,,william ,,blake ,,by ,,arthur ,,symons ,,new ,,york ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,and ,,company #aijg ,,to ,,auguste ,,rodin whose work is the marriage of heaven and hell ,,contents ,,preface ,,part ,i ,,introduction ,,william ,,blake ,,part ,,ii--,,records ,,from ,,contemporary ,,sources 7,i47 ,,extracts ,,from ,,the ,,diary1 ,,letters1 ,,and ,,reminiscences ,,of ,,henry ,,crabb ,,robinson1 ,,transcribed ,,from ,,the ,,original ,,mss4 ,,in ,,dr4 ,,williams',s ,,library 7#ahaj-aheb7 7#a7 ,,from ,,crabb ,,robinson',s ,,diary 7#b7 ,,from ,a ,,letter ,,of ,,crabb ,,robinson ,,to ,,dorothy ,,wordsworth 7#c7 ,,from ,,crabb ,,robinson',s ,,reminiscences 7,,ii47 ,,from ',a ,,father',s ,,memoirs ,,of ,,his ,,child1' ,,by ,,benjamin ,,heath ,,malkin 7#ahjf7 7,,iii47 ,,from ,,lady ,,charlotte ,,bury',s ,,diary 7#ahbj7 7,,iv47 ,,blake',s ,,horoscope 7#ahbe7 7,v47 ,,obituary ,,notices ,,in ,,the ,,literary ,,gazette' ,,and ',,gentleman',s ,,magazine' 7#ahbg7 7,,vi47 ,,extract ,,from ,,varley',s ,,zodiacal ,,physiognomy 7#ahbh7 7,,vii47 ,,biographical ,,sketch ,,of ,,blake ,,by ,j4 ,t4 ,,smith 7#ahbh7 7,,viii47 ,,life ,,of ,,blake ,,by ,,allan ,,cunningham 7#ahcj7 ,,preface ,it was when ,mr4 ,sampson's edition of ,blake came into my hands in the winter of #aije that the idea of writing a book on ,blake first presented itself to me4 ,from a boy he had been one of my favorite poets1 and ,i had heard a great deal about him from ,mr4 ,yeats as long ago as #ahic1 the year in which he and ,mr4 ,ellis brought out their vast encyclopaedia1 ,the ,works of ,william ,blake1 ,poetic1 ,symbolic1 and ,critical4 ,from that time to this ,blake has never been out of my mind1 but ,i have always hesitated to write down anything on a subject so great in itself1 and already handled by great poets4 ,things have been written about ,blake by ,rossetti which no one will ever surpass2 and in ,mr4 ,swinburne's book ,blake himself seems to speak again1 as through the mouth of a herald4 ,i read these1 ,i read everything that had been written about him2 gradually ,i got to know all his work1 in all its kinds2 and when ,i found1 in ,mr4 ,sampson's book1 the rarest part of his genius1 disentangled at last from the confusions of the commentators1 ,i caught some impulse--was it from the careful enthusiasm of this editor1 or perhaps straight from ,blake8--and began to write down what now filled and overflowed my mind4 ,having begun on an impulse1 ,i laid my plans as strictly as ,i could1 and decided to make a book which would be1 in its way1 complete4 ,there was to be1 first1 my own narrative1 containing1 as briefly as possible1 every fact of importance1 with my own interpretation of what ,i took to be ,blake's achievements and intentions4 ,but this was to be followed by a verbatim reprint of documents4 ,these documents were the material of ,gilchrist1 but1 even after ,gilchrist's use of them1 they remain of primary and undiminished importance3 they are the main evidence in our case4 ,the documents which form the second part of my book contain every personal account of ,blake which was printed during his lifetime1 and between the time of his death and the publication of ,gilchrist's ,life in #ahfc1 together with the complete text of every reference to ,blake in the ,diary1 ,letters1 and ,reminiscences of ,crabb ,robinson1 transcribed for the first time from the original manuscripts4 ,all these ,i have given exactly as they stand1 not correcting their errors1 for even errors have their value as evidence4 ,the only other document of the period which exists was written by ,frederick ,tatham1 within two years of the appearance of ,cunningham's ,life1 and bound up at the beginning of a colored copy of ,blake's ,jerusalem1 now in the possession of ,captain ,archibald ,stirling4 ,this manuscript was consulted by ,mr4 ,swinburne and afterwards by ,mr4 ,ellis and ,mr4 ,yeats2 but though many extracts have been made from it1 it was printed for the first time by ,mr4 ,archibald ,g4 ,b4 ,russell in his edition of ,the ,letters of ,william ,blake 7,methuen1 #aijf74 ,this very important volume completes the task which ,i have here undertaken3 the reprint of every record of ,blake from contemporary sources4 ,the mere contact with ,blake seems to awaken the natural generosity of those who have concerned themselves with him4 ,to ,mr4 ,john ,sampson1 the editor of the only accurate edition of ,blake's poems1 ,i am indebted for more help and encouragement than ,i can hope to express in detail2 and particularly for prompting me to a search among birth and marriage and death registers1 by which ,i have been enabled to settle several disputed points of some interest4 ,to ,mr4 ,a4 ,g4 ,b4 ,russell ,i owe constant personal help1 and the very generous loan of the proofs of his edition of ,blake's ,letters1 and of ,tatham's ,life1 with free leave to use them in the narrative which ,i was writing at a time when his book had not yet appeared4 ,through this favour ,i have been able to take such facts as ,tatham is responsible for directly from ,tatham1 and not at secondhand4 ,i am also indebted to ,mr4 ,russell for reading my proofs and saving me from some errors of fact4 ,i have to thank ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman for allowing me to read and describe the unpublished manuscript in ,blake's handwriting in his possession4 ,finally1 my particular thanks are due to the ,librarian of ,dr4 ,williams's ,library1 ,mr4 ,francis ,h4 ,jones1 for permission to copy and print the full text of all the references to ,blake in the ,crabb ,robinson ,manuscripts4 ,,london1 ,april #aijg4 ,,list ,,of ,,books ,,consulted #a4 ,life of ,william ,blake4 ,by ,,alexander ,,gilchrist4 ,two volumes4 ,macmillan1 #ahfc4 ,new and enlarged edition1 #ahhj4 #b4 ,william ,blake3 ,a ,critical ,essay4 ,by ,,algernon ,,charles ,,swinburne4 ,john ,camden ,hotten1 #ahfh4 ,new edition1 ,chatto ,windus1 #aijf4 #c4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,william ,blake4 ,edited by ,w4 ,m4 ,,rossetti4 ,aldine ,edition4 ,bell ,sons1 #ahgd4 #d4 ,the ,life and ,letters of ,samuel ,palmer4 ,by ,a4 ,h4 ,palmer4 ,seeley ,co41 #ahib4 #e4 ,the ,life of ,john ,linnell4 ,by ,,alfred ,t4 ,,story4 ,two volumes4 ,bentley1 #ahib4 #f4 ,a ,memoir of ,edward ,calvert4 ,by his third son ,,samuel ,,calvert4 ,s4 ,,low ,co41 #ahic4 #g4 ,the ,works of ,william ,blake3 ,poetic1 ,symbolic1 and ,critical4 ,edited1 with lithographs of the illustrated ,prophetic ,books1 and a ,memoir and ,interpretation1 by ,,edwin ,,john ,,ellis and ,,william ,,butler ,,yeats4 ,three volumes4 ,quaritch1 #ahic4 #h4 ,the ,poems of ,william ,blake4 ,edited by ,w4 ,b4 ,,yeats4 ',the ,muses' ,library4' ,lawrence ,bullen1 #ahic4 #i4 ,william ,blake3 his ,life1 ,character1 and ,genius4 ,by ,,alfred ,t4 ,,story4 ,sonnenschein ,co41 #ahic4 #aj4 ,william ,blake3 ,painter and ,poet4 ,by ,,richard ,,garnett4 ',portfolio1' #ahie4 #aa4 ,ideas of ,good and ,evil4 ,by ,w4 ,b4 ,,yeats4 7,william ,blake and the ,imagination1 ,william ,blake and his ,illustrations to the ,divine ,comedy47 ,a4 ,h4 ,bullen1 #aijc4 #ab4 ,the ,rossetti ,papers 7#ahfb to #ahgj72 a ,compilation by ,w4 ,m4 ,,rossetti4 ,sands ,co41 #aijc4 #ac4 ,the ,prophetic ,books of ,william ,blake3 ,jerusalem4 ,edited by ,e4 ,r4 ,d4 ,,maclagan and ,a4 ,g4 ,b4 ,,russell4 ,bullen1 #aijd4 #ad4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,william ,blake4 ,edited by ,,john ,,sampson4 ,oxford1 #aije4 #ae4 ,the ,letters of ,william ,blake2 together with a ,life by ,,frederick ,,tatham4 ,edited by ,,archibald ,g4 ,b4 ,,russell4 ,methuen1 #aijf4 #af4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,william ,blake4 ,edited and annotated by ,,edwin ,j4 ,,ellis4 ,two volumes4 ,chatto ,windus1 #aijf4 7,the only edition containing the ,prophetic ,books47 #ag4 ,william ,blake4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,illustrations of the ,book of ,job1 with a general ,introduction by ,,laurence ,,binyon4 ,methuen1 #aijf4 #ah4 ,the ,real ,blake4 ,a ,portrait ,biography4 ,by ,,edwin ,j4 ,,ellis4 ,chatto ,windus1 #aijg4 ,,part ,i ,,introduction ,i ,when ,blake spoke the first word of the nineteenth century there was no one to hear it1 and now that his message1 the message of emancipation from reality through the 'shaping spirit of imagination1' has penetrated the world1 and is slowly remaking it1 few are conscious of the first utterer1 in modern times1 of the message with which all are familiar4 ,thought to-day1 wherever it is most individual1 owes either force or direction to ,nietzsche1 and thus we see1 on our topmost towers1 the ,philistine armed and winged1 and without the love or fear of ,god or man in his heart1 doing battle in ,nietzsche's name against the ideas of ,nietzsche4 ,no one can think1 and escape ,nietzsche2 but ,nietzsche has come after ,blake1 and will pass before ,blake passes4 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell anticipates ,nietzsche in his most significant paradoxes1 and1 before his time1 exalts energy above reason1 and ,evil1 'the active springing from energy' above ,good1 'the passive that obeys reason4' ,did not ,blake astonish ,crabb ,robinson by declaring that 'there was nothing in good and evil1 the virtues and vices'2 that 'vices in the natural world were the highest sublimities in the spiritual world'8 ',man must become better and wickeder1' says ,nietzsche in ,zarathustra2 and1 elsewhere2 ',every man must find his own virtue4' ,sin1 to ,blake1 is negation1 is nothing2 'everything is good in ,god's eyes'2 it is the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that has brought sin into the world3 education1 that is1 by which we are taught to distinguish between things that do not differ4 ,when ,nietzsche says3 ',let us rid the world of the notion of sin1 and banish with it the idea of punishment1' he expresses one of ,blake's central doctrines1 and he realizes the corollary1 which1 however1 he does not add4 ',the ,christian's soul1' he says1 'which has freed itself from sin is in most cases ruined by the hatred against sin4 ,look at the faces of great ,christians4 ,they are the faces of great haters4' ,blake sums up all ,christianity as forgiveness of sin3 ',mutual forgiveness of each vice1 ,such are the gates of ,paradise4' ,the doctrine of the ,atonement was to him a 'horrible doctrine1' because it seemed to make ,god a hard creditor1 from whom pity could be bought for a price4 ',doth ,jehovah forgive a debt only on condition that it shall be paid8 444 ,that debt is not forgiven6' he says in ,jerusalem4 ,to ,nietzsche1 far as he goes on the same road1 pity is 'a weakness1 which increases the world's suffering'2 but to ,blake1 in the spirit of the ,french proverb1 forgiveness is understanding4 ',this forgiveness1' says ,mr4 ,yeats1 'was not the forgiveness of the theologian who has received a commandment from afar off1 but of the poet and artist1 who believes he has been taught1 in a mystical vision1 that the imagination is the man himself1 and believes he has discovered in the practice of his art that without a perfect sympathy there is no perfect imagination1 and therefore no perfect life4' ,he trusted the passions1 because they were alive2 and1 like ,nietzsche1 hated asceticism1 because3 ',abstinence sows sand all over ,the ruddy limbs and flaming hair1 ,but desire gratified ,plants fruits of life and beauty there4' ',put off holiness1' he said1 'and put on intellect1' ,and 'the fool shall not enter into heaven1 let him be ever so holy4' ,is not this a heaven after the heart of ,nietzsche8 ,nietzsche is a ,spinoza rebours4 ,the essence of the individual1 says ,spinoza1 'is the effort by which it endeavors to persevere in its own being4' ',will and understanding are one and the same4' ',by virtue and power ,i understand the same thing4' ',the effort to understand is the first and sole basis of virtue4' ,so far it might be ,nietzsche who is speaking4 ,only1 in ,spinoza1 this affirmation of will1 persistent egoism1 power1 hard understanding1 leads to a conclusion which is far enough from the conclusion of ,nietzsche4 ',the absolute virtue of the mind is to understand2 its highest virtue1 therefore1 to understand or know ,god4' ,that1 to ,nietzsche1 is one of 'the beautiful words by which the conscience is lulled to sleep4' ',virtue is power1' ,spinoza leads us to think1 because it is virtue2 'power is virtue1' affirms ,nietzsche1 because it is power4 ,and in ,spinoza's profound heroism of the mind1 really a great humility1 'he who loves ,god does not desire that ,god should love him in return4' ,nietzsche would find the material for a kind of desperate heroism1 made up wholly of pride and defiance4 ,to ,blake1 ',god-intoxicated' more than ,spinoza1 ',god only acts and is1 in existing beings and men1' as ,spinoza might also have said2 to him1 as to ,spinoza1 all moral virtue is identical with understanding1 and 'men are admitted into heaven1 not because they have curbed and governed their passions1 but because they have cultivated their understandings4' ,yet to ,blake ,spinoza's mathematical approach to truth would have been a kind of negation4 ,even an argument from reason seemed to him atheistical3 to one who had truth1 as he was assured1 within him1 reason was only 'the bound or outward circumference of energy1' but 'energy is the only life1' and1 as to ,nietzsche1 is 'eternal delight4' ,yet1 to ,nietzsche1 with his strange1 scientific distrust of the imagination1 of those who so 'suspiciously' say ',we see what others do not see1' there comes distrust1 hesitation1 a kind of despair1 precisely at the point where ,blake enters into his liberty4 ',the habits of our senses1' says ,nietzsche1 'have plunged us into the lies and deceptions of feeling4' ',whoever believes in nature1' says ,blake1 'disbelieves in ,god2 for nature is the work of the ,devil4' ',these again1' ,nietzsche goes on1 'are the foundations of all our judgments and knowledge1 there is no escape whatever1 no back-way or by-way into the real world4' ,but the real world1 to ,blake1 into which he can escape at every moment1 is the world of imagination1 from which messengers come to him1 daily and nightly4 ,blake said ',the tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction1' and it is partly in what they helped to destroy that ,blake and ,nietzsche are at one2 but destruction1 with ,blake1 was the gesture of a hand which brushes aside needless hindrances1 while to ,nietzsche it was 'an intellectual thing1' the outer militant part of 'the silent1 self-sufficient man in the midst of a general enslavement1 who practices self-defense against the outside world1 and is constantly living in a state of supreme fortitude4' ,blake rejoins ,nietzsche as he had rejoined ,spinoza1 by a different road1 having fewer devils to cast out1 and no difficulty at all in maintaining his spiritual isolation1 his mental liberty1 under all circumstances4 ,and to ,blake1 to be 'myself alone1 shut up in myself1' was to be in no merely individual but in a universal world1 that world of imagination whose gates seemed to him to be open to every human being4 ,no less than ,nietzsche he says to every man3 ,be yourself1 nothing else matters or exists2 but to be myself1 to him1 was to enter by the imagination into eternity4 ,the philosophy of ,nietzsche was made out of his nerves and was suffering1 but to ,blake it entered like sunlight into the eyes4 ,nietzsche's mind is the most sleepless of minds2 with him every sensation turns instantly into the stuff of thought2 he is terribly alert1 the more so because he never stops to systematize2 he must be for ever apprehending4 ,he darts out feelers in every direction1 relentlessly touching the whole substance of the world4 ,his apprehension is minute rather than broad2 he is content to seize one thing at a time1 and he is content if each separate thing remains separate2 no theory ties together or limits his individual intuitions4 ,what we call his philosophy is really no more than the aggregate of these intuitions coming to us through the medium of a remarkable personality4 ,his personality stands to him in the place of a system4 ,speaking of ,kant and ,schopenhauer1 he says3 ',their thoughts do not constitute a passionate history of the soul4' ,his thoughts are the passionate history of his soul4 ,it is for this reason that he is an artist among philosophers rather than a pure philosopher4 ,and remember that he is also not1 in the absolute sense1 the poet1 but the artist4 ,he saw and dreaded the weaknesses of the artist1 his side-issues in the pursuit of truth4 ,but in so doing he dreaded one of his own weaknesses4 ,blake1 on the other hand1 receives nothing through his sensations1 suffers nothing through his nerves4 ',i know of no other ,christianity1' he says1 'and of no other ,gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the divine arts of ,imagination3 ,imagination1 the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow1 and in which we shall live in our eternal or imaginative bodies1 when these vegetable mortal bodies are no more4' ,to ,nietzsche the sense of a divine haunting became too heavy a burden for his somewhat inhuman solitude1 the solitude of ,alpine regions1 with their steadfast glitter1 their thin1 high1 intoxicating air4 ',is this obtrusiveness of heaven1' he cries1 'this inevitable superhuman neighbor1 not enough to drive one mad8' ,but ,blake1 when he says1 ',i am under the direction of messengers from heaven1 daily and nightly1' speaks out of natural joy1 which is wholly humility1 and it is only 'if we fear to do the dictates of our angels1 and tremble at the tasks set before us1' it is only then that he dreads1 as the one punishment1 that 'every one in eternity will leave him4' ,,ii ',there are three powers in man of conversing with ,paradise1' said ,blake1 and he defined them as the three sons of ,noah who survived the flood1 and who are ,poetry1 ,painting1 and ,music4 ,through all three powers1 and to the last moments of his life on earth1 ,blake conversed with ,paradise4 ,we are told that he used to sing his own songs to his own music1 and that1 when he was dying1 'he composed and uttered songs to his ,maker1' and 'burst out into singing of the things he saw in heaven4' ,and with almost the last strength of his hands he had made a sketch of his wife before he 'made the rafters ring1' as a bystander records1 with the improvisation of is last breath4 ,throughout life his desire had been1 as he said1 'to converse with my friends in eternity1 see visions1 dream dreams1 and prophesy and speak parables unobserved4' ,he says again3 ',i rest not from my great task ,to open the eternal worlds1 to open the immortal eyes ,of ,man inwards into the worlds of thought1 into eternity1 ,ever expanding in the bosom of ,god1 the human imagination4' ,and1 writing to the uncomprehending ,hayley 7who had called him 'gentle1 visionary ,blake'71 he says again3 ',i am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever ,i take a pencil or graver into my hand4' ,to the newspapers of his time1 on the one or two occasions when they mentioned his name1 he was 'an unfortunate lunatic'2 even to ,lamb1 who looked upon him as 'one of the most extraordinary persons of the age1' he was a man 'flown1 whither ,i know not--to ,hades or a madhouse4' ,to the first editor of his collected poems there seemed to be 'something in his mind not exactly sane'2 and the critics of to-day still discuss his sanity as a man and as a poet4 ,it is true that ,blake was abnormal2 but what was abnormal in him was his sanity4 ,to one who believed that ',the ruins of ,time build mansions in eternity1' that 'imagination is eternity1' and that 'our deceased friends are more really with us than when they were apparent to our mortal part1' there could be none of that confusion at the edge of mystery which makes a man mad because he is unconscious of the gulf4 ,no one was ever more conscious than ,blake was of the limits of that region which we call reality and of that other region which we call imagination4 ,it pleased him to reject the one and to dwell in the other1 and his choice was not the choice of most men1 but of some of those who have been the greatest saints and the greatest artists4 ,and1 like the most authentic among them1 he walked firmly among those realities to which he cared to give no more than a side-glance from time to time2 he lived his own life quietly and rationally1 doing always exactly what he wanted to do1 and with so fine a sense of the subtlety of mere worldly manners1 than when1 at his one moment of worldly success1 in #agic1 he refused the post of drawing-master to the royal family1 he gave up all his other pupils at the same time1 lest the refusal should seem ungracious on the part of one who had been the friend of revolutionaries4 ,he saw visions1 but not as the spiritualists and the magicians have seen them4 ,these desire to quicken mortal sight until the soul limits itself again1 takes body1 and returns to reality2 but ,blake1 the inner mystic1 desired only to quicken that imagination which he knew to be more real than the reality of nature4 ,why should he call up shadows when he could talk in the spirit with spiritual realities8 ',then ,i asked1' he says in ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 'does a firm persuasion that a thing is so1 make it so8' ,he replied1 ,all poets believe that it does4 ,in the ,descriptive ,catalogue to his exhibition of pictures in #ahji1 ,blake defines1 more precisely than in any other place1 what vision was to him4 ,he is speaking of his pictures1 but it is a plea for the raising of painting to the same 'sphere of invention and visionary conception' as that which poetry and music inhabit4 ',the ,prophets1' he says1 'describe what they saw in vision as real and existing men1 whom they saw with their imaginative and immortal organs2 the ,apostles the same2 the clearer the organ1 the more distinct the object4 ,a spirit and a vision are not1 as the modern philosophy supposes1 a cloudy vapor1 or a nothing4 ,they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all that the mortal and perishing nature can produce4 ,he who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments and in stronger and better light than his perishing and mortal eye can see1 does not imagine at all4 ,the painter of this work asserts that all his imaginations appear to him infinitely more perfect and more minutely organized than anything seen by his mortal eye4' ',inspiration and vision1' he says in one of the marginal notes to ,reynolds's ,discourses1 'was then1 and now is1 and ,i hope will always remain1 my element1 my eternal dwelling-place4' ,and ',god forbid1' he says also1 'that ,truth should be confined to mathematical demonstration4 ,he who does not know ,truth at sight is not worthy of her notice4' ,the mind of ,blake lay open to eternity as a seed-plot lies open to the sower4 ,in #ahjb he writes to ,mr4 ,butts from ,felpham3 ',i am not ashamed1 afraid1 or averse to tell you what ought to be told--that ,i am under the direction of messengers from heaven1 daily and nightly4' ',i have written this poem1' he says of the ,jerusalem1 'from immediate dictation1 twelve or sometimes twenty or--thirty lines at a time1 without premeditation1 and even against my will4' ',i may praise it1' he says in another letter1 'since ,i dare not pretend to be any other than the secretary2 the authors are in eternity4' ,in these words1 the most precise claim for direct inspiration which ,blake ever made1 there is nothing different in kind1 only in degree1 from what must be felt by every really creative artist and by every profoundly and simply religious person4 ,there can hardly be a poet who is not conscious of how little his own highest powers are under his own control4 ,the creation of beauty is the end of art1 but the artist should rarely admit to himself that such is his purpose4 ,a poem is not written by the man who says3 ,i will sit down and write a poem2 but rather by the man who1 captured by rather than capturing an impulse1 hears a tune which he does not recognize1 or sees a sight which he does not remember1 in some 'close corner of his brain1' and exerts the only energy at his disposal in recording it faithfully1 in the medium of his particular art4 ,and so in every creation of beauty1 some obscure desire stirred in the soul1 not realized by the mind for what it was1 and1 aiming at most other things in the world than pure beauty1 produced it4 ,now1 to the critic this is not more important to remember than it is for him to remember that the result1 the end1 must be judged1 not by the impulse which brought it into being1 nor by the purpose which it sought to serve1 but by its success or failure in one thing3 the creation of beauty4 ,to the artist himself this precise consciousness of what he has done is not always given1 any more than a precise consciousness of what he is doing4 ,only in the greatest do we find vision and the correction of vision equally powerful and equally constant4 ,to ,blake1 as to some artists and to most devout people1 there was nothing in vision to correct1 nothing even to modify4 ,his language in all his letters and in much of his printed work is identical with the language used by the followers of ,wesley and ,whitefield at the time in which he was writing4 ,in ,wesley's journal you will find the same simple and immediate consciousness of the communion of the soul with the world of spiritual reality3 not a vague longing1 like ,shelley's1 for a principle of intellectual beauty1 nor an unattained desire after holiness1 like that of the conventionally religious person1 but a literal 'power of conversing with ,paradise1' as ,blake called it1 and as many ,methodists would have been equally content to call it4 ,and in ,blake1 as in those whom the people of that age called 'enthusiasts' 7that word of reproach in the eighteenth century and of honor in all other centuries71 there was no confusion 7except in brains where 'true superstition1' as ,blake said1 was 'ignorant honesty1 and this is beloved of ,god and man'7 between the realities of daylight and these other realities from the other side of day4 ,messrs4 ,ellis and ,yeats quote a mysterious note written in ,blake's handwriting1 with a reference to ,spurzheim1 page #aed4 ,i find that this means ,spurzheim's ,observations on the ,deranged ,manifestations of the ,mind1 or ,insanity 7#ahag71 and the passage in the text is as follows3 ',religion is another fertile cause of insanity4 ,mr4 ,haslam1 though he declares it sinful to consider religion as a cause of insanity1 adds1 however1 that he would be ungrateful1 did he not avow his obligations to ,methodism for its supply of numerous cases4 ,hence the primitive feelings of religion may be misled and produce insanity2 that is what ,i would contend for1 and in that sense religion often leads to insanity4' ,blake has written3 ',methodism1 etc41 p4 #aed4 ,cowper came to me and said3 ,oh6 that ,i were insane1 always4 ,i will never rest4 ,can not you make me truly insane8 ,i will never rest till ,i am so4 ,oh6 that in the bosom of ,god ,i was hid4 ,you retain health and yet are mad as any of us all-over us all--mad as a refuge from unbelief--from ,bacon1 ,newton1 and ,locke4' ,what does this mean but that 'madness1' the madness of belief in spiritual things1 must be complete if it is to be effectual1 and that1 once complete1 there is no disturbance of bodily or mental health1 as in the doubting and distracted ,cowper1 who was driven mad1 not by the wildness of his belief1 but by the hesitations of his doubt8 ,attempts have been made to claim ,blake for an adept of magic4 ,but whatever cabbalistical terms he may have added to the somewhat composite and fortuitous naming of his mythology 7'all but names of persons and places1' he says1 'is invention1 both in poetry and painting'71 his whole mental attitude was opposed to that of the practicers of magic4 ,we have no record of his ever having evoked a vision1 but only of his accepting or enduring visions4 ,blake was1 above all1 spontaneous3 the practiser of magic is a deliberate craftsman in the art of the soul4 ,i can no more imagine ,blake sitting down to juggle with symbols or to gaze into a pool of ink than ,i can imagine him searching out words that would make the best effects in his lyrics1 or fishing for inspiration1 pen in hand1 in his own ink-pot4 ,a man does not beg at the gate of dreams when he is the master for whose entrance the gate stands open4 ,of the definite reality of ,blake's visions there can be no question2 no question that1 as he once wrote1 'nothing can withstand the fury of my course among the stars of ,god1 and in the abysses of the accuser4' ,but imagination is not one1 but manifold2 and the metaphor1 professing to be no more than metaphor1 of the poet1 may be vision as essential as the thing actually seen by the visionary4 ,the difference between imagination in ,blake and in1 say1 ,shakespeare1 is that the one 7himself a painter7 has a visual imagination and sees an image or metaphor as a literal reality1 while the other1 seeing it not less vividly but in a more purely mental way1 adds a 'like' or an 'as1' and the image or metaphor comes to you with its apology or attenuation1 and takes you less by surprise4 ,but to ,blake it was the universe that was a metaphor4 ,,william ,,blake ,i ,the origin of the family of ,william ,blake has not yet been found2 and ,i can claim no more for the evidence that ,i have been able to gather than that it settles us more firmly in our ignorance4 ,but the names of his brothers and sister1 their dates and order of birth1 and the date of his wife's birth1 have never1 so far as ,i know1 been correctly given4 ,even the date of his own birth has been contested by ,mr4 ,swinburne 'on good ,,ms4 authority1' which we know to be that of ,frederick ,tatham1 who further asserts1 wrongly1 that ,james was younger than ,william1 and that ,john was 'the eldest son4' ,gilchrist makes no reference to ,john1 but says1 wrongly1 that ,james was 'a year and a half ,william's senior1' and that ,william had a sister 'nearly seven years younger than himself'2 of whom1 says ,mr4 ,yeats1 we hear little1 and among that little not even her name4' ,most of these problems can be settled by the entries in parish registers1 and ,i have begun with the registers of the church of ,st4 ,james1 ,westminster4 ,i find by these entries that ,james ,blake1 the son of ,james and ,catherine ,blake1 was born ,july #aj1 and christened ,july #ae1 #agec2 ,john ,blake 7'son of ,john and ,catherine1' says the register1 by what is probably a slip of the pen7 was horn ,may #ab1 and christened ,june ,i1 #agee2 ,william ,blake was born ,november #bh1 and christened ,december #aa1 #ageg2 another ,john ,blake was born ,march #bj1 and christened ,march #cj1 #agfj2 ,richard ,blake was born ,june #ai1 and christened ,july #aa1 #agfb2 and ,catherine ,elizabeth ,blake was born ,january #g1 and christened ,january #bh1 #agfd4 ,here1 where we find the daughter's name and the due order of births1 we find one perplexity in the name of ,richard1 whose date of birth fits the date given by ,gilchrist and others to ,robert1 ,william's favorite brother1 whose name he has engraved on a design of his 'spiritual form' in ,milton1 whom he calls ,robert in a letter to ,butts1 and whom ,j4 ,t4 ,smith recalls not only as ,robert1 but as ',bob1 as he was familiarly called4' ,in the entry of ',john1 son of ,john and ,catherine ,blake1' ,i can easily imagine the clerk repeating by accident the name of the son for the name of the father2 and ,i am inclined to suppose that there was a ,john who died before the age of five1 and that his name was given to the son next born4 ,precisely the same repetition of name is found in the case of ,lamb's two sisters christened ,elizabeth1 and ,shelley's two sisters christened ,helen4 ',my brother ,john1 the evil one1' would therefore be younger than ,william2 but ,tatham1 in saying that he was older1 may have been misled by there having been two sons christened ,john4 ,there are two theories as to the origin of ,blake's family2 but neither of them has yet been confirmed by the slightest documentary evidence4 ,both of these theories were put forth in the same year1 #ahic1 one by ,mr4 ,alfred ,t4 ,story in his ,william ,blake1 the other by ,messrs4 ,ellis and ,yeats in their ,works of ,william ,blake4 ,according to ,mr4 ,story1 ,blake's family was connected with the ,somerset family of the ,admiral1 through a ,wiltshire family of ,blakes2 but for this theory he gives merely the report of 'two ladies1 daughters of ,william ,john ,blake1 of ,southampton1 who claim to be second cousins of ,william ,blake1' and in a private letter he tells me that he has not been able to procure any documentary evidence of the statement4 ,according to ,messrs4 ,ellis and ,yeats1 ,blake's father was ,irish1 and was originally called ,o',neil4 ,his father1 ,john ,o',neil1 is supposed to have changed his name1 on marrying ,ellen ,blake1 from ,o',neil to ,blake1 and ,james ,o',neil1 his son by a previous union1 to have taken the same name1 and to have settled in ,london1 while a younger son1 the actual son of ,ellen ,blake1 went to ,malaga4 ,this statement rests entirely on the assertion of ,dr4 ,carter ,blake1 who claimed descent from the latter2 and it has never been supported by documentary evidence4 ,in answer1 to my inquiry1 ,mr4 ,martin ,j4 ,blake1 the compiler of two volumes of ,blake ,family ,records 7first series1 #acjj-afjj2 second series1 #afjj-agjj71 writes3 ',although ,i have made a special study of the genealogies of the ,blakes of ,ireland1 ,i have not come across any ,ellen ,blake who married ,john ,o',neil who afterwards 7as is said by ,messrs4 ,ellis and ,yeats7 adopted the surname of ,blake4' ,mr4 ,sampson points out that ,blakes father was certainly a ,protestant4 ,he is sometimes described as a ,swedenborgian1 always as a ,dissenter1 and it is curious that about half of the ,blakes recorded in the ,dictionary of ,national ,biography were also conspicuous as ,puritans or ,dissenters4 ,mr4 ,sampson further points out that ,blake in one of his poems speaks of himself as ',english ,blake4' ,it is true that he is contrasting himself with the ,german ,klopstock2 yet ,i scarcely think an ,irishman would have used the expression even for contrast4 ,blake is nowhere referred to as having been in any way ,irish1 and the only apparent exception to this is one which ,i am obliged to set up with one hand and knock down with the other4 ,in the index to ,crabb ,robinson's ,diary one of the references to ,blake shows us ,mr4 ,sheil speaking at the ,academical ,society while ',blake1 his countryman1 kept watching him to keep him in order4' ,that this does not refer to ,william ,blake ,i have found by tracking through the unpublished portions of the ,diary in the original manuscript the numerous references to 'a ,mr4 ,blake' who was accustomed to speak at the meetings of the ,academical ,society4 ,he is described as 'a ,mr4 ,blake who spoke with good sense on the ,irish side1 and argued from the ,irish ,history and the circumstances which attended the passing of the bills4' ,he afterwards speaks 'sharply and coarsely1' and answers ,mr4 ,robinson's hour-long contention that the ,house of ,commons should1 or should not1 'possess the power of imprisoning for a breach of privilege1' by 'opposing the facts of ,lord ,melville's prosecution1 the ,be version ,bill1 etc41 etc41 and ,burke's ,reform ,bill'2 returning1 in short1 'my civility by incivility4' ,this was not the learning1 nor were these the manners1 of ,william ,blake4 ,i would again appeal to the evidence of the parish register4 ,i find ,blakes in the parish of ,st4 ,james1 ,westminster1 from the beginning of the eighteenth century1 the first being a ,william ,blake1 the son of ,richard and ,elizabeth1 who was born ,march #ai1 #agjj4 ,between the years #agej and #agfg 7the time exactly parallel with the births of the family of ,james and ,catherine ,blake7 ,i find among the baptisms the names of ,frances1 ,daniel1 ,reuben1 ,john ,cartwright1 and ,william 7another ,william7 ,blake2 and ,i find among the marriages1 between #agbh and #agdg1 a ,robert1 a ,thomas1 a ,james1 and a ,richard ,blake4 ,the wife of ,james1 who was married on ,april #ae1 #agch1 is called ,elizabeth1 a name which we have already found as the name of a ,mrs4 ,blake1 and which we find again as the second name of ,catherine ,elizabeth ,blake 7the sister of ,william ,blake71 who was born in #agfd4 ,i find two ,williams1 two ,richards1 and a ,john among the early entries1 at the beginning of the eighteenth century4 ,it is impossible to say positively that any of these families1 not less than nine in number1 all bearing the name of ,blake1 all living in the same parish1 within a space of less than forty years1 were related to one another2 but it is easier to suppose so than to suppose that one only out of the number1 and one which had assumed the name1 should have found itself accidentally in the midst of all the others1 to which the name may be supposed to have more definitely belonged4 ,all that we know with certainty of ,james ,blake1 the father1 is that he was a hosier 7'of respectable trade and easy habits1' says ,tatham2 'of fifty years' standing1' says ,cunningham1 at the time of his death71 that he was a ,dissenter 7a ,swedenborgian1 or inclined to ,swedenborgianism71 and that he died in #aghd and was buried on ,july #d in ,bunhill ,fields4 ,the burial register says3 ',july #d1 #aghd4 ,mr4 ,james ,blake from ,soho ,square in a grave1 #ac_/f4' ,of his wife ,catherine all that we know is that she died in #agib1 and was also buried in ,bunhill ,fields4 ,the register says3 ',sept4 #i1 #agib4 ,catherine ,blake2 age #gj2 brought from ,st4 ,james1 ,westminster4 ,grave #i feet2 ,e4 ,w4 #af2 ,n4 ,s4 #db-dc4 #ai_/-4' ,tatham says that 'even when a child1 his mother beat him for running and saying that he saw the prophet ,ezekiel under a tree in the fields4' ,at eight or ten he comes home from ,peckham ,rye saying that he has seen a tree filled with angels2 and his father is going to beat him for telling a lie2 but his mother intercedes4 ,it was the father1 ,tatham says1 who1 noticing to what great anger he was moved by a blow1 decided not to send him to school4 ,the eldest son1 ,james1 ,tatham tells us1 'having a saving1 somniferous mind1 lived a yard and a half life1 and pestered his brother with timid sentences of bread and cheese advice4' ,on his father's death in #aghd he carried on the business1 and it was at his house that ,blake held his one exhibition of pictures in #ahji4 ',these paintings filled several rooms of an ordinary dwelling-house1' says ,crabb ,robinson in his ,reminiscences2 and1 telling how he had bought four copies of the catalogue1 'giving #aj_/-1 ,i bargained that ,i should be at liberty to go again4 ,free6 as long as you live6 said the brother1 astonished at such a liberality1 which he had never experienced before nor ,i dare say did afterwards4' ,crabb ,robinson had at first written 'as long as you like1' and this he altered into 'as long as you live1' as if fancying1 so long afterwards as #aheb1 that he remembered the exact word2 but in the entry in the ,diary1 in #ahaj1 we read ',oh6 as often as you please6' so that we may doubt whether the 'honest1 unpretending shopkeeper1' who was looked upon by his neighbors1 we are told1 as 'a bit mad1' because he would 'talk ,swedenborg1' can be credited with all the enthusiasm of the later and more familiar reading4 ,james and ,william no longer spoke to one another when1 after retiring from business1 ,james came to live in ,cirencester ,street1 near ,linnell4 ,tatham tells us that 'he got together a little annuity1 upon which he supported his only sister1 and vegetating to a moderate age1 died about three years before his brother ,william4' ,of ,john we know only that he was something of a scapegrace and the favorite son of his parents4 ,he was apprenticed1 at some cost1 to a candle-maker1 but ran away1 and1 after some help from ,william1 enlisted in the army1 lived wildly1 and died young4 ,robert1 the favorite of ,william1 also died young1 at the age of twenty-five4 ,he lived with ,william and ,catherine from #aghd to the time of his death in #aghg1 at #bg ,broad ,street1 helping in the print-shop of ',parker and ,blake1' and learning from his brother to draw and engrave4 ,one of his original sketches1 a stiff drawing of long1 rigid1 bearded figures staring in terror1 quite in his brother's manner1 is in the ,print ,room of the ,british ,museum4 ,a story is told of him by ,gilchrist which gives us the whole man1 indeed the whole household1 in brief4 ,there had been a dispute between him and ,mrs4 ,blake4 ,blake suddenly interposed1 and said to his wife3 ',kneel down and beg ,robert's pardon directly1 or you will never see my face again4' ,she knelt down 7thinking it1 as she said afterwards1 'very hard1' for she felt herself to be in the right7 and said3 ',robert1 ,i beg your pardon2 ,i am in the wrong4' ',young woman1 you lie1' said ,robert1 ',i am in the wrong4' ,early in #aghg ,robert fell ill1 and during the last fortnight ,william nursed him without taking rest by day or night1 until1 at the moment of death1 he saw his brother's soul rise through the ceiling 'clapping its hands for joy'2 whereupon he went to bed and slept for three days and nights4 ,robert was buried in ,bunhill ,fields on ,february #aa4 ,the register says3 ,feb4 #aa1 #aghg4 ,mr4 ,robert ,blake from ,golden ,square in a grave1 #ac_/f4 ,but his spiritual presence was never to leave the mind of ,william ,blake1 