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The history of Christianity is replete with instances of those who advocated inhibiting the baser impulses and seeking more spiritual goals. In an attempt to attain such goals, the focus of the mind must of necessity be away from the concerns of the flesh. Not all Christians down through the ages have eschewed the flesh, and one notable exception was the English poet William Blake.
Blake expressed in his writings the notion that all the impulses that are aroused within the individual are natural and inevitable, cannot be eliminated, and must be integrated into the personality.2 In “A Poison Tree”4 Blake depicts this duality vividly in a way that closely parallels the legend of Narcissus:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.I was angry with my foe:I told it not, my wrath did grow.And I water'd it in fears,Night & morning with my tears;And I sunned it with smiles,And with soft deceitful wilesAnd it grew both day and night,