192 Ideals in the Modern World
seek love seek our other half, the individual who can complete us—
make us whole, rather than partial. A High Romantic, one might
say, is someone who believes passionately in the idea that by joining,
sexually and spiritually, with the beloved, one can be transformed
into a higher, better version of oneself and help transform the beloved
as well. And from there one can do something— and perhaps more
than a little— for the world at large. Blake believed this literally: he
tried to make his marriage to Catherine a conjunction of Soulmates.
He also commits himself to a more complex version of Aristophanes’
ideal in his poems; there, the poet fi gure is in constant search for the
Emanation, the female being who can give him erotic and creative
energy.
What is the condition of the erotic life that Blake sees around him
in London? It has gone over to prostitution— the whore and the john
are the representative fi gures. For Blake, sex should be a sacred
matter; it’s at the heart of the holy fusion between one human spirit
and another. To make of sex something that is bought and sold is
to give over to the Self sacred terrain that rightfully belongs to the
Soul. For Blake this is an enormous surrender, for a purifi ed Eros
actually can help throw off the Self hood. Prostitution gives away to
the enemy one of the spirit’s best means for rebirth. The fruit of
prostitution is disease, both physical and spiritual. The “youthful
Harlots curse / Blasts the new- born Infants tear / And blights with
plagues the Marriage hearse” (27). The infant inherits syphilis from
his prostitute mo ther; the bride acquires it from her husband, who
has been consorting with the harlot. And along with this physical
decay comes spiritual sickness.
Love for sale! To the High Romantic this is the greatest oxy-
moron. Love is never for sale, but sex always has been and will be.
Blake requires spiritual connection and sexual passion from love.
Anything less will not give you the force and fi re necessary for
renovation.