whom in #ahjj we find writing to ,hayley3 ',thirteen years ago ,i lost a brother1 and with his spirit ,i converse daily and hourly in the spirit1 and see him in remembrance1 in the regions of my imagination4 ,i hear his advice1 and even now write from his dictate4' ,it was ,robert whom he saw in a dream1 not long after his death1 telling him the method by which he was to engrave his poems and designs4 ,the spiritual forms of ,william and of ,robert1 in almost exact parallel1 are engraved on separate pages of the ,prophetic ,book of ,milton4 ,of the sister1 ,catherine ,elizabeth1 we know only that she lived with ,blake and his wife at ,felpham4 ,he refers to her in several letters1 and in the poem sent to ,butts on ,october #b1 #ahjj1 he speaks of her as 'my sister and friend4' ,in another poem1 sent to ,butts in a letter dated ,november #bb1 #ahjb1 but written1 he explains1 'above a twelvemonth ago1 while walking from ,felpham to ,lavant to meet my sister1' he asks strangely3 ',must my wife live in my sister's bane1 ,or my sister survive on my ,love's pain8' ,but from the context it is not clear whether this is meant literally or figuratively4 ,when ,tatham was writing his life of ,blake1 apparently in the year #ahca1 he refers to ',miss ,catherine' as still living1 'having survived nearly all her relations4' ,mrs4 ,gilchrist1 in a letter written to ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti in #ahfb1 reports a rumour1 for which she gives no evidence1 that 'she and ,mrs4 ,blake got on very ill together1 and latterly never met at all1' and that she died in extreme penury4 ,,ii ,of the childhood and youth of ,blake we know little beyond what ,malkin and ,smith have to tell us4 ,from the age of ten to the age of fourteen he studied at ,pars' drawing-school in the ,strand1 buying for himself prints after ,raphael1 ,drer1 and ,michelangelo at the sale-rooms2 at fourteen he was apprenticed to ,basire1 the engraver1 who lived at #ca ,great ,queen ,street1 and in his shop ,blake once saw ,goldsmith4 ',his love for art increasing1' says ,tatham1 and the time of life having arrived when it was deemed necessary to place him under some tutor1 a painter of eminence was proposed1 and necessary applications were made2 but from the huge premium required1 he requested1 with his characteristic generosity1 that his father would not on any account spend so much money on him1 as he thought it would be an injustice to his brothers and sisters4 ,he therefore himself proposed engraving as being less expensive1 and sufficiently eligible for his future avocations4 ,of ,basire1 therefore1 for a premium of fifty guineas1 he learnt the art of engraving4' ,we are told that he was apprenticed1 at his own request1 to ,basire rather than to the more famous ,ryland1 the engraver to the king1 because1 on being taken by his father to ,ryland's studio1 he said3 ',i do not like the man's face3 it looks as if he will live to be hanged4' ,twelve years later ,ryland was hanged for forgery4 ,blake was with ,basire for seven years1 and for the last five years much of his time was spent in making drawings of ,gothic monuments1 chiefly in ,westminster ,abbey1 until he came1 says ,malkin1 to be 'himself almost a ,gothic monument4' ,tatham tells us that the reason of his being 'sent out drawing1' as he fortunately was1 instead of being kept at engraving1 was 'for the circumstance of his having frequent quarrels with his fellow--apprentices concerning matters of intellectual argument4' ,it was in the ,abbey that he had a vision of ,christ and the ,apostles1 and in the ,abbey1 too1 that he flung an intrusive ,westminster schoolboy from the scaffolding1 'in the impetuosity of his anger1 worn out with interruption1' says ,tatham1 and then laid a complaint before the ,dean which has caused1 to this day1 the exclusion of ,westminster schoolboys from the precincts4 ,it was at this time that ,blake must have written the larger part of the poems contained in the ,poetical ,sketches1 printed 7we cannot say published7 in #aghc1 for in the ',advertisement' at the beginning of the book we are told that the 'following ,sketches were the production of untutored youth1 commenced in his twelfth1 and occasionally resumed by the author till his twentieth year1' that is to say1 between the years #agfh and #aggg4 ,the earliest were written while ,goldsmith and ,gray were still living1 the latest 7if we may believe these dates7 after ,chatterton's death1 but before his poems had been published4 ,ossian had appeared in #agfj1 ,percy's ,reliques in #agfe4 ,the ,reliques probably had their influence on ,blake1 ,ossian certainly1 an influence which returns much later1 curiously mingled with the influence of ,milton1 in the form taken by the ,prophetic ,books4 ,it has been suggested that some of ,blake's mystical names1 and his 'fiend in a cloud1' came from ,ossian2 and ,ossian is very evident in the metrical prose of such pieces as ',samson1' and even in some of the imagery 7',their helmed youth and aged warriors in dust together lie1 and ,desolation spreads his wings over the land of ,palestine'74 ,but the influence of ,chatterton seems not less evident1 an influence which could hardly have found its way to ,blake before the year #aggg4 ,in the fifth chapter of the fantastic ,island in the ,moon 7probably written about #aghd7 there is a long discussion on ,chatterton1 while in the seventh chapter he is again discussed in company with ,homer1 ,shakespeare1 and ,milton4 ,as late as #ahbf ,blake wrote on the margin of ,wordsworth's preface to the ,lyrical ,ballads3 ',i believe both ,macpherson and ,chatterton that what they say is ancient is so1' and on another page1 ',i own myself an admirer of ,ossian equally with any poet whatever1 of ,rowley and ,chatterton also4' ,whether it be influence or affinity1 it is hard to say1 but if the ',mad ,song' of ,blake has the hint of any predecessor in our literature1 it is to be found in the abrupt energy and stormy masculine splendor of the ,high ,priest's song in ',aella1' ',ye who his yn mokie ayre'2 and if1 between the time of the ,elizabethans and the time of ',my silks and fine array' there had been any other song of similar technique and similar imaginative temper1 it was certainly the ,minstrel's song in ',aella1' ',o6 synge untoe mie roundelaie4' ,of the direct and very evident influence of the ,elizabethans we are told by ,malkin1 with his quaint preciseness3 ',shakespeare's ,venus and ,adonis1 ,tarquin and ,lucrece1 and his ,sonnets444 poems1 now little read1 were favorite studies of ,mr4 ,blake's early days4 ,so were ,jonson's ,underwoods and his ,miscellanies4' ',my silks and fine array' goes past ,jonson1 and reaches ,fletcher1 if not ,shakespeare himself4 ,and the blank verse of ',king ,edward the ,third' goes straight to ,shakespeare for its cadence1 and for something of its manner of speech4 ,and there is other blank verse which1 among much not even metrically correct1 anticipates something of the richness of ,keats4 ,some rags of his time did indeed cling about him1 but only by the edges2 there is even a reflected ghost of the pseudo-,gothic of ,walpole in ',fair ,elenor1' who comes straight from the ,castle of ,otranto1 as ',gwin1 ,king of ,norway1' takes after the ,scandinavian fashion of the day1 and may have been inspired by ',the ,fatal ,sisters' or ',the ,triumphs of ,owen' of ,gray4 ,blind-man's ,buff1' too1 is a piece of eighteenth-century burlesque realism4 ,but it is in the ode ',to the ,muses' that ,blake for once accepts1 and in so doing clarifies1 the smooth convention of eighteenth--century classicism1 and1 as he reproaches it in its own speech1 illuminates it suddenly with the light it had rejected3 ',how have you left the ancient love ,that bards of old enjoyed in you6 ,the languid strings do scarcely move1 ,the sound is forced1 the notes are few6' ,in those lines the eighteenth century dies to music1 and from this time forward we find in the rest of ,blake's work only a proof of his own assertion1 that 'the ages are all equal2 but genius is above the age4' ,in #aggh ,blake's apprenticeship to ,basire came to an end1 and for a short time he studied in the ,antique ,school at the newly founded ,royal ,academy under ,moser1 the first keeper4 ,in the ,life of ,reynolds which prefaces the #agih edition of the ,discourses1 ,moser is spoken of as one who 'might in every sense be called the ,father of the present race of ,artists4' ,blake has written against this in his copy3 ',i was once looking over the prints from ,raphael and ,michael ,angelo in the ,library of the ,royal ,academy4 ,moser came to me and said1 ,you should not study these old hard1 stiff1 and dry unfinished works of art4 ,stay a little1 and ,i will show you what you should study4 ,he then went and took down ,le ,brun's and ,rubens' ,galleries4 ,how did ,i secretly rage3 ,i also spoke my mind4 ,i said to ,moser1 ,these things that you call finished are not even begun3 how can they then be finished8 ,the man who does not know the beginning never can know the end of art4' ,malkin tells us that ,blake 'professed drawing from life always to have been hateful to him2 and speaks of it as looking more like death1 or smelling of mortality4 ,yet still he drew a good deal from life1 both at the ,academy and at home4' ,a water-color drawing dating from this time1 ',the ,penance of ,jane ,shore1' was included by ,blake in his exhibition of #ahji4 ,it is the last number in the catalogue1 and has the note3 ',this ,drawing was done above ,thirty ,years ago1 and proves to the ,author1 and he thinks will prove to any discerning eye1 that the productions of our youth and of our maturer age are equal in all essential respects4' ,he also did engravings1 during several years1 for the booksellers1 ,harrison1 ,johnson1 and others1 some of them after ,stothard1 who was then working for the ,novelist's ,magazine4 ,blake met ,stothard in #aghj1 and ,stothard introduced him to ,flaxman1 with whom he had himself just become acquainted4 ,in the same year ,blake met ,fuseli1 who settled near him in ,broad ,street1 while ,flaxman1 on his marriage in #agha1 came to live near by1 at #bg ,wardour ,street4 ,bartolozzi and ,john ,yarley were both1 then or later1 living in ,broad ,street1 ,angelica ,kauffmann in ,golden ,square4 ,in #aghj 7the year of the ,gordon ,biots1 when ,blake1 carried along by the crowd1 saw the burning of ,newgate7 he had for the first time a picture in the ,royal ,academy1 the water-color of ',the ,death of ,earl ,godwin4' ,it was at this time1 in his twenty-fourth year1 that he fell in love with 'a lively little girl' called ,polly ,wood4 ,tatham calls her 'a young woman1 who by his own account1 and according to his own knowledge1 was no trifler4 ,he wanted to marry her1 but she refused1 and was as obstinate as she was unkind4' ,gilchrist says that on his complaining to her that she had 'kept company' with others besides himself1 she asked him if he was a fool4 ',that cured me of jealousy1' he said afterwards1 but the cure1 according to ,tatham1 made him so ill that he was sent for change of air to ',kew1 near ,richmond' 7really to ,battersea71 to the house of 'a market-gardener whose name was ,boutcher4' ,while there1 says ,tatham1 'he was relating to the daughter1 a girl named ,catherine1 the lamentable story of ,polly ,wood1 his implacable lass1 upon which ,catherine expressed her deep sympathy1 it is supposed1 in such a tender and affectionate manner1 that it quite won him4 ,he immediately said1 with the suddenness peculiar to him1 ,do you pity me8 ,yes1 indeed ,i do1 answered she4 ,then ,i love you1 said he again4 ,such was their courtship4 ,he was impressed by her tenderness of mind1 and her answer indicated her previous feeling for him3 for she has often said that upon her mother's asking her who among her acquaintances she could fancy for a husband1 she replied that she had not yet seen the man1 and she has further been heard to say that when she first came into the room in which ,blake sat1 she instantly recognized 7like ,britomart in ,merlin's wondrous glass7 her future partner1 and was so near fainting that she left his presence until she recovered4' ,tatham tells us that ,blake 'returned to his lodgings and worked incessantly' for a whole year1 resolving that he would not see her until he had succeeded' in making enough money to be able to marry her4 ,the marriage took place at ,battersea in ,august #agfb4 ,gilchrist says that he has traced relatives of ,blake to have been living at ,battersea at the time of his marriage4 ,of this he gives no evidence2 but ,i think ,i have found traces1 in ,blake's own parish1 of relatives of the ,catherine ,boucher whom he married at ,battersea4 ,tatham1 as we have seen1 says that she was the daughter of a market-gardener at ',kew1 near ,richmond1' called ,boutcher1 to whose house ,blake was sent for a change of air4 ,allan ,cunningham says that 'she lived near his father's house4' ,i think ,i have found the reason for ,cunningham's mistake1 and the probable occasion of ,blake's visit to the ,bouchers at ,battersea4 ,i find by the birth register in ,st4 ,mary's1 ,battersea1 that ,catherine ,sophia1 daughter of ,william and ,ann ,boucher1 was born ,april #be1 and christened ,may #af1 #agfb4 ,four years after this1 another ,catherine ,boucher1 daughter of ,samuel and ,betty1 born ,march #bh1 #agff1 was christened ,march #ca1 #agff1 in the parish church of ,st4 ,james1 ,westminster2 and in the same register ,i find the birth of ,gabriel1 son of the same parents1 born ,september #a1 and christened ,september #bj1 #agfg2 and of ,ann1 daughter of ,thomas and ,ann ,boucher1 born ,june #ab1 and christened ,june #bi1 #agfa4 ,is it not1 therefore1 probable that there were ,bouchers1 related to one another1 living in both parishes1 and that ,blake's acquaintance with the family living near him led to his going to stay with the family living at ,battersea8 ,the entry of ,blake's marriage1 in the register of ,st4 ,mary's ,battersea1 gives the name as ,butcher1 and also describes ,blake as 'of the parish of ,battersea1' by a common enough error4 ,it is as follows3-- #aghb4 ,banns of ,marriage4 ,no4 #bha ,william ,blake of the ,parish of ,battersea ,batchelor and ,catherine ,butcher of the same ,parish ,spinster were ,married in this ,church by ,license this ,eighteenth ,day of ,august in the ,year ,one ,thousand ,seven ,hundred and ,eighty two by me ,j4 ,gardnor ,vicar4 ,this ,marriage was solemnized between ,us4 ,william ,blake ,the mark of ,x ,catherine ,butcher4 ,in the presence of ,thomas ,monger ,butcher4 ,jas4 ,blake ,robt4 ,munday ,parish ,clerk4 ,i imagine that ,thomas ,monger ,butcher was probably ,catherine's brother2 there are other ,mongers not far off in the register1 as if the name were a family name4 ,his handwriting is mean and untidy1 ,james ,blake's vague but fluent2 ,catherine makes her mark somewhat faintly4 ,as the register lies open there are entries of seven marriages2 out of these1 no fewer than three of the brides have signed by making their mark4 ,the name ,william ,blake stands out from these 'blotted and blurred' signatures2 the ink is very black1 as if he had pressed hard on the pen2 and the name has a 'firm and determinate outline4' ,gilchrist describes ,catherine ,boucher as 'a bright-eyed1 dark-haired brunette1 with expressive features and a slim1 graceful form4' ,this seems to be merely a re-writing of ,allan ,cunningham's vague statement that she 'was noticed by ,blake for the whiteness of her hand1 the brightness of her eyes1 and a slim and handsome shape1 corresponding with his own notions of sylphs and naiads4' ,but if a quaint and lovely pencil sketch in the ,rossetti ,,ms41 representing a man in bed and a woman sitting on the side of the bed1 beginning to dress1 is really1 as it probably is1 done from life1 and meant for ,mrs4 ,blake1 we see at once the model for his invariable type of woman1 tall1 slender1 and with unusually long legs4 ,there is a drawing of her head by ,blake in the ,rossetti ,,ms4 which1 though apparently somewhat conventionalized1 shows a clear aquiline profile and very large eyes2 still to be divined in the rather painful head drawn by ,tatham when she was an old woman1 a head in which there is still power and fixity4 ,crabb ,robinson1 who met her in #ahbe1 says that she had 'a good expression in her countenance1 and1 with a dark eye1 remains of beauty in her youth4' ,no man of genius ever had a better wife4 ,to the last she called him ',mr4 ,blake1' while he1 we are told1 frequently spoke of her as 'his beloved4' ,the most beautiful reference to her which ,i find in his letters is one in a letter of ,september #af1 #ahjj1 to ,hayley1 where he calls her 'my dear and too careful and over-joyous woman1' and says ',eartham will be my first temple and altar2 my wife is like a flame of many colours of precious jewels whenever she hears it named4' ,he taught her to write1 and the copy-book titles to some of his water-colors are probably hers2 to draw1 so that after his death she finished some of his designs2 and to help him in the printing and coloring of his engravings4 ,a story is told1 on the authority of ,samuel ,palmer1 that they would both look into the flames of burning coals1 and draw grotesque figures which they saw there1 hers quite unlike his4 ',it is quite certain1' says ,crabb ,robinson1 'that she believed in all his visions'2 and he shows her to us reminding her husband1 ',you know1 dear1 the first time you saw ,god was when you were four years old1 and he put his head to the window1 and set you a-screaming1' ,she would walk with him into the country1 whole summer days1 says ,tatham1 and far into the night4 ,and when he rose in the night1 to write down what was 'dictated' to him1 she would rise and sit by him1 and hold his hand4 ',she would get up in the night1' says the unnamed friend quoted by ,gilchrist1 'when he was under his very fierce inspirations1 which were as if they would tear him asunder1 while he was yielding himself to the ,muse1 or whatever else it could be called1 sketching and writing4 ,and so terrible a task did this seem to be1 that she had to sit motionless and silent2 only to stay him mentally1 without moving hand or foot2 this for hours1 and night after night4' ',his wife being to him a very patient woman1' says ,tatham1 who speaks of ,mrs4 ,blake as 'an irradiated saint1' 'he fancied that while she looked on him as he worked1 her sitting quite still by his side1 doing nothing1 soothed his impetuous mind2 and he has many a time1 when a strong desire presented itself to overcome any difficulty in his plates or drawings1 in the middle of the night1 risen1 and requested her to get up with him1 and sit by his side1 in which she as cheerfully acquiesced4' ',rigid1 punctual1 firm1 precise1' she has been described2 a good housewife and a good cook2 refusing to have a servant not only because of the cost1 but because no servant could be scrupulous enough to satisfy her4 ',finding1' says ,tatham '7as ,mrs4 ,blake declared1 and as every one else knows71 the more service the more inconvenience1 she444 did all the work herself1 kept the house clean and herself tidy1 besides printing all ,blake's numerous engravings1 which was a task sufficient for any industrious woman4' ,he tells us in another place3 'it is a fact known to the writer1 that ,mrs4 ,blake's frugality always kept a guinea or sovereign for any emergency1 of which ,blake never knew1 even to the day of his death4' ,tatham says of ,blake at the time of his marriage3 ',although not handsome1 he must have had a most noble countenance1 full of expression and animation2 his hair was of a yellow brown1 and curled with the utmost crispness and luxuriance2 his locks1 instead of falling down1 stood up like a curling flame1 and looked at a distance like radiations1 which with his fiery eye and expressive forehead1 his dignified and cheerful physiognomy1 must have made his appearance truly prepossessing4' ,in another place he says3 ',william ,blake in stature was short he was not quite five and a half feet in height1 but well made1 and very well proportioned2 so much so that ,west1 the great history painter1 admired much the form of his limbs2 he had a large head and wide shoulders4 ,elasticity and promptitude of action were the characteristics of his contour4 ,his motions were rapid and energetic1 betokening a mind filled with elevated enthusiasm2 his forehead was very high and prominent over the frontals2 his eye most unusually large and glassy1 with which he appeared to look into some other world4' ,his eyes were prominent1 'large1 dark1 and expressive1' says ,allan ,cunningham2 the flashing of his eyes remained in the memory of an old man who had seen him in court at ,chichester in #ahjd4 ,his nose1 though 'snubby1' as he himself describes it1 had 'a little clenched nostril1 a nostril that opened as far as it could1 but was tied down at the end4' ,the mouth was large and sensitive2 the forehead1 larger below than above1 as he himself noted1 was broad and high2 and the whole face1 as one sees it in what is probably the best likeness we have1 ,linnell's miniature of #ahbg1 was full of irregular splendor1 eager1 eloquent1 ecstatic2 eyes and mouth and nostrils all as if tense with a continual suction1 drinking up 'large draughts of intellectual day' with impatient haste4 ',infinite impatience1' says ,swinburne1 'as of a great preacher or apostle--intense tremulous vitality1 as of a great orator--seem to me to give his face the look of one who can do all things but hesitate4' ,after his marriage in ,august #aghb 7which has been said to have displeased his father1 though ,tatham says it was 'with the approbation and consent of his parents'71 ,blake took lodgings at #bc ,green ,street1 ,leicester ,fields 7now pulled down71 which was only the square's length away from ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds4 ,flaxman had married in #agha1 and had taken a house at #bg ,wardour ,street and it was probably he who1 about this time1 introduced ,blake to 'the accomplished ,mrs4 ,matthew1' whose drawing-room in ,rathbone ,place was frequented by literary and artistic people4 ,mr4 ,matthew1 a clergyman of taste1 who is said to have 'read the church service more beautifully than any other clergyman in ,london1' had discovered ,flaxman1 when a little boy1 learning ,latin behind the counter in his father's shop4 ',from this incident1' says ,j4 ,t4 ,smith in his notice of ,flaxman1 ',mr4 ,matthew continued to notice him1 and1 as he grew up1 became his first and best friend4 ,later on1 he was introduced to ,mrs4 ,matthew1 who was so kind as to read ,homer to him1 whilst he made designs on the same table with her at the time she was reading4' ,it was apparently at the ,matthews' house that ,smith heard ,blake sing his own songs to his own music1 and it was through ,mrs4 ,matthew's good opinion of these songs that she 'requested the ,rev4 ,henry ,matthew1 her husband1 to join ,mr4 ,flaxman in his truly kind offer of defraying the expense of printing them'3 to which we owe the ',poetical ,sketches1 by ,w4 ,b4'2 printed in #aghc1 and given to ,blake to dispose of as he thought fit4 ,there is no publisher's name on the book1 and there is no reason to suppose that it was ever offered for sale4 ',with his usual urbanity1' ,mr4 ,matthew had written a foolish ',advertisement' to the book1 saying that the author had 'been deprived of the leisure requisite to such a revisal of these sheets1 as might have rendered them less unfit to meet the public eye1' 'his talents having been wholly directed to the attainment of excellence in his profession4' ,the book is by no means incorrectly printed1 and it is not probable that ,blake would under any circumstances have given his poems more 'revisal' than he did4 ,he did at this time a good deal of engraving1 often after the designs of ,stothard1 whom he was afterwards to accuse of stealing his ideas2 and in #aghd he had two1 and in #aghe four1 watercolor drawings at the ,royal ,academy4 ,fuseli1 ,stothard1 and ,flaxman#a seem to have been his chief friends1 and it is probable that he also knew ,cosway1 who practiced magic1 and ,cosway may have told him about ,paracelsus1 or lent him ,law's translation of ,behmen1 while ,flaxman1 who was a ,swedenborgian1 may have brought him still more closely under the influence of ,swedenborg4 ,in any case1 he soon tired of the coterie of the ,matthews1 and we are told that it soon ceased to relish his 'manly firmness of opinion4' ,what he really thought of it we may know with some certainty from the extravaganza1 ,an ,island in the ,moon1 which seems to belong to #aghd1 and which is a light-hearted and incoherent satire1 derived1 no doubt1 from ,sterne1 and pointing1 as ,mr4 ,sampson justly says1 to ,peacock4 ,it is unfinished1 and was not worth finishing1 but it contains the first version of several of the ,songs of ,innocence1 as well as the lovely song of ,phoebe and ,jellicoe4 ,it has the further interest of showing us ,blake's first1 wholly irresponsible attempt to create imaginary worlds1 and to invent grotesque and impossible names4 ,it shows us the first explosions of that inflammable part of his nature1 which was to burst through the quiet surface of his life at many intervals1 in righteous angers and irrational suspicions4 ,it betrays his deeply rooted dislike of science1 and1 here and there1 a literary preference1 for ,ossian or for ,chatterton4 ,the original ,,ms4 is in the ,fitzwilliam ,museum1 ,cambridge1 and in this year1 #aijg1 ,mr4 ,edwin ,j4 ,ellis has done ,blake the unkindness of printing it for the first time in full1 in the pages of his ,real ,blake4 ,blake's satire is only occasionally good1 though occasionally it is supremely good2 his burlesque is almost always bad2 and there is little probability that he ever intended to publish any part of the prose and verse which he threw off for the relief of personal irritations and spiritual indignations4 ,in ,an ,island in the ,moon we see ,blake casting off the dust of the drawing-rooms1 finally1 so far as any mental obstruction was concerned2 but he does not seem to have broken wholly with the ,matthews1 who1 no doubt1 were people of genuinely good intentions2 and it is through their help that we find him1 in #aghd1 on the death of his father1 setting up as a print-seller1 with his former fellow-apprentice1 ,james ,parker1 at ,no4 #bg ,broad ,street1 next door to the house and shop which had been his fathers1 and which were now taken on by his brother ,james4 ,smith says that he took a shop and a first-floor2 and here his brother ,robert came to live with him as his pupil1 and remained with him till his death in ,february #aghg4 ,,iii ,after ,robert's death ,blake gave up the print-shop and moved out of ,broad ,street to ,poland ,street1 a street running between it and ,oxford ,street4 ,he took ,no4 #bh1 a house only a few doors down from ,oxford ,street1 and lived there for five years4 ,here1 in #aghi1 he issued the ,songs of ,innocence1 the first of his books to be produced by the method of his invention which he described as 'illuminated printing4' ,according to ,smith1 it was ,robert who 'stood before him in one of his visionary imaginations1 and directed him in the way in which he ought to proceed4' ,the process is thus described by ,mr4 ,sampson3 ',the text and surrounding design were written in reverse1 in a medium impervious to acid1 upon small copper-plates1 which were then etched in a bath of aqua-fortis until the work stood in relief as in a stereotype4 ,from these plates1 which to economize copper were in many cases engraved upon both sides1 impressions were printed1 in the ordinary manner1 in tints made to harmonise with the color scheme afterwards applied in water-colors by the artist4' ,gilchrist tells an improbable story about ,mrs4 ,blake going out with the last half-crown in the house1 and spending #as #aj;d of it in the purchase of 'the simple materials necessary4' ,but we know from a ,,ms4 note of ,john ,linnell1 referring to a somewhat later date3 ',the copper-plates which ,blake engraved to illustrate ,hayley's life of ,cowper were1 as he told me1 printed entirely by himself and his wife in his own press--a very good one which cost him forty pounds4' ,these plates were engraved in #ahjc1 but it is not likely that ,blake was ever able to buy more than one press4 ,the problem of 'illuminated printing1' however definitely it may have been solved by the dream in which ,robert 'stood before him and directed him1' was one which had certainly occupied the mind of ,blake for some years4 ,a passage1 unfortunately incomplete1 in ,an ,island in the ,moon1 reads as follows3 ,illuminating the ,manuscript--,ay1 said she1 that would be excellent4 ,then1 said he1 ,i would have all the writing engraved instead of printed1 and at every other leaf a high finished print1 all in three volumes folio1 and sell them a hundred pounds a piece4 ,they would print off two thousand4 ,then1 said she1 whoever will not have them1 will be ignorant fools and will not deserve to live4' ,this is evidently a foreshadowing of the process which is described and defended1 with not less confident enthusiasm1 in an engraved prospectus issued from ,lambeth in #agic4 ,i give it in full3-- ,october #aj1 #agic4 ,,to ,,the ,,public4 ,the ,labours of the ,artist1 the ,poet1 the ,musician1 have been proverbially attended by poverty and obscurity2 this was never the fault of the ,public1 but was owing to a neglect of means to propagate such works as have wholly absorbed the ,man of ,genius4 ,even ,milton and ,shakespeare could not publish their own works4 ,this difficulty has been obviated by the ,author of the following productions now presented to the ,public2 who has invented a method of ,printing both ,letter-press and ,engraving in a style more ornamental1 uniform1 and grand1 than any before discovered1 while it produces works at less than one-fourth of the expense4 ,if a method of ,printing which combines the ,painter and the ,poet is a phenomenon worthy of public attention1 provided that it exceeds in elegance all former methods1 the ,author is sure of his reward4 ,mr4 ,blake's powers of invention very early engaged the attention of many persons of eminence and fortune2 by whose means he has been regularly enabled to bring before the public works 7he is not afraid to say7 of equal magnitude and consequence with the productions of any age or country3 among which are two large highly finished engravings 7and two more are nearly ready7 which will commence a ,series of subjects from the ,bible1 and another from the ,history of ,england4 ,the following are the ,subjects of the several ,works now published and on ,sale at ,mr4 ,blake's1 ,no4 #ac ,hercules ,buildings1 ,lambeth3-- #a4 ,job1 a ,historical ,engraving4 ,size #a ft4 #g #a_/b in4 by #a ft4 #b in4 ,price #abs4 #b4 ,edward and ,elinor1 a ,historical ,engraving4 ,size #a ft4 #f #a_/b in4 by #a ft4 ,price #ajs4 #f;d4 #c4 ,america1 a ,prophecy1 in ,illuminated ,printing4 ,folio1 with #ah designs4 ,price #ajs4 #f;d4 #d4 ,visions of the ,daughters of ,albion1 in ,illuminated ,printing4 ,folio1 with #h designs4 ,price #gs4 #f;d4 #e4 ,the ,book of ,thel1 a ,poem in ,illuminated ,printing4 ,quarto1 with #f designs4 ,price #cs4 #f4 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 in ,illuminated ,printing4 ,quarto1 with fourteen designs4 ,price #gs4 #f;d4 #g4 ,songs of ,innocence1 in ,illuminated ,printing4 ,octavo1 with #be designs4 ,price #e s4 #h4 ,songs of ,experience1 in ,illuminated ,printing4 ,octavo1 with #be designs4 ,price #es4 #i4 ,the ,history of ,england1 a small book of ,engravings4 ,price #c s4 #aj4 ,the ,gates of ,paradise1 a small book of ,engravings4 ,price #c s4 ,the ,illuminated ,books are ,printed in ,colors1 and on the most beautiful wove paper that could be procured4 ,no ,subscriptions for the numerous great works now in hand are asked1 for none are wanted2 but the ,author will produce his works1 and offer them to sale at a fair price4 ,by this invention 7which it is absurd to consider1 as some have considered it1 a mere makeshift1 to which he had been driven by the refusal of publishers to issue his poems and engravings according to the ordinary trade methods7 ,blake was the first1 and remains the only1 poet who has in the complete sense made his own books with his own hands3 the words1 the illustrations1 the engraving1 the printing1 the coloring1 the very inks and colors1 and the stitching of the sheets into boards4 ,with ,blake1 who was equally a poet and an artist1 words and designs came together and were inseparable2 and to the power of inventing words and designs was added the skill of engraving1 and thus of interpreting them1 without any mechanical interference from the outside4 ,to do this must have been1 at some time or another1 the ideal of every poet who is a true artist1 and who has a sense of the equal importance of every form of art1 and of every detail in every form4 ,only ,blake has produced a book of poems vital alike in inner and outer form1 and1 had it not been for his lack of a technical knowledge of music1 had he but been able to write down his inventions in that art also1 he would have left us the creation of something like an universal art4 ,that universal art he did1 during his own lifetime1 create2 for he sang his songs to his own music2 and thus1 while he lived1 he was the complete realization of the poet in all his faculties1 and the only complete realization that has ever been known4 ,to define the poetry of ,blake one must find new definitions for poetry2 but1 these definitions once found1 he will seem to be the only poet who is a poet in essence2 the only poet who could1 in his own words1 'enter into ,noah's rainbow1 and make a friend and companion of one of these images of wonder1 which always entreat him to leave mortal things4' ,in this verse there is1 if it is to be found in any verse1 the 'lyrical cry'2 and yet1 what voice is it that cries in this disembodied ecstasy8 ,the voice of desire is not in it1 nor the voice of passion1 nor the cry of the heart1 nor the cry of the sinner to ,god1 nor of the lover of nature to nature4 ,it neither seeks nor aspires nor laments nor questions4 ,it is like the voice of wisdom in a child1 who has not yet forgotten the world out of which the soul came4 ,it is as spontaneous as the note of a bird1 it is an affirmation of life2 in its song1 which seems mere music1 it is the mind which sings2 it is lyric thought4 ,what is it that transfixes one in any couplet such as this3 ',if the sun and moon should doubt ,they'd immediately go out'8 ,it is no more than a nursery statement1 there is not even an image in it1 and yet it sings to the brain1 it cuts into the very flesh of the mind1 as if there were a great weight behind it4 ,is it that it is an arrow1 and that it comes from so far1 and with an impetus gathered from its speed out of the sky8 ,the lyric poet1 every lyric poet but ,blake1 sings of love2 but ,blake sings of forgiveness3 ',mutual forgiveness of each vice1 ,such are the gates of ,paradise4' ,poets sing of beauty1 but ,blake says3 ',soft deceit and idleness1 ,these are ,beauty's sweetest dress4' ,they sing of the brotherhood of men1 but ,blake points to the 'divine image'3 ',cruelty has a human heart1 ,and ,jealousy a human face2 ,terror the human form divine1 ,and ,secrecy the human dress4' ,their minds are touched by the sense of tears in human things1 but to ,blake 'a tear is an intellectual thing4' ,they sing of 'a woman like a dewdrop1' but ,blake of 'the lineaments of gratified desire4' ,they shout hymns to ,god over a field of battle or in the arrogance of material empire2 but ,blake addresses the epilogue of his ,gates of ,paradise 'to the ,accuser who is the ,god of this world'3 ',truly1 my ,satan1 thou art but a dunce1 ,and dost not know the garment from the man2 ,every harlot was a virgin once1 ,nor canst thou ever change ,kate into ,nan4 ,though thou art worshipped by the names divine ,of ,jesus and ,jehovah1 thou art still ,the son of morn in weary night's decline1 ,the lost traveller's dream under the hill4' ,other poets find ecstasy in nature1 but ,blake only in imagination4 ,he addresses the ,prophetic ,book of ,the ,ghost of ,abel 'to ,lord ,byron in the wilderness1' and asks3 ',what doest thou here1 ,elijah8 ,can a poet doubt of the visions of ,jehovah8 ,nature has no outline1 but ,imagination has4 ,nature has no time1 but ,imagination has4 ,nature has no supernatural1 and dissolves4 ,imagination is eternity4' ,the poetry of ,blake is a poetry of the mind1 abstract in substance1 concrete in form2 its passion is the passion of the imagination1 its emotion is the emotion of thought1 its beauty is the beauty of idea4 ,when it is simplest1 its simplicity is that of some 'infant joy' too young to have a name1 or of some 'infant sorrow' brought aged out of eternity into the 'dangerous world1' and there3 ',helpless1 naked1 piping loud1 ,like a fiend hid in a cloud4' ,there are no men and women in the world of ,blake's poetry1 only primal instincts and the energies of the imagination4 ,his work begins in the garden of ,eden1 or of the childhood of the world1 and there is something in it of the navet of beasts3 the lines gambol awkwardly1 like young lambs4 ,his utterance of the state of innocence has in it something of the grotesqueness of babies1 and enchants the grown man1 as they do4 ,humour exists unconscious of itself1 in a kind of awed and open-eyed solemnity4 ,he stammers into a speech of angels1 as if just awakening out of ,paradise4 ,it is the primal instincts that speak first1 before riper years have added wisdom to intuition4 ,it is the supreme quality of this wisdom that it has never let go of intuition4 ,it is as if intuition itself ripened4 ,and so ,blake goes through life with perfect mastery of the terms of existence1 as they present themselves to him3 'perfectly happy1 wanting nothing1' as he said1 when he was old and poor2 and able in each stage of life to express in art the corresponding stage of his own development4 ,he is the only poet who has written the songs of childhood1 of youth1 of mature years1 and of old age2 and he died singing4 ,,iv ,blake lived in ,poland ,street for five years1 and issued from it the ,songs of ,innocence 7#aghi71 and1 in the same year1 ,the ,book of ,thel1 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell in #agij1 and1 in #agia1 the first book of ,the ,french ,revolution3 a ,poem in ,seven ,books1 which ,gilchrist says was published anonymously1 in ordinary type1 and without illustrations1 by the bookseller ,johnson4 ,no copy of this book is known to exist4 ,at this time he was a fervent believer in the new age which was to be brought about by the ,french ,revolution1 and he was much in the company of revolutionaries and freethinkers1 and the only one among them who dared wear the 'bonnet rouge' in the street4 ,some of these1 ,thomas ,paine1 ,godwin1 ,holcroft1 and others1 he met at ,johnson's shop in ,st4 ,paul's ,churchyard1 where ,fuseli and ,mary ,wollstonecraft also came4 ,it was at ,johnson's1 in #agib1 that ,blake saved the life of ,paine1 by hurrying him off to ,france1 with the warning1 ',you must not go home1 or you are a dead man1' at the very moment when a warrant had been issued for his arrest4 ,johnson himself was in #agih put into gaol for his republican sympathies1 and continued to give his weekly literary dinners in gaol4 ,blake's back-windows at ,poland ,street looked out on the yard of ,astley's circus1 and ,tatham tells a story of ,blake's wonder1 indignation1 and prompt action on seeing a wretched youth chained by the foot to a horse's hobble4 ,the neighbor whom he regarded as 'hired to depress art1' ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 died in #agib4 ,a friend quoted by ,gilchrist tells us3 ',when a very young man he had called on ,reynolds to show him some designs1 and had been recommended to work with less extravagance and more simplicity1 and to correct his drawing4 ,this ,blake seemed to regard as an affront never to be forgotten4 ,he was very indignant when he spoke of it4' ,there is also a story of a meeting between ,blake and ,reynolds1 when each1 to his own surprise1 seems to have found the other very pleasant4 ,blake's mother died in #agib1 at the age of seventy1 and was buried in ,bunhill ,fields on ,september #i4 ,in the following year he moved to #ac ,hercules ,buildings1 ,lambeth1#b where1 during the next seven years1 he did engraving1 both of his own designs and of those of others1 and published the engraved book of designs called ,the ,gates of ,paradise 7#agic71 the poems and illustrations of the ,songs of ,experience 7#agid71 and the greater part of the ,prophetic ,books1 besides writing1 apparently in #agig1 the vast and never really finished ,,ms4 of ,the ,four ,zoas4 ,this period was that of which we have the largest and most varied result1 in written and engraved work1 together with a large number of designs1 including five hundred and thirty-seven done on the margin of ,young's ,night ,thoughts1 and the earliest of the color-prints4 ,it was ,blake's one period of something like prosperity1 as we gather from several stories reported by ,tatham1 who says that during the absence of ,blake and his wife on one of their long country walks1 which would take up a whole day1 thieves broke into the house1 and 'carried away plate to the value of #fj and clothes to the amount of #dj more4' ,another #dj was lent by ,blake to 'a certain freethinking speculator1 the author of many elaborate philosophical treatises1' who complained that 'his children