Israel Taught That The Poetic Genius (as You Now Call It) Was

The First Principle And All The Others Merely Derivative, Which Was The

Cause Of Our Despising The Priests & Philosophers Of Other Countries, And

Prophecying That All Gods Would At Last Be Proved To Originate In Ours &

To Be Tributaries Of The Poetic Genius; It Was This That Our Great Poet

King David Desired So Fervently & Invokes So Pathetic'ly, Saying This He

Conquers Enemies & Governs Kingdoms; And We So Loved Our God, That We

Cursed In His Name All The Deities Of Surrounding Nations And Asserted

That They Had Rebelled; From This Opinions The Vulgar Came To Thin That

All Nations Would At Last Be Subjected To The Jews. 'This' He Said 'like

All Firm Perswasions, Is Come To Pass; For All Nations Belive The Jews'

Code And Worship The Jews' God, And What The Greater Subjection Can Be? 'I

Heard This With Some Wonder,& Must Confess My Own Convivtion. After Dinner

I Ask'd Isaiah To Favour The World With His Lost Works; He Said None Of