sitions have a basis in fact, that their views have an objective validity," which is, of course, a lie. Also in 1966, Geoffrey Keynes observes that the poem had originally been a devil's song. In Blake: The Lyric Poetry, John Holloway refers to "The Human Abstract" as a poem which "asserts that the conventional Christian virtues like 'Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love' are parasitic on evil and bring it about." He contends that "The Human Abstract", "A Divine Image," and "The Divine Image" must be read together. In 1981, Zachary Leader suggests that the "self-tormenting tormentor of 'The Human Abstract,'" is one of the "four old men who prece de the Ancient Bard in the designs" in Experience. He locates the other three in the designs for "London," "The Little Vagabond," and "To Tirzah." Leader interprets the design accompanying "The Human Abstract," noting that the old man depicted is "another of Blake's self-oppressed oppressors." He argues that although the old man is "not himself the Bard, he is related to him, or rather to the experienced tendencies revealed in 'The Human Abstract.'" Through his examination of these "four old m en," Leader concludes that "though the Piper-turned-Bard is not yet (he never will be) wholly identified with an aged Urizenic oppressor, he has grown much closer to him, in both manner and guise." David Lindsay argues that "'The Human Abstract' is a grimly concentrated psychological allegory which purports to show how the vocabulary of Innocence can become the seedplot of sacrificial religion." He compares the "ominous peac e" in the poem to an arms-race, and contends that the speaker withdraws into "mock-Innocence so that his devices can operate." He concludes by suggesting that "the critique of Genesis implicit in this lyric is clarified by the narrative of The Book O f Urizen. One of the more recent readings of "The Human Abstract" is located in E.P Thompson's Witness Against the Beast, 1993. Thompson contends ...