had not a dinner4' ,a few days afterwards the ,blakes went to see the destitute family1 and the wife 'had the audacity to ask ,mrs4 ,blake's opinion of a very gorgeous dress1 purchased the day following ,blake's compassionate gift4' ,yet another story is of a young art-student who used to pass the house every day carrying a portfolio under his arm1 and whom ,blake pitied for his poverty and sickly looks1 and taught for nothing and looked after till he died4 ,blake had other pupils too1 among 'families of high rank1' but being 'aghast' at the prospect of 'an appointment to teach drawing to the ,royal ,family1' he gave up all his pupils1 with his invariably exquisite sense of manners1 on refusing the royal offer4 ,it was in #agii that ,blake found his first patron1 and one of his best friends1 in ,thomas ,butts1 'that remarkable man--that great patron of ,british genius1' as ,samuel ,palmer calls him1 who1 for nearly thirty years1 with but few intervals1 continued to buy whatever ,blake liked to do for him1 paying him a small but steady price1 and taking at times a drawing a week4 ,a story which1 as ,palmer says1 had 'grown in the memory1' connects him with ,blake at this time1 and may be once more repeated1 if only to be discredited4 ,there was a back-garden at the house in ,hercules ,buildings1 and there were vines in it1 which ,blake would never allow to be pruned1 so that they grew luxuriant in leaf and small and harsh in fruit4 ,mr4 ,butts1 according to ,gilchrist1 is supposed to have come one day into ',blake's ,arcadian ,arbour1' as ,tatham calls it1 and to have found ,blake and his wife sitting naked1 reading out ,milton's ,paradise ,lost 'in character1' and to have been greeted with3 ',come in1 it is only ,adam and ,eve4' ,john ,linnell1 in some notes written after reading ,gilchrist1 and quoted in ,story's ,life of ,linnell1 writes with reason3 ',i do not think it possible4 ,blake was very unreserved in his narrations to me of all his thoughts and actions1 and ,i think if anything like this story had been true1 he would have told me of it4 ,i am sure he would have laughed heartily at it if it had been told of him or of anybody else1 for he was a hearty laugher at absurdities4' ,in such a matter1 ,linnell's authority may well be final1 if indeed any authority is required1 beyond a sense of humour1 and the knowledge that ,blake possessed it4 ,another legend of the period1 which has at least more significance1 whether true or not1 is referred to by both ,swinburne and ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti1 on what authority ,i cannot discover1 and is thus stated by ,messrs4 ,ellis and ,yeats3 ',it is said that ,blake wished to add a concubine to his establishment in the ,old ,testament manner1 but gave up the project because it made ,mrs4 ,blake cry4' ',the element of fable1' they add1 'lies in the implication that the woman who was to have wrecked this household had a bodily existence4444 ,there is a possibility that he entertained mentally some polygamous project1 and justified it on some patriarchal theory4 ,a project and theory are one thing1 however1 and a woman is another2 and though there is abundant suggestion of the project and theory1 there is no evidence at all of the woman4' ,i have found in the unpublished part of ,crabb ,robinson's ,diary and ,reminiscences more than a 'possibility' or even 'abundant suggestion' that ,blake accepted the theory as a theory4 ,crabb ,robinson himself was so frightened by it that he had to confide it to his ,diary in the disguise of ,german1 though1 when he came to compile his ,reminiscences many years later he ventured to put it down in plain ,english which no editor has yet ventured to print4 ,both passages will be found in their place in the verbatim reprint given later2 but ,i will quote the second here3 '#acth ,june 7#ahbf74--;,i saw him again in ,june4 ,he was as wild as ever1 says my journal1 but he was led to-day to make assertions more palpably mischievous and capable of influencing other minds1 and immoral1 supposing them to express the will of a responsible agent1 than anything he had said before4 ,as for instance1 that he had learned from the ,bible that wives should be in common4 ,and when ,i objected that ,marriage was a ,divine institution he referred to the ,bible1 that from the beginning it was not so4 ,he affirmed that he had committed many murders1 and repeated his doctrine1 that reason is the only ,sin1 and that careless1 gay people are better than those who think1 etc41 etc4' ,this passage leaves no doubt as to ,blake's theoretical view of marriage1 but it brings us no nearer to any certainty as to his practical action in the matter4 ,with ,blake1 as with all wise men1 a mental decision in the abstract had no necessary influence on conduct4 ,to have the courage of your opinions is one thing1 and ,blake always had this2 but he was of all people least impelled to go and do a thing because he considered the thing a permissible one to do4 ,throughout all his work ,blake affirms freedom as the first law of love2 jealousy is to him the great iniquity1 the unforgivable selfishness4 ,he has the frank courage to praise in ,the ,visions of the ,daughters of ,albion3 ',infancy1 fearless1 lustful1 happy1 nestling for delight ,in laps of pleasure6 ,innocence1 honest1 open1 seeking ,the vigorous joys of morning light'2 ,and of woman he asks1 ',who taught thee modesty1 subtle modesty8' ,in the same book1 which is ,blake's ,book of ,love1 ,oothoon offers 'girls of mild silver or of furious gold' to her lover2 in the paradisal state of ,jerusalem 'every female delights to give her maiden to her husband4' ,all these things are no doubt symbols1 but they are symbols which meet us on every page of ,blake1 and ,i no not doubt that to him they represented an absolute truth4 ,therefore ,i think it perfectly possible that some 'mentally polygamous project' was at one time or another entertained by him1 and 'justified on some patriarchal theory4' ,what ,i am sure of1 however1 is that a tear of ,mrs4 ,blake 7'for a tear is an intellectual thing'7 was enough to wipe out project if not theory1 and that one to whom love was pity more than it was desire would have given no nearer cause for jealousy than some unmortal ,oothoon4 ,it was in #agid that ,blake engraved the ,songs of ,experience4 ,four of the ,prophetic ,books had preceded it1 but here ,blake returns to the clear and simple form of the ,songs of ,innocence1 deepening it with meaning and heightening it with ardor4 ,along with this fierier art the symbolic contents of what1 in the ,songs of ,innocence1 had been hardly more than a child's strayings in earthly or divine ,edens1 becomes angelic1 and speaks with more deliberately hid or doubled meanings4 ,even ',the ,tiger1' by which ,lamb was to know that here was 'one of the most extraordinary persons of the age1' is not only a sublime song about a flame-like beast1 but contains some hint that 'the tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction4' ,in this book1 and in the poems which shortly followed it1 in that ,,ms4 book whose contents have sometimes been labelled1 after a rejected title of ,blake's1 ,ideas of ,good and ,evil1 we see ,blake more wholly and more evenly himself than anywhere else in his work4 ,from these central poems we can distinguish the complete type of ,blake as a poet4 ,blake is the only poet who sees all temporal things under the form of eternity4 ,to him reality is merely a symbol1 and he catches at its terms1 hastily and faultily1 as he catches at the lines of the drawing-master1 to represent1 as in a faint image1 the clear and shining outlines of what he sees with the imagination2 through the eye1 not with it1 as he says4 ,where other poets use reality as a spring-board into space1 he uses it as a foothold on his return from flight4 ,even ,wordsworth seemed to him a kind of atheist1 who mistook the changing signs of 'vegetable nature' for the unchanging realities of the imagination4 ',natural objects1' he wrote in a copy of ,wordsworth1 'always did and now do weaken1 deaden1 and obliterate imagination in me4 ,wordsworth must know that what he writes valuable is not to be found in nature4' ,and so his poetry is the most abstract of all poetry1 although in a sense the most concrete4 ,it is everywhere an affirmation1 the register of vision2 never observation4 ,to him observation was one of the daughters of memory1 and he had no use for her among his ,muses1 which were all eternal1 and the children of the imagination4 ',imagination1' he said1 'has nothing to do with memory4' ,for the most part he is just conscious that what he sees as 'an old man grey' is no more than a 'frowning thistle'3 ',for double the vision my eyes do see1 ,and a double vision is always with me4 ,with my inward eyes1 'tis an old man grey1 ,with my outward1 a thistle across my way4' ,in being so far conscious1 he is only recognizing the symbol1 not admitting the reality4 ,in his earlier work1 the symbol still interests him1 he accepts it without dispute2 with1 indeed1 a kind of transfiguring love4 ,thus he writes of the lamb and the tiger1 of the joy and sorrow of infants1 of the fly and the lily1 as no poet of mere observation has ever written of them1 going deeper into their essence than ,wordsworth ever went into the heart of daffodils1 or ,shelley into the nerves of the sensitive plant4 ,he takes only the simplest flowers or weeds1 and the most innocent or most destroying of animals1 and he uses them as illustrations of the divine attributes4 ,from the same flower and beast he can read contrary lessons without change of meaning1 by the mere transposition of qualities1 as in the poem which now reads3 ',the modest rose puts forth a thorn1 ,the humble sheep a threatening horn2 ,while the lily white shall in love delight1 ,nor a thorn1 nor a threat1 stain her beauty bright4' ,mr4 ,sampson tells us in his notes3 ,beginning by writing3 ,the rose puts envious 444 ,he felt that envious1 did not express his full meaning1 and deleted the last three words1 writing above them lustful rose1 and finishing the line with the words puts forth a thorn4 ,he then went on3 ,the coward sheep a threatening horn2 ,while the lily white shall in love delight1 ,and the lion increase freedom and peace2 ,at which point he drew a line under the poem to show that it was finished4 ,on a subsequent reading he deleted the last line1 substituting for it3 ',the priest loves war1 and the soldier peace2 ,but here1 perceiving that his rhyme had disappeared1 he cancelled this line also1 and gave the poem an entirely different turn by changing the word lustful to modest1 and coward to humble1 and completing the quatrain 7as in the engraved version7 by a fourth line simply explanatory of the first three4' ,this is not merely obeying the idle impulse of a rhyme1 but rather a bringing of the mind's impulses into that land where 'contraries mutually exist4' ,and when ,i say that he reads lessons1 let it not be supposed that ,blake was ever consciously didactic4 ,conduct does not concern him2 not doing1 but being4 ,he held that education was the setting of a veil between light and the soul4 ',there is no good in education1' he said4 ',i hold it to be wrong4 ,it is the great sin4 ,it is eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil4 ,this was the fault of ,plato4 ,he knew nothing but the virtues and vices1 and good and evil4 ,there is nothing in all that4 ,everything is good in ,god's eyes4' ,and1 as he says with his excellent courage3 ',when ,i tell the truth1 it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it1 but for the sake of defending those who do'2 and1 again1 with still more excellent and harder courage3 ',when ,i am endeavoring to think rightly1 ,i must not regard my own any more than other people's weaknesses'2 so1 in his poetry1 there is no moral tendency1 nothing that might not be poison as well as antidote2 nothing indeed but the absolute affirmation of that energy which is eternal delight4 ,he worshipped energy as the wellhead or parent fire of life2 and to him there was no evil1 only a weakness1 a negation of energy1 the ignominy of wings that droop and are contented in the dust4 ,and so1 like ,nietzsche1 but with a deeper innocence1 he finds himself 'beyond good and evil1' in a region where the soul is naked and its own master4 ,most of his art is the unclothing of the soul1 and when at last it is naked and alone1 in that 'thrilling' region where the souls of other men have at times penetrated1 only to shudder back with terror from the brink of eternal loneliness1 then only is this soul exultant with the supreme happiness4 ,v ,it is to the seven years at ,lambeth that what may be called the first period of the ,prophetic ,books largely belongs1 though it does not indeed begin there4 ,the roots of it are strongly visible in ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 which was written at ,poland ,street1 and they may be traced even further back4 ,everything else1 until we come to the last or ,felpham period1 which has a new quality of its own1 belongs to ,lambeth4 ,in his earlier work ,blake is satisfied with natural symbols1 with nature as symbol2 in his later work1 in the final message of the ,prophetic ,books1 he is no longer satisfied with what then seems to him the relative truth of the symbols of reality4 ,dropping the tools with which he has worked so well1 he grasps with naked hands after an absolute truth of statement1 which is like his attempt in his designs to render the outlines of vision literally1 without translation into the forms of human sight4 ,he invents names harsh as triangles1 ,enitharmon1 ,theotormon1 ,rintrah1 for spiritual states and essences1 and he employs them as ,wagner employed his leading motives1 as a kind of shorthand for the memory4 ,his meaning is no longer apparent in the ordinary meaning of the words he uses2 we have to read him with a key1 and the key is not always in our hands2 he forgets that he is talking to men on the earth in some language which he has learnt in heavenly places4 ,he sees symbol within symbol1 and as he tries to make one clear to us1 he does but translate it into another1 perhaps no easier1 or more confusing4 ,and it must be remembered1 when even interpreters like ,mr4 ,ellis and ,mr4 ,yeats falter1 and confess ',there is apparently some confusion among the symbols1' that after all we have only a portion of ,blake's later work1 and that probably a far larger portion was destroyed when the ,peckham 'angel1' ,mr4 ,tatham 7copartner in foolish wickedness with ,warburton's cook71 sat down to burn the books which he did not understand4 ,blake's great system of wheels within wheels remains no better than a ruin1 and can but at the best be pieced together tentatively by those who are able to trace the connection of some of its parts4 ,it is no longer even possible to know how much consistency ,blake was able to give to his symbols1 and how far he failed to make them visible in terms of mortal understanding4 ,as we have them1 they evade us on every side1 not because they are meaningless1 but because the secret of their meaning is so closely kept4 ,to ,blake actual contemporary names meant even more than they meant to ,walt ,whitman4 ',all truths wait in all things1' said ,walt ,whitman1 and ,blake has his own quite significant but perplexing meaning when he writes3 ',the corner of ,broad ,street weeps2 ,poland ,street languishes ,to ,great ,queen ,street and ,lincoln's ,inn3 all is distress and woe4' ,he is concerned now only with his message1 with the 'minutely particular' statement of it2 and as he has ceased to accept any mortal medium1 or to allow himself to be penetrated by the sunlight of earthly beauty1 he has lost the means of making that message visible to us4 ,it is a miscalculation of means1 a contempt for possibilities2 not1 as people were once hasty enough to assume1 the irresponsible rapture of madness4 ,there is not even in these crabbed chronicles the wild beauty of the madman's scattering brain2 there is a concealed sanity1 a precise kind of truth1 which1 as ,blake said of all truth1 'can never be so told as to be understood1 and not be believed4' ,blake's form1 or apparent formlessness1 in the ,prophetic ,books1 was no natural accident1 or unconsidered utterance of inspiration4 ,addressing the public on the first plate of ,jerusalem he says3 ',when this verse was first dictated to me1 ,i considered a monotonous cadence like that used by ,milton and ,shakespeare and all writers of ,english blank verse1 derived from the bondage of rhyming1 to be a necessary and indispensable part of verse4 ,but ,i soon found that in the mouth of a true orator such monotony was not only awkward1 but as much a bondage as rhyme itself4 ,i have therefore produced a variety in every line1 both of cadences and number of syllables4 ,every word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place2 the terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts1 the mild and gentle for the mild and gentle parts1 and the prosaic for inferior parts2 all are necessary to each other1' ,this desire for variety at the expense of unity is illustrated in one of ,blake's marginal notes to ,reynolds' ,discourses4 ',such harmony of coloring' 7as that of ,titian in the ,bacchus and ,ariadne7 'is destructive of ,art4 ,one species of equal hue over all is the cursed thing called harmony4 ,it is the smile of a fool4' ,this is a carrying to its extreme limit of the principle that 'there is no such thing as softness in art1 and that everything in art is definite and minute444 because vision is determinate and perfect'2 and that 'coloring does not depend on where the colors are put1 but on where the lights and darks are put1 and all depends on form or outline1 on where that is put4' ,the whole aim of the ,prophetic ,books is to arrive at a style as 'determinate and perfect' as vision1 unmodified by any of the deceiving beauties of nature or of the distracting ornaments of conventional form4 ,what is further interesting in ,blake's statement is that he aimed1 in the ,prophetic ,books1 at producing the effect1 not of poetry but of oratory1 and it is as oratory1 the oratory of the prophets1 that the reader is doubtless meant to take them4 ',poetry fettered1' he adds1 'fetters the human race1' and ,i doubt not that he imagined1 as ,walt ,whitman and later vers-libristes have imagined1 that in casting off the form he had unfettered the spirit of poetry4 ,there seems never to have been a time when ,blake did not attempt to find for himself a freer expression than he thought verse could give him1 for among the least mature of the ,poetical ,sketches are poems written in rhythmical prose1 in imitation partly of ,ossian1 partly of the ,bible4 ,an early ,,ms4 called ,tiriel1 probably of hardly later date1 still exists1 written in a kind of metre of fourteen syllables1 only slightly irregular in beat1 but rarely fine in cadence4 ,it already hints1 in a cloudy way1 at some obscure mythology1 into which there already come incoherent names1 of an ,eastern color1 ,ijim and ,mnetha4 ,tiriel appears again in ,the ,book of ,urizen as ,urizen's first-born1 ,thiriel1 'like a man from a cloud born4' ,har and ,heva reappear in ,the ,song of ,los4 ,the ,book of ,thel1 engraved in #aghi1 the year of the ,songs of ,innocence1 is in the same metre of fourteen syllables1 but written with a faint and lovely monotony of cadence1 strangely fluid and flexible in that age of strong caesuras1 as in3 ',come forth1 worm of the silent valley1 to thy pensive queen4' ,the sentiment is akin to that of the ,songs of ,innocence1 and hardly more than a shadow of the mythology remains4 ,it sings or teaches the holiness and eternity of life in all things1 the equality of life in the flower1 the cloud1 the worm1 and the maternal clay of the grave2 and it ends with the unanswered question of death to life3 why8 why8 ,in #agij ,blake engraved in two forms1 on six and ten infinitesimal plates1 a tractate which he called1 ,there is no ,natural ,religion4 ,they contain1 the one commenting on the other1 a clear and concise statement of many of ,blake's fundamental beliefs2 such as3 ',that the poetic ,genius is the true ,man1 and that the ,body or outward form of ,man is derived from the ,poetic ,genius4' ',as all men are alike in outward form1 so 7and with the same infinite variety7 all are alike in the ,poetic ,genius4' ',man's perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception1 he perceives more than sense 7though ever so acute7 can discover4' ,yet1 since ',man's desires are limited by his perceptions1 none can desire what he has not perceived4' ',therefore ,god becomes as we are1 that we may become as he is4' ,in the same year1 probably1 was engraved ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 a prose fantasy full of splendid masculine thought1 and of a diabolical or infernal humour1 in which ,blake1 with extraordinary boldness1 glorifies1 parodies1 and renounces at once the gospel of his first master in mysticism1 ',swedenborg1 strongest of men1 the ,samson shorn by the ,churches1' as he was to call him long afterwards1 in ,milton4 ,blake's attitude towards ,christianity might be roughly defined by calling him a heretic of the heresy of ,swedenborg4 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell begins3 ',as a new heaven is begun1 and it is now thirty-three years since its advent1 the ,eternal ,hell revives4 ,and lo6 ,swedenborg is the ,angel sitting on the tomb3 his writings are the linen clothes folded up4' ,swedenborg himself1 in a prophecy that ,blake must have heard in his childhood1 had named #ageg1 the year of ,blake's birth1 as the first of a new dispensation1 the dispensation of the spirit1 and ,blake's acceptance of the prophecy marks the date of his escape from the too close influence of one of whom he said1 as late as #ahbe1 ',swedenborg was a divine teacher4 ,yet he was wrong in endeavoring to explain to the rational faculty what reason cannot comprehend4' ,and so we are warned1 in ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 against the 'confident insolence sprouting from systematic reasoning4 ,thus ,swedenborg boasts that what he writes is new1 though it is only the contents or index of already published books4' ,and again3 ',any man of mechanical talents may from the writings of ,paracelsus or ,jacob ,behmen produce ten thousand volumes of equal value with ,swedenborg's1 and from those of ,dante or ,shakespeare an infinite number4 ,but when he has done this1 let him not say that he knows better than his master1 for he only holds a candle in sunshine4' ,with ,paracelsus it is doubtful if ,blake was ever more than slightly acquainted2 the influence of ,behmen1 whom he had certainly read in ,william ,law's translation1 is difficult to define1 and seems to have been of the most accidental or partial kind1 but ,swedenborg had been a sort of second ,bible to him from childhood1 and the influence even of his 'systematic reasoning' remained with him as at least a sort of groundwork1 or despised model2 'foundations for grand things1' as he says in the ,descriptive ,catalogue4 ,when ,swedenborg says1 ',hell is divided into societies in the same manner as heaven1 and also into as many societies as heaven2 for every society in heaven has a society opposite to it in hell1 and this for the sake of equilibrium1' we see in this spirit of meek order a matter-of-fact suggestion for ,blake's 'enormous wonders of the abysses1' in which heavens and hells change names and alternate through mutual annihilations4 ,the last note which ,blake wrote on the margins of ,swedenborg's ,wisdom of ,angels is this3 ',heaven and ,hell are born together4' ,the edition which he annotated is that of #aghh1 and the marginalia1 which are printed in ,mr4 ,ellis's ,real ,blake1 will show how attentive1 as late as two years before the writing of the book which that note seems to anticipate1 ,blake had been to every shade of meaning in one whom he was to deny with such bitter mockery4 ,but1 even in these notes1 ,blake is attentive to one thing only1 he is reaching after a confirmation of his own sense of a spiritual language in which man can converse with paradise and render the thoughts of angels4 ,he comments on nothing else1 he seems to read only to confirm his conviction2 he is equally indifferent to ,swedenborg's theology and to his concern with material things2 his hells and heavens1 'uses1' and 'spiritual suns1' concern him only in so far as they help to make clearer and more precise his notion of the powers and activities of the spirit in man4 ,to ,blake1 as he shows us in ,milton1 ,swedenborg's worst error was not even that of 'systematic reasoning1' but that of3 ',showing the ,transgressors in ,hell3 the proud ,warriors in ,heaven3 ,heaven as a ,punisher and ,hell as one under ,punishment4' ,it is for this more than for any other error that ,swedenborgs 'memorable relations' are tossed back to him as 'memorable fancies1' in a solemn parody of his own manner2 that his mill and vault and cave are taken from him and used against him2 and that one once conversant with his heaven1 and now weary of it1 'walks among the fires of hell1 delighted with the enjoyments of ,genius1 which to ,angels look like torments and insanity4' ,blake shows us the energy of virtue breaking the ,ten ,commandments1 and declares3 ',jesus was all virtue1 and acted from impulse1 not from rules4' ,speaking through 'the voice of the ,devil1' he proclaims that ',energy is eternal delight1' and that ',everything that lives is holy4' ,and1 in a last flaming paradox1 still mocking the manner of the analyst of heaven and hell1 he bids us3 ',note4 ,this ,angel1 who is now become a ,devil1 is my particular friend3 we often read the ,bible together1 in its infernal or diabolical sense1 which the world shall have if they behave well4 ,i have also the ,bible of ,hell1 which the world shall have whether they will or no4' ,the ,bible of ,hell is no doubt the ,bible of ,blake's new gospel1 in which contraries are equally true4 ,we may piece it together out of many fragments1 of which the first perhaps is the sentence standing by itself at the bottom of the page3 ',one ,law for the ,lion and ,ox is ,oppression4' ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell is loud with 'the clangor of the ,arrows of ,intellect1' each of the ',proverbs of ,hell' is a jewel of concentrated wisdom1 the whole book is ,blake's clearest and most vital statement of his new1 his reawakened belief2 it contains1 as ,i have intimated1 all ,nietzsche2 yet something restless1 disturbed1 uncouth1 has come violently into this mind and art1 wrenching it beyond all known limits1 or setting alight in it an illuminating1 devouring1 and unquenchable flame4 ,in common with ,swedenborg1 ,blake is a mystic who enters into no tradition1 such as that tradition of the ,catholic ,church which has a liturgy awaiting dreams4 ,for ,saint ,john of the ,cross and for ,saint ,teresa the words of the vision are already there1 perfectly translating ecstasy into familiar speech2 they have but to look and to speak4 ,but to ,blake1 as to ,swedenborg1 no tradition is sufficiently a matter of literal belief to be at hand with its forms2 new forms have to be made1 and something of the crudity of ,swedenborg comes over him in his rejection of the compromise of mortal imagery4 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell may be called or not called a ,prophetic ,book1 in the strict sense2 with ,the ,visions of the ,daughters of ,albion1 engraved at ,lambeth in #agic1 the series perhaps more literally begins4 ,here the fine masculine prose of ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell has given place to a metre vaguer than the metre of ,the ,book of ,thel1 and to a substance from which the savor has not yet gone of the ,songs of ,innocence1 in such lines as3 ',the new washed lamb tinged with the village smoke1 and the bright swan ,by the red earth of our immortal river4' ,it is ,blake's book of love1 and it defends the honesty of the natural passions with unslackenning ardor4 ,there is no mythology in it1 beyond a name or two1 easily explicable4 ,oothoon1 the virgin joy1 oppressed by laws and cruelties of restraint and jealousy1 vindicates her right to the freedom of innocence and to the instincts of infancy4 ',and trees and birds and beasts and men behold their eternal joy4 ,arise1 you little glancing wings1 and sing your infant joy3 ,arise1 and drink your bliss1 for everything that lives is holy6' ,it is the gospel of ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 and1 as that proclaimed liberty for the mind1 so this1 with abundant rhetoric1 but with vehement conviction1 proclaims liberty for the body4 ,in form it is still clear1 its eloquence and imagery are partly biblical1 and have little suggestion of the manner of the later ,prophetic ,books4 ,america1 written in the same year1 in the same measure as the ,visions of the ,daughters of ,albion1 is the most vehement1 wild1 and whirling of all ,blake's prophecies4 ,it is a prophecy of revolution1 and it takes the revolt of ,america against ,england both literally and symbolically1 with names of ',washington1 ,franklin1 ,paine and ,warren1 ,gates1 ,hancock and ,green1' side by side with ,orc and the ,angel of ,albion2 it preaches every form of bodily and spiritual liberty in the terms of contemporary events1 ,boston's ,angel1 ,london's ,guardian1 and the like1 in the midst of cataclysms of all nature1 fires and thunders temporal and eternal4 ,the world for a time is given into the power of ,orc1 unrestrained desire1 which is to bring freedom through revolution and the destroying of the bonds of good and evil4 ,he is called ',antichrist1 ,hater of ,dignities1 lover of wild rebellion1 and transgressor of ,god's ,law4' ,he is the ,satan of ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 and he also proclaims3 ',for everything that lives is holy1 life delights in life2 ,because the soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd4' ,as1 in that book1 ,blake had seen 'the fiery limbs1 the flaming hair' of the son of fire 'spurning the clouds written with curses1 stamping the stony law to dust'2 so1 here1 he hears the voice of ,orc proclaiming3 ',the fierce joy1 that ,urizen perverted to ten commands1 ,what night he led the starry hosts through the wild wilderness2 ,that stony law ,i stamp to dust3 and scatter religion abroad ,to the four winds as a torn book1 and none shall gather the leaves4' ,liberty comes in like a flood bursting all barriers3 ',the doors of marriage are open1 and the ,priests in rustling scales ,rush into reptile coverts1 hiding from the fires of ,orc1 ,that play around the golden roofs in wreaths of fierce desire1 ,leaving the females naked and glowing with the lusts of youth4 ,for the female spirits of the dead pining in bonds of religion ,run from their fetters reddening1 and in long-drawn arches sitting1 ,they feel the nerves of youth renew1 and desires of ancient times1 ,over their pale limbs as a vine when the tender grape appears4' ,the world1 in this regeneration through revolution 7which seemed to ,blake1 no doubt1 a thing close at hand1 in those days when ,france and ,america seemed to be breaking down the old tyrannies71 is to be no longer a world laid out by convention for the untrustworthy2 and he asks3 ',who commanded this8 what ,god8 what ,angel8 ,to keep the generous from experience till the ungenerous ,are unrestrained performers of the energies of nature1 ,till pity is become a trade1 and generosity a science ,that men get rich by4' ,for twelve years1 from the ,american to the ,french revolution1 ',angels and weak men' are to govern the strong1 and then ,europe is to be overwhelmed by the fire that had broken out in the ,west1 though the ancient guardians of the five senses 'slow advance to shut the five gates of their law-built houses4' ',but the gates were consumed1 and their bolts and hinges melted1 ,and the fierce flames burnt round the heavens1 and round the abode of men4' ,here the myth1 though it is present throughout1 is an undercurrent1 and the crying of the message is what is chiefly heard4 ,in ,europe 7#agid71 which is written in lines broken up into frequent but not very significant irregularities1 short lines alternating with long ones1 in the manner of an irregular ode1 the mythology is like a net or spiders web over the whole text4 ,names not used elsewhere1 or not in the same form1 are found3 ,manatha-,varcyon1 ,thiralatha1 who in ,europe is ,diralada4 ,the whole poem is an allegory of the sleep of ,nature during the eighteen hundred years of the ,christian era1 under bonds of narrow religions and barren moralities and tyrannous laws1 and of the awakening to forgotten joy1 when ',nature felt through all her pores the enormous revelry1' and the fiery spirit of ,ore1 beholding the morning in the east1 shot to the earth3 ',and in the vineyards of red ,france appear'd the light of his fury4' ,it is another hymn of revolution1 but this time an awakening more wholly mental1 with only occasional contemporary allusions like that of the judge in ,westminster whose wig grows to his scalp1 and who is seen 'groveling along ,great ,george ,street through the ,park gate4' ',howlings and hissings1 shrieks and groans1 and voices of despair1' are heard throughout2 we see thought change the infinite to a serpent3 ',then was the serpent temple formed1 image of infinite ,shut up in finite revolutions1 and man become an angel2 ,heaven a mighty circle turning2 ,god a tyrant crown'd4' ,the serpent temple shadows the whole island3 ',enitharmon laugh'd in her sleep to see 7,o woman's triumph7 ,every house a den1 every man bound3 the shadows are filled ,with spectres1 and the windows wove over with curses of iron3 ,over the doors ,thou shalt not3 and over the chimneys ,fear is written3 ,with bands of iron round their necks fasten'd into the walls ,the citizens3 in leaden gyves the inhabitants of suburbs ,walk heavy3 soft and bent are the bones of villagers4' ,the whole book is a lament and protest1 and it ends with a call to spiritual battle4 ,in a gay and nave prologue1 written by ,blake in a copy of ,europe in the possession of ,mr4 ,linnell1 and quoted by ,ellis and ,yeats1 ,blake tells us that he caught a fairy on a streaked tulip1 and brought him home3 ',as we went along ,wild flowers ,i gathered1 and he show'd me each eternal flower4 ,he laughed aloud to see them whimper because they were pluck'd1 ,then hover'd round me like a cloud of incense4 ,when ,i came ,into my parlour and sat down and took my pen to write1 ,my fairy sat upon the table and dictated ,europe4 ,the ,first ,book of ,urizen 7#agid7 is a myth1 shadowed in dark symbols1 of the creation of mortal life and its severing from eternity2 the birth of ,time out of the void and self-contemplating shadow' of unimaginative ,reason2 the creation of the senses1 each a limiting of eternity1 and the closing of the tent of heavenly knowledge1 so that ,time and the creatures of ,time behold eternity no more4 ,we see the birth of ,pity and of ,desire1 woman the shadow and desire the child of man4 ,reason despairs as it realizes that life lives upon death1 and the cold pity of its despair forms into a chill shadow1 which follows it like a spider's web1 and freezes into the net of religion1 or the restraint of the activities4 ,under this net the senses shrink inwards1 and that creation which is 'the body of our death' and our stationing in time and space is finished3 ',six days they shrank up from existence1 ,and on the seventh they rested ,and they bless'd the seventh day1 in sick hope1 ,and forgot their eternal life4' ,then the children of reason1 now 'sons and daughters of sorrow1' ',wept and built ,tombs in the desolate places1 ,and form'd laws of prudence and call'd them ,the eternal laws of ,god4' ,but ,fuzon1 the spirit of fire1 forsook the 'pendulous earth' with those children of ,urizen who would still follow him4 ,here1 crystallized in the form of a myth1 we see many of ,blake's fundamental ideas4 ,some of them we have seen under other forms1 as statement rather than as image1 in ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell and ,there is no ,natural ,religion4 ,we shall see them again1 developed1 elaborated1 branching out into infinite side-issues1 multiplying upon themselves1 in the later ,prophetic ,books1 partly as myth1 partly as statement2 we shall see them in many of the lyrical poems1 transformed into song1 but still never varying in their message2 and we shall see them1 in the polemical prose of all the remaining fragments1 and in the private letters1 and in the annotations of ,swedenborg1 and in ,crabb ,robinson's records of conversations4 ,the ,book of ,urizen is a sort of nucleus1 the germ of a system4 ,next to the ,book of ,urizen1 if we may judge from the manner of its engraving1 came ,the ,song of ,los 7#agie71 written in a manner of vivid declamation1 the lines now lengthening1 now shrinking1 without fixed beat or measure4 ,it is the song of ,time1 'the ,eternal ,prophet1' and tells the course of inspiration as it passes from east to west1 'abstract philosophy' in ,brahma1 'forms of dark delusion' to ,moses on ,mount ,sinai1 the mount of law2 'a gospel from wretched ,theotormon' 7distressed human love and pity7 to ,jesus1 'a man of sorrows'2 the 'loose ,bible' of ,mahomet1 setting free the senses1',odin's 'code of war4' ',these were the ,churches1 ,hospitals1 ,castles1 ,palaces1 ,like nets and gins and traps to catch the joys of ,eternity1 ,and all the rest a desart3 ,till like a dream ,eternity was obliterated and erased4' ',the vast of ,nature' shrinks up before the 'shrunken eyes' of men1 till it is finally enclosed in the 'philosophy of the five senses1' the philosophy of ,newton and ,locke4 ',the ,kings of ,asia1' the cruelties of the heathen1 the ancient powers of evil1 call on 'famine from the heath1 pestilence from the fen3' ',to turn man from his path1 ,to restrain the child from the womb1 ,to cut off the bread from the city1 ,that the remnant may learn to obey1 ,that the pride of the heart may fail1 ,that the lust of the eyes may be quench'd1 ,that the delicate ear in its infancy ,may be dull'd1 and the nostrils clos'd up3 ,to teach mortal worms the path ,that leads from the gates of the grave4' ,but1 in the darkness of their 'ancient woven dens1' they are startled by 'the thick-flaming1 thought-creating fires of ,orc'2 and at their cry ,urizen comes forth to meet and challenge the liberating spirit2 he thunders against the pillar of fire that rises out of the darkness of ,europe2 and at the clash of their mutual onset 'the ,grave shrieks aloud4' ,but ',urizen wept1' the cold pity of reason which1 as we have seen in the book named after him1 freezes into nets of religion1 'twisted like to the human brain4' ,the ,book of ,los 7also dated #agie7 is written in the short lines of ,urizen and ,ahania1 a metre following a fixed1 insistent beat1 as of ,los's hammer on his anvil4 ,it begins with the lament of ',eno1 aged ,mother1' over the liberty of old times3 ',o ,times remote6 ,when ,love and ,joy were adoration1 ,and none impure were deem'd4 ,not ,eyeless ,covet1 ,nor ,thin-lip'd ,envy1 ,nor ,bristled ,wrath1 ,nor ,curled ,wantonness2' ,none of these1 that is1 yet turned to evil1 but still unfallen energies4 ,at this1 flames of desire break out1 'living1 intelligent1' and ,los1 the spirit of ,inspiration1 divides the flames1 freezes them into solid darkness1 and is imprisoned by them1 and escapes1 only in terror1 and falls through ages into the void 7',truth has bounds1 ,error none'71 until he has organized the void and brought into it a light which makes visible the form of the void4 ,he sees it as the backbone of ,urizen1 the bony outlines of reason1 and then begins1 for the first time in the ,prophetic ,books1 that building of furnaces1 and wielding of hammer and anvil of which we are to hear so much in ,jerusalem4 ,he forges the sun1 and chains cold intellect to vital heat1 from whose torments3 ',a twin ,was completed1 a ,human ,illusion ,in darkness and deep clouds involved4' ,in ,the ,book of ,los almost all relationship to poetry has vanished2 the myth is cloudier and more abstract4 ,scarcely less so is ,the ,book of ,ahania 7#agie71 written in the same short lines1 hut in a manner occasionally more concrete and realizable4 ,like ,urizen1 it is almost all myth4 ,it follows ,fuzon1 'son of ,urizen's silent burnings1' in his fiery revolt against3 ',this cloudy ,god seated on waters1 ,now seen1 now obscured1 king of ,sorrows4' ,from the stricken and divided ,urizen is born ,ahania 7'so name his parted soul'71 who is 'his invisible lust1' whom he loves1 hides1 and calls ,sin4 ',she fell down1 a faint shadow wandering1 ,in chaos1 and circling dark ,urizen1 ,as the moon anguished circles the earth1 ,hopeless1 abhorred1 a death shadow1 ,unseen1 unbodied1 unknown1 ,the mother of ,pestilence4' ,but ,urizen1 recovering his strength1 seizes the bright son of fire1 his energy or passion1 and nails him to the dark 'religious' ',tree of ,mystery1' from under whose shade comes the voice of ,ahania1 'weeping upon the void1' lamenting her lost joys of love1 and the days when3 ',swelled with ripeness and fat with fatness1 ,bursting on winds my odours1 ,my ripe figs and rich pomegranates1 ,in infant joy at my feet1 ,o ,urizen1 sported and sang4' ,in ,the ,four ,zoas ,ahania is called 'the feminine indolent bliss1 the indulgent self of weariness4' ',one final glimpse1' says ,mr4 ,swinburne1 'we may take of ,ahania after her division--the love of ,god1 as