Mock On Mock On Voltaire Rousseau by William Blake

Voltaire (1694–1778) was a French writer known for his sharp satire of the Catholic Church and religious superstitions. Rousseau (1712–1778) was a philosopher who based his views on society and human nature on reason instead of divine revelation. Both are key figures in the Enlightenment's skeptical and secular movement. Blake highlights them not because he viewed them as foolish, but because he found their criticism of spiritual life to be dangerously superficial.

Blake's conflict with Newton wasn’t about math; it was about the implications of Newton's perspective on the universe. Newton envisioned a universe that operated like a clock: measurable, predictable, and entirely devoid of imagination or spirit. Blake believed this "single vision" (his term) dulled human perception. His well-known depiction of "Newton" portrays the great scientist bent over a diagram, oblivious to the beauty surrounding him. In this poem, Newton's particles of light are merely grains of sand when compared to the vibrant light of divine vision.

Not in any political sense. Throughout his work, Blake uses Israel to symbolize humanity in a spiritually awakened state — a community of individuals who see the world through imagination rather than solely through their physical senses. "Israel's paths" and "Israel's tents" represent this spiritual community, while the setting of the Red Sea calls to mind the Exodus story, which serves as the ultimate image of liberation from a lifeless, materialist "Egypt."

It suggests that rational critiques of spiritual truths ultimately backfire. When you throw sand into the wind, it just gets blown back in your face. Blake argues that the more Enlightenment thinkers challenge faith and imagination, the more their own arguments reflect their shortcomings. The sand doesn’t harm the wind; it only blinds the one who threw it.

This is Blake's most striking move in the poem. The very particles that rationalists consider mere raw materials — atoms, grains, quantifiable bits of matter — transform into jewels when illuminated by divine light. Blake isn't dismissing the physical world; rather, he's suggesting that it's more than what rationalists perceive. Viewed through a spiritual lens, every grain of sand is a gem. (This relates to his famous line from "Auguries of Innocence": "To see a World in a Grain of Sand.")

It challenges reductionism more than it opposes science. Blake aims at the idea that reality consists of only atoms and particles, nothing beyond that. He isn’t arguing that Newton’s equations are incorrect; rather, he believes that viewing the universe solely as a machine shows a lack of imagination. Many contemporary readers see his stance as more of a critique of scientism (the belief that science has all the answers) rather than a dismissal of scientific inquiry itself.

The poem employs a loose iambic tetrameter, featuring four beats per line with some variation. While it doesn't follow a strict rhyme scheme, it carries a strong ballad-like quality, with end rhymes occurring in pairs (vain/again, divine/shine, light/bright). The repeated phrase "Mock on, Mock on" at the beginning lends it the tone of an incantation or hymn, aligning with Blake's intention to counter Enlightenment prose with something more lyrical.

Both versions are taken from Blake's manuscript notebook, often referred to as the Rossetti Manuscript, where he wrote and revised poems without always finalizing the text. The differences between them are minor, mainly involving punctuation and a potential copying error ("againt" instead of "again"). Since Blake never published the poem himself, editors have relied on the manuscript, leading to slight variations in their readings. Neither version can be considered definitively "final."