Minute Particulars

Most of this post came from Damon's A Blake Dictionary, pages 280-81: "Minute Particulars are the outward expression in this world of the eternal individualities of all things. God, "the Divine-Humanity," is ultimately "the Only General and Universal Form""

(Jerusalem plate 38[43], line 20; Erdman 185)(Quoted on page 280 of Damon): "He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst Jesus will appear (verse 20) so he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect Whole Must see it in its Minute Particulars; Organized & not as thou O Fiend of Righteousness pretendest; thine is a Disorganized And snowy cloud: brooder of tempests & destructive War You smile with pomp & rigor: you talk of benevolence & virtue! I act with benevolence & virtue & get murderd time after time: You accumulate Particulars, & murder by analyzing, that you May take the aggregate; & you call the aggregate Moral Law: And you call that Swelld & bloated Form; a Minute Particular. But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars: & every Particular is a Man; a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus.

So the minute particulars are the outward expression of the individuals!, our fathers, mothers, children-- and of course many other things. Let's go back to Letter 16 at Erdman 712;

The Light of the Morning Heavens Mountains adorning In particles bright The jewels of Light Distinct shone & clear-- Amazd & in fear I each particle gazed Astonishd Amazed For each was a Man Human formd. Swift I ran For they beckond to me Remote by the Sea Saying. Each grain of Sand Every Stone on the Land Each rock & each hill Each fountain & rill Each herb & each tree Mountain hill Earth & Sea Cloud Meteor & Star Are Men Seen Afar

Your might see "Men Seen Afar" in terms of fourfold vision; now look at the final six lines of Letter 23: "Now I a fourfold vision see And a fourfold vision is given to me Tis fourfold in my supreme delight And three fold in soft Beulahs night And twofold Always. May God us keep From Single vision & Newtons sleep

"Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones: And those who are in misery cannot remain so long If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth" (Jerusalem 55:51;Erdman 205)

Here's an extended essay on Blake's minute particulars as they relate to the atomicity of "Newton or even Democritus (the founder of the concept of atomicity) and classical physics to Niels Bohr and quantum physics." Finally Damon in his first paragraph summarizes the elements of our experience: "The Minute Particulars of God are men (J92:31); of men they are children (J55:51); of life the joys of living, especially the embraces of love (J69:42); of ethics forgiveness instead if judgment (J43:61); of art the vision and the finished product; of science, the basic facts. (J55:62)" With so much material to study we must certainly expand our understanding of Minute Particulars.