it were1 parted from ,god1 impotent therefore and a shadow1 if not rather a plague and blight2 mercy severed from justice1 and thus made a worse thing than useless4' ,and her lament ends in this despair3 ',but now alone over rocks1 mountains1 ,cast out from thy lovely bosom ,cruel jealousy1 selfish fear1 ,self-destroying2 how can delight ,renew in these chains of darkness ,where bones of beasts are strown ,on the bleak and snowy mountains1 ,where bones from the birth are buried ,before they see the light4' ,the mythology1 of which parts are developed in each of these books1 is thrown together1 in something more approaching a whole1 hut without apparent cohesion or consistency1 in ,the ,four ,zoas1 which probably dates from #agig and which exists in seventy sheets of manuscript1 of uncertain order1 almost certainly in an unfinished state1 perhaps never intended for publication1 but rather as a storehouse of ideas4 ,this manuscript1 much altered1 arranged in a conjectural order1 and printed with extreme incorrectness1 was published by ,messrs4 ,ellis and ,yeats in the third volume of their book on ,blake1 under the first1 rejected1 title of ,vala4#c ,they describe it as being in itself a sort of compound of all ,blake's other books1 except ,milton and ,jerusalem1 which are enriched by scraps taken from ,vala1 but are not summarized in it4 ,in the uncertain state in which we have it1 it is impossible to take it as a wholly authentic text2 but it is both full of incidental beauty and of considerable assistance in unravelling many of the mysteries in ,milton and ,jerusalem1 the books written at ,felpham1 both dated #ahjd1 in which we find the final development of the myth1 or as much of that final development as has come to us in the absence of the manuscripts destroyed or disposed of by ,tatham4 ,those two books indeed seem to presuppose in their readers an acquaintance with many matters told or explained in this1 from which passages are taken bodily1 but with little apparent method4 ,as it stands1 ,vala is much more of a poem than either ,milton or ,jerusalem2 the cipher comes in at times1 but between there are broad spaces of cloudy but not wholly unlighted imagery4 ,blake still remembers that he is writing a poem1 earthly beauty is still divine beauty to him1 and the message is not yet so stringent as to forbid all lingering by the way4 ,in some parts of the poem the manner is frankly biblical1 and suggests the book of ,proverbs1 as thus3 ',what is the price of experience8 ,do men buy it for a song1 ,or wisdom for a dance in the street8 ,no1 it is bought with the price ,of all that a man hath--his wife1 his house1 his children4 ,wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none comes to buy1 ,and in the withered fields where the farmer ploughs for bread in vain4' ,nature is still an image accepted as an adequate symbol1 and we get reminiscences here and there of the simpler1 early work of ,thel1 for instance1 in such lines as3 ',and as the little seed waits eagerly watching for its flower and fruit1 ,anxious its little soul looks out into the clear expanse ,to see if hungry winds are abroad with their invisible array2 ,so man looks out in tree and herb1 and fish and bird and beast1 ,collecting up the scattered portions of his immortal body ,into the elemental forms of everything that grows4' ,there are descriptions of feasts1 of flames1 of last judgments1 of the new ,eden1 which are full of color and splendor1 passing without warning into the 'material sublime' of ,fuseli1 as in the picture of ,urizen 'stonied upon his throne' in the eighth ',night4' ,in the passages which we possess in the earlier and later version we see the myth of ,blake gradually crystallizing1 the transposition of every intelligible symbol into the secret cipher4 ,thus we find ',mount ,gilead' changed into ',mount ,snowdon1' ',beth ,peor' into ',cosway ,vale1' and a plain image such as this3 ',the ,mountain called out to the ,mountain1 ,awake1 oh brother ,mountain1' ,is translated backwards into3 ',ephraim called out to ,tiriel1 ,awake1 oh brother ,mountain4' ,images everywhere are seen freezing into types2 they stop half-way1 and have not yet abandoned the obscure poetry of the earlier ,prophetic ,books for the harder algebra of ,milton and ,jerusalem4 ,,vi ,the first statement by ,blake of his aims and principles in art is to be found in some letters to ,george ,cumberland and to ,dr4 ,trusler1 contained in the ,cumberland ,papers in the ,british ,museum4 ,these letters were first printed by ,dr4 ,garnett in the ,hampstead ,annual of #aijc1 but with many mistakes and omissions4#d ,i have recopied from the originals the text of such letters as ,i quote4 ,it appears that in the year #agii ,blake undertook1 at the suggestion of ,cumberland1 to do some drawings for a book by ,dr4 ,trusler1 a sort of quack writer and publisher1 who may be perhaps sufficiently defined by the quotation of the title of one of his books1 which is ,the ,way to be ,rich and ,respectable4 ,on ,august #af1 ,blake writes to say3 ',i find more and more that my ,style of ,designing is a ,species by itself1 and in this which ,i send you have been compelled by my ,genius or ,angel to follow where he led2 if ,i were to act otherwise it would not fulfill the purpose for which alone ,i live1 which is in conjunction with such men as my friend ,cumberland to renew the lost ,art of the ,greeks4' ,he tells him that he has attempted to 'follow his ,dictate' every morning for a fortnight1 but 'it was out of my power6' ,he then describes what he has done1 and says3 ',if you approve of my manner1 and it is agreeable to you1 ,i would rather ,paint ,pictures in oil of the same dimensions than make ,drawings1 and on the same terms4 ,by this means you will have a number of ,cabinet pictures1 which ,i flatter myself will not be unworthy of a ,scholar of ,rembrandt and ,teniers1 whom ,i have ,studied no less than ,rafael and ,michaelangelo4' ,the next letter1 which ,i will give in full1 for it is a document of great importance1 is dated a week later1 and the nature of the reply which it answers can be gathered from ,blake's comment on the matter to ,cumberland1 three days later still4 ',i have made him1' he says1 'a ,drawing in my best manner3 he has sent it back with a ,letter full of ,criticisms1 in which he says ,it accords not with his ,intentions1 which are1 to ,reject all ,fancy from his ,work4 ,how far he expects to please1 ,i cannot tell4 ,but as ,i cannot paint ,dirty rags and old ,shoes where ,i ought to place ,naked ,beauty or simple ornament1 ,i despair of ever pleasing one ,class of ,men4' ',i could not help smiling1' he says later1 'at the difference between the doctrines of ,dr4 ,trusler and those of ,christ4' ,here1 then1 is the letter in which ,blake accounts for himself to the quack doctor 7who has docketed it3 ',blake1 ,dimd with superstition'71 as if to posterity3-- ,,revd4 ,,sir1 ,i really am sorry that you are fallen out with the ,spiritual ,world1 ,especially if ,i should have to answer for it4 ,i feel very sorry that your ,ideas and ,mine on ,moral ,painting differ so much as to have made you angry with my method of study4 ,if ,i am wrong ,i am wrong in good company4 ,i had hoped your plan comprehended ,all ,species of this ,art1 and ,especially that you would not regret that ,species which gives ,existence to ,every other1 namely1 ,visions of ,eternity4 ,you say that ,i want somebody to ,elucidate my ,ideas4 ,but you ought to know that what is ,grand is necessarily obscure to ,weak men4 ,that which can be made ,explicit to the ,ideot is not worth my care4 ,the wisest of the ,ancients considered what is not too ,explicit as the fittest for ,instruction1 because it rouses the faculties to act4 ,i name ,moses1 ,solomon1 ,esop1 ,homer1 ,plato4 ,but as you have favored me with your remarks on my ,design1 permit me in return to defend it against a mistaken one1 which is1 ,that ,i have supposed ,malevolence without a ,cause4 ,is not ,merit in one a ,cause of ,envy in another1 and ,serenity and ,happiness and ,beauty a ,cause of ,malevolence8 ,but ,want of ,money and the ,distress of a ,thief can never be alleged as the ,cause of his ,thievery1 for many honest people endure greater hardships with ,fortitude4 ,we must therefore seek the ,cause elsewhere than in the want of ,money1 for that is the ,miser's passion1 not the ,thief's4 ,i have therefore proved your ,reasonings ,i'll proportioned1 which you can never prove my figures to be4 ,they are those of ,michael ,angelo1 ,rafael and the ,antique1 and of the best living ,models4 ,i perceive that your ,eye is perverted by ,caricature ,prints1 which ought not to abound so much as they do4 ,fun ,i love1 but too much ,fun is of all things the most loathsome4 ,mirth is better than ,fun1 and ,happiness is better than ,mirth4 ,i feel that a ,man may be happy in ,this ,world1 and ,i know that ,this ,world is a ,world of ,imagination and ,vision4 ,i see ,everything ,i paint ,in ,this ,world3 but ,every body does not see alike4 ,to the ,eyes of a ,miser a ,guinea is more beautiful than the ,sun1 and a bag worn with the use of ,money has more beautiful proportions than a ,vine filled with ,grapes4 ,the tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the ,eyes of others only a ,green thing that stands in the way4 ,some see ,nature all ,ridicule and ,deformity1 and by these ,i shall not regulate my proportions2 and some scarce see ,nature at all4 ,but to the ,eyes of the ,man of ,imagination1 ,nature is ,imagination itself4 ,as a ,man is1 so he sees4 ,as the ,eye is formed1 such are its ,powers4 ,you certainly ,mistake when you say that the ,visions of ,fancy are not to be found in ,this ,world4 ,to ,me ,this ,world is all ,one continued ,vision of ,fancy or ,imagination1 and ,i feel ,flattered when ,i am told so4 ,what is it sets ,homer1 ,virgil1 and ,milton in so high a rank of ,art8 ,why is the ,bible more ,entertaining and ,instructive than any other book8 ,is it not because they are addressed to the ,imagination1 which is ,spiritual ,sensation1 and but mediately to the ,understanding or ,reason8 ,such is ,true ,painting1 and such was alone valued by the ,greeks and the best modern ,artists4 ,consider what ,lord ,bacon says--',sense sends over to ,imagination before ,reason have judged1 and ,reason sends over to ,imagination before the ,decree can be acted4' ,see ,advancement of ,learning1 ,part #b1 ,p4 #dg1 of first ,edition4 ,but ,i am happy to find a ,great ,majority of ,fellow ,mortals who can ,elucidate ,my ,visions1 and ,particularly they have been ,elucidated by ,children1 who have taken a greater delight in contemplating my ,pictures than ,i even hoped4 ,neither ,youth nor ,childhood is ,folly or ,incapacity4 ,some ,children are ,fools1 and so are some old ,men4 ,but ,there is a vast ,majority on the side of ,imagination or ,spiritual ,sensation4 ,to ,engrave after another ,painter is infinitely more laborious than to ,engrave one's own ,inventions4 ,and of the size you require my price has been ,thirty ,guineas1 and ,i cannot afford to do it for less4 ,i had ,twelve for the ,head ,i sent you as a ,specimen2 but after my own designs ,i could do at least ,six times the quantity of labour in the same time1 which will account for the difference in price1 as also that ,chalk ,engraving is at least ,six times as laborious as ,aqua tinta4 ,i have no objection to ,engraving after another ,artist4 ,engraving is the profession ,i was apprenticed to1 and ,i should never have attempted to live by any thing else ,if orders had not come in for my ,designs and ,paintings1 which ,i have the pleasure to tell you are ,increasing ,every ,day4 ,thus ,if ,i am a ,painter it is not to be attributed to ,seeking after4 ,but ,i am contented whether ,i live by ,painting or ,engraving4 ,i am1 ,revd4 ,sir1 your very obedient ,servant1 ,,william ,,blake4 #ac ,hercules ,buildings1 ,lambeth1 ,august #bc1 #agii4 ,blake tells ,cumberland the whole story quite cheerfully1 and ends with these significant words1 full of patience1 courtesy1 and sad humour3 ',as to ,myself1 about whom you are so kindly ,interested1 ,i live by ,miracle4 ,i am ,painting small ,pictures from the ,bible4 ,for as to ,engraving1 in which art ,i cannot reproach myself with any neglect1 yet ,i am laid by in a corner as if ,i did not exist1 and since my ,youngs ,night ,thoughts have been published1 even ,johnson and ,fuseli have discarded my ,graver4 ,but as ,i know that ,he who works and has his health cannot starve1 ,i laugh at ,fortune and ,go on and on4 ,i think ,i foresee better ,things than ,i have ever seen4 ,my ,work pleases my employer1 and ,i have an order for ,fifty small ,pictures at ,one ,guinea each1 which is something better than mere copying after another artist4 ,but above all ,i feel myself happy and contented1 let what will come4 ,having passed now near twenty years in ups and downs1 ,i am used to them1 and perhaps a little practice in them may turn out to benefit4 ,it is now exactly ,twenty years since ,i was upon the ocean of business1 and tho ,i laugh at ,fortune1 ,i am persuaded that ,she ,alone is the ,governor of ,worldly ,riches1 and when it is ,fit ,she will call on me4 ,till then ,i wait with ,patience1 in hopes that ,she is busied among my ,friends4' ,the employer is1 no doubt1 ,mr4 ,butts1 for whom ,blake had already begun to work3 we know some of the 'frescoes' and color-prints which belong to this time2 among them1 or only just after1 the incomparable ',crucifixion1' in which the soldiers cast lots in the foreground and the crosses are seen from the back1 against a stormy sky and lances like ,tintoretto's4 ,but it was also the time of all but the latest ,prophetic ,books 7or of all but the latest of those left to us71 and we may pause here for a moment to consider some of the qualities that ,blake was by this time fully displaying in his linear and colored inventions and ',visions of ,eternity4' ,it is by his energy and nobility of creation that ,blake takes rank among great artists1 in a place apart from those who have been content to study1 to observe1 and to copy4 ,his invention of living form is like nature's1 unintermittent1 but without the measure and order of nature1 and without complete command over the material out of which it creates4 ,in his youth he had sought after prints of such inventive work as especially appealed to him1 ,michelangelo1 ,raphael1 ,drer2 it is possible that1 having had 'very early in life the ordinary opportunities1' as ,dr4 ,malkin puts it1 'of seeing pictures in the houses of noblemen and gentlemen1 and in the king's palaces1' he had seen either pictures1 or prints after pictures1 of the ,italian ,primitives1 whose attitudes and composition he at times suggests2 and1 to the end1 he worked with ,drer's ',melancholia' on his work-table and ,michelangelo's designs on his walls4 ,it not infrequently happened that a memory of form created by one of these great draughtsmen presented itself as a sort of short cut to the statement of the form which he was seeing or creating in his own imagination4 ,a ,devil's ,advocate has pointed out 'plagiarisms' in ,blake's design1 and would dismiss in consequence his reputation for originality4 ,blake had not sufficient mastery of technique to be always wholly original in design2 and it is to his dependence on a technique not as flexible as his imagination was intense that we must attribute what is unsatisfying in such remarkable inventions as ',the ,house of ,death' 7,milton's lazar-house7 in the ,print ,doom of the ,british ,museum4 ,its appeal to the imagination is partly in spite of what is 'organized and minutely articulated beyond all that the mortal and perishing nature can produce4' ,death is a version of the ,ancient of ,days and of ,urizen1 only his eyes are turned to blind terror and his beard to forked flame2 ,despair1 a statue of greenish bronze1 is the ,scofield of ,jerusalem2 the limbs and faces rigid with agony are types of strength and symbols of pain4 ,yet even here there is creation1 there is the energy of life1 there is a spiritual awe4 ,and wherever ,blake works freely1 as in the regions of the ,prophetic ,books1 wholly outside time and space1 appropriate form multiplies under his creating hand1 as it weaves a new creation of worlds and of spirits1 monstrous and angelical4 ,blake distinguished1 as all great imaginative artists have distinguished1 between allegory1 which is but realism's excuse for existence1 and symbol1 which is none of the 'daughters of ,memory1' but itself vision or inspiration4 ,he wrote in the ,,ms4 book3 ',vision or imagination is a representation of what actually exists1 really and unchangeably4 ,fable or allegory is formed by the daughters of ,memory4' ,and thus in the designs which accompany the text of his ,prophetic ,books there is rarely the mere illustration of those pages4 ,he does not copy in line what he has said in words1 or explain in words what he has rendered in line2 a creation probably contemporary is going on1 and words and lines render between them1 the one to the eyes1 the other to the mind1 the same image of spiritual things1 apprehended by different organs of perception4 ,and so in his pictures1 what he gives us is not a picture after a mental idea2 it is the literal delineation of an imaginative vision1 of a conception of the imagination4 ,he wrote3 ',if you have not nature before you for every touch1 you cannot paint portrait2 and if you have nature before you at all1 you cannot paint history4' ,there is a water-color of ,christ in the carpenter's shop3 ,christ1 a child1 sets to the floor that compass which ,blake saw more often in the hands of ,god the ,father1 stooping out of heaven2 his mother and ,joseph stand on each side of him1 leaning towards him with the stiff elegance of guardian angels on a tomb4 ,that is how ,blake sees it1 and not with the minute detail and the aim at local color with which the ,pre-,raphaelites have seen it2 it is not ,holman ,hunt's ',bethlehem' nor the little ,italian town of ,giotto2 it is rendered carefully after the visual imagination which the verses of the ,bible awakened in his brain4 ,in one of those variations which he did on the ',flight into ,egypt' 7the ',riposo1' as he called it71 we have a lovely and surprising invention of landscape1 minute and impossible1 with a tree built up like a huge vegetable1 and flowers growing out of the bare rock1 and a red and flattened sun going down behind the hills2 ,joseph stands under the tree1 nearly of the same height1 but grave and kindly1 and the ,mother and ,child are mild eighteenth-century types of innocence2 the browsing donkey has an engaging rough homeliness of hide and aspect4 ,it is all as unreal as you like1 made up of elements not combined into any faultless pattern2 art has gone back further than ,giotto1 and is careless of human individuality2 but it is seen as it were with faith1 and it conveys to you precisely what the painter meant to convey4 ,so1 in a lovely water-color of the creation of ,eve1 this blue-haired doll of obviously rounded flesh has in her something which is more as well as less than the appeal of bodily beauty1 some suggestion to the imagination which the actual technical skill of ,blake has put there4 ,with less delicacy of color1 and with drawing in parts actually misleading1 there is a strange intensity of appeal1 of realization not so much to the eyes as through them to the imagination1 in another water-color of the raising of ,lazarus1 where the corpse swathed in grave-clothes floats sidelong upward from the grave1 the weight of mortality as if taken off1 and an unearthly lightness in its disimprisoned limbs1 that have forgotten the laws of mortal gravity4 ,yet1 even in these renderings of what is certainly not meant for reality1 how abundantly nature comes into the design3 mere bright parrot-like birds in the branches of the tree of knowledge of good and evil1 the donkey of the ',riposo1' the sheep's heads woven into the almost decorative border4 ,blake was constantly on his guard against the deceits of nature1 the temptation of a 'facsimile representation of merely mortal and perishing substances4' ,his dread of nature was partly the recoil of his love2 he feared to be entangled in the 'veils of ,vala1' the seductive sights of the world of the senses2 and his love of natural things is evident on every page of even the latest of the ,prophetic ,books4 ,it is the natural world1 the idols of ,satan1 that creep in at every corner and border1 setting flowers to grow1 and birds to fly1 and snakes to glide harmlessly around the edges of these hard and impenetrable pages4 ,the minute life of this 'vegetable world' is awake and in subtle motion in the midst of these cold abstractions4 ',the ,vegetable ,world opens like a flower from the ,earth's centre1 in which is ,eternity1' and it is this outward flowering of eternity in the delicate living forms of time that goes on incessantly1 as if by the mere accident of the creative impulse1 as ,blake or ,los builds ,golgonooza or the ,city of ,god out of the 'abstract void' and the 'indefiniteness of unimaginative existence4' ,it is1 on every page1 the visible outer part of what1 in the words1 can hut speak a language not even meant to be the language of the 'natural man4' ,in these symbolic notations of nature1 or double language of words and signs1 these little figures of men and beasts that so strangely and incalculably decorate so many of ,blake's pages1 there is something ,egyptian1 which reminds me of those lovely riddles on papyri and funeral tablets1 where the images of real things are used so decoratively1 in the midst of a language itself all pictures1 with colours never seen in the things themselves1 but given to them for ornament4 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell is filled with what seem like the hieroglyphics on an ,egyptian tomb or obelisk1 little images which might well mean things as definite as the images of ,egyptian writing4 ,they are still visible1 sometimes mere curves or twines1 in the latest of the engraved work1 and might exist equally for some symbolic life which they contain1 or for that decorative life of design which makes them as expressive mosaics of pattern as the hieroglyphics4 ,i cannot hut think that it was partly from what he had seen1 in actual basalt1 or in engravings after ancient monuments which must have been about him at ,basire the engraver's1 that ,blake found the suggestion of his picture-writing in the ,prophetic ,books4 ,he believed that all ,greek art was but a pale copy of a lost art of ,egypt1 'the greater works of the ,asiatic ,patriarchs1' ,apotheoses of ,persian1 ,hindu1 and ,egyptian antiquity4' ,in such pictures as ',the ,spiritual ,form of ,pitt guiding ,behemoth1' he professed to be but 'applying to modern heroes1 on a smaller scale1' what he had seen in vision of these 'stupendous originals now lost1 or perhaps buried till some happier age4' ,is it not likely therefore that in his attempt to create the religious books of a new religion1 'the ,everlasting ,gospel' of 'the ,poetic ,genius1 which is the ,lord1' he should have turned to the then unintelligible forms in which the oldest of the religions had written itself down in a visible pictorial message8 ,but1 whatever suggestions may have come to him from elsewhere1 ,blake's genius was essentially ,gothic1 and took form1 ,i doubt not1 during those six years of youth when he drew the monuments in ,westminster ,abbey1 and in the old churches about ,london4 ,he might have learned much from the tombs in the ,abbey1 and from the brasses1 and from the carved angels in the chapels1 and from the nave groups on the screen in the chapel of ,edward the ,confessor1 and from the draped figures round the sarcophagus of ,aymer de ,valence4 ,there is often1 in ,blake's figures1 something of the monumental stiffness of ,gothic stone1 as there is in the minute yet formal characterization of the faces4 ,his rendering of terrible and evil things1 the animal beings who typify the passions and fierce distortions of the soul1 have the same childlike detail1 content to be ludicrous if it can only be faithful to a distinct conception1 of the carvers of gargoyles and of ,last ,judgments4 ,blake has1 too1 the same love of pattern for its own sake1 the same exuberance of ornament1 always living and organic1 growing out of the structure of the design or out of the form of the page1 not added to it from without4 ,gothic art taught him his hatred of vacant space1 his love of twining and trailing foliage and flame and water2 and his invention of ornament is as unlimited as theirs4 ,a page of one of his illuminated books is like the carving on a ,gothic capital4 ,lines uncoil from a hidden centre and spread like branches or burst into vast vegetation1 emanating from leaf to limb1 and growing upward into images of human and celestial existence4 ,the snake is in all his designs2 whether1 in ,jerusalem1 rolled into chariot-wheels and into the harness of a chariot drawn by hoofed lions1 and into the curled horns of the lions1 and into the pointing fingers of the horns2 or1 in ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 a leviathan of the sea with open jaws1 eyed and scaled with poisonous jewels of purple and blood-red and corroded gold1 swelling visibly out of a dark sea that foams aside from its passage2 or1 curved above the limbs and wound about the head of a falling figure in lovely diminishing coils like a corkscrew which is a note of interrogation2 or1 in mere unterrifying beauty1 trailed like a branch of a bending tree across the tops of pages2 or1 bitted and bridled and a thing of blithe gaiety1 ridden by little1 naked1 long-legged girls and boys in the new paradise of an ,america of the future4 ,the ,gothic carvers loved snakes1 but hardly with the strange passion of ,blake4 ,they carved the flames of hell and of earthly punishment with delight in the beauty of their soaring and twisting lines2 but no one has ever made of fire such a plaything and ecstasy as ,blake has made of it4 ,in his paintings he invents new colors to show forth the very soul of fire1 a soul angrier and more variable than opals2 and in his drawings he shows us lines and nooses of fire rushing upward out of the ground1 and fire drifting across the air like vapor1 and fire consuming the world in the last chaos4 ,and everywhere there are gentle and caressing tongues and trails of fire1 hardly to be distinguished from branches of trees and blades of grass and stems and petals of flowers4 ,water1 which the ,gothic carvers represented in curving lines1 as the ,japanese do1 is in ,blake a not less frequent method of decoration2 wrapping frail human figures in wet caverns under the depths of the sea1 and destroying and creating worlds4 ,blake's color is unearthly1 and is used for the most part rather as a symbol of emotion than as a representation of fact4 ,it is at one time prismatic1 and radiates in broad bands of pure color2 at another1 and more often1 is as inextricable as the veins in mineral1 and seems more like a natural growth of the earth than the creation of a painter4 ,in the smaller ,book of ,designs in the ,print ,room of the ,british ,museum the colors have moldered away1 and blotted themselves together in a sort of putrefaction which seems to carry the suggestions of poisonous decay further than ,blake carried them4 ,this will be seen by a comparison of the minutely drawn leviathan of ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 with the colored print in the ,book of ,designs1 in which the outline of the folds melts and crumbles into a mere chaos of horror4 ,color in ,blake is never shaded1 or1 as he would have said1 blotted and blurred2 it is always pure energy4 ,in the faint coloring of the ,book of ,thel there is the very essence of gentleness2 the color is a faultless interpretation of the faint and lovely monotony of the verse1 and of its exquisite detail4 ,several of the plates recur in the ,book of ,designs1 colored at a different and1 no doubt1 much later time2 and while every line is the same the whole atmosphere and mood of the designs is changed4 ,bright rich color is built up in all the vacant spaces2 and with the color there comes a new intensity2 each design is seen over again1 in a new way4 ,here1 the mood is a wholly different mood1 and this seeing by contraries is easier to understand than when1 as in the splendid design on the fourth page of ,the ,book of ,urizen1 repeated in the ,book of ,designs1 we see a parallel1 yet different1 vision1 a new1 yet not contrary1 aspect4 ,in the one1 the colors of the open book are like corroded iron or rusty minerals2 in the other1 sharp blues1 like the wings of strange butterflies1 glitter stormily under the red flashes of a sunset4 ,the vision is the same1 but every color of the thing seen is different4 ,to ,blake1 color is the soul rather than the body of his figures1 and seems to clothe them like an emanation4 ,what ,behmen says of the world itself might be said of ,blake's rendering of the aspects of the world and men4 ',the whole outward visible ,world1' he tells us1 'with all its ,being is a ,signature1 or ,figure of the inward spiritual ,world2 whatever is internally1 and however its ,operation is1 so likewise it has its ,character externally2 like as the ,spirit of each ,creature sets forth and manifests the internal ,form of its ,birth1 by its ,body1 so does the ,eternal ,being also4' ,just as he gives us a naked ,apollo for the 'spiritual form of ,pitt' in the picture in the ,national ,gallery1 where ,pitt is seen guiding ,behemoth1 or the hosts of evil1 in a hell of glowing and obscure tumult1 so he sees the soul of a thing or being with no relation to its normal earthly color4 ,the colors of fire and of blood1 an extra-lunar gold1 putrescent vegetable colors1 and the stains in rocks and sunsets1 he sees everywhere1 and renders with an ecstasy that no painter to whom color was valuable for its own sake has ever attained4 ,it is difficult not to believe that he does not often use color with a definitely musical sense of its harmonies1 and that colour did not literally sing to him1 as it seems1 at least in a permissible figure1 to sing to us out of his pages4 ,,vii ,at the end of ,september #ahjj ,blake left ,lambeth1 and took a cottage at ,felpham1 near ,bognor1 at the suggestion of ,william ,hayley1 the feeblest poet of his period1 who imagined1 with foolish kindness1 that he could become the patron of one whom he called 'my gentle visionary ,blake4' ,hayley was a rich man1 and1 as the author of ,the ,triumphs of ,temper1 was looked upon as a person of literary importance4 ,he did his best to give ,blake opportunities of making money1 by doing engraving and by painting miniatures of the neighbors4 ,he read ,greek with him and ,klopstock4 ',blake is just become a ,grecian1 and literally learning the language1' he says in one letter1 and in another3 ',read ,klopstock into ,english to ,blake4' ,the effect of ,klopstock on ,blake is to be seen in a poem of ribald magnificence1 which no one has yet ventured to print in full4 ,the effect of ,blake on ,hayley1 and of ,hayley on ,blake1 can be realized from a few passages in the letters4 ,at first we read3 ',mr4 ,hayley acts like a prince4' ,then3 ',i find on all hands great objections to my doing anything but the mere drudgery of business1 and intimations that1 if ,i do not confine myself to this1 ,i shall not live4' ,last3 ',mr4 ,h4 is as much averse to my poetry as he is to a chapter in the ,bible4 ,he knows that ,i have writ it1 for ,i have shown it to him' 7this is apparently the ,milton or the ,jerusalem71 and he has read part by his own desire1 and has looked with sufficient contempt to enhance my opinion of it4444 ,but ,mr4 ,h4 approves of my designs as little as he does of my poems1 and ,i have been forced to insist on his leaving me1 in both1 to my own self-will2 for ,i am determined to be no longer pestered with his genteel ignorance and polite disapprobation4 ,i know myself both poet and painter1 and it is not his affected contempt that can move to anything but a more assiduous pursuit of both arts4 ,indeed1 by my late firmness ,i have brought down his affected loftiness1 and he begins to think that ,i have some genius3 as if genius and assurance were the same thing6 ,but his imbecile attempts to depress me only deserve laughter4' ,what laughter they produced1 while ,blake was still suffering under them1 can be seen by any one who turns to the epigrams on ,h4 in the note-book4 ,but the letter goes on1 with indignant seriousness3 ',but ,i was commanded by my spiritual friends to bear all and be silent1 and to go through all without murmuring1 and1 in fine1 hope till my three years shall be accomplished2 at which time ,i was set at liberty to remonstrate against former conduct1 and to demand justice and truth2 which ,i have done in so effectual a manner that my antagonist is silenced completely1 and ,i have compelled what should have been of freedom--my just right as an artist and as a man4' ,in ,blake's behavior towards ,hayley1 which has been criticized1 we can test his sincerity to himself under all circumstances3 his impeccable outward courtesy1 his concessions1 'bearing insulting benevolence' meekly1 his careful kindness towards ,hayley and hard labour on his behalf1 until the conviction was forced upon him from within that 'corporeal friends were spiritual enemies1' and that ,hayley must be given up4 ',remembering the verses that ,hayley sung ,when my heart knocked against the roof of my tongue4' ,blake wrote down bitter epigrams1 which were written down for mere relief of mind1 and certainly never intended for publication2 and ,i can see no contradiction between these inner revolts and an outer politeness which had in it its due measure of gratitude4 ,both were strictly true1 and only in a weak and foolish nature can the consciousness of kindness received distract or blot out the consciousness of the intellectual imbecility which may lurk behind it4 ,blake said3 ',i never made friends but by spiritual gifts1 ,by severe contentions of friendship and the burning fire of thought4' ,what least 'contention of friendship' would not have been too much for the 'triumphs of temper' of ',felpham's eldest son'8 what 'fire of thought' could ever have enlightened his comfortable darkness8 ,and is it surprising that ,blake should have written in final desperation3 ',thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache3 ,do be my enemy--for friendship's sake'8 ,he quarreled with many of his friends1 with those whom he had cared for most1 like ,stothard and ,flaxman2 but the cause was always some moral indignation1 which1 just or unjust1 was believed1 and which1 being believed1 could not have been acted upon4 ,with ,blake belief and action were simultaneous4 ',thought is ,act1' as he wrote on the margin of ,bacon's essays4 ,i am inclined to attribute to this period the writing down of a mysterious manuscript in the possession of ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman1 which has never been printed1 but which1 by his kind permission1 ,i have been allowed to read4 ,this manuscript is headed in large lettering3 ',the ,seven ,days of the ,created ,world1' above which is written1 as if by an afterthought1 in smaller lettering3 ',genesis4' ,it is written at the beginning of a blue-covered copy-book1 of which the paper is water-marked #agig4 ,it consists of some two hundred lines of blank verse1 numbered by tens in the margin up to one hundred and fifty1 then follow over fifty more lines without numberings1 ending without a full stop or any apparent reason for coming to an end4 ,the handwriting is unmistakably ,blake's2 on the first page or two it is large and careful2 gradually it gets smaller and seems more hurried or fatigued1 as if it had all been written at a single sitting4 ,the earlier part goes on without a break1 but in the later part there are corrections2 single words are altered1 sometimes as much as a line and a half is crossed out and rewritten1 the lines are sometimes corrected in the course of writing4 ,if it were not for these signs of correction ,i should find it difficult to believe that ,blake had actually composed anything so tamely regular in metre or so destitute of imagination or symbol4 ,it is an argument or statement1 written in the formal eighteenth-century manner1 with pious invocations1 ,god being addressed as ',sire1' and ',wisdom ,supreme' as his daughter1 epithets are inverted that they may fit the better into a line1 and geographical names heaped up in a scarcely ,miltonic manner1 while ,ixion strangely neighbors the 'press'd ,african4' ,nowhere is there any characteristic felicity1 or any recognizable sign of ,blake4 ,when ,i saw first the manuscript it occurred to me that it might have been a fragment of translation from ,klopstock1 done at ,felpham under the immediate dictation of ,hayley4 ',read ,klopstock into ,english to ,blake' we have seen ,hayley noting down4 ,but ,i can find no original for it in ,klopstock4 ,that ,blake could have written it out of his own head at any date after #agig is incredible1 even as an experiment in that 'monotonous cadence like that used by ,milton and ,shakespeare and all writers of ,english blank verse1 derived from the modern bondage of rhyming1' which he tells us in the preface to ,jerusalem he considered 'to be a necessary and indispensable part of verse1' at the time 'when this verse was first dictated to me4' ,the only resemblance which we find to it in ,blake's published work is in an occasional early fragment like that known as ',the ,passions1' and where it is so different from this or any of the early attempts at blank verse is in the absolute regularity of the metre4 ,all ,i can suggest is that ,blake may have written it at a very early age1 and preserved a rough draft1 which ,hayley may have induced him to make a clean copy of1 and that in the process of copying he may have touched up the metre without altering the main substance4 ,if this is so1 ,i think he stopped so abruptly because he would not1 even to oblige ,hayley1 go on any longer with so uncongenial a task4 ,blake's three years at ,felpham 7,september #ahjj to ,september #ahjc7 were described by him as 'my three years' slumber on the banks of ocean1' and there is no doubt that1 in spite of the neighborhood and kindly antagonism of ,hayley1 that 'slumber' was1 for ,blake1 in a sense an awakening4 ,it was the only period of his life lived out of ,london1 and with ,felpham1 as he said in a letter to ,flaxman1 'begins a new life1 because another covering of earth is shaken off4' ,the cottage at ,felpham is only a little way in from a seashore which is one of the loveliest and most changing shores of the ,english coast4 ,whistler has painted it1 and it is always as full of faint and wandering color as a ,whistler4 ,it was on this coast that ,rossetti first learned to care for the sea4 ,to ,blake it must have been the realization of much that he had already divined in his imagination4 ,there1 as he wrote to ,flaxman1 'heaven opens on all sides her golden gates2 her windows are not obstructed by vapors2 voices of celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard and their forms more distinctly seen2 and my cottage is also a shadow of their houses4' ,he drew the cottage on one of the pages of ,milton1 with a naked image of himself walking in the garden1 and the image of an angel about to alight on a tree4 ,the cottage is still1 as he found it1 'a perfect model for cottages1 and ,i think for palaces of magnificence1 only enlarging1 not altering its proportions1 and adding ornaments and not principles'2 and no man of imagination could live there1 under that thatched roof and with that marvelous sea before him1 and not find himself spiritually naked and within arm's reach of the angels4 ,the sea has the properties of sleep and of awakening1 and there can be no doubt that the sea had both those influences on ,blake1 surrounding him for once with an atmosphere like that of his own dreams4 ',o lovely ,felpham1' he writes1 after he had left it1 'to thee ,i am eternally indebted for my three years' rest from perturbation and the strength ,i now enjoy4' ,felpham represents a vivid pause1 in which he had leisure to return upon himself2 and in one of his letters he says3 ',one thing of real consequence ,i have accomplished by coming into the country1 which is to me consolation enough1 namely1 ,i have recollected all my scattered thoughts on art1 and resumed my primitive and original ways of execution in both painting and engraving1 which in the confusion of ,london ,i had very much obliterated from my mind4' ,it is to this period1 no doubt 7a period mentally overcome in the quiet of ,felpham1 but awaiting1 as we shall see1 the electric spark of that visit to the ,truchsessian ,gallery in ,london71 that ,blake refers in the ,descriptive ,catalogue1 when he speaks of the 'experiment pictures' which 'were the result of temptations and perturbations1 laboring to destroy imaginative power1 by means of that infernal machine1 called ,chiaro ,oscuro1 in the hands of ,venetian and ,flemish demons1' such as the 'outrageous demon1' ,rubens1 the 'soft and effeminate and cruel demon1' ,correggio1 and1 above all1 ,titian4 ',the spirit of ,titian1' we are told1 in what is really a confession of ,blake's consciousness of the power of those painters whose influence he dreaded1 'was particularly active in raising doubts concerning the possibility of executing without a model2 and1 when once he had raised the doubt1 it became easy for him to snatch away the vision time after time2 for when the artist took his pencil1 to execute his ideas1 his power of imagination weakened so much1 and darkened1 that memory of nature and of pictures of the various schools possessed his mind1 instead of appropriate execution1 resulting from the inventions4' ,it was thus at ,felpham that he returned to himself in art1 and it was at ,felpham also that he had what seems to have been the culminating outburst of 'prophetic' inspiration1 writing from immediate dictation1 he said1 'and even against my will4' ,visions came readily to him out of the sea1 and he saw them walk on the shore1 'majestic shadows1 grey but luminous1 and superior to the common height of men4' ,it was at ,felpham that ,blake wrote the two last of the ,prophetic ,books which remain to us1 ,milton and ,jerusalem4 ,both bear the date of #ahjd on the title-page1 and this1 no doubt1 indicates that the engraving was begun in that year4 ,yet it is not certain that the engraved text of ,jerusalem1 at any rate1 was formally published till after #ahji4 ,pages were certainly inserted between those two dates4 ,on p4 #ch ,blake says3 ',i heard in ,lambeth's shades3 ,in ,felpham ,i heard and saw the ,visions of ,albion3 ,i write in ,south ,molton ,street1 what ,i both see and hear1 ,in regions of ,humanity1 in ,london's opening streets4' ,that the main part was written in ,felpham is evident from more than one letter to ,butts4 ,in a letter dated ,april #be1 #ahjc1 ,blake says3 ',but none can know the spiritual acts of my three years' slumber on the banks of ocean1 unless he has seen them in the spirit1 or unless he should read my long poem descriptive of those acts2 for ,i have in these years composed an immense number of verses on one grand theme1 similar to ,homer's ,iliad or ,milton's ,paradise ,lost2 the persons and machinery entirely new to the inhabitants of earth 7some of the persons excepted74 ,i have written the poems from immediate dictation1 twelve or sometimes twenty or thirty lines at a time1 without premeditation1 and even against my will4 ,the time it has taken in writing was thus rendered non-existent1 and an immense poem exists which seems to be the labour of a long life1 all produced without labour or study4 ,i mention this to show you what ,i think the grand reason of my being brought down here4' ,the poem is evidently ,jerusalem1 for the address ',to the ,public' on the first page begins3 ',after my three years' slumber on the banks of the ,ocean1 ,i again display my ,giant forms to the ,public4' ,in the next letter1 dated ,july #f1 ,blake again refers to the poem3 ',thus ,i hope that all our three years' trouble ends in good-luck at last1 and shall be forgot by my affections1 and only remembered by my understanding1 to be a memento in time to come1 and to speak to future generations by a sublime allegory1 which is now perfectly completed into a grand poem4 ,i may praise it1 since ,i dare not pretend to be any other than the secretary2 the authors are in eternity4 ,i consider it as the grandest poem that this world contains4 ,allegory addressed to the intellectual powers1 while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal understanding1 is my definition of the most sublime poetry4 ,it is somewhat in the same manner defined by ,plato4 ,this poem shall1 by divine assistance1 be progressively printed and ornamented with prints1 and given to the public4' ,this ,i take to mean that before ,blake's return to ,london in #ahjc the letterpress of ,jerusalem was1 as he imagined1 completely finished1 but that the printing and illustration were not yet begun4 ,the fact of this delay1 and the fact that pages written after #ahjc were inserted here and there1 must not lead us to think1 as many writers on ,blake have thought1 that there could be any allusion in ,jerusalem to the attacks of the ,examiner of #ahjh and #ahji1 or that ',hand1' one of the wicked sons of ,albion1 could possibly be1 as ,rossetti desperately conjectured1 'a hieroglyph for ,leigh ,hunt4' ,the sons of ,albion are referred to on quite a third of the pages of ,jerusalem1 from the earliest to the latest1 and must have been part of the whole texture of the poem from the beginning4 ,in a passage of the ',public ,address1' contained in the ,rossetti ,,ms41 ,blake says3 ',the manner in which my character has been blasted these thirty years1 both as an artist and as a man1 may be seen particularly in a ,sunday paper called the ,examiner1 published in ,beaufort's ,buildings2 the manner in which ,i have rooted out the nest of villains will be seen in a poem concerning my three years' ,herculean labours at ,felpham1 which ,i shall soon publish4' ,even if this is meant for ,jerusalem1 as it may well be1 ,blake is far from saying that he has referred in the poem to these particular attacks3 'the nest of villains' has undoubtedly a much broader meaning1 and groups together all the attacks of thirty years1 public or private1 of which the ,examiner is but quoted as a recent example4 ,the chief reason for supposing that ,jerusalem may not have been published till after the exhibition of #ahji1 is to be found in a passage in the ,descriptive ,catalogue which seems to summarize the main subject of the poem1 though it is quite possible that it may refer to some ,,ms4 now lost4 ,the picture of the ,ancient ,britons1 says ,blake1 represents three men who 'were originally one man who was fourfold4 ,he was self-divided1 and his real humanity slain on the stems of generation1 and the form of the fourth was like the ,son of ,god4 ,how he became divided is a subject of great sublimity and pathos4 ,the ,artist has written it1 under inspiration1 and will1 if ,god please1 publish it4 ,it is voluminous1 and contains the ancient history of ,britain1 and the world of ,satan and ,adam4' ',all these things1' he has just said1 'are written in ,eden4' ,and he says further3 ',the ,british ,antiquities are now in the ,artist's hands2 all his visionary contemplations relating to his own country and its ancient glory1 when it was1 as it again shall be1 the source of learning and inspiration4' ',adam was a ,druid1 and ,noah4' ,in the description of his picture of the ',last ,judgment' ,blake indicates ',albion1 our ancestor1 patriarch of the ,atlantic ,continent1 whose history preceded that of the ,hebrews1 and in whose sleep1 or chaos1 creation began4 ,the good woman is ,britannia1 the wife of ,albion4 ,jerusalem is their daughter4' ,we see here the symbols1 partly ,jewish and partly ,british1 into which ,blake had gradually resolved his mythology4 ',the persons and machinery1' he said1 were 'entirely new to the inhabitants of earth 7some of the persons excepted74' ,this has been usually1 but needlessly1 supposed to mean that real people are introduced under disguises4 ,does it not rather mean1 what would be strictly true1 that the 'machinery' is here of a kind wholly new to the ,prophetic ,books1 while of the 'persons' some have already been met with1 others are now seen for the first time8 ,it is all1 in his own words1 'allegory addressed to the intellectual powers1 while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal understanding1' and the allegory becomes harder to read as it becomes more and more naked1 concentrated1 and unexplained4 ,milton seems to have arisen out of a symbol which came visibly before ,blake's eyes on his first waking in the cottage at ,felpham4 ',work will go on here with ,godspeed1' he writes to ,butts4 ',a roller and two harrows lie before my window4 ,i met a plough on my first going out at my gate the first morning after my arrival1 and the ploughboy said to the ploughman1 ,father1 the gate is open4' ,at the beginning of his poem ,blake writes3 ',the ,plow goes forth in tempests and lightnings and the ,harrow cruel ,in blights of the east2 the heavy ,roller follows in howlings2' ,and the imagery returns at intervals1 in the vision of 'the ,last ,vintage1' the ',great ,harvest and ,vintage of the ,nations4' ,the personal element comes in the continual references to the cottage at ,felpham2 ',he set me down in ,felpham's ,vale and prepared a beautiful ,cottage for me that in three years ,i might write all these ,visions ,to display ,nature's cruel holiness3 the deceits of ,natural ,religion2' ,and it is in the cottage near the sea that he sees the vision of ,milton1 when he3 ',descended down a ,paved work of all kinds of precious stones ,out from the eastern sky2 descending down into my ,cottage ,garden2 clothed in black1 severe and silent he descended4' ,he awakes from the vision to find his wife by his side3 ',my bones trembled4 ,i fell outstretched upon the path ,a moment1 and my ,soul returned into its mortal state ,to ,resurrection and ,judgment in the ,vegetable ,body1 ,and my sweet ,shadow of delight stood trembling by my side4' ,in the prayer to be saved from his friends 7',corporeal ,friends are ,spiritual ,enemies'71 in the defense of wrath 7',go to thy labours at the ,mills and leave me to my wrath'71 in the outburst3 ',the idiot ,reasoner laughs at the ,man of ,imagination ,and from laughter proceeds to murder by undervaluing calumny1' ,it is difficult not to see some trace or transposition of the kind1 evil counsellor ,hayley1 a ',satan' of mild falsehood in the sight of ,blake4 ,but the main aim of the book is the assertion of the supremacy of the imagination3 ',the ,imagination is not a ,state3 it is the ,human ,existence itself1' ,and the putting off of the 'filthy garments1' of ',rational ,demonstration1' of ',memory1' of ',bacon1 ,locke1 and ,newton1' the clothing of oneself in imagination1 ',to cast aside from ,poetry1 all that is not ,inspiration1 ,that it shall no longer dare to mock with the aspersion of ,madness4 ,cast on the ,inspired by the tame high finisher of paltry ,blots1 ,indefinite or paltry ,rhymes2 or paltry harmonies4' ,it is because ',everything in ,eternity shines by its own ,internal light1' and that jealousy and cruelty and hypocrisy are all darkenings of that light1 that ,blake declares his purpose of3 ',opening to every eye ,these wonders of ,satan's holiness showing to the ,earth ,the ,idol ,virtues of the ,natural ,heart1 and ,satan's ,seat ,explore in all its ,selfish ,natural ,virtue1 and put off ,in ,self-annihilation all that is not of ,god alone4' ,such meanings as these flare out from time to time with individual splendors of phrase1 like ',time is the mercy of ,eternity1' and the great poetic epigram1 ',o ,swedenborg6 strongest of men1 the ,samson shorn by the ,churches' 7where1 for a moment1 a line falls into the regular rhythm of poetry71 and around them are deserts and jungles1 fragments of myth broken off and flung before us after this fashion3 ',but ,bahab and ,tirzah pervert ,their mild influences1 therefore the ,seven ,eyes of ,god walk round ,the ,three ,heavens of ,ulro1 where ,tirzah and her ,sisters ,weave the black ,woof of ,death upon ,entuthon ,benython ,in the ,vale of ,surrey where ,horeb terminates in ,rephaim4' ,in ,jerusalem1 which was to have been 'the grandest poem which the world contains1' there is less of the exquisite lyrical work which still decorates many corners of ,milton1 but it is ,blake's most serious attempt to set his myth in order1 and it contains much of his deepest wisdom1 with astonishing flashes of beauty4 ,in ,milton there was still a certain approximation to verse1 most of the lines had at least a beginning and an end1 but in ,jerusalem1 although he tells us that 'every word and every letter is studied and put into its place1' ,i am by no means sure that ,blake ever intended the lines1 as he wrote them1 to be taken as metrical lines1 or read very differently from the prose of the ,english ,bible1 with its pause in the sense at the end of each verse4 ,a vague line1 hesitating between six and seven beats1 does indeed seem from time to time to emerge from chaos1 and inversions are brought in at times to accentuate a cadence certainly intended1 as here3 ',why should ,punishment ,weave the ,veil with ,iron ,wheels of ,war1 ,when ,forgiveness might it ,weave with ,wings of ,cherubim8' ,but read the whole book as if it were prose1 following the sense for its own sake1 and you will find that the prose1 when it is not a mere catalogue1 has generally a fine biblical roll and swing in it1 a rhythm of fine oratory2 while if you read each line as if it were meant to be a metrical unit you will come upon such difficulties as this3 ',such is the ,forgiveness of the ,gods1 the ,moral ,virtues of the' ,that is one line1 and the next adds ',heathen4' ,there may seem to be small reason for such an arrangement of the lines if we read ,jerusalem in the useful printed text of ,mr4 ,russell and ,mr4 ,maclagan2 but the reason will be seen if we turn to the original engraved page1 where we shall see that ,blake had set down in the margin a lovely little bird with outstretched wings1 and that the tip of the bird's wing almost touches the last letter of the 'the' and leaves no room for another word4 ,that such a line was meant to be metrical is unthinkable1 as unthinkable as that3 ',los stood and stamped the earth1 then he threw down his hammer in rage ,in fury' ,has any reason for existing in this form beyond the mere chance of a hand that writes until all the space of a given line is filled4 ,working as he did within those limits of his hand's space1 he would accustom himself to write for the most part1 and and especially when his imagination was most vitally awake1 in lines that came roughly within those limits4 ,thus it will often happen that the most beautiful passages will have the nearest resemblance to a regular metrical scheme1 as in such lines as these3 ,in vain3 he is hurried afar into an unknown ,night4 ,he bleeds in torrents of blood1 as he rolls thro' heaven above1 ,he chokes up the paths of the sky3 the ,moon is leprous as snow3 ,trembling and descending down1 seeking to rest on high ,mona3 ,scattering her leprous snow in flakes of disease over ,albion4 ,the ,stars flee remote3 the heaven is iron1 the earth is sulphur1 ,and all the mountains and hills shrink up like a withering gourd4' ,here the prophet is no longer speaking with the voice of the orator1 but with the old1 almost forgotten voice of the poet1 and with something of the despised ',monotonous ,cadence4' ,blake lived for twenty-three years after the date on the title-page of ,jerusalem1 but1 with the exception of the two plates called ,the ,ghost of ,abel1 engraved in #ahbb1 this vast and obscure encyclopaedia of unknown regions remains his last gospel4 ,he thought it his most direct message4 ,throughout the ,prophetic ,books ,blake has to be translated out of the unfamiliar language into which he has tried to translate spiritual realities1 literally1 as he apprehended them4 ,just as1 in the designs which his hand drew as best it could1 according to its limited and partly false knowledge1 from the visions which his imagination saw with perfect clearness1 he was often unable to translate that vision into its real equivalent in design1 so in his attempts to put these other mental visions into words he was hampered by an equally false method1 and often by reminiscences of what passed for 'picturesque' writing in the work of his contemporaries4 ,he was1 after all1 of his time1 though he was above it1 and just as he only knew ,michelangelo through bad reproductions1 and could never get his own design wholly free1 malleable1 and virgin to his 'shaping spirit of imagination1' so1 in spite of all his marvelous lyrical discoveries1 made when his mind was less burdened by the weight of a controlling message1 he found himself1 when he attempted to make an intelligible system out of the 'improvisations of the spirit1' and to express that system with literal accuracy1 the half-helpless captive of formal words1 conventional rhythms1 a language not drawn direct from its source4 ,thus we find1 in the ,prophetic ,books1 neither achieved poems nor an achieved philosophy4 ,the philosophy has reached us only in splendid fragments 7the glimmering of stars out of separate corners of a dark sky71 and we shall never know to what extent these fragments were once parts of a whole4 ,had they been ever really fused1 this would have been the only system of philosophy made entirely out of the raw material of poetry4 ,as it has come to us unachieved1 the world has still to wait for a philosophy untouched by the materialism of the prose intelligence4 ,in the ,prophetic ,books ,blake labours at the creation of a myth1 which may be figured as the representation in space of a vast spiritual tragedy4 ,it is the tragedy of ,man1 a tragedy in which the first act is creation4 ,milton was content to begin with ',man's first disobedience1' but ,blake would track the human soul back into chaos1 and beyond4 ,he knows1 like ,krishna1 in the ,bhagavad ,gita1 that 'above this visible nature there exists another1 unseen and eternal1 which1 when all created things perish1 does not perish'2 and he sees the soul's birth in that 'inward spiritual world1' from which it falls to mortal life and the body1 as into a death4 ,he sees its new1 temporal life1 hung round with fears and ambushes1 out of which1 by a new death1 the death of that mortal self which separates it from eternity1 it may reawaken1 even in this life1 into the eternal life of imagination4 ,the persons of the drama are the powers and passions of ,man1 and the spiritual forces which surround him1 and are the 'states' through which he passes4 ,man is seen1 as ,blake saw all things1 fourfold3 ,man's ,humanity1 his ,spectre1 who is ,reason1 his ,emanation1 who is ,imagination1 his ,shadow1 who is ,desire4 ,and the states through which ,man passes1 friendly or hostile1 energies of good or of evil1 are also four3 the ,four ,zoas1 who are the ,four ,living ,creatures of ,ezekiel1 and are called ,urizen1 ,luvah1 ,tharmas1 and ,urthona 7or1 to mortals1 ,los74 ,each ,zoa has his ,emanation3 ,ahania1 who is the emanation of ,intellect1 and is named 'eternal delight'2 ,vala1 the emanation of ,emotion1 who is lovely deceit1 and the visible beauty of ,nature2 ,enion1 who is the emanation of the ,senses1 and typifies the maternal instinct2 ,enitharmon1 who is the emanation of ,intuition1 and personifies spiritual beauty4 ,the drama is the division1 death1 and resurrection1 in an eternal circle1 of the powers of man and of the powers in whose midst he fights and struggles4 ,of this incommensurable action we are told only in broken hints1 as of a chorus crying outside doors where deeds are being done in darkness4 ,images pass before us1 make their gesture1 and are gone2 the words spoken are ambiguous1 and seem to have an under meaning which it is essential for us to apprehend4 ,we see motions of building and of destruction1 higher than the topmost towers of the world1 and deeper than the abyss of the sea2 souls pass through furnaces1 and are remade by ,time's hammer on the anvil of space2 there are obscure crucifixions1 and ,last ,judgments return and are re-enacted4 ,to ,blake1 the ,prophetic ,books were to be the new religious books of a religion which was not indeed new1 for it was the ,everlasting ,gospel' of ,jesus1 but1 because it had been seen anew by ,swedenborg and by ,wesley and by 'the gentle souls who guide the great wine-press of ,love1' among whom was ,teresa1 seemed to require a new interpretation to the imagination4 ,blake wrote when the eighteenth century was coming to an end2 he announced the new dispensation which was to come1 ,swedenborg had said1 with the year 7which was the year of ,blake's birth7 #ageg4 ,he looked forward steadfastly to the time when ',sexes must vanish and cease to be1' when 'all their crimes1 their punishments1 their accusations of sin1 all their jealousies1 revenges1 murders1 hidings of cruelty in deceit1 appear only on the outward spheres of visionary ,space and ,time1 in the shadows of possibility by mutual forgiveness for evermore1 and in the vision and the prophecy1 that we may foresee and avoid the terrors of ,creation and ,redemption and ,judgment4' ,he spoke to literalists1 rationalists1 materialists2 to an age whose very infidels doubted only facts1 and whose deists affirmed no more than that man was naturally religious4 ,the rationalist's denial of everything beyond the evidence of his senses seemed to him a criminal blindness2 and he has engraved a separate sheet with images and statements of the affirmation3 ',there is no ,natural ,religion4' ,to ,blake the literal meaning of things seemed to be of less than no importance4 ,to worship the ',goddess ,nature' was to worship the ',god of this ,world1' and so to be an atheist1 as even ,wordsworth seemed to him to be4 ,religion was asleep1 with ,art and ,literature in its arms3 ,blake's was the voice of the awakening angel4 ,what he cried was that only eternal and invisible things were true1 and that visible temporal things were a veil and a delusion4 ,in this he knew himself to be on the side of ,wesley and ,whitefield1 and that ,voltaire and ,rousseau1 the voices of the passing age1 were against him4 ,he called them 'frozen sons of the feminine ,tabernacle of ,bacon1 ,newton1 and ,locke4' ,wesley and ,whitefield he calls the 'two servants' of ,god1 his 'two witnesses4' ,but it seemed to him that he could go deeper into the ,bible than they1 in their practical eagerness1 had gone4 ',what are the treasures of ,heaven1' he asked1 'that we are to lay up for ourselves--are they any other than ,mental ,studies and ,performances8' ',is the ,holy ,ghost1' he asked1 'any other than an intellectual ,fountain8' ,it seemed to him that he could harmonise many things once held to be discordant1 and adjust the many varying interpretations of the ,bible and the other books of ancient religions by a universal application of what had been taken in too personal a way4 ,hence many of the puzzling 'correspondences' of ,english cities and the tribe of ,judah1 of 'the ,poetic ,genius1 which is the ,lord4' ,there is an outcry in ,jerusalem3 ',no individual ought to appropriate to ,himself ,or to his ,emanation1 any of the ,universal ,characteristics ,of ,david or of ,eve1 of the ,woman1 of the ,lord1 ,of ,reuben or of ,benjamin1 of ,joseph or ,judah or ,levi4 ,those who dare appropriate to themselves ,universal ,attributes ,are the ,blasphemous ,selfhoods and must be broken asunder4 ,a ,vegetable ,christ and a ,virgin ,eve1 are the ,hermaphroditic ,blasphemy3 by his ,maternal ,birth he put off that ,evil ,one1 ,and his ,maternal ,humanity must be put off ,eternally1 ,lest the ,sexual ,generation swallow up ,regeneration3 ,come1 ,lord ,jesus1 take on ,thee the ,satanic ,body of ,holiness6' ,exactly what is meant here will be seen more clearly if we compare it with a much earlier statement of the same doctrine1 in the poem ',to ,tirzah' in the ,songs of ,experience1 and the comparison will show us all the difference between the art of ,blake in #agid1 and what seemed to him the needful manner of his message ten years later4 ',tirzah' is ,blake's name for ,natural ,religion4 ',whatever is ,born of ,mortal ,birth ,must be consumed with the ,earth1 ,to rise from ,generation free3 ,then what have ,i to do with thee8 ,the ,sexes sprung from ,shame and ,pride ,blow'd in the morn2 in evening died2 ,but ,mercy changed ,death into ,sleep2 ,the ,sexes rose to work and weep4 ,thou ,mother of my ,mortal part ,with cruelty didst mould my ,heart1 ,and with false1 self-deceiving ,tears ,didst bind my ,nostrils1 ,eyes1 and ,ears2 ,didst close my ,tongue in senseless clay1 ,and me to ,mortal ,life betray3 ,the ,death of ,jesus set me free3 ,then what have ,i to do with thee8 ,here is expressed briefly and exquisitely a large part of the foundation of ,blake's philosophy3 that birth into the world1 ,christ's or ours1 is a fall from eternal realities into the material affections of the senses1 which are deceptions1 and bind us under the bondage of nature1 our ',mother1' who is the ,law2 and that true life is to be regained only by the death of that self which cuts us off from our part in eternity1 which we enter through the eternal reality of the imagination4 ,in the poem1 the death of ,jesus symbolises that deliverance2 in the passage from ,jerusalem the ,church's narrow conception of the mortal life of ,jesus is rebuked1 and its universal significance indicated1 but in how different1 how obscure1 how distorted a manner4 ,what has brought about this new manner of saying the same thing8 ,i think it is an endeavor to do without what had come to seem to ,blake the deceiving imageries of nature1 to express the truth of contraries at one and the same time1 and to render spiritual realities in a literal translation4 ,what he had been writing was poetry2 now what he wrote was to be prophecy2 or1 as he says in ,milton3 ',in fury of ,poetic ,inspiration1 ,to build the ,universe ,stupendous1 ,mental ,forms ,creating4' ,and1 seeking always the ',minute ,particulars1' he would make no compromise with earthly things1 use no types of humanity1 no analogies from nature2 for it was against all literal acceptance of nature or the ,bible or reason1 of any apparent reality1 that he was appealing4 ,hence3 ',all ,human ,forms identified1 even ,tree1 ,metal1 ,earth1 and ,stone1 all ,human ,forms identified1 living1 going forth1 and returning wearied ,into the planetary lives of ,years1 ,months1 ,days1 and ,hours4' ,hence the affirmation3 ',for all are ,men in ,eternity1 ,rivers1 ,mountains1 ,cities1 ,villages2' ,and the voice of ,london saying3 ',my ,streets are my ,ideas of ,imagination4' ,hence the parallels and correspondences1 the names too well known to have any ready-made meaning to the emotions 7,london or ,bath71 the names so wholly unknown that they also could mean nothing to the emotions or to the memory 7,bowlahoola1 ,golgonooza71 the whole inhuman mythology1 abstractions of frigid fire4 ,in ,jerusalem ,blake interrupts himself to say3 ',i call them by their ,english names2 ,english1 the rough basement4 ,los built the stubborn structure of the ,language1 acting against ,albion's melancholy1 who must else have been a ,dumb despair4' ,in the ,prophetic ,books we see ,blake laboring upon a 'rough basement' of 'stubborn' ,english2 is it1 after all this 'consolidated and extended work1' this 'energetic exertion of his talent1' a building set up in vain1 the attempt to express what must else have been1 and must now for ever remain1 'a dumb despair'8 ,i think we must take the ,prophetic ,books not quite as ,blake would have had us take them4 ,he was not a systematic thinker1 and he was not content to be a lyric poet4 ,nor indeed did he ever profess to offer us a system1 built on logic and propped by reasoning1 but a myth1 which is a poetical creation4 ,he said in ,jerusalem3 ',i must ,create a ,system1 or be enslaved by another ,man's4 ,i will not ,reason or ,compare3 my business is to ,create4' ,to ,blake each new aspect of truth came as a divine gift1 and between all his affirmations of truth there is no contradiction1 or no other than that vital contradiction of opposites equally true4 ,the difficulty lies in co-ordinating them into so minutely articulated a myth1 and the difficulty is increased when we possess1 instead of the whole body of the myth1 only fragments of it4 ,of the myth itself it must be said that1 whether from defects inherent in it or from the fragmentary state in which it comes to us1 it can never mean anything wholly definite or satisfying even to those minds best prepared to receive mystical doctrine4 ,we cannot read the ,prophetic ,books either for their thought only or for their beauty only4 ,yet we shall find in them both inspired thought and unearthly beauty4 ,with these two things1 not always found together1 we must be content4 ,the ,prophetic ,books bear witness1 in their own way1 to that great gospel of imagination which ,blake taught and exemplified4 ,in ,jerusalem it is stated in a single sentence3 ',i know of no other ,christianity and of no other ,gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the ,divine ,arts of ,imagination3 ,imagination1 the real and eternal ,world of which this ,vegetable ,universe is but a faint shadow1 and in which we shall live in our ,eternal or ,imaginative ,bodies1 when these ,vegetable ,mortal ,bodies are no more4' ',o ,human ,imagination1 ,o ,divine ,body ,i have ,crucified6' he cries2 and he sees continually3 ',abstract ,philosophy warring in enmity against ,imagination1 ,which is the ,divine ,body of the ,lord ,jesus1 blessed for ever4' ,he finds the ,england of his time generalising ,art and ,science till ,art and ,science is lost1' making3 ',a pretence of ,art1 to destroy ,art1 a pretence of ,liberty ,to destroy ,liberty1 a pretence of ,religion to destroy ,religion4' ,he sees that3 ',the ,visions of ,eternity1 by reason of narrowed perceptions1 ,are become weak visions of ,time and ,space1 fix'd into furrows of death4' ,he sees everywhere 'the indefinite ,spectre2 who is the ,rational ,power1' crying out3 ',i am ,god1 ,o ,sons of ,men6 ,i am your ,rational ,power6 ,am ,i not ,bacon and ,newton and ,locke who teach ,humility to ,man8 ,who teach ,doubt and ,experiment3 and my two kings1 ,voltaire1 ,rousseau4' ,he sees this threefold spirit of doubt and negation overspreading the earth1 'brooding ,abstract ,philosophy1' destroying ,imagination2 and1 as he looked about him3 ',every ,universal ,form was become barren mountains of ,moral ,virtue3 and every ,minute ,particular harden'd into grains of sand3 ,and all the tenderness of the soul cast forth as filth and mire4' ,it is against this spiritual deadness that he brings his protest1 which is to awaken ,albion out of the sleep of death1 'his long and cold repose4' ',therefore ,los1' the spirit of prophecy1 and thus ,blake1 who 'kept the ,divine ,vision in time of trouble1' stands in ,london building ,golgonooza1 'the spiritual fourfold ,london1' the divine ,city of ,god4 ,of the real or earthly ,london he says in ,jerusalem3 ',i see ,london blind and age bent begging thro' the ,streets ,of ,babylon1 led by a child1 his tears run down his beard6' ,babylon1 in ,blake1 means ',rational ,morality4' ,in the ,songs of ,innocence we shall see the picture1 at the head of the poem called ',london4' ,in that poem ,blake numbers the cries which go up in ',london's chartered streets1' the cry of the chimney-sweeper1 of the soldier1 of the harlot2 and he says3 ',in every cry of every man1 ,in every infant's cry of fear1 ,in every voice1 in every ban1 ,the mind-forged manacles ,i hear4' ,into these lines he condenses much of his gospel4 ,what ,blake most hated on earth were 'mind-forged manacles4' ,reason seemed to him to have laid its freezing and fettering hand on every warm joy1 on every natural freedom1 of body and soul2 all his wrath went out against the forgers and the binders of these fetters4 ,in his earlier poems he sings the instinctive joys of innocence2 in his later1 the wise joys of experience2 and all the ,prophetic ,books are so many songs of mental liberty and invectives against every form of mental oppression4 ',and ,jerusalem is called ,liberty among the ,children of ,albion4' ,one of the ,prophetic ,books1 ,ahania1 can be condensed into a single sentence1 one of its lines3 ',truth has bounds2 ,error has none4' ,yet this must be understood to mean that error is the 'indefinite void 'and truth a thing minutely organized2 not that truth can endure bondage or limitation from without4 ,he typifies ,moral ,law by ,rahab1 the harlot of the ,bible1 a being of hidden1 hypocritic cruelty4 ,chastity is no more in itself than a lure of the harlot1 typifying unwilling restraint1 a negation1 and no personal form of energy4 ',no individual can keep the ,laws1 for they are death ,to every energy of man1 and forbid the springs of life4' ,it is energy that is virtue1 and1 above all1 mental energy4 ',the treasures of heaven are not negations of passion1 but realities of intellect1 from which all the passions emanate1 uncurbed in their eternal glory4' ',it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that brought sin into the world by creating distinctions1 by calling this good and that evil4' ,blake says in ,jerusalem3 ',and in this manner of the ,sons of ,albion in their strength2 ,they take the ,two ,contraries which are called ,qualities1 with which ,every ,substance is clothed1 they name them ,good and ,evil1 ,from them they make an ,abstract1 which is a ,negation ,not only of the ,substance from which it is derived1 ,a murderer of its own ,body3 but also a murderer ,of every ,divine ,member3 it is the ,reasoning ,power1 ,an ,abstract objecting power1 that ,negatives everything4 ,this is the ,spectre of ,man3 the ,holy ,reasoning ,power1 ,and in its ,holiness is closed the ,abomination of ,desolation4' ,the active form of sin is judgment1 intellectual cruelty1 unforgivingness1 punishment4 ',in ,hell is all self-righteousness2 there is no such thing as forgiveness of sins4' ,in his picture of the ',last ,judgment' he represents the ,furies by men1 not women2 and for this reason3 ',the spectator may suppose them clergymen in the pulpit1 scourging sin instead of forgiving it4' ,in ,jerusalem he says3 ',and the appearance of a ,man was seen in the ,furnaces1 ,saving those who have sinned from the punishment of the ,law 7,in pity of the punisher whose state is eternal death71 ,and keeping them from ,sin by the mild counsels of his love4' ,and in his greatest paradox and deepest passion of truth1 he affirms3 ',i care not whether a ,man is ,good or ,evil2 all that ,i care ,is whether he is a ,wise ,man or a ,fool4 ,go1 put off ,holiness ,and put on ,intellect4' ,that holiness may be added to wisdom ,blake asks only that continual forgiveness of sins which to him meant understanding1 and thus intellectual sympathy2 and he sees in the death of ,jesus the supreme symbol of this highest mental state4 ',and if ,god dieth not for ,man and giveth not himself ,eternally for ,man1 ,man could not exist1 for ,man is love1 ,as ,god is ,love3 every kindness to another is a little ,death ,in the ,divine ,image1 nor can ,man exist but by ,brotherhood4' ,of ,blake it may be said as he says of ,albion3 ',he felt that ,love and ,pity are the same1' and to ,love and ,pity he gave the ultimate jurisdiction over humanity4 ,blake's gospel of forgiveness rests on a very elaborate structure1 which he has built up in his doctrine of ',states4' ,at the head of the address to the ,deists in the third chapter of ,jerusalem1 he has written3 ',the ,spiritual ,states of the ,soul are all ,eternal4 ,distinguish between the ,man and his present ,state4' ,much of his subtlest casuistry is expended on this distinction1 and1 as he makes it1 it is profoundly suggestive4 ,erin says1 in ,jerusalem3 ',learn therefore1 ,o ,sisters1 to distinguish the ,eternal ,human ,that walks about among the stones of fire1 in bliss and woe ,alternate1 from those ,states or ,worlds in which the ,spirit travels3 ,this is the only means to ,forgiveness of ,enemies4' ,the same image is used again3 ',as the ,pilgrim passes while the ,country permanent remains1 ,so ,men pass on2 but ,states remain permanent for ever2' ,and1 again1 in almost the same words1 in the prose fragment on the picture of the ',last ,judgment'3 ',man passes on1 but states remain for ever2 he passes through them like a traveller1 who may as well suppose that the places he has passed through exist no more1 as a man may suppose that the states he has passed through exist no more3 everything is eternal4' ,by states ,blake means very much what we mean by moods1 which1 in common with many mystics1 he conceives as permanent spiritual forces1 through which what is transitory in man passes1 while man imagines that they1 more transitory than himself1 are passing through him4 ,it is from this conception of man as a traveller1 and of good and evil1 the passions and virtues and sensations and ideas of man1 as spiritual countries1 eternally remaining1 through which he passes1 that ,blake draws his inference3 condemn1 if you will1 the state which you call sin1 but do not condemn the individual whose passage through it may he a necessity of his journey4 ,and his litany is3 ',descend1 ,o ,lamb of ,god1 and take away the imputation of ,sin ,by the creation of ,states and the deliverance of ,individuals evermore4 ,amen4444 ,come then1 ,o ,lamb of ,god1 and take away the remembrance of ,sin4' ,,viii ,blake had already decided to leave ,felpham1 'with the full approbation of ,mr4 ,hayley1' as early as ,april #ahjc4';,but alas6' he writes to ,butts1 'now ,i may say to you--what perhaps ,i should not dare to say to any one else--that ,i can alone carry on my visionary studies in ,london unannoyed1 and that ,i may converse with my friends in eternity1 see visions1 dream dreams1 and prophesy1 and speak parables unobserved1 and at liberty from the doubts of other mortals4' ',there is no medium or middle state1' he adds1 'and if a man is the enemy of my spiritual life while he pretends to be the friend of my corporeal1 he is a real enemy4' ,hayley1 once fully realized1 had to be shaken off1 and we find ,blake taking rooms on the first-floor at #ag ,south ,molton ,street1 and preparing to move to ,london1 when an incident occurs which leaves him1 as he put it in a letter to ,butts1 'in a bustle to defend myself against a very unwarrantable warrant from a justice of the peace in ,chichester1 which was taken out against me by a private in ,captain ,leathes' troop of #ast or ,royal ,dragoon ,guards1 for an assault and seditious words4' ,this was a soldier whom ,blake had turned out of his garden1 'perhaps foolishly and perhaps not1' as he said1 but with unquestionable vigor4 ',it is certain1' he commented1 'that a too passive manner1 inconsistent with my active physiognomy1 had done me much mischief4' ,the 'contemptible business' was tried at ,chichester on ,january #aa1 #ahjd1 at the ,quarter ,sessions1 and ,blake was acquitted of the charge of high treason2 'which so gratified the auditory1' says the ,sussex ,advertiser of the date1 'that the court was1 in defiance of all decency1 thrown into an uproar by their noisy exultations4' ,london1 on his return to it1 seemed to ,blake as desirable as ,felpham had seemed after ,london2 and he writes to ,hayley3 ',the shops in ,london improve2 everything is elegant1 clean1 and neat2 the streets are widened where they were narrow2 even ,snow ,hill is become almost level and is a very handsome street1 and the narrow part of the ,strand near ,st4 ,clement's is widened and become very elegant4' ,but there were other reasons for satisfaction4 ,in a letter written before he left ,felpham1 ,blake said3 ',what is very pleasant1 every one who hears of my going to ,london applauds it as the only course for the interest of all concerned in my works2 observing that ,i ought not to be away from the opportunities ,london affords of seeing fine pictures1 and the various improvements in works of art going on in ,london4' ,in ,october #ahjd he writes to ,hayley1 in the most ecstatic of his letters1 recording the miracle or crisis that has suddenly opened his eyes1 vitalizing the meditations of ,felpham4 ',suddenly1' says the famous letter1 'on the day after visiting the ,truchsessian ,gallery of pictures1 ,i was again enlightened with the light ,i enjoyed in my youth1 and which has for exactly twenty years been closed from me as by a door and by window-shutters4444 ,dear ,sir1 excuse my enthusiasm1 or rather madness1 for ,i am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever ,i take a pencil or graver into my hand1 even as ,i used to be in my youth1 and as ,i have not been for twenty dark1 but very profitable years4' ,some of this new radiance may be seen in the water-color of ',the ,river of ,life1' which has been assigned by ,mr4 ,russell to this year2 and in those ',inventions' in illustration of ,blair's ,grave1 by which ,blake was to make his one appeal to the public of his time4 ,that appeal he made through the treacherous services of a sharper named ,cromek1 an engraver and publisher of prints1 who bought the twelve drawings for the price of twenty pounds1 on the understanding that they were to be engraved by their designer2 and thereupon handed them over to the fashionable ,schiavonetti1 telling ,blake 'your drawings have had the good fortune to be engraved by one of the first artists in ,europe4' ,he further caused a difference between ,blake and ,stothard which destroyed a friendship of nearly thirty years1 never made up in the lifetime of either1 though ,blake made two efforts to be reconciled4 ,the story of the double commission given by ,cromek for a picture of ,chaucer's ,canterbury ,pilgrims1 and of the twofold accusation of plagiarism1 is told clearly enough in the narrative of ,j4 ,t4 ,smith 7p4 #cfh below71 while ,cunningham does his best to confuse the facts in the interests of ,cromek4 ,it has been finally summed up by ,mr4 ,swinburne1 who comes to this reasonable conclusion3 ',it is probable that ,stothard believed himself to be not in the wrong2 it is certain that ,blake was in the right4' ,as for ,cromek1 he has written himself down for all time in his true character1 naked and not ashamed1 in a letter to ,blake of ,may #ahjg1 where the false bargainer asserts3 ',herein ,i have been gratified2 for ,i was determined to bring you food as well as reputation1 though1 from your late conduct1 ,i have some reason to embrace your wild opinion1 that to manage genius1 and to cause it to produce good things1 it is absolutely necessary to starve it2 indeed1 the opinion is considerably heightened by the recollection that your best work1 the illustrations of ,the ,grave1 was produced when you and ,mrs4 ,blake were reduced so low as to be obliged to live on half a guinea a week4' ,cromek published the book by subscription in ,august #ahjh1 with an 'advertisement' invoking the approval of the drawings as 'a high and original effort of genius' by eleven ,royal ,academicians1 including ,benjamin ,west1 ,flaxman1 ,lawrence1 and ,stothard4 ',to the elegant and classical taste of ,mr4 ,fuseli1' he tells us further1 'he is indebted for the excellent remarks on the moral worth and picturesque dignity of the ,designs that accompany this ,poem4' ,fuseli praises pompously the 'genuine and unaffected attitudes1' the 'simple graces which nature and the heart alone can dictate1 and only an eye inspired by both1 discover1' though finding the artist 'playing on the very verge of legitimate invention4' ,it is by the designs to ,blair's ,grave that ,blake is still perhaps chiefly known1 outside his own public2 nor was he ever so clear1 or1 in a literal way1 so convincing in his rendering of imaginative reality4 ,something formal tempers and makes the ecstasy explicit2 the drawing is inflexibly elegant2 all the ,gothic secrets that had been learnt among the tombs in ,westminster ,abbey find their way into these stony and yet strangely living death-beds and monuments of death4 ,no more vehement movement was ever perpetrated than that leap together of the soul and body meeting as the grave opens4 ,if ever the soul was made credible to the mind through the eyes1 it is in these designs carved out of abstract form1 and planned according to a logic which is partly literal faith in imagination and partly the curtailment of scholastic drawing4 ,the book contains the names of more than five hundred subscribers1 but only one contemporary notice has been found1 a notice of two columns1 mere drivel and mere raving1 signed by the happily undiscovered initials ,r4 ,h41 in the thirty-second number of ,leigh ,hunt's paper1 ,the ,examiner 7,august #g1 #ahjh1 pp4 #eji1 #eaj74 ,it is under the heading ',fine ,arts1' and is called ',blake's edition of ,blair's ,grave4' ,the notice is rendered specially grotesque by its serious air of arguing with what it takes to be absurdity coupled with 'an appearance of libidinousness' which 'intrudes itself upon the holiness of our thoughts and counteracts their impression4' ,like most moralists of the press1 this critic's meaning is hard to get at4 ,here1 however1 is a specimen3 ',but a more serious censure attaches to two of these most heterogeneous and serio-fantastic designs4 ,at the awful day of judgment1 before the throne of ,god himself1 a male and female figure are described in most indecent attitudes4 ,it is the same with the salutation of a man and his wife meeting in the pure mansions of ,heaven4' ,thus sanctified a voice was it that first croaked at ,blake out of the 'nest of villains' which he imagined that he was afterwards to 'root out' of ,the ,examiner4 ,a quite different view of him is to be found in a book which was published before the ,grave actually came out1 though it contains a reference to the designs and to the 'ardent and encomiastic applause' of 'some of the first artists in the country4' ,the book1 which contained an emblematic frontispiece designed by ,blake and engraved by ,cromek1 was ,a ,father's ,memoirs of his ,child1 written by ,benjamin ,heath ,malkin1 then headmaster of ,bury ,grammar ,school1 in which the father gives a minute and ingenuous account of his child1 a prodigy of precocious intellect1 who died at the age of nearly seven years4 ,the child was accustomed to do little drawings1 some of which are reproduced in the book in facsimile1 and the father1 after giving his own opinion of them1 adds3 ',yet1 as my panegyric on such a subject can carry with it no recommendation1 ,i subjoin the testimony of ,mr4 ,blake to this instance of peculiar ingenuity1 who has given me his opinion of these various performances in the following terms3-- ',they are all firm1 determinate outlines1 or identical form4 ,had the hand which executed these little ideas been that of a plagiary1 who works only from the memory1 we should have seen blots1 called masses2 blots without form1 and therefore without meaning4 ,these blots of light and dark1 as being the result of labour1 are always clumsy and indefinite2 the effect of rubbing out and putting in1 like the progress of a blind man1 or of one in the dark1 who feels his way1 but does not see it4 ,these are not so4 ,even the copy of ,raphael's cartoon of ,st4 ,paul preaching is a firm1 determinate outline1 struck at once1 as ,protogenes struck his line1 when he meant to make himself known to ,apelles4 ,the map of ,allestone has the same character of the firm and determinate4 ,all his efforts prove this little boy to have had that greatest of all blessings1 a strong imagination1 a clear idea1 and a determinate vision of things in his own mind4' ,it is in the lengthy dedication of the book to ,thomas ,johnes1 the translator of ,froissart1 that ,dr4 ,malkin gives the very interesting personal account of ,blake which is reprinted on p4 #cjg below4 ,it is not certain whether ,blake had ever known little ,thomas ,malkin1 and it would be interesting to know whether it was through any actual influence of his that the child had come to his curious invention of an imaginary country4 ,he drew the map of this country1 peopled with names 7,nobblede and ,bobblobb1 ,punchpeach and ,closetha7 scarcely more preposterous than the names which ,blake was just then discovering for his own spiritual regions1 wrote its chronicles1 and even made music for it4 ,the child was born in #agie and died in #ahjb1 and ,blake had been at ,felpham since ,september #ahjj2 but1 if they had met before that date1 there was quite time for ,blake's influence to have shown itself4 ,in #agii the astonishing child 'could read1 without hesitation1 any ,english book4 ,he could spell any words4444 ,he knew the ,greek alphabet'2 and on his fourth birthday1 in that year1 he writes to his mother saying that he has got a ,latin grammar and ,english prints4 ,in ,october #ahjj he says3 ',i know a deal of ,latin1' and in ,december he is reading ,burns's poems1 'which ,i am very fond of4' ,influence or accident1 the coincidence is singular1 and at least shows us something in ,blake's brain working like the brain of a precocious child4 ,in #ahjf ,blake wrote a generous and vigorous letter to the editor of the ,monthly ,review 7,july #a1 #ahjf7 in reply to a criticism which had appeared in ,bell's ,weekly ,messenger on ,fuseli's picture of ,count ,ugolino in the ,royal ,academy4 ,in #ahjh he had himself1 and for the fifth and last time1 two pictures in the ,academy1 and in that year he wrote the letter to ,ozias ,humphrey1 describing one of his many ',last ,judgments1' which is given1 with a few verbal errors1 by ,j4 ,t4 ,smith4 ,in ,december he wrote to ,george ,cumberland1 who had written to order for a friend 'a complete set of all you have published in the way of books colored as mine are1' that 'new varieties1 or rather new pleasures1 occupy my thoughts2 new profits seem to arise before me so tempting that ,i have already involved myself in engagements that preclude all possibility of promising anything4' ,does this refer to the success of ,blair's ,grave1 which had just been published8 ,he goes on3 ',i have1 however1 the satisfaction to inform you that ,i have myself begun to print an account of my various inventions in ,art1 for which ,i have procured a publisher1 and am determined to pursue the plan of publishing1 that ,i may get printed without disarranging my time1 which in future must alone be designing and painting4' ,to this project1 which was never carried out1 he refers again in the prospectus printed in anticipation of his exhibition1 a copy of which1 given to ,ozias ,humphreys1 exists with the date ,may #ae1 #ahji4 ,a second prospectus is given by ,gilchrist as follows3-- ',blake's ,chaucer1 the ,canterbury ,pilgrims4 ,this ,fresco ,picture1 representing ,chaucer's ,characters1 painted by ,william ,blake1 as it is now submitted to the public4 ',the designer proposes to engrave in a correct and finished line manner of engraving1 similar to those original copper-plates of ,albert ,drer1 ,lucas ,van ,leyden1 ,aldegrave1 and the old original engravers1 who were great masters in painting and designing2 whose methods alone can delineate ,character as it is in this ,picture1 where all the lineaments are distinct4 ',it is hoped that the ,painter will be allowed by the public 7notwithstanding artfully disseminated insinuations to the contrary7 to be better able than any other to keep his own characters and expressions2 having had sufficient evidence in the works of our own ,hogarth1 that no other artist can reach the original spirit so well as the ,painter himself1 especially as ,mr4 ,b4 is an old1 well-known1 and acknowledged graver4 ',the size of the engraving will be three feet one inch long by one foot high4 ,the artist engages to deliver it1 finished1 in one year from ,september next4 ,no work of art can take longer than a year3 it may be worked backwards and forwards without end1 and last a man's whole life2 but he will1 at length1 only be forced to bring it back to what it was1 and it will be worse than it was at the end of the first twelve months4 ,the value of this artist's year is the criterion of ,society2 and as it is valued1 so does ,society flourish or decay4 ',the price to ,subscribers1 ,four ,guineas2 two to be paid at the time of subscribing1 the other two1 on delivery of the print4 ',subscriptions received at ,no4 #bh1 corner of ,broad ,street1 ,golden ,square1 where the ,picture is now exhibiting1 among other works1 by the same artist4 ',the price will be considerably raised to non-subscribers4' ,the exhibition thus announced was held at the house of ,james ,blake1 and contained sixteen pictures1 of which the first nine are described as ',frescoes' or 'experiment pictures1' and the remaining seven as drawings1' that is1 drawings in water-color4 ,the ,catalogue 7which was included in the entrance fee of half a crown7 is ,blake's most coherent work in prose1 and can be read in ,gilchrist1 ii4 #aci-afc4 ,it is called ',a ,descriptive ,catalogue of ,pictures1 ,poetical and ,historical ,inventions1 painted by ,william ,blake1 in ,water-,colors1 being the ancient ,method of ,fresco ,painting ,restored2 and ,drawings1 for ,public ,inspection1 and for ,sale by ,private ,contract4' ,crabb ,robinson1 from whom we have the only detailed account of the exhibition1 says that the pictures filled 'several rooms of an ordinary dwelling-house' 7see p4 ,from ,crabb ,robinson's ,reminiscences1 below47 ,he mentions ,lamb's delight in the ,catalogue1#e and his declaring 'that ,blake's description was the finest criticism he had ever read of ,chaucer's poem4' ,in that letter to ,bernard ,barton 7,may #ae1 #ahbd71 which is full of vivid admiration for ,blake 7',i must look on him as one of the most extraordinary persons of the age'71 ,lamb speaks of the criticism as 'most spirited1 but mystical and full of vision1' and says3 ',his pictures--one in particular1 the ,canterbury ,pilgrims1 7far above ,stothard's7--have great merit1 but hard1 dry1 yet with grace4' ,southey1 we know from a sneer in ,the ,doctor at 'that painter of great but insane genius1 ,william ,blake1' also went to the exhibition1 and found1 he tells us1 the picture of ',the ,ancient ,britons1' 'one of the worst pictures1 which is saying much4' ,a note to ,mr4 ,swinburne's ,william ,blake tells us that in the competent opinion of ,mr4 ,seymour ,kirkup this picture was 'the very noblest of all ,blake's works4' ,it is now lost2 it was probably ,blake's largest work1 the figures1 ,blake asserts1 being 'full as large as life4' ,of the other pictures the seventh1 eighth1 ninth1 tenth1 and sixteenth are lost2 the ninth exists in a replica in 'fresco1' and the sixteenth in what is probably a first sketch4 ,blake's reason for giving this exhibition was undoubtedly indignation at what he took to be ,stothard's treachery in the matter of the ',canterbury ,pilgrims4' ,this picture 7now in the ,national ,gallery1 ,no4 #aafc7 had been exhibited by ,cromek throughout the kingdom1 and he had announced effusively1 in a seven page advertisement at the end of ,blair's ,grave1 the issue of 'a print executed in the line manner of engraving1 and in the same excellent style as the portrait of ,mr4 ,william ,blake1 prefixed to this work1 by ,louis ,schiavonetti1 ,esq41 ,v4 ,a41 the gentleman who has etched the prints that at once illustrate and embellish the present volume4' ,the ,descriptive ,catalogue is full of angry scorn of 'my rival1' as ,blake calls ,stothard1 and of the 'dumb dollies' whom he has 'jumbled together' in his design1 and of ,hoppner for praising them in the letter quoted in the advertisement4 ',if ,mr4 ,b4's ,canterbury ,pilgrims had been done by any other power than that of the poetic visionary1 it would have been as dull as his adversary's1' ,blake assures us1 and1 no doubt1 justly4 ,the general feeling of ,blake's friends1 ,i doubt not1 is summed up in an ill-spelled letter from young ,george ,cumberland to his father1 written from the ,pay ,office1 ,whitehall1 ,october #ad1 #ahji1 which ,i copy in all its literal slovenliness from the letter preserved in the ,cumberland ,papers3 ',blakes has published a ,catalogue of ,pictures being the ancient method of ,frescoe ,painting ,restored you should tell ,mr4 ,barry to get it1 it may be the means of serving your friend4 ,it sells for #b_/f and may be had of ,j4 ,blake1 #bh ,broad ,st41 ,golden ,square1 at his ,brothers--the ,book is a great curiosity4 ,he as given ,stothard a complete set down4' ,the ,catalogue is badly printed on poor paper in the form of a small octavo hook of #ff pages4 ,it is full of fierce1 exuberant wisdom1 which plunges from time to time into a bright1 demonstrative folly2 it is a confession1 a criticism1 and a kind of gospel of sanctity and honesty and imagination in art4 ,the whole thing is a thinking aloud4 ,one hears an impetuous voice as if saying3 ',i have been scorned long enough by these fellows1 who owe to me all that they possess2 it shall be so no longer4' ,as he thinks1 his pen follows2 he argues with foes actually visible to him2 never does he realize the indifferent public that may glance at what he has written1 and how best to interest or convince it if it does4 ,he throws down a challenge1 and awaits an answer4 ,what answer came is rememberable among the infamies of journalism4 ,only one newspaper noticed the exhibition1 and this was again ,the ,examiner4 ,the notice appeared under the title ',mr4 ,blake's ,exhibition' in ,no4 #ij1 ,september #ag1 #ahji1 pp4 #fje-f1 where it fills two columns4 ,it is unsigned1 but there can be no doubt that it was written by the ,r4 ,h4 of the former article4 ,the main part of it is taken up by extracts from the ,descriptive ,catalogue1 italicized and put into small capitals 'to amuse the reader1 and satisfy him of the truth of the foregoing remarks4' ,this is all that need be quoted of the foregoing remarks3 ',but when the ebullitions of a distempered brain are mistaken for the sallies of genius by those whose works have exhibited the soundest thinking in art1 the malady has indeed attained a pernicious height1 and it becomes a duty to endeavor to arrest its progress4 ,such is the case with the productions and admirers of ,william ,blake1 an unfortunate lunatic1 whose personal inoffensiveness secures him from confinement1 and1 consequently1 of whom no public notice would have been taken1 if he was not forced on the notice and animadversion of ,the ,examiner1 in having been held up to public admiration by many esteemed amateurs and professors as a genius in some respect original and legitimate4 ,the praises which these gentlemen bestowed last year on this unfortunate man's illustrations to ,blair's ,grave have1 in feeding his vanity1 stimulated him to publish his madness more largely1 and thus again exposed him1 if not to the derision1 at least to the pity of the public4 444,thus encouraged1 the poor man fancies himself a great master1 and has painted a few wretched pictures1 some of which are unintelligible allegory1 others an attempt at sober character by caricature representation1 and the whole blotted and blurred1 and very badly drawn4 ,these he calls an ,exhibition1 of which he has published a ,catalogue1 or rather a farrago of nonsense1 unintelligibleness1 and egregious vanity1 the wild effusions of a distempered brain4 ,one of the pictures represents ,chaucer's ,pilgrims1 and is in every respect a striking contrast to the admirable picture of the same subject by ,mr4 ,stothard1 from which an exquisite print is forthcoming from the hand of ,schiavonetti4' ,the last great words of the ,catalogue1 ',if a man is master of his profession1 he cannot be ignorant that he is so2 and1 if he is not employed by those who pretend to encourage art1 he will employ himself1 and laugh in secret at the pretenses of the ignorant1 while he has every night dropped into his shoe1 as soon as he puts it off1 and puts out the candle1 and gets into bed1 a reward for the labours of the day such as the world cannot give1 and patience and time await to give him all that the world can give'3 those noble1 lovely1 pathetic and prophetic words1 are quoted at the end of the article without comment1 as if to quote them was enough4 ,it was4 ,in #ahjc ,william ,blake sold to ,thomas ,butts eleven drawings for fourteen guineas4 ,in #aijc twelve water-color drawings in illustration of ,l',allegro and ,il ,penseroso were sold for #aifj1 and the twenty-one water-color drawings for ,job for #efjj4 ,these figures have their significance1 but the significance must not be taken to mean any improvement in individual taste4 ,when a selection from the pictures in the ,butts collection was on view at ,sotheby's ,i heard a vulgar person with a loud voice1 a dealer or a dealer's assistant1 say with a guffaw3 ',it would make me sick to have these things round my room4' ,that vulgar person represents the eternal taste of the multitude2 only1 in the course of a hundred years1 a few men of genius have repeated after one another that ,blake was a man of genius1 and their united voices have carried further than the guffaws of vulgar persons1 repeated generation after generation4 ,and so in due course1 when ,blake has been properly dead long enough1 there is a little public which1 bidding against itself1 gambles cheerfully for the possession of the scraps of paper on which he sent in his account1 against the taste of his age and the taste of all the ages4 ,blake himself had never any doubt of his own greatness as an artist1 and some of the proud or petulant things which he occasionally wrote 7the only outbreaks of impatience in a life wholly given up to unceasing and apparently unrewarded labour7 have been quoted against him as petty or unworthy1 partly because they are so incalculated and so childlike4 ,blake 'bore witness1' as he might have said1 that he had done his duty3 'for that ,i cannot live without doing my duty1 to lay up treasures in heaven1 is certain and determined1' he writes from ,felpham4 ,and he asserted the truth of his own genius1 its truth in the spiritual sense1 its divine origin1 as directly and as emphatically as he asserted everything which he had apprehended as truth4 ,he is merely stating what seems to him an obvious but overlooked fact when he says3 ',in ,mr4 ,b4's ,britons the blood is seen to circulate in their limbs3 he defies competition in coloring'2 and again3 ',i am1 like other men1 just equal in invention and execution of my work1' ,all art1 he had realized1 which is true art1 is equal1 as every diamond is a diamond4 ,there is only true and false art4 ,thus when he says in his prospectus of #agic that he has been 'enabled to bring before the ,public works 7he is not afraid to say7 of equal magnitude and consequence with the productions of any age or country1' he means neither more nor less than when he says in the ,descriptive ,catalogue of #ahji3 ',he knows that what he does is not inferior to the grandest antiques4 ,superior it cannot be1 for human power cannot go beyond either what he does or what they have done2 it is the gift of ,god1 it is inspiration and vision4 444,the human mind cannot go beyond the gift of ,god1 the ,holy ,ghost4' ,it is in humility rather than in pride that he equals himself with those who seemed to him the genuine artists1 the humility of a belief that all art is only a portion of that ',poetic ,genius1 which is the ,lord1' offered up in homage by man1 and returning1 in mere gratitude1 to its origin4 ,when he says1 ',i do not pretend to paint better than ,rafael or ,michael ,angelo1 or ,julio ,romano1 or ,albert ,drer1 but ,i do pretend to paint finer than ,rubens1 or ,rembrandt1 or ,titian1 or ,correggio1' he merely means1 in that odd coupling and contrasting of names1 to assert his belief in the supremacy of strong1 clear1 masculine execution over what seemed to him 7to his limited knowledge1 not false instinct7 the heresy and deceit of 'soft and effeminate' execution1 the 'broken lines1 broken masses1 and broken colors' of the art which 'loses form4' ,in standing up for his ideal of art1 he stands up himself1 like a champion4 ',i am hid1' he writes on the flyleaf of ,reynolds's ,discourses1 and1 in the last sentence of that ',public ,address' which was never printed1 he declares3 ',resentment for personal injuries has had some share in this public address1 but love to my art1 and zeal for my country1 a much greater4' ,and in the last sentence of the ,descriptive ,catalogue1 he sums up the whole matter1 so far as it concerned him1 finally1 and with a 'sure and certain hope' which1 now that it has been realized1 so long afterwards1 comes to us like a reproach4 ',shall ,painting1' asks ,blake in his ,descriptive ,catalogue1 'be confined to the sordid drudgery of facsimile representations of merely mortal and perishing substances1 and not be1 as poetry and music are1 elevated into its own proper sphere of invention and visionary conception8 ,no1 it shall not be so6 ,painting1 as well as poetry and music1 exists and exults in immortal thoughts4' ,it was to restore this conception of art to ,england that ,blake devoted his life4 ',the ,enquiry in ,england1' he said1 in his marginalia to ,reynolds1 'is not whether a ,man has ,talents and ,genius1 but whether he is ,passive and ,polite and a ,virtuous ,ass4' ,he says there3 ',ages are all ,equal1 but ,genius is always above the ,age4' ,he looks on ,bacon and ,locke and ,burke and ,reynolds as men who 'mock ,inspiration and ,vision4' ',inspiration and ,vision1' he says1 'was then1 and now is1 and ,i hope will always ,remain1 my ,element1 my ,eternal ,dwelling-place4' ',the ,ancients did not mean to ,impose when they affirmed their belief in ,vision and ,revelation4 ,plato was in ,earnest4 ,milton was in ,earnest4 ,they believed that ,god did visit ,man ,really and ,truly4' ,further1 ',knowledge of ,ideal ,beauty is not to be ,acquired4 ,it is born with us4444 ,man is ,born ,like a ,garden ready ,planted and ,sown4 ,this ,world is too poor to produce one ,seed4' ,what ,blake meant by vision1 how significantly yet cautiously he interchanged the words 'seen' and 'imagined1' has been already noted in that passage of the ,descriptive ,catalogue1 where he answers his objectors3 ',the connoisseurs and artists who have made objections to ,mr4 ,b4's mode of representing spirits with real bodies would do well to consider that the ,venus1 the ,minerva1 the ,jupiter1 the ,apollo1 which they admire in ,greek statues are1 all of them1 representations of spiritual existences1 of ,gods immortal1 to the ordinary perishing organ of sight2 and yet they are embodied and organized in solid marble4 ,mr4 ,b4 requires the same latitude1 and all is well4' ,then comes the great definition1 which ,i will not repeat3 ',he who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments4' ',the world of imagination1' he says elsewhere1 'is infinite and eternal1 whereas the world of generation or vegetation is finite and temporal4 ,there exist in that eternal world the eternal realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature4' ,what is said here1 transmuted by an instinct wholly an artist's into a great defense of the reality of imagination in art1 is a form of the central doctrine of the mystics1 formulated by ,swedenborg in something very like ,blake's language1 though with errors or hesitations which is what ,blake sets himself to point out in his marginalia to ,swedenborg4 ,as1 in those marginalia1 we see ,blake altering every allusion to ,god into an allusion to 'the ,poetic ,genius1' so1 always1 we shall find him understanding every promise of ,christ1 or ,old ,testament prophecy1 as equally translatable into terms of the imaginative life1 into terms of painting1 poetry1 or music4 ,in the rendering of vision he required above all things that fidelity which can only be obtained through 'minutely particular' execution4 ',invention depends ,altogether upon ,execution or ,organisation2 as that is right or wrong1 so is the ,invention perfect or imperfect4 ,whoever is set to ,undermine the ,execution of ,art is set to destroy ,art4 ,michael ,angelo's ,art depends on ,michael ,angelo's ,execution ,altogether4444 ,he who admires ,rafael ,must admire ,rafael's ,execution4 ,he who does not admire ,rafael's ,execution can not admire ,rafael4' ,finally1 'the great and golden rule of art as well as of life1' he says in the ,descriptive ,catalogue1 'is this3 that the more distinct1 sharp1 and wiry the bounding line1 the more perfect the work of art2 and the less keen and sharp1 the greater is the evidence of weak imagination1 plagiarism1 and bungling4444 ,what is it that distinguishes honesty from knavery1 but the hard and wiry line of rectitude and certainty in the actions and intentions8 ,leave out this line1 and you leave out life itself4 ,all is chance again1 and the line of the ,almighty must be drawn out upon it again1 before man or beast can exist4' ,in ,blake's work a great fundamental conception is rarely lacking1 and the conception is not1 as it has often been asserted1 a literary1 but always a pictorial1 one4 ,at times imagination and execution are wholly untired1 as in the splendid water-color of ',death on the ,pale ,horse1' in which not only every line and color is alive with passionate idea1 the implacable and eternal joy of destruction1 but also with a realized beauty1 a fully grasped invention4 ,no detail has been slurred in vision1 or in the setting down of the vision3 the crowned old man with the sword1 the galloping horse1 the pestilential figure of putrid scales and flames below1 and the wide-armed angel with the scroll-above4 ,in the vision of ',fire' there is grandeur and1 along with it1 something inadequately seen1 inadequately rendered4 ,flame and smoke embrace1 coil1 spire1 swell in bellying clouds1 divide into lacerating tongues1 tangle and whirl ecstatically upward and onward1 like a venomous joy in action1 painting the air with all the color of all the flowers of evil4 ,but the figures in the foreground are partly academic studies1 partly archaic dolls1 in which only the intention is admirable4 ,in ',job ,confessing his ,presumption to ,god' one sees all that is great and all that is childish in ,blake's genius4 ,i have never seen so sufficing a suggestion of disembodied divine forces as in this whirling cloud of angels1 cast out and swept round by the wind of ,god's speed1 like a cascade of veined and tapering wings1 out of which ecstatic and astonished heads leap forward4 ,but in the midst of the wheel a fierce old man1 with outstretched arms 7who is an image of ,god certainly not corrected out of any authentic vision71 and1 below1 the extinguished figure of ,job's friends1 and ,job1 himself one of ,blake's gnome-like old men with a face of rigid awe and pointing fingers of inarticulate terror1 remain no more than statements1 literal statements1 of the facts of the imagination4 ,they are summarized remembrances of vision1 not anything 'imagined in stronger and better lineaments1 and in stronger and better light1 than the perishing mortal eye can see4' ,or1 might it not be said that it is precisely through this minute accuracy to the detail of imagination that this visionary reality comes to seem to us unreal8 ,in ,blake every detail is seen with intensity1 and with equal intensity4 ,no one detail is subordinated to another1 every inch of his surface is equally important to him2 and from this unslackening emphasis come alike his arresting power and the defect which leaves us1 though arrested1 often unconvinced4 ,in his most splendid things1 as in ',satan exulting over ,job' and ',cain fleeing from the ,grave of ,abel1' which are painted on wood1 as if carved or graved1 with a tumult of decorative color1 detail literally overpowers the sense of sight1 like strong sunlight1 and every outline seizes and enters into you simultaneously4 ,at times1 as in ',the ,bard of ,gray1' and ',the ,spiritual ,form of ,pitt' in the ,national ,gallery1 he is mysteriously lyrical in his paint1 and creates a vague emotion out of a kind of musical color1 which is content to suggest4 ,still more rarely1 as in the ripe and admirable ',canterbury ,pilgrims1' which is a picture in narrative1 as like ,chaucer as ,chaucer himself1 but unlike any other picture1 he gives us a vision of worldly reality2 but it was of this picture that he said3 ',if ,mr4 ,b4's ,canterbury ,pilgrims had been done by any other power than that of the poetic visionary1 it would have been as dull as his adversary's4' ,pure beauty and pure terror creep and flicker in and out of all his pictures1 with a child's innocence2 and he is unconscious of how far he is helped or hindered1 as an artist1 by that burden of a divine message which is continually upon him4 ,he is unconscious that with one artist the imagination may overpower the technique1 as awe overpowers the senses1 while to another artist the imagination gives new life to the technique4 ,blake did not understand ,rembrandt1 and imagined that he hated him2 but there are a few of his pictures in which ,rembrandt is strangely suggested4 ,in ',the ,adoration of the ,three ,kings' and in ',the ,angel appearing to ,zacharias' there is a lovely depth of color1 bright in dimness1 which has something of the warmth and mystery of ,rembrandt1 and there are details in the design of ',the ,three ,kings' 7the door open on the pointing star in the sky and on the shadowy multitude below7 which are as fine in conception as anything in the ,munich ',adoration of the ,shepherds4' ,but in these1 or in the almost finer ',christ in the ,garden1 sustained by an ,angel' 7fire flames about the descending angel1 and the garden is a forest of the night71 how fatal to our enjoyment is the thought of ,rembrandt6 ,to ,rembrandt1 too1 all things were visions1 but they were visions that he saw with unflinching eyes2 he saw them with his hands2 he saw them with the faces and forms of men1 and with the lines of earthly habitations4 ,and1 above all1 ,rembrandt1 all the greatest painters1 saw a picture as a whole1 composed every picture consciously1 giving it unity by his way of arranging what he saw4 ,blake was too humble towards vision to allow himself to compose or arrange what he saw1 and he saw in detail1 with an unparalleled fixity and clearness4 ,every picture of ,blake1 quite apart from its meaning to the intelligence1 is built up in detail like a piece of decoration2 and1 widely remote as are both intention and result1 ,i am inclined to think he composed as ,japanese artists compose1 bit by bit1 as he saw his picture come piece by piece before him4 ,in every picture there is a mental idea1 and there is also a pictorial conception1 working visually and apart from the mental idea4 ,in the greatest pictures 7in the tremendous invention1 for instance1 of the soldiers on ,calvary casting lots for the garments of ,christ71 the two are fused1 with overwhelming effect2 but it happens frequently that the two fail to unite1 and we see the picture1 and also the idea1 but not the idea embodied in the picture4 ,blake's passion for detail1 and his refusal to subordinate any detail for any purpose1 is to be seen in all his figures1 of which the bodies seem to be copied from living statues1 and in which the faces are wrung into masks of moods which they are too urgent to interpret4 ,a world of conventional patterns1 in which all natural things are artificial and yet expressive1 is peopled by giants and dolls1 muscular and foolish1 in whom strength becomes an insane gesture and beauty a formal prettiness4 ,not a flower or beast has reality1 as our eyes see it1 yet every flower and beast is informed by an almost human soul1 not the mere vitality of animal or vegetable1 but a consciousness of its own lovely or evil shape4 ,his snakes are not only wonderful in their coils and colors1 but each has his individual soul1 visible in his eyes1 and interpreting those coils and colors4 ,and every leaf1 unnatural yet alive1 and always a piece of decoration1 peers with some meaning of its own out of every corner1 not content to be forgotten1 and so uneasily alive that it draws the eye to follow it4 ',as poetry1' he said1 'admits not a letter that is insignificant1 so painting admits not a grain of sand or a blade of grass insignificant--much less an insignificant blur or mark4' ,the stones with which ,achan has been martyred live each with a separate and evil life of its own1 not less vivid and violent than the clenched hands raised to hurl other stones2 there is menacing gesture in the cloud of dust that rises behind them4 ,and these human beings and these angels1 and ,god 7sometimes an old bowed ,jew1 fitted into a square or lozenge of winged heads7 are full of the energy of a life which is betrayed by their bodies4 ,sometimes they are mere child's toys1 like a ,lucifer of bright baubles1 painted chromatically1 with pink hair and blushing wings1 hung with bursting stars that spill out animalcul4 ,sometimes the whole man is a gesture and convulses the sky2 or he runs1 and the earth vanishes under him4 ,but the gesture devours the man also2 his force as a cipher annihilates his very being4 ,in greatness of conception ,blake must be compared with the greatest among artists1 but the difference between ,blake and ,michelangelo is the difference between the artist in whom imagination overpowers technique1 as awe overpowers the senses1 and the artist in whom imagination gives new life to technique4 ,no one1 as we have seen1 was more conscious of the identity which exists in the work of the greatest artists between conception and execution4 ,but in speaking of invention and execution as equal1 he is assuming1 as he came to do1 the identity of art and inspiration1 the sufficiency of first thoughts in art4 ',be assured1' he writes to ,mr4 ,butts from ,felpham1 'that there is not one touch in those drawings and pictures but what came from my head and heart in unison4444 ,if ,i were to do them over again1 they would lose as much as they gained1 because they were done in the heat of my spirit4' ,he was an inexhaustible fountain of first thoughts1 and to him first thoughts only were of importance4 ,the one draughtsman of the soul1 he drew1 no doubt1 what he saw as he saw it2 but he lacked the patience which is a part of all supreme genius4 ,having seen his vision1 he is in haste to record what he has seen hastily2 and he leaves the first rough draft as it stands1 not correcting it by a deliberate seeing over again from the beginning1 and a scrupulous translation of the terms of eternity into the terms of time4 ,i was once showing ,rodin some facsimiles of ,blake's drawings1 and telling him about ,blake1 ,i said3 ',he used to literally see these figures2 they are not mere inventions4' ',yes1' said ,rodin1 'he saw them once2 he should have seen them three or four times4' ,there1 it seems to me1 is the fundamental truth about the art of ,blake3 it is a record of vision which has not been thoroughly mastered even as vision4 ',no man1' said ,blake1 'can improve an original invention2 nor can an original invention exist without execution organized1 delineated1 and articulated1 either by ,god or man4' ,and he said also3 ',he who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments1 and in stronger and better light1 than his perishing mortal eye can see1 does not imagine at all4' ,but ,blake's imagination is in rebellion1 not only against the limits of reality1 but against the only means by which he can make vision visible to others4 ,and thus he allows himself to be mastered by that against which he rebels3 that power of the hand by which art begins where vision leaves off4 ,,ix ,nothing is known of ,blake's life between #ahji1 the date of his exhibition1 and #ahah1 when he met the chief friend and helper of his later years1 ,john ,linnell4 ,everything leads us to believe that those nine years were years of poverty and neglect4 ,between #ahae and #ahag we find him doing engraver's task-work for ,flaxman's ,hesiod1 and for articles1 probably written by ,flaxman1 on ,armour and ,sculpture in ,bees's ,encyclopoedia4 ,gilchrist tells a story1 on the authority of ,tatham1 of ,blake copying the cast of the ,laocoon among the students at the ,royal ,academy1 and of ,fuseli1 then the keeper1 coming up with the just and pleasant remark that it was they who should learn of him1 not he of them4 ,the ,milton and the ,jerusalem1 both dated #ahjd1 were printed at some time during this period4 ,gilchrist suggests that the reason why ,blake issued no more engraved books from his press was probably his inability to pay for the copper required in engraving2 and his suggestion is confirmed in a letter to ,dawson ,turner1 a ,norfolk antiquary1 dated ,june #i1 #ahah1 a few days before the meeting with ,linnell4 ,blake writes3 ',i send you a list of the different works you have done me the honor to inquire after4 ,they are unprofitable enough to me1 though expensive to the buyer4 ,those ,i printed for ,mr4 ,humphry are a selection from the different books of such as could be printed without the writing1 though to the loss of some of the best things2 for they1 when printed perfect1 accompany poetical personifications and acts1 without which poems they never could have been executed3-- s4 d4 ,america1 #ah prints folio1 #e #e #j ,europe1 #ag do4 do41 #e #e #j ,visions1 #h do4 do41 #c #c #j ,thel1 #f do4 quarto1 #b #b #j ,songs of ,innocence1 #bh prints octavo1 #c #c #j ,songs of ,experience1 #bf do4 octavo1 #c #c #j ,urizen1 #bh prints quarto1 #e #e #j ,milton1 #ej do4 do41 #aj #aj #j #ab large prints1 size of each about #b ft4 by #a #a_/b ft41 historical and poetical1 printed in colours1 each #e #e #j ,the last twelve prints are unaccompanied by any writing4 ,the few ,i have printed and sold are sufficient to have gained me great reputation as an artist1 which was the chief thing intended4 ,but ,i have never been able to produce a sufficient number for general sale by means of a regular publisher4 ,it is therefore necessary to me that any person wishing to have any or all of them should send me their order to print them on the above terms1 and ,i will take care that they shall be done at least as well as any ,i have yet produced4' ,if we compare this list with the printed list of twenty-five years back 7see above ,william ,blake1 chapter ,,iii47 we shall see that the prices are now half as many guineas as they were once shillings2 in a letter to ,cumberland1 nine years later1 they have gone up by one1 two1 or three guineas apiece1 and ,blake tells ,cumberland that 'having none remaining of all that ,i had printed1 ,i cannot print more except at a great loss4 ,for at the time ,i printed these things ,i had a little house to range in4 ,now ,i am shut up in a corner1 therefore ,i am forced to ask a price for them that ,i can scarce expect to get from a stranger4 ,i am now printing a set of the ,songs of ,innocence and ,experience for a friend at ten guineas1 which ,i cannot do under six months consistent with my other work1 so that ,i have little hope of doing any more of such things4 ,the last work is a poem entitled ,jerusalem1 the ,emanation of the ,giant ,albion1 but find that to print it will cost my time to the value of twenty guineas4 ,one ,i have finished4 ,it contains #ajj plates1 but it is not likely that ,i shall get a customer for it4'#f ,gilchrist tells us1 by an error which was pointed out in the life of ,palmer by his son1 in #ahib1 that ,blake met ,linn ell in #ahac4 ,it was in #ahah1 and the first entry relating to ,blake in ,linnell's journal is dated ,june #bd4 ,in a letter communicated to me by ,mr4 ,sampson1 ,mr4 ,john ,linnell1 junior1 states that his father took in ,october or ,november #ahag the greater part of a house at #ch ,rathbone ,place1 where he lived till the end of #ahah2 he then took a house at ,cirencester ,place1 ,fitzroy ,square4 ,mr4 ,linnell gives the following extract from his father's autobiographical notes3 ',at ,rathbone ,place1 #ahah444 here ,i first became acquainted with ,william ,blake1 to whom ,i paid a visit in company with the younger ,mr4 ,cumberland4 ,blake lived then in ,south ,molton ,street1 ,oxford ,street1 second floor4 ,we soon became intimate1 and ,i employed him to help me with an engraving of my portrait of ,mr4 ,upton1 a ,baptist preacher1 which he was glad to do1 having scarcely enough employment to live by at the prices he could obtain2 everything in ,art was at a low ebb then4444 ,i soon encountered ,blake's peculiarities1 and somewhat taken aback by the boldness of some of his assertions1 ,i never saw anything the least like madness1 for ,i never opposed him spitefully1 as many did1 but being really anxious to fathom1 if possible1 the amount of truth which might be in his most startling assertions1 generally met with a sufficiently rational explanation in the most really friendly and conciliatory tone4' ,from #ahah ,linnell became1 in his own independent way1 the chief friend and disciple of ,blake4 ,himself a man of narrow but strong individuality1 he realized and accepted ,blake for what he was1 worked with him and for him1 introduced him to rich and appreciative buyers like ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence1 and gave him1 out of his own carefully controlled purse1 a steady price for his work1 which was at least enough for ,blake to live on4 ,there are notes in his journal of visits to picture-galleries together2 to the ,academy1 the ,british ,gallery1 the ,water-,color ,exhibition1 the ,spring ,gardens ,exhibition2 'went with ,mr4 ,blake to see ,harlow's copy of the ,transfiguration' 7,august #bj1 #ahai71 'went with ,mr4 ,blake to ,british ,museum to see prints' 7,april #d and #bd1 #ahbc74 ,in #ahbj there are notes of two visits to ,drury ,lane ,theatre4 ,it was probably early in #ahai that ,linnell introduced ,blake to his friend ,john ,varley1 the water-color painter and astrologer1 for whom ,blake did the famous 'visionary heads4' ,a vivid sketch of the two arguing1 drawn by ,linnell1 is given in ,mr4 ,story's ,life of ,linnell4 ,varley1 though an astrologer on the mathematical side1 was no visionary4 ,he persuaded ,blake to do a series of drawings1 naming historical or legendary people to him1 and carefully writing down name and date of the imaginary portraits which ,blake willingly drew1 and believing1 it has been said1 in the reality of ,blake's visions more than ,blake himself4 ,cunningham1 in his farcical way1 tells the story as he may have got it from ,varley 7see 7,,viii47 ,life of ,blake by ,allan ,cunningham4 below71 for he claims in a letter to ,linnell to have 'received much valuable information from him4' ,but the process has been described1 more simply1 by ,varley himself in his ,treatise of ,zodiacal ,physiognomy 7#ahbh71 where the ',ghost of a ,flea' and the ',constellation ,cancer' are reproduced in engraving4 ,some of the heads are finely symbolical1 and ,i should have thought the ghost of a flea1 in the sketch1 an invention more wholly outside nature if ,i had not seen1 in ,rome and in ,london1 a man in whom it is impossible not to recognize the type1 modified to humanity1 but scarcely by a longer distance than the men from the animals in ,giovanni della ,porta's ',fisonomia dell' ,huomo4' ,it was in #ahbj1 the year in which ,blake began his vast picture of the ',last ,judgment1' only finished in the year of his death1 that he did the seventeen woodcuts to ,thornton's ,virgil1 certainly one of his greatest1 his most wholly successful achievements4 ,the book was for boys' schools1 and we find ,blake returning without an effort to the childlike mood of the ,songs of ,innocence and ,experience4 ,the woodcuts have all the natural joy of those early designs1 an equal simplicity1 but with what added depth1 what richness1 what passionate strength6 ,blake was now engraving on wood for the first time1 and he had to invent his own way of working4 ,just what he did has never been better defined than in an article which appeared in the ,athenaeum of ,january #ba1 #ahdc1 one of the very few intelligent references to ,blake which can be found in print between the time of his death and the date of ,gilchrist's ,life4 ',we hold it impossible1' says the writer1 'to get a genuine work of art1 unless it come pure and unadulterated from the mind that conceived it4444 ,still more strongly is the author's meaning marked in the few wood-engravings which that wonderful man ,blake cut himself for an edition of ,thornton's ,pastorals of ,virgil4 ,in token of our faith in the principle here announced1 we have obtained the loan of one of ,blake's original blocks1 from ,mr4 ,linnell1 who possesses the whole series1 to print1 as an illustration of our argument1 that1 amid all drawbacks1 there exists a power in the work of the man of genius1 which no one but himself can utter fully4 ,side by side we have printed a copy of an engraver's improved version of the same subject4 ,when ,blake had produced his cuts1 which were1 however1 printed with an apology1 a shout of derision was raised by the wood-engravers4 ,this will never do6 said they2 we will show what it ought to be1--that is1 what the public taste would like--and they produced the above amendment6 ,the engravers were quite right in their estimate of public taste2 and we dare say many will agree with them even now3 yet1 to our minds1 ,blake's rude work1 utterly without pretension1 too1 as an engraving--the merest attempt of a fresh apprentice--is a work of genius2 whilst the latter is but a piece of smooth1 tame mechanism4' ,blake lived at ,south ,molton ,street for seventeen years4 ,in #ahba1 'on his landlord's leaving off business1 and retiring to ,france1' says ,linnell1 he removed to ,fountain ,court1 in the ,strand1 where he took the first floor of 'a private house kept by ,mr4 ,banes1 whose wife was a sister of ,mrs4 ,blake4' ,linnell tells us that he was at this time 'in want of employment1' and1 he says1 'before ,i knew his distress he had sold all his collection of old prints to ,messrs4 ,colnaghi and ,co4' ,through ,linnell's efforts1 a donation of #be was about the same time sent to him from the ,royal ,academy4 ,fountain ,court 7the name is still perpetuated on a metal slab7 was called so until #ahhc1 when the name was changed to ,southampton ,buildings4 ,it has all been pulled down and rebuilt1 but ,i remember it fifteen years ago1 when there were lodging-houses in it1 by the side of the stage-door of ,terry's ,theatre4 ,it was a narrow slit between the ,strand and the river1 and1 when ,i knew it1 was dark and comfortless1 a blind alley4 ,gilchrist describes the two rooms on the first floor1 front and back1 the front room used as a reception-room2 a smaller room opened out of it at the back1 which was workroom1 bedroom1 and kitchen in one4 ,the side window looked down through an opening between the houses1 showing the river and the hills beyond2 and ,blake worked at a table facing the window4 ,there seems to be no doubt1 from the testimony of many friends1 that ,crabb ,robinson's description1 which will be seen below1 with fuller detail than has yet been printed1 conveys the prejudiced view of a fastidious person1 and ,palmer1 roused by the word 'squalor1' wrote to ,gilchrist1 asserting 'himself1 his wife1 and his rooms1 were clean and orderly2 everything was in its place4' ,tatham says that 'he fixed upon these lodgings as being more congenial to his habits1 as he was very much accustomed to get out of his bed in the night to write for hours1 and return to bed for the rest of the night4' ,he rarely left the house1 except to fetch his pint of porter from the public-house at the corner of the ,strand4 ,it was on one of these occasions that he is said to have been cut by a ,royal ,academician whom he had recently met in society4 ,had not the ,royal ,academy been founded 7,j4 ,t4 ,smith tells us in his ,book for a ,rainy ,day1 under date #agfh7 by 'members who had agreed to withdraw themselves from various clubs1 not only in order to be more select as to talent1 but perfectly correct as to gentlemanly conduct'8 ,it was about this time that ,blake was discovered1 admired1 and helped by one who has been described as 'not merely a poet and a painter1 an art-critic1 an antiquarian1 and a writer of prose1 an amateur of beautiful things1 and a dilettante of things delightful1 but also a forger of no mean or ordinary capabilities1 and as a subtle and secret poisoner almost without rival in this or any age4' ,this was ,lamb's 'kind1 lighthearted ,wainewright1' who in the intervals of his strange crimes found time to buy a fine copy of the ,songs of ,innocence and to give a jaunty word of encouragement or advertisement to ,jerusalem4 ,palmer remembers ,blake stopping before one of ,wainewright's pictures in the ,academy and saying1 ',very fine4' ,in #ahbj ,blake had carried out his last commission from ,butts in a series of twenty-one drawings in illustration of the ,book of ,job4 ,in the following year ,linnell commissioned from him a duplicate set1 and in ,september #ahba traced them himself from ,butts's copies2 they were finished1 and in parts altered1 by ,blake4 ,by an agreement dated ,march #be1 #ahbc1 ,blake undertook to engrave the designs1 which were to be published by ,linnell1 who gave #ajj for the designs and copyright1 with the promise of another #ajj out of the profits on the sale4 ,there were no profits1 but ,linnell gave another #ej1 paying the whole sum of #aej in weekly sums of #b or #c4 ,the plates are dated ,march #h1 #ahbe1 but they were not published until the date given on the cover1 ,march #ahbf4 ,gilchrist intimates that 'much must be lost by the way' in the engraving of the water-color drawings2 but ,mr4 ,russell1 a better authority1 says that 'marvelous as the original water-color drawings unquestionably were1 they are in every case inferior to the final version in the engraving4' ,it is on these engravings that the fame of ,blake as an artist rests most solidly2 invention and execution are here1 as he declared that they must always be in great art1 equal2 imagination at its highest here finds adequate expression1 without even the lovely strangeness of a defect4 ,they have been finally praised and defined by ,rossetti1 in the pages contributed to ,gilchrist's life 7i4 #ccj-cce71 of which ,mr4 ,swinburne has said1 with little exaggeration1 that ',blake himself1 had he undertaken to write notes on his designs1 must have done them less justice than this4' ,before ,blake had finished engraving the designs to ',job' he had already begun a new series of illustrations to ,dante1 also a commission from ,linnell2 and1 with that passionate conscientiousness which was part of the foundation of his genius1 he set to work to learn enough ,italian to be able to follow the original with the help of ,cary's translation4 ,linnell not only let ,blake do the work he wanted to do1 paying him for it as he did it1 but he took him to see people whom it might be useful for him to know1 such as the ,aders1 who had a house full of books and pictures1 and who entertained artists and men of letters4 ,mrs4 ,aders had a small amateur talent of her own for painting1 and from a letter of ,carlyle's1 which is preserved among the ,crabb ,robinson papers1 seems to have had literary knowledge as well4 ',has not ,mrs4 ,aders 7the lady who lent me ,wilhelm ,meister7 great skill in1 such things8' he asks in a letter full of minute inquiries into ,german novels4 ,lamb and ,coleridge went to the house1 and it was there that ,crabb ,robinson met ,blake in ,december #ahbe4 ,mr4 ,story1 in his ,life of ,linnell1 tells us that one of ,linnell's 'most vivid recollections of those days was of hearing ,crabb ,robinson recite ,blake's poem1 ,the ,tiger1 before a distinguished company gathered at ,mrs4 ,aders's table4 ,it was a most impressive performance4' ,we find ,blake afterwards at a supper-party at ,crabb ,robinson's1 with ,linnell1 who notes in his journal going with ,blake to ,lady ,ford's1 to see her pictures2 in #ahbj we find him at ,lady ,caroline ,lamb's4 ,along with this general society ,blake now gathered about him a certain number of friends and disciples1 ,linnell being the steadiest friend1 and ,samuel ,palmer1 ,edward ,calvert1 and ,george ,richmond the chief disciples4 ,to these must be added1 in #ahbf1 ,frederick ,tatham1 a young sculptor1 who was to be the betrayer among the disciples4 ,they called ,blake's house 'the ,house of the ,interpreter1' and in speaking of it afterwards speak of it always as of holy ground4 ,thus we hear of ,richmond1 finding his invention flag1 going to seek counsel1 and how ,blake1 who was sitting at tea with his wife1 turned to her and said3 ',what do we do1 ,kate1 when the visions forsake us8' ',we kneel down and pray1 ,mr4 ,blake4' ,it is ,richmond who records a profoundly significant saying of ,blake3 ',i can look at a knot in a piece of wood till ,i am frightened at it4' ,palmer tells us that ,blake and his wife would look into the fire together and draw the figures they saw there1 hers quite unlike his1 his often terrible4 ,on ,palmer's first meeting that ,blake1 on ,october #i1 #ahbd1 he tells us how ,blake fixed his eyes upon him and said3 ',do you work with fear and trembling8' ',yes1 indeed1' was the reply4 ',then1' said ,blake1 'you'll do4' ,the friends often met at ,hampstead1 where ,linnell had1 in #ahbd1 taken ,collins's ,farm1 at ,north ,end1 now again known by its old name of ',wyldes4' ,blake disliked the air of ,hampstead1 which he said always made him ill2 but he often went there to see ,linnell1 and loved the aspect from his cottage1 and to sit and hear ,mrs4 ,linnell sing ,scotch songs1 and would sometimes himself sing his own songs to tunes of his own making4 ,the children loved him1 and would watch for him as he came1 generally on foot1 and one of them says that she remembers 'the cold winter nights when ,blake was wrapped up in an old shawl by ,mrs4 ,linnell1 and sent on his homeward way1 with the servant1 lantern in hand1 lighting him across the heath to the main road4' ,it is ,palmers son who reports it1 and he adds3 ',it is a matter of regret that the record of these meetings and walks and conversations is so imperfect1 for in the words of one of ,blake's disciples1 to walk with him was like walking with the ,prophet ,isaiah4' ,once when the ,palmers were staying at ,shoreham1 the whole party went down into the country in a carrier's van drawn by eight horses3 ,calvert tells the story1 with picturesque details of ,blake's second-sight1 and of the hunt with lanterns in ,shoreham ,castle after a ghost1 who turned out to be a snail tapping on the broken glass of the window4 ,from the end of #ahbe ,blake's health began to fail1 and most of his letters to ,linnell contain apologies for not coming to ,hampstead1 as he is in bed1 or is suffering from a cold in the stomach4 ,it was the beginning of that sickness which killed him1 described as the mixing of the gall with the blood4 ,he worked persistently1 whether he was well or ill1 at the ,dante drawings1 which he made in a folio book given him by ,linnell4 ,there were a hundred pages in the book1 and he did a drawing on every page1 some completely finished1 some a mere outline2 of these he had only engraved seven at the time of his death4 ,he sat propped up in bed1 at work on his drawings1 saying1 ',dante goes on the better1 which is all ,i care about4' ,in a letter to ,george ,cumberland1 on ,april #ab1 #ahbg1 he writes3 ',i have been very near the gates of death1 and have returned very weak and an old man1 feeble and tottering1 but not in the spirit and life1 not in the real man1 the imagination1 which liveth for ever4' ,and indeed there is no sign of age or weakness in these last great inventions of a dying man4 ',flaxman is gone1' he adds1 'and we must soon follow1 every one to his own eternal house1 leaving the delusive ,goddess ,nature to her laws1 to get into freedom from all law of the numbers1 into the mind1 in which every one is king and priest in his own house4 ,god send it so on earth1 as it is in heaven4' ,blake died on ,august #ab1 #ahbg1 and the ecstasy of his death has been recorded by many witnesses4 ,tatham tells us how1 as he put the finishing touches to a design of ',the ,ancient of ,days' which he had been coloring for him1 he 'threw it down suddenly and said3 ,kate1 you have been a good wife2 ,i will draw your portrait4 ,she sat near his bed1 and he made a drawing which1 though not a likeness1 is finely touched and expressed4 ,he then threw that down1 after having drawn for an hour1 and began to sing ,hallelujahs and songs of joy and triumph which ,mrs4 ,blake described as being truly sublime in music and in verse4' ,smith tells us that he said to his wife1 as she stood to hear him1 ',my beloved1 they are not mine1 no1 they are not mine4' ,and a friend quoted by ,gilchrist says3 ',he died on ,sunday night1 at six o'clock1 in a most glorious manner4 ,he said he was going to that country he had all his life wished to see1 and expressed himself happy1 hoping for salvation through ,jesus ,christ4 ,just before he died his countenance became fair1 his eyes brightened1 and he burst out into singing of the things he saw in heaven4' ',perhaps1' he had written not long before1 'and ,i verily believe it1 every death is an improvement of the state of the departed4' ,blake was buried in ,bunhill ,fields1 where all his family had been buried before him1 but with the rites of the ,church of ,england1 and on ,august #ag his body was followed to the grave by ,calvert1 ,richmond1 ,tatham1 and ,tatham's brother1 a clergyman4 ,the burial register reads3 ',aug4 #ag1 #ahbg4 ,william ,blake4 ,age1 #fi years4 ,brought from ,fountain ,court1 ,strand4 ,grave1 #i feet2 ,e4 ,w4 #gg3 ,n4 ,s4 #cb4 #ai_/' ,the grave1 being a 'common grave1' was used again1 and the bones scattered2 and this was the world's last indignity against ,william ,blake4 ,tatham tells us that1 during a marriage of forty-five years1 ,mrs4 ,blake had never been separated from her husband 'save for a period that would make altogether about five weeks4' ,he does not remind us1 as ,mr4 ,swinburne1 on the authority of ,seymour ,kirkup1 reminds us1 of ,mrs4 ,blake's one complaint1 that her husband was incessantly away 'in ,paradise4' ,tatham adds3 ',after the death of her husband she resided for some time with the author of this1 whose domestic arrangements were entirely undertaken by her1 until such changes took place that rendered it impossible for her strength to continue in this voluntary office of sincere affection and regard4' ,before going to ,tatham's she had spent nine months at ,linnell's house in ,cirencester ,place1 only leaving it in the summer of #ahbh1 when ,linnell let the house4 ,after leaving ,tatham she took lodgings in #ag ,upper ,charlotte ,street1 ,fitzroy ,square1 where she died at half-past seven on the morning of ,october #ah1 #ahca1 four years after the death of her husband1 and within three months of his age4 ,tatham says3 ',her death not being known but by calculation1 sixty-five years were placed upon her coffin1' and in the burial register at ,bunhill ,fields we read3 ',oct4 #bc1 #ahca4 ,catherine ,sophia ,blake4 ,age1 #fe yrs4 ,brought from ,upper ,charlotte ,street1 ,fitzroy ,square4 ,grave1 #ab feet2 ,e4 ,w4 #g3 ,n4 ,s4 #ca1 #cb4 #a1 #es4' ,she was born ,april #bd1 #agfb1 and was thus aged sixty-nine years and six months4 ,mr4 ,swinburne tells us1 on the authority of ,seymour ,kirkup1 that1 after ,blake's death1 a gift of #ajj was sent to his widow by the ,princess ,sophia1 which she gratefully returned1 as not being in actual need of it4 ,many friends bought copies of ,blake's engraved books1 some of which ,mrs4 ,blake colored1 with the help of ,tatham4 ,after her death all the plates and manuscripts passed into ,tatham's hands4 ,in his memoir ,tatham says that ,blake on his death-bed 'spoke of the writer of this as a likely person to become the manager' of ,mrs4 ,blake's affairs1 and he says that ,mrs4 ,blake bequeathed to him 'all of his works that remained unsold at his death1 being writings1 paintings1 and a very great number of copperplates1 of whom impressions may be obtained4' ,linnell says that ,tatham never showed anything in proof of his assertion that they had been left to him4 ,tatham had passed through various religious phases1 and from being a ,baptist1 had become an 'angel' of the ,irvingite ,church4 ,he is supposed to have destroyed the whole of the manuscripts and drawings in his possession on account of religious scruples2 and in the life of ,calvert by his son we read3 ',edward ,calvert1 fearing some fatal dnouement1 went to ,tatham and implored him to reconsider the matter and spare the good man's precious work2 notwithstanding which1 blocks1 plates1 drawings1 and ,,mss41 ,i understand1 were destroyed4' ,such is the received story1 but is it strictly true8 ,did ,tatham really destroy these manuscripts for religious reasons1 or did he keep them and surreptitiously sell them for reasons of quite another kind8 ,in the ,rossetti ,papers there is a letter from ,tatham to ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti1 dated ,nov4 #f1 #ahfb1 in which he says3 ',i have sold ,mr4 ,blake's works for thirty years'2 and a footnote to ,dr4 ,garnett's monograph on ,blake in the ,the ,portfolio of #ahie relates a visit from ,tatham which took place about #ahfj4 ,dr4 ,garnett told me that ,tatham had said1 without giving any explanation1 that he had destroyed some of ,blake's manuscripts and kept others by him1 which he had sold from time to time4 ,is there not therefore a possibility that some of these lost manuscripts may still exist8 whether or not they may turn out to be1 as ,crabb ,robinson tells us that ,blake told him1 'six or seven epic poems as long as ,homer1 and twenty tragedies as long as ,macbeth4' ,x ,there are people who still ask seriously if ,blake was mad4 ,if the mind of ,lord ,macaulay is the one and only type of sanity1 then ,blake was mad4 ,if imagination1 and ecstasy1 and disregard of worldly things1 and absorption in the inner world of the mind1 and a literal belief in those things which the whole ',christian community' professes from the tip of its tongue2 if these are signs and suspicions of madness1 then ,blake was certainly mad4 ,his place is where he saw ,teresa1 among 'the gentle souls who guide the great wine-press of ,love'2 and1 like her1 he was 'drunk with intellectual vision4' ,that drunkenness illuminated him during his whole life1 yet without incapacitating him from any needful attention to things by the way4 ,he lived in poverty because he did not need riches2 but he died without leaving a debt4 ,he was a steady1 not a fitful worker1 and his wife said of him that she never saw his hands still unless he was reading or asleep4 ,he was gentle and sudden2 his whole nature was in a steady heat which could blaze at any moment into a flame4 ',a saint amongst the infidels and a heretic with the orthodox1' he has been described by one who knew him best in his later years1 ,john ,linnell2 and ,palmer has said of him3 ',his love of art was so great that he would see nothing but art in anything he loved2 and so1 as he loved the ,apostles and their divine ,head 7for so ,i believe he did71 he must needs say that they were all artists4' ',when opposed by the superstitious1 the crafty1 or the proud1' says ,linnell again1 'he outraged all common-sense and rationality by the opinions he advanced'2 and ,palmer gives an instance of it3 ',being irritated by the exclusively scientific talk at a friend's house1 which talk had turned on the vastness of space1 he cried out1 ,it is false4 ,i walked the other evening to the end of the heath1 and touched the sky with my finger4' ,it was of the essence of ,blake's sanity that he could always touch the sky with his finger4 ',to justify the soul's frequent joy in what cannot be defined to the intellectual part1 or to calculation'3 that1 which is ,walt ,whitman's definition of his own aim1 defines ,blake's4 ,where others doubted he knew2 and he saw where others looked vaguely into the darkness4 ,he saw so much further than others into what we call reality1 that others doubted his report1 not being able to check it for themselves2 and when he saw truth naked he did not turn aside his eyes4 ,nor had he the common notion of what truth is1 or why it is to be regarded4 ,he said3 ',when ,i tell a truth it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it1 but for the sake of defending those who do4' ,and his criterion of truth was the inward certainty of instinct or intuition1 not the outward certainty of fact4 ',god forbid1' he said1 'that ,truth should be confined to mathematical demonstration4 ,he who does not know ,truth at sight is unworthy of her notice4' ,and he said3 ',error is created1 truth is eternal4 ,error or creation will be burned up1 and then1 not till then1 truth or eternity will appear4 ,it is burned up the moment men cease to behold it4' ,it was this private certainty in regard to truth and all things that ,blake shared with the greatest minds of the world1 and men doubted him partly because he was content to possess that certainty and had no desire to use it for any practical purpose1 least of all to convince others4 ,he asked to be believed when he spoke1 told the truth1 and was not concerned with argument or experiment1 which seemed to him ways of evasion4 ,he said3 ',it is easy to acknowledge a man to be great and good1 while we ,derogate from him in the trifles and small articles of that goodness1 ,those alone are his friends who admire his minutest powers4' ,he spoke naturally in terms of wisdom1 and made no explanations1 bridged none of the gulfs which it seemed to him so easy to fly over4 ,thus when he said that ,ossian and ,rowley were authentic1 and that what ,macpherson and ,chatterton said was ancient was so1 he did not mean it in a strictly literal sense1 but in the sense in which ancient meant authentic3 true to ancient truth4 ,is a thing true as poetry8 then it is true in the minutest because the most essential sense4 ,on the other hand1 in saying that part of ,wordsworth's ,preface was written by another hand1 he was merely expressing in a bold figure a sane critical opinion4 ,is a thing false among many true things8 then it is not the true man who is writing it1 but some false section of his brain4 ,it may be dangerous practically to judge all things at an inner tribunal2 but it is only by such judgments that truth moves4 ,and truth has moved1 or we have4 ,after ,zarathustra1 ,jerusalem no longer seems a wild heresy4 ,people were frightened because they were told that ,blake was mad1 or a blasphemer4 ,nietzsche1 who has cleared away so many obstructions from thought1 has shamed us from hiding behind these treacherous and unavailing defenses4 ,we have come to realize1 what ,rossetti pointed out long ago1 that1 as a poet1 ,blake's characteristic is above all things that of 'pure perfection in writing verse4' ,we no longer praise his painting for its qualities as literature1 or forget that his design has greatness as design4 ,and of that unique creation of an art out of the mingling of many arts which we see in the 'illuminated printing' of the engraved books1 we have come to realize what ,palmer meant when he said long ago3 ',as a picture has been said to be something between a thing and a thought1 so1 in some of these type books over which ,blake had long brooded with his brooding of fire1 the very paper seems to come to life as you gaze upon it--not with a mortal life1 but an indestructible life4' ,and we have come to realize what ,blake meant by the humble and arrogant things which he said about himself4 ',i doubt not yet1' he writes in one of those gaieties of speech which illuminate his letters1 'to make a figure in the great dance of life that shall amuse the spectators in the sky4' ,if there are indeed spectators there1 amused by our motions1 what dancer among us are they more likely to have approved than this joyous1 untired1 and undistracted dancer to the eternal rhythm8 ,footnote #a3 ,compare the lines written in #ahjj3 ',i bless thee1 ,o ,father of ,heaven and ,earth1 that ever ,i saw ,flaxman's face4 ,angels stand round my spirit in ,heaven1 the blessed of ,heaven are my friends upon ,earth4 ,when ,flaxman was taken to ,italy1 ,fuseli was given to me for a season 444 ,and my ,angels have told me that seeing such visions1 ,i could not subsist on the ,earth1 ,but by my conjunction with ,flaxman1 who knows to forgive nervous fear4' ,footnote #b3 ,gilchrist 7,i4 #ih7 gives a long account of the house which he took to be ,blake's1 and which he supposed to be on the west side of ,hercules ,road4 ,but it has been ascertained beyond a doubt1 on the authority of the ,lambeth rate-books1 confirmed by ,norwood's map of ,london at the end of the eighteenth century1 that ,blake's house1 then numbered #ac ,hercules ,buildings1 was on the east side of the road1 and is the house now numbered #bc ,hercules ,road4 ,before #ahdb the whole road was renumbered1 starting at the south end of the western side and returning by the eastern side1 so that the house which ,gilchrist saw in #ahfc as #ac ,hercules ,buildings was what afterwards became #gj ,hercules ,road1 and is now pulled down4 ,the road was finally renumbered in #ahij1 and the house became #bc ,hercules ,road4 ,footnote #c3 ,the text of ,vala1 with corrections and additional errors1 is now accessible in the second volume of ,mr4 ,ellis' edition of ,blake's ,poetical ,works4 ,footnote #d3 ,they are now to be read in ,mr4 ,russell's edition of ,the ,letters of ,william ,blake4 ,footnote #e3 ,we know from ,mr4 ,lucas's catalogue of ,lamb's library that ,lamb bound it up in a thick #abmo volume with his own ,confessions of a ,drunkard1 ,southey's ,wat ,tyler1 and ,lady ,winchilsea's and ,lord ,rochester's poems4 ,footnote #f3 ,i take the text of this letter1 not from ,mr4 ,russell's edition1 but from the fuller text printed by ,mr4 ,ellis in ,the ,real ,blake4 ,,part ,,ii3 ,,records ,,from ,,contemporary ,,sources 7,i47 ,,extracts ,,from ,,the ,,diary1 ,,letters1 ,,and ,,reminiscences ,,of ,,henry ,,crabb ,,robinson1 ,,transcribed ,,from ,,the ,,original ,,mss4 ,,in ,,dr4 ,,williams',s ,,library1 #ahaj-aheb ',of all the records of these his latter years1' says ,mr4 ,swinburne in his book on ,blake1 'the most valuable1 perhaps1 are those furnished by ,mr4 ,crabb ,robinson1 whose cautious and vivid transcription of ,blake's actual speech is worth more than much vague remark1 or than any commentary now possible to give4' ,through the kind permission of the ,librarian of ,dr4 ,williams's ,library1 where the ,crabb ,robinson ,,mss4 are preserved1 ,i am able to give1 for the first time1 an accurate and complete text of every reference to ,blake in the ,diary1 ,letters1 and ,reminiscences1 which have hitherto been printed only in part1 and with changes as well as omissions4 ,in an entry in his ,diary for ,may #ac1 #ahdh1 ,crabb ,robinson says3 ',it is strange that ,i1 who have no imagination1 nor any power beyond that of a logical understanding1 should yet have great respect for the mystics4' ,this respect for the mystics1 to which we owe the notes on ,blake1 was part of an inexhaustible curiosity in human things1 and in things of the mind1 which made of ,crabb ,robinson the most searching and significant reporter of the nineteenth century4 ,others may have understood ,blake better than he did1 but no one else was so attentive to his speech1 and thus so faithful an interpreter of his meaning4 ,in copying from the ,,ms4 ,i have followed the spelling1 not however preserving abbreviations such as ',bl3' for ',blake1' due merely to haste1 and ,i have modified the punctuation and added commas of quotation only when the writer's carelessness in these matters was likely to be confusing4 ,otherwise the transcript is literal and verbatim1 and ,i have added in footnotes any readings of possible interest which have been crossed out in the manuscript4 7#a7 ,,from ,,crabb ,,robinson',s ,,diary #ahbe ,december #aj 444 ,dined with ,aders4 ,a very remarkable and interesting evening4 ,the party ,blake the painter and ,linnell--also a painter and engraver--to dinner4 ,in the evening came ,miss ,denman and ,miss ,flaxman4 #ajth ,december #ahbe ,,blake ,i will put down as they occur to me without method all ,i can recollect of the conversation of this remarkable man4 ,shall ,i call him ,artist or ,genius--or ,mystic--or ,madman8 ,probably he is all4 ,he has a most interesting appearance4 ,he is now old--pale with a ,socratic countenance1 and an expression of great sweetness1 but bordering on weakness--except when his features are animated by#a expression1 and then he has an air of inspiration about him4 ,the conversation was on art1 and on poetry1 and on religion2 but it was my object1 and ,i was successful1 in drawing him out1 and in so getting from him an avowal of his peculiar sentiments4 ,i was aware before of the nature of his impressions1 or ,i should at times have been at a loss to understand him4 ,he was shewn soon after he entered the room some compositions of ,mrs4 ,aders which he cordially praised4 ,and he brought with him an engraving of his ,canterbury ,pilgrims for ,aders4 ,one of the figures resembled one in one of ,aders's pictures4 ',they say ,i stole it from this picture1 but ,i did it #bj years before ,i knew of the picture--however1 in my youth ,i was always studying this kind of paintings4 ,no wonder there is a resemblance4' ,in this he seemed to explain humanly what he had done1 but he at another time spoke of his paintings as being what he had seen in his visions4 ,and when he said my visions it was in the ordinary unemphatic tone in which we speak of trivial matters that every one understands and cares nothing about4 ,in the same tone he said repeatedly1 the ',spirit told me4' ,i took occasion to say--,you use the same word as ,socrates used4 ,what resemblance do you suppose is there between your spirit and the spirit of ,socrates8 ',the same as between our countenance4' ,he paused and added--',i was ,socrates4' ,and then1 as if correcting himself1 ',a sort of brother4 ,i must have had conversations with him4 ,so ,i had with ,jesus ,christ4 ,i have an obscure recollection of having been with both of them4' ,it was before this1 that ,i had suggested on very obvious philosophical grounds the impossibility of supposing an immortal being created--an eternity a parte post without an eternity a parte ante4 ,this is an obvious truth ,i have been many 7perhaps #cj7 years fully aware of4 ,his eye brightened on my saying this1 and he eagerly concurred--',to be sure it is impossible4 ,we are all co-existent with ,god--members of the ,divine body4 ,we are all partakers of the ,divine nature4' ,in this1 by the bye1 ,blake has but adopted an ancient ,greek idea--query of ,plato8 ,as connected with this idea ,i will mention here 7though it formed part of our talk1 walking homeward7 that on my asking in what light he viewed the great question concerning the ,divinity of ,jesus ,christ1 he said--',he is the only ,god4' ,but then he added--',and so am ,i and so are you4' ,now he had just before 7and this occasioned my question7 been speaking of the errors of ,jesus ,christ--,he was wrong in suffering ,himself to be crucified4 ,he should not have attacked the ,government4 ,he had no business with such matters4 ,on my inquiring how he reconciled this with the sanctity and divine qualities of ,jesus1 he said ,he was not then become the ,father4 ,connecting as well as one can these fragmentary sentiments1 it would be hard to give ,blake's station between ,christianity1 ,platonism1 and ,spinosism4 ,yet he professes to be very hostile to ,plato1 and reproaches ,wordsworth with being not a ,christian but a ,platonist4 ,it is one of the subtle remarks of ,hume on certain religious speculations that the tendency of them is to make men indifferent to whatever takes place by destroying all ideas of good and evil4 ,i took occasion to apply this remark to something ,blake said4 ,if so1 ,i said1 there is no use in discipline or education1 no difference between good and evil4 ,he hastily broke in on me--',there is no use in education4 ,i hold it wrong4 ,it is the great sin4#b ,it is eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil4 ,that was the fault of ,plato--he knew of nothing but of the virtues and vices and good and evil ,there is nothing in all that4 ,every thing is good in ,god's eyes4' ,on my putting the obvious question--,is there nothing absolutely evil in what men do8 ',i am no judge of that4 ,perhaps not in ,god's ,eyes4' ,though on this and other occasions he spoke as if he denied altogether the existence of evil1 and as if we had nothing to do with right and wrong4 ,it being sufficient to consider all things as alike the work of ,god4 ,i interposed with the ,german word objectively1 which he approved of4 ,yet at other times he spoke of error as being in heaven4 ,i asked about the moral character of ,dante in writing his ,vision3 was he pure8 ',pure' said ,blake4 ',do you think there is any purity in ,god's eyes8 ,the angels in heaven are no more so than we--he chargeth his angels with folly4' ,he afterwards extended this to the ,supreme ,being--he is liable to error too4 ,did he not repent him that he had made ,nineveh8 ,it is easier to repeat the personal remarks of ,blake than these metaphysical speculations so nearly allied to the most opposite systems4 ,he spoke with seeming complacency of himself--said he acted by command4 ,the spirit said to him1 ',blake1 be an artist and nothing else4' ,in this there is felicity4 ,his eye glistened while he spoke of the joy of devoting himself solely to divine art4 ',art is inspiration4 ,when ,michael ,angelo or ,raphael or ,mr4 ,flaxman does any of his fine things1 he does them in the spirit4' ,blake said1 ',i should be sorry if ,i had any earthly fame1 for whatever natural glory a man has is so much detracted from his spiritual glory4 ,i wish to do nothing for profit4 ,i wish to live for art4 ,i want nothing whatever4 ,i am quite happy4' ,among the#c unintelligible sentiments which he was continually expressing is his distinction between the natural and the spiritual world4 ,the natural world must be consumed4 ,incidentally ,swedenborg was spoken of4 ,he was a divine teacher--he has done much good1 and will do much good--he has corrected many errors of ,popery1 and also of ,luther and ,calvin4 ,yet he also said that ,swedenborg was wrong in endeavoring to explain to the rational faculty what the reason cannot comprehend3 he should have left that4 ,as ,blake mentioned ,swedenborg and ,dante together ,i wished to know whether he considered their visions of the same kind4 ,as far as ,i could collect1 he does4 ,dante he said was the greater poet4 ,he had political objects4 ,yet this1 though wrong1 does not appear in ,blake's mind to affect the truth of the vision4 ,strangely inconsistent with this was the language of ,blake about ,wordsworth4 ,wordsworth he thinks is no ,christian but a ,platonist4 ,he asked me1 ',does he believe in the ,scriptures8' ,on my answering in the affirmative he said he had been much pained by reading the introduction to the ,excursion4 ,it brought on a fit of illness4 ,the passage was produced and read3 ',jehovah--with his thunder1 and the choir ,of shouting ,angels1 and the empyreal thrones1 ,i pass them unalarmed4' ,this pass them unalarmed greatly offended ,blake4 ',does ,mr4 ,wordsworth think his mind can surpass ,jehovah8' ,i tried to twist this passage into a sense corresponding with ,blake's own theories1 but filled sic failed1 and ,wordsworth was finally set down as a pagan4 ,but still with great praise as the greatest poet of the age4 ,jacob ,boehmen was spoken of as a divinely inspired man4 ,blake praised1 too1 the figures in ,law's translation as being very beautiful4 ,michael ,angelo could not have done better4 ,though he spoke of his happiness1 he spoke of past sufferings1 and of sufferings as necessary4 ',there is suffering in heaven1 for where there is the capacity of enjoyment1 there is the capacity of pain4' ,i have been interrupted by a call from ,talfourd in writing this account--and ,i can not now recollect any distinct remarks--but as ,blake has invited me to go and see him ,i shall possibly have an opportunity again of noting what he says1 and ,i may be able hereafter to throw connection1 if not system1 into what ,i have written above4 ,i feel great admiration and respect for him--he is certainly a most amiable man--a good creature--and of his poetical and pictorial genius there is no doubt1 ,i believe1 in the minds of judges4 ,wordsworth and ,lamb like his poems1 and the ,aders his paintings4 ,a few other detached thoughts occur to me4 ,bacon1 ,locke1 and ,newton are the three great teachers of ,atheism or of ,satan's doctrine4 ,every thing is ,atheism which assumes the reality of the natural and unspiritual world4 ,irving4 ,he is a highly gifted man--he is a sent man--but they who are sent sometimes#d go further than they ought4 ,dante saw ,devils where ,i see none4 ,i see only good4 ,i saw nothing but good in ,calvin's house--better than in ,luther's2 he had harlots4 ,swedenborg4 ,parts of his scheme are dangerous4 ,his sexual religion is dangerous4 ,i do not believe that the world is round4 ,i believe it is quite flat4 ,i objected the circumnavigation4 ,we were called to dinner at the moment1 and ,i lost the reply4 ,the ,sun4 ',i have conversed with the ,spiritual ,sun--,i saw him on ,primrose-hill4 ,he said1 ,do you take me for the ,greek ,apollo8 ,no1 ,i said1 that1 and ,blake pointed to the sky that is the ,greek ,apollo4 ,he is ,satan4' ',i know what is true by internal conviction4 ,a doctrine is told me--my heart says it must be true4' ,i corroborated this by remarking on the impossibility of the unlearned man judging of what are called the external evidences of religion1 in which he heartily concurred4 ,i regret that ,i have been unable to do more than set down these seeming idle and rambling sentences4 ,the tone and manner are incommunicable4 ,there is a natural sweetness and gentility about ,blake which are delightful4 ,and when he is not referring to his ,visions he talks sensibly and acutely4 ,his friend ,linnel seems a great admirer4 ,perhaps the best thing he said was his comparison of moral with natural evil4 ',who shall say what ,god thinks evil8 ,that is a wise tale of the ,mahometans--of the ,angel of the ,lord that murdered the infant' alluding to the ,hermit of ,parnel1 ,i suppose4 ',is not every infant that dies of disease in effect murdered by an angel8' #agth ,december4 ,for the sake of connection ,i will here insert a minute of a short call ,i this morning made on ,blake4 ,he dwells in ,fountain ,court in the ,strand4 ,i found him in a small room1 which seems to be both a working-room and a bedroom4 ,nothing could exceed the squalid air both of the apartment and his dress1 but in spite of dirt--,i might say filth--an air of natural gentility is diffused over him4 ,and his wife1 notwithstanding the same offensive character of her dress and appearance1 has a good expression of countenance1 so that ,i shall have a pleasure in calling on and conversing with these worthy people4 ,but ,i fear ,i shall not make any progress in ascertaining his opinions and feelings--that there being really no system or connection in his mind1 all his future conversation will be but varieties of wildness and incongruity4 ,i found sic at work on ,dante4 ,the book 7,cary7 and his sketches both before him4 ,he shewed me his designs1 of which ,i have nothing to say but that they evince a power of grouping and of throwing grace and interest over conceptions most monstrous and disgusting1 which ,i should not have anticipated4 ,our conversation began about ,dante4 ',he was an ,atheist1 a mere politician busied about this world as ,milton was1 till in his old age he returned back to ,god whom he had had in his childhood4' ,i tried to get out from ,blake that he meant this charge only in a higher sense1 and not using the word ,atheism in its popular meaning4 ,but he would not allow this4 ,though when he in like manner charged ,locke with ,atheism and ,i remarked that ,locke wrote on the evidences of piety and lived a virtuous life1 he had nothing to reply to me nor reiterated the charge of willful deception4 ,i admitted that ,locke's doctrine leads to ,atheism1 and this seemed to satisfy him4 ,from this subject we passed over to that of good and evil1 in which he repeated his former assertions more decidedly4 ,he allowed1 indeed1 that there is error1 mistake1 etc41 and if these be evil--then there is evil1 but these are only negations4 ,nor would he admit that any education should be attempted except that of cultivation of the imagination and fine arts4 ',what are called the vices in the natural world are the highest sublimities in the spiritual world4' ,when ,i asked whether if he had been a father he would not have grieved if his child had become vicious or a great criminal1 he answered1 ',i must not regard when ,i am endeavoring to think rightly my own any more than other people's weaknesses4' ,and when ,i again remarked that this doctrine puts an end to all exertion or even wish to change anything1 he had no reply4 ,we spoke of the ,devil1 and ,i observed that when a child ,i thought the ,manichaean doctrine or that of the two principles a rational one4 ,he assented to this1 and in confirmation asserted that he did not believe in the omnipotence of ,god4 ',the language of the ,bible on that subject is only poetical or allegorical4' ,yet soon after he denied that the natural world is anything4 ',it is all nothing1 and ,satan's empire is the empire of nothing4' ,he reverted soon to his favorite expression1 my ,visions4 ',i saw ,milton in imagination1 and he told me to beware of being misled by his ,paradise ,lost4 ,in particular he wished me to show the falsehood of his doctrine that the pleasures of sex arose from the fall4 ,the fall could not produce any pleasure4' ,i answered1 the fall produced a state of evil in which there was a mixture of good or pleasure4 ,and in that sense the fall may be said to produce the pleasure4 ,but he replied that the fall produced only generation and death4 ,and then he went off upon a rambling state of a union of sexes in man as in ,ovid1 an androgynous state1 in which ,i could not follow him4 ,as he spoke of ,miltons appearing to him1 ,i asked whether he resembled the prints of him4 ,he answered1 ',all4' ,of what age did he appear to be8 ',various ages--sometimes a very old man4' ,he spoke of ,milton as being at one time a sort of classical ,atheist1 and of ,dante as being now with ,god4 ,of the faculty of ,vision1 he spoke as one he has had from early infancy4 ,he thinks all men partake of it1 but it is lost by not being cultivated4 ,and he eagerly assented to a remark ,i made1 that all men have all faculties to a greater or less degree4 ,i am to renew my visits1 and to read ,wordsworth to him1 of whom he seems to entertain a high idea4 ,here ,b4 has added vide p4 #agd1 i4e4 ,dec4 #bd1 below4 ,sunday #aath4 ,the greater part of the forenoon was spent in writing the preceding account of my interview with ,blake in which ,i was interrupted by a call from ,talfourd4444 #agth4 ,made a visit to ,blake of which ,i have written fully in a preceding page4 #bjth444 ,hundleby took coffee with me tte tte4 ,we talked of his personal concerns1 of ,wordsworth1 whom ,i can't make him properly enjoy2 of ,blake1 whose peculiarities he can as little relish4444 ,saturday #bdth4 ,a call on ,blake4 ,my third interview4 ,i read him ,wordsworth's incomparable ode1 which he heartily enjoyed4 ,the same half crazy crotchets about the two worlds--the eternal repetition of what must in time become tiresome4 ,again he repeated to day1 ',i fear ,wordsworth loves ,nature--and ,nature is the work of the ,devil4 ,the ,devil is in us1 as far as we are ,nature4' ,on my enquiring whether the ,devil would not be destroyed by ,god as being of less power1 he denied that ,god has any power--asserted that the ,devil is eternally created not by ,god1 but by ,god's permission4 ,and when ,i objected that permission implies power to prevent1 he did not seem to understand me4 ,it was remarked that the parts of ,wordworth's ode which he most enjoyed were the most obscure and those ,i the least like and comprehend4444 ,january #ahbf #fth4 ,a call on ,blake4 ,i hardly feel it worth while to write down his conversation1 it is so much a repetition of his former talk4 ,he was very cordial to-day4 ,i had procured him two subscriptions for his ,job from ,geo4 ,procter and ,bas4 ,montague4 ,i paid #a on each4 ,this1 probably1 put him in spirits1 more than he was aware of--he spoke of his being richer than ever on having learned to know me1 and he told ,mrs4 ,a4 he and ,i were nearly of an opinion4 ,yet ,i have practized no deception intentionally1 unless silence be so4 ,he renewed his complaints1 blended with his admiration of ,wordsworth4 ,the oddest thing he said was that he had been commanded to do certain things1 that is1 to write about ,milton1 and that he was applauded for refusing--he struggled with the ,angels and was victor4 ,his wife joined in the conversation4444 #hth4 444 ,then took tea with ,basil ,montague1 ,mrs4 ,m4 there4 ,a short chat about ,coleridge1 ,irving1 etc4 ,she admires ,blake--,encore une excellence l de plus4444 ,february #ahth4 ,jos4 ,wedd breakfasted with me4 ,then called on ,blake4 ,an amusing chat with him1 but still no novelty4 ,the same round of extravagant and mad doctrines1 which ,i shall not now repeat1 but merely notice their application4 ,he gave me1 copied out by himself1 ,wordsworth's preface to his ,excursion4 ,at the end he has added this note3-- ',solomon1 when he married ,pharaoh's daughter1 became a convert to the ,heathen ,mythology1 talked exactly in this way of ,jehovah as a very inferior object of man's contemplations2 he also passed him by unalarmed1 and was permitted4 ,jehovah dropped a tear and followed him by his ,spirit into the abstract void4 ,it is called the divine ,mercy4 ,satan dwells in it1 but mercy does not dwell in him4' ,of ,wordsworth he talked as before4 ,some of his writings proceed from the ,holy ,ghost1 but then others are the work of the ,devil4 ,however1 ,i found on this subject ,blake's language more in conformity with ,orthodox ,christianity than before4 ,he talked of the being under the direction of ,self2 and of ,reason as the creature of man and opposed to ,god's grace4 ,and warmly declared that all he knew was in the ,bible1 but then he understands by the ,bible the spiritual sense4 ,for as to the natural sense1 that ,voltaire was commissioned by ,god to expose4 ',i have had much intercourse with ,voltaire1 and he said to me ,i blasphemed the ,son of ,man1 and it shall be forgiven me4 ,but they 7the enemies of ,voltaire7 blasphemed the ,holy ,ghost in me1 and it shall not be forgiven them4' ,i asked in what language ,voltaire spoke--he gave an ingenious answer4 ',to my sensation it was ,english4 ,it was like the touch of a musical key4 ,he touched it probably ,french1 but to my ear it became ,english4' ,i spoke again of the form of the persons who appear to him4 ,asked why he did not draw them1 ',it is not worth while4 ,there are so many1 the labour would be too great4 ,besides there would be no use4 ,as to ,shakespeare1 he is exactly like the old engraving--which is called a bad one4 ,i think it very good4' ,i enquired about his writings4 ',i have written more than ,voltaire or ,rousseau--six or seven epic poems as long as ,homer1 and #bj tragedies as long as ,macbeth4' ,he showed me his ,vision 7for so it may be called7 of ,genesis--'as understood by a ,christian ,visionary1' in which in a style resembling the ,bible the spirit is given4 ,he read a passage at random4 ,it was striking4 ,he will not print any more4#e ',i write1' he says1 'when commanded by the spirits1 and the moment ,i have written ,i see the words fly about the room in all directions4 ,it is then published1 and the spirits can read4 ,my ,,mss4 of no further use4 ,i have been tempted to burn my ,,mss41 but my wife won't let me4' ,she is right1 said ,i--and you have written these1 not from yourself1 but by a higher order4 ,the ,,mss4 are theirs and your property4 ,you cannot tell what purpose they may answer--unforeseen to you4 ,he liked this1 and said he would not destroy them4 ,his philosophy he repeated--denying causation1 asserting everything to be the work of ,god or the ,devil--that there is a constant falling off from ,god--angels becoming devils4 ,every man has a devil in him1 and the conflict is eternal between a man's self and ,god1 etc4 etc4 etc4 ,he told me my copy of his songs would be #e guineas1 and was pleased by my manner of receiving this information4 ,he spoke of his horror of money--of his turning pale when money had been offered him1 etc4 etc4 etc4 ,may ,thursday #aath4 ,calls this morning on ,blake1 on ,thornton etc4 444 #abth4 444 ,tea and supper at home4 ,the ,flaxmans1 ,masqueriers 7a ,miss ,forbes71 ,blake1 and ,sutton ,sharpe4 ,on the whole the evening went off tolerably4 ,masquerier not precisely the man to enjoy ,blake1 who was1 however1 not in an exalted state4 ,allusions only to his particular notions while ,masquerier commented on his opinions as if they were those of a man of ordinary notions4 ,blake asserted that the oldest painter poets were the best4 ,do you deny all progression8 says ,masquerier4 ',oh yes6' ,i doubt whether ,flaxman sufficiently tolerates ,blake4 ,but ,blake appreciates ,flaxman as he ought4 ,blake relished my ,stone drawings4 ,they staid till eleven4 ,blake is more and more convinced that ,wordsworth worships nature and is not a ,bible ,christian4 ,i have sent him the ,sketches4 ,we shall see whether they convert him4 ,june #acth4 ,another idle day4 ,called early on ,blake4 ,he was as wild as ever1 with no great novelty1 except that he confessed a practical notion which would do him more injury than any other ,i have heard from him4 ,he says that from the ,bible he has learned that eine ,gemeinschaft der ,frauen statt finden sollte4 ,when ,i objected that ,ehestand seems to be a divine institution1 he referred to the ,bible--'that from the beginning it was not so4' ,he talked as usual of the spirits1 asserted that he had committed many murders1 that reason is the only evil or sin1 and that careless1 gay people are better than those who think1 etc4 etc4 etc4 ,december ,thursday #gth4 ,i sent ,britt1 to enquire after ,mr4 ,flaxman's health1 etc41 and was engaged looking over the ,term ,reports while he was gone4 ,on his return1 he brought the melancholy intelligence of his death early in the morning666 ,the country has lost one of its greatest and best of men4 ,as an artist he has spread the fame of the country beyond any others of his age4 ,as a man he exhibited a rare specimen of ,christian and moral excellence4 ,i walked out and called at ,mr4 ,soane's4 ,he was from home4 ,i then called on ,blake1 desirous to see how1 with his peculiar feelings and opinions1 he would receive the intelligence4 ,it was much as ,i expected--he had himself been very ill during the summer1 and his first observation was with a smile--',i thought ,i should have gone first4' ,he then said1 ',i cannot consider death as anything but#f a removing from one room to another4' ,one thing led to another1 and he fell into his wild rambling way of talk4 ',men are born with a devil and an angel1' but this he himself interpreted body and soul4 ,of the ,old ,testament he seemed to think not favorably4 ',christ1' said he1 'took much after his mother 7the law71 and in that respect was one of the worst of men4' ,on my requiring an explanation1 he said1 ',there was his turning the money changers out of the ,temple4 ,he had no right to do that4' ,blake then declared against those who sat in judgement on others4 ',i have never known a very bad man who had not something very good about him4' ,he spoke of the ,atonement4 ,said1 ',it is a horrible doctrine4 ,if another man pay your debt1 ,i do not forgive it1' etc4 etc4 etc4 ,he produced ,sintram by ,fouqu--',this is better than my things4' #ahbg ,february ,friday1 #bnd4 ,gtzenberger1 the young painter from ,germany1 called on me1 and ,i accompanied him to ,blake4 ,we looked over ,blake's ,dante4 ,gtzenberger seemed highly gratified by the designs1 and ,mrs4 ,aders says ,gtzenberger considers ,blake1 as the first and ,flaxman as the second man he had seen in ,england4 ,the conversation was slight--,i was interpreter between them4 ,and nothing remarkable was said by ,blake--he was interested apparently by ,gtzenberger4444 #ahbh ,january #hth4 ,breakfasted with ,shott--,talfourd and ,b4 ,field there4 ,walked with ,field to ,mrs4 ,blake4 ,the poor old lady was more affected than ,i expected1 yet she spoke of her husband as dying like an angel4 ,she is the housekeeper of ,linnell the painter and engraver1 and at present her services might well pay for her hoard4 ,a few of her husband's works are all her property4 ,we found that the ,job is ,linnell's property1 and the print of ,chaucer's pilgrimage hers4 ,therefore ,field bought a proof and ,i two prints at #b #a_/b guineas each4 ,i mean one for ,lamb4 ,mrs4 ,blake is to look out some engravings for me hereafter4444 ,footnote #a3 ',any' crossed out4 ,footnote #b3 ',by which evil' crossed out4 ,footnote #c3 ',more remarkable' crossed out4 ,footnote #d3 ',exceed their commission' crossed out4 ,footnote #e3 ',for the writer' crossed out4 ,footnote #f3 ',a passage from' crossed out4 7#b7 ,,from ,a ,,letter ,,of ,,crabb ,,robinson ,,to ,,dorothy ,,wordsworth ,in a letter to ,dorothy ,wordsworth1 not dated1 but bearing the postmark of ,february #bj1 #ahbf1 there is the following reference to ,blake4 ,no earlier reference to him occurs in the letter1 in spite of the sentence which follows3-- ',i have above mentioned ,blake4 ,i forget whether ,i ever mentioned to you this very interesting man1 with whom ,i am now become acquainted4 ,were the ,memorials at my hand1 ,i should quote a fine passage in the ,sonnet on the ,cologne ,cathedral as applicable to the contemplation of this singular being4' ',i gave your brother some poems in ,,ms4 by him1 and they interested him--as well they might1 for there is an affinity between them1 as there is between the regulated imagination of a wise poet and the incoherent dreams of a poet4 ,blake is an engraver by trade1 a painter and a poet also1 whose works have been subject of derision to men in general2 but he has a few admirers1 and some of eminence have eulogized his designs4 ,he has lived in obscurity and poverty1 to which the constant hallucinations in which he lives have doomed him4 ,i do not mean to give you a detailed account of him4 ,a few words will suffice to inform you of what class he is4 ,he is not so much a disciple of ,jacob ,bhmen and ,swedenborg as a fellow ,visionary4 ,he lives1 as they did1 in a world of his own1 enjoying constant intercourse with the world of spirits4 ,he receives visits from ,shakespeare1 ,milton1 ,dante1 ,voltaire1 etc4 etc4 etc41 and has given me repeatedly their very words in their conversations4 ,his paintings are copies of what he saw in his ,visions4 ,his books 7and his ,,mss4 are immense in quantity7 are dictations from the spirits4 ,he told me yesterday that when he writes it is for the spirits only2 he sees the words fly about the room the moment he has put them on paper1 and his book is then published4 ,a man so favoured1 of course1 has sources of wisdom and truth peculiar to himself4 ,i will not pretend to give you an account of his religious and philosophical opinions4 ,they are a strange compound of ,christianity1 ,spinozism1 and ,platonism4 ,i must confine myself to what he has said about your brother's works1 and#a ,i fear this may lead me far enough to fatigue you in following me4 ,after what ,i have said1 ,mr4 ,w4 will not be flattered by knowing that ,blake deems him the only poet of the age1 nor much alarmed by hearing that1 like ,muley ,moloch1 ,blake thinks that he is often in his works an ,atheist4 ,now1 according to ,blake1 ,atheism consists in worshipping the natural world1 which same natural world1 properly speaking1 is nothing real1 but a mere illusion produced by ,satan4 ,milton was for a great part of his life an ,atheist1 and therefore has fatal errors in his ,paradise ,lost1 which he has often begged ,blake to confute4 ,dante 7though now with ,god7 lived and died an ,atheist4 ,he was the slave of the world and time4 ,but ,dante and ,wordsworth1 in spite of their ,atheism1 were inspired by the ,holy ,ghost4 ,indeed1 all real poetry is the work of the ,holy ,ghost1 and ,wordsworth's poems 7a large proportion1 at least7 are the work of divine inspiration4 ,unhappily he is left by ,god to his own illusions1 and then the ,atheism is apparent4 ,i had the pleasure of reading to ,blake in my best style 7and you know ,i am vain on that point1 and think ,i read ,w4's poems particularly well7 the ,ode on ,immortality4 ,i never witnessed greater delight in any listener2 and in general ,blake loves the poems4 ,what appears to have disturbed his mind1 on the other hand1 is the ,preface to the ,excursion4 ,he told me six months ago that it caused him a bowel complaint which nearly killed him4 ,i have in his hand a copy of the extract with the#b following note at the end3 ,solomon1 when he married ,pharaoh's daughter and became a convert to the ,heathen ,mythology1 talked exactly in this way of ,jehovah as a very inferior object of man's contemplation2 he also passed him by unalarmed1 and was permitted4 ,jehovah dropped a tear1 and followed him by his ,spirit into the abstract void4 ,it is called the divine mercy4 ,satan dwells in it1 but ,mercy does not dwell in him1 he knows not to forgive4 ,when ,i first saw ,blake at ,mrs4 ,aders's he very earnestly asked me1 ,is ,mr4 ,w4 a sincere real ,christian8 ,in reply to my answer he said1 ,if so1 what does he mean by 'the worlds to which the heaven of heavens is but a veil1' and who is he that shall 'pass ,jehovah unalarmed'8 ,it is since then that ,i have lent ,blake all the works which he but imperfectly knew4 ,i doubt whether what ,i have written will excite your and ,mr4 ,w4's curiosity2 but there is something so delightful about the man--though in great poverty1 he is so perfect a gentleman1 with such genuine dignity and independence1 scorning presents1 and of such native delicacy in words1 etc4 etc4 etc41 that ,i have not scrupled promising introducing him and ,mr4 ,w4 together4 ,he expressed his thanks strongly1 saying1 ,you do me honor1 ,mr4 ,w4 is a great man4 ,besides1 he may convince me ,i am wrong about him4 ,i have been wrong before now1 etc4 ,coleridge has visited ,blake1 and1 ,i am told1 talks finely about him4 ,that ,i might not encroach on a third sheet ,i have compressed what ,i had to say about ,blake4 ,you must see him one of these days and he will interest you at all events1 whatever character you give to his mind4' ,the main part of the letter is concerned with ,wordsworth's arrangement of his poems1 which ,crabb ,robinson says that he agrees with ,lamb in disliking4 ,he then says3 ',it is a sort of intellectual suicide in your brother not to have continued his admirable series of poems dedicated to liberty1 he might add1 and public virtue4 ,i assure you it gives me real pain when ,i think that some future commentator may possibly hereafter write1 ,this great poet survived to the fifth decenary of the nineteenth century1 but he appears to have dyed in the year #ahad as far as life consisted in an active sympathy with the temporary welfare of his fellow-creatures4444 ,more follows1 and then ',i had no intention1 ,i assure you1 to make so long a parenthesis or indeed to advert to such a subject4 ,and ,i wish you not to read any part of this letter which might be thought impertinent4444 ,in favor of my affectionate attachment to your brother's fame1 do forgive me this digression1 and1 as ,i said above1 keep it to yourself4' ,at the end he says ',my best remembrances to ,mr4 ,w4 ,and recollect again that you are not to read all this letter to any one if it will offend1 and you are yourself to forgive it as coming from one who is affly your friend1 ,h4 ,c4 ,r4' ,on ,april #f1 ,wordsworth answers the letter from ,rydal ,mount1 saying3 ',my sister had taken flight for ,herefordshire when your letter1 for such we guessed it to be1 arrived--it was broken open--7pray forgive the offense7 and your charges of concealment and reserve frustrated4 ,we are all1 at all times1 so glad to hear from you that we could not resist the temptation to purchase the pleasure at the expense of the peccadillo1 for which we beg pardon with united voices4 ,you are kind enough to mention my poems4' ,all the rest of the letter is taken up with them1 and it ends1 with no mention of ,blake ',i can write no more4 ,t4 ,clarkson is going4 ,your supposed ,biography entertained me much4 ,i could give you the other side4 ,farewell4' ,there is no signature4 ,footnote #a3 ',and as ,i am requested to copy what he has written for the purpose' crossed out4 ,footnote #b3 ,the ,,ms4 is here torn4 7#c7 ,,from ,,crabb ,,robinson',s ,,reminiscences #ahaj ,i was amusing myself this spring by writing an account of the insane poet1 painter1 and engraver1 ,blake4 ,perthes of ,hamburg had written to me asking me to send him an article for a new ,german magazine1 entitled ,vaterlndische ,annalen1 which he was about to set up1 and ,dr4 ,malkin having in his ,memoirs of his son given an account of this extraordinary genius with specimens of his poems1 ,i resolved out of these to compile a paper4 ,and this ,i did1#a and the paper was translated by ,dr4 ,julius1 who1 many years afterwards1 introduced himself to me as my translator4 ,it appears in the single number of the second volume of the ,vaterlndische ,annalen4 ,for it was at this time that ,buonaparte united ,hamburg to the ,french ,empire1 on which ,perthes manfully gave up the magazine1 saying1 as he had no longer a ,vaterland1 there could be no ,vaterlndische ,annalen4 ,but before ,i drew up the paper1 ,i went to see a gallery of ,blake's paintings1 which were exhibited by his brother1 a hosier in ,carnaby ,market4 ,the entrance was #bs4 #f;d41 catalogue included4 ,i was deeply interested by the catalogue as well as the pictures4 ,i took #d--telling the brother ,i hoped he would let me come in again4 ,he said1 ',oh6 as often as you please4' ,i dare say such a thing had never happened before or did afterwards4 ,i afterwards became acquainted with ,blake1 and will postpone till hereafter what ,i have to say of this extraordinary character1 whose life has since been written very inadequately by ,allan ,cunningham in his ,lives of the ,english ,artists4 ,at the side is written--,n4 ,b4 ,what ,i have written about ,blake will appear at the end of the year #ahbe4 #ahbe ,,william ,,blake #ai_/jb_/eb ,it was at the latter end of the year #ahbe that ,i put in writing my recollections of this most remarkable man4 ,the larger portions are under the date of the #ahth of ,december4 ,he died in the year #ahbg4 ,i have therefore now revised what ,i wrote on the #ajth of ,december and afterwards1 and without any attempt to reduce to order1 or make consistent the wild and strange rhapsodies uttered by this insane man of genius1 thinking it better to put down what ,i find as it occurs1 though ,i am aware of the objection that may justly be made to the recording the ravings of insanity in which it may be said there can be found no principle1 as there is no ascertainable law of mental association which is obeyed2 and from which therefore nothing can be learned4 ,this would be perfectly true of mere madness--but does not apply to that form of insanity ordinarily called monomania1 and may be disregarded in a case like the present in which the subject of the remark was unquestionably what a ,german would call a ,verunglckter ,genie1 whose theosophic dreams bear a close resemblance to those of ,swedenborg--whose genius as an artist was praised by no less men than ,flaxman and ,fuseli--and whose poems were thought worthy republication by the biographer of ,swedenborg 7,wilkinson71 and of which ,wordsworth said after reading a number--they were the ',songs of ,innocence and ,experience showing the two opposite sides of the human soul'--',there is no doubt this poor man was mad1 but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of ,lord ,byron and ,walter ,scott6' ,the ,german painter ,gtzenberger 7a man indeed who ought not to be named after the others as an authority for my writing about ,blake7 said1 on his returning to ,germany about the time at which ,i am now arrived1 ',i saw in ,england many men of talents1 but only three men of genius1 ,coleridge1 ,flaxman1 and ,blake1 and of these ,blake was the greatest4' ,i do not mean to intimate my assent to this opinion1 nor to do more than supply such materials as my intercourse with him furnish to an uncritical narrative to which ,i shall confine myself4 ,i have written a few sentences in these reminiscences already1 those of the year #ahaj4 ,i had not then begun the regular journal which ,i afterwards kept4 ,i will therefore go over the ground again and introduce these recollections of #ahbe by a reference to the slight knowledge ,i had of him before1 and what occasioned my taking an interest in him1 not caring to repeat what ,cunningham has recorded of him in the volume of his ,lives of the ,british ,painters1 etc4 etc41 except thus much4 ,it appears that he was born444 ,the page ends here4 ,dr4 ,malkin1 our ,bury ,grammar ,school ,headmaster1 published in the year #ahjf a ,memoir of a very precocious child who died444 years old1 and he prefixed to the ,memoir an account of ,blake1 and in the volume he gave an account of ,blake as a painter and poet1 and printed some specimens of his poems1 viz4 ',the ,tyger1' and ballads and mystical lyrical poems1 all of a wild character1 and ,m4 gave an account of ,visions which ,blake related to his acquaintance4 ,i knew that ,flaxman thought highly of him1 and though he did not venture to extol him as a genuine seer1 yet he did not join in the ordinary derision of him as a madman4 ,without having seen him1 yet ,i had already conceived a high opinion of him1 and thought he would furnish matter for a paper interesting to ,germans1 and therefore when ,fred4 ,perthes1 the patriotic publisher at ,hamburg1 wrote to me in #ahaj requesting me to give him an article for his ,patriotische ,annalen1 ,i thought ,i could do no better than send him a paper on ,blake1 which was translated into ,german by ,dr4 ,julius1 filling1 with a few small poems copied and translated1 #bd pages4 ,these appeared in the first and last ,no4 of volume #b of the ,annals4 ,the high-minded editor boldly declared that as the ,emperor of ,france had annexed ,hamburg to ,france he had no longer a country1 and there could no longer be any patriotical ,annals666 ,perthes' ,life has been written since1 which ,i have riot seen4 ,i am told there is in it a civil mention of me4 ,this ,dr4 ,julius introduced himself to me as such translator a few years ago4 ,he travelled as an ,inspector of ,prisons for the ,prussian ,government into the ,united ,states of ,america4 ,in order to enable me to write this paper1 which1 by the bye1 has nothing in it of the least value1 ,i went to see an exhibition of ,blake's original paintings in ,carnaby ,market1 at a hosier's1 ,blake's brother4 ,these paintings filled several rooms of an ordinary dwelling-house1 and for the sight a half-crown was demanded of the visitor1 for which he had a catalogue4 ,this catalogue ,i possess1 and it is a very curious exposure of the state of the artist's mind4 ,i wished to send it to ,germany and to give a copy to ,lamb and others1 so ,i took four1 and giving #ajs41 bargained that ,i should be at liberty to go again4 ',free6 as long as you live1'#b said the brother1 astonished at such a liberality1 which he had never experienced before1 nor ,i dare say did afterwards4 ,lamb was delighted with the catalogue1 especially with the description of a painting afterwards engraved1 and connected with which is an anecdote that1 unexplained1 would reflect discredit on a most amiable and excellent man1 but which ,flaxman considered to have been not the willful act of ,stodart4 ,it was after the friends of ,blake had circulated a subscription paper for an engraving of his ,canterbury ,pilgrims1 that ,stodart was made a party to an engraving of a painting of the same subject by himself4 ,stodart's work is well known1 ,blake's is known by very few4 ,lamb preferred it greatly to ,stodart's1 and declared that ,blake's description was the finest criticism he had ever read of ,chaucer's poem4 ,in this catalogue ,blake writes of himself in the most outrageous language--says1 ',this artist defies all competition in colouring'--that none can beat him1 for none can beat the ,holy ,ghost--that he and ,raphael and ,michael ,angelo were under divine influence--while ,corregio and ,titian worshipped a lascivious and therefore cruel deity--,reubens a proud devil1 etc4 etc4 ,he declared1 speaking of color1 ,titian's men to be of leather and his women of chalk1 and ascribed his own perfection in coloring to the advantage he enjoyed in seeing daily the primitive men walking in their native nakedness in the mountains of ,wales4 ,there were about thirty oil-paintings1 the coloring excessively dark and high1 the veins black1 and the color of the primitive men very like that of the ,red ,indians4 ,in his estimation they would probably be the primitive men4 ,many of his designs were unconscious imitations4 ,this appears also in his published works--the designs of ,blair's ,grave1 which ,fuseli and ,schiavonetti highly extolled--and in his designs to illustrate ,job1 published after his death for the benefit of his widow4 #bc_/b_/eb4 ,to this catalogue and in the printed poems1 the small pamphlet which appeared in #aghc1 the edition put forth by ,wilkinson of ,the ,songs of ,innocence1' and other works already mentioned1 to which ,i have to add the first four books of ,young's ,night ,thoughts1 and ,allan ,cunningham's ,life of him1 ,i now refer1 and will confine myself to the memorandums ,i took of his conversation4 ,i had heard of him from ,flaxman1 and for the first time dined in his company at the ,aders'4 ,linnell the painter also was there--an artist of considerable talent1 and who professed to take#c a deep interest in ,blake and his work1 whether of a perfectly disinterested character may be doubtful1 as will appear hereafter4 ,this was on the #ajth of ,december4 ,i was aware of his idiosyncrasies and therefore to a great degree prepared for the sort of conversation which took place at and after dinner1 an altogether unmethodical rhapsody on art1 poetry1 and religion--he saying the most strange things in the most unemphatic manner1 speaking of his ,visions as any man would of the most ordinary occurrence4 ,he was then #fh years of age4 ,he had a broad1 pale face1 a large full eye with a benignant expression--at the same time a look of languor1#d except when excited1 and then he had an air of inspiration4 ,but not such as without a previous acquaintance with him1 or attending to what he said1 would suggest the notion that he was insane4 ,there was nothing wild about his look1 and though very ready to be drawn out to the assertion of his favorite ideas1 yet with no warmth as if he wanted to make proselytes4 ,indeed one of the peculiar features of his scheme1 as far as it was consistent1 was indifference and a very extraordinary degree of tolerance and satisfaction with what had taken place4#e ,a sort of pious and humble optimism1 not the scornful optimism of ,candide4 ,but at the same time that he was very ready to praise he seemed incapable of envy1 as he was of discontent4 ,he warmly praised some composition of ,mrs4 ,aders1 and having brought for ,aders an engraving of his ,canterbury ,pilgrims1 he remarked that one of the figures resembled a figure in one of the works then in ,aders's room1 so that he had been accused of having stolen from it4 ,but he added that he had drawn the figure in question #bj years before he had seen the original picture4 ,however1 there is 'no wonder in the resemblance1 as in my youth ,i was always studying that class of painting4' ,i have forgotten what it was1 but his taste was in close conformity with the old ,german school4 ,this was somewhat at variance with what he said both this day and afterwards--implying that he copies his ,visions4 ,and it was on this first day that1 in answer to a question from me1 he said1 ',the ,spirits told me4' ,this lead me to say3 ,socrates used pretty much the same language4 ,he spoke of his ,genius4 ,now1 what affinity or resemblance do you suppose was there between the ,genius which inspired ,socrates and your ,spirits8 ,he smiled1 and for once it seemed to me as if he had a feeling of vanity gratified4#f ',the same as in our countenances4' ,he paused and said1 ',i was ,socrates'--and then as if he had gone too far in that--'or a sort of brother4 ,i must have had conversations with him4 ,so ,i had with ,jesus ,christ4 ,i have an obscure recollection of having been with both of them4' ,as ,i had for many years been familiar with the idea that an eternity a parte post was inconceivable without an eternity a parte ante1 ,i was naturally led to express that thought on this occasion4 ,his eye brightened on my saying this4 ,he eagerly assented3 ',to be sure4 ,we are all coexistent with ,god2 members of the ,divine body1 and partakers of the ,divine nature4' ,blake's having adopted this ,platonic idea led me on our tte--tte walk home at night to put the popular question to him1 concerning the imputed ,divinity of ,jesus ,christ4 ,he answered3 ',he is the only ,god'--but then he added--',and so am ,i and so are you4' ,he had before said--and that led me to put the question--that ,christ ought not to have suffered himself to be crucified4' ',he should not have attacked the ,government4 ,he had no business with such matters4' ,on my representing this to be inconsistent with the sanctity of divine qualities1 he said ,christ was not yet become the ,father4 ,it is hard on bringing together these fragmentary recollections#g to fix ,blake's position in relation to ,christianity1 ,platonism1 and ,spinozism4 ,it is one of the subtle remarks of ,hume on the tendency of certain religious notions to reconcile us to whatever occurs1 as ,god's will4 ,and apply--this to something ,blake said1 and drawing the inference that there is no use in education1 he hastily rejoined3 ',there is no use in education4 ,i hold it wrong4 ,it is the great ,sin4 ,it is eating of the tree of knowledge of ,good and ,evil4 ,that was the fault of ,plato3 he knew of nothing but the ,virtues and ,vices4 ,there is nothing in all that4 ,everything is good in ,god's eyes4' ,on my asking whether there is nothing absolutely evil in what man does1 he answered3 ',i am no judge of that--perhaps not in ,god's eyes4' ,notwithstanding this1 he1 however1 at the same time spoke of error as being in heaven2 for on my asking whether ,dante was pure in writing his ,vision1 ',pure1' said ,blake4 ',is there any purity in ,god's eyes8 ,no4 ,he chargeth his angels with folly4' ,he even extended this liability to error to the ,supreme ,being4 ',did he not repent him that he had made ,nineveh8' ,my journal here has the remark that it is easier to retail his personal remarks than to reconcile those which seemed to be in conformity with the most opposed abstract systems4 ,he spoke with seeming complacency of his own life in connection with ,art4 ,in becoming an artist he 'acted by command4' ,the ,spirits said to him1 ',blake1 be an artist4' ,his eye glistened while he spoke of the joy of devoting himself to divine art alone4 ',art is inspiration4 ,when ,michael ,angelo or ,raphael1 in their day1 or ,mr4 ,flaxman1 does any of his fine things1 he does them in the ,spirit4' ,of fame he said3 ',i should be sorry if ,i had any earthly fame1 for whatever natural glory a man has is so much detracted from his spiritual glory4 ,i wish to do nothing for profit4 ,i want nothing--,i am quite happy4' ,this was confirmed to me on my subsequent interviews with him4 ,his distinction between the ,natural and ,spiritual worlds was very confused4 ,incidentally1 ,swedenborg was mentioned--he declared him to be a ,divine ,teacher4 ,he had done1 and would do1 much good4 ,yet he did wrong in endeavoring to explain to the reason what it could not comprehend4 ,he seemed to consider1 but that was not clear1 the visions of ,swedenborg and ,dante as of the same kind4 ,dante was the greater poet4 ,he too was wrong in occupying his mind about political objects4 ,yet this did not appear to affect his estimation of ,dante's genius1 or his opinion of the truth of ,dante's visions4 ,indeed1 when he even declared ,dante to be an ,atheist1 it was accompanied by expression of the highest admiration2 though1 said he1 ,dante saw ,devils where ,i saw none4#h ,i put down in my journal the following insulated remarks4 ,jacob ,bhmen was placed among the divinely inspired men4 ,he praised also the designs to ,law's translation of ,bhmen4 ,michael ,angelo could not have surpassed them4 ',bacon1 ,locke1 and ,newton are the three great teachers of ,atheism1 or ,satan's ,doctrine1' he asserted4 ',irving is a highly gifted man--he is a sent man2 but they who are sent sometimes go further than they ought4'#i ,calvin4 ,i saw nothing but good in ,calvin's house4 ,in ,luther's there were ,harlots4 ,he declared his opinion that the earth is flat1 not round1 and just as ,i had objected the circumnavigation dinner was announced4 ,but objections were seldom of any use4 ,the wildest of his assertions was made with the veriest indifference of tone1#aj as if altogether insignificant4 ,it respected the natural and spiritual worlds4 ,by way of example of the difference between them1 he said1 ',you never saw the spiritual ,sun4 ,i have4 ,i saw him on ,primrose ,hill4' ,he said1 ',do you take me for the ,greek ,apollo8' ',no6' ,i said4 ',that 7pointing to the sky7 that is the ,greek ,apollo4 ,he is ,satan4' ,not everything was thus absurd4 ,there were glimpses and flashes of truth and beauty3 as when he compared moral with physical evil4 ',who shall say what ,god thinks evil8 ,that is a wise tale of the ,mahometans--of the ,angel of the ,lord who murdered the ,infant4'--,the ,hermit of ,parnell1 ,i suppose4--',is not every infant that dies of a natural death in reality slain by an ,angel8' ,and when he joined to the assurance of his happiness1 that of his having suffered1 and that it was necessary1 he added1 ',there is suffering in ,heaven2 for where there is the capacity of enjoyment1 there is the capacity of pain4#aa ,i include among the glimpses of truth this assertion1 ',i know what is true by internal conviction4 ,a doctrine is stated4 ,my heart tells me ,it must be true4' ,i remarked1 in confirmation of it1 that1 to an unlearned man1 what are called the external evidences of religion can carry no conviction with them2 and this he assented to4 ,after my first evening with him at ,aders's1 ,i made the remark in my journal1 that his observations1 apart from his ,visions and references to the spiritual world1 were sensible and acute4 ,in the sweetness of his countenance and gentility of his manner he added an indescribable grace to his conversation4 ,i added my regret1 which ,i must now repeat1 at my inability to give more than incoherent thoughts4 ,not altogether my fault perhaps4 #be_/b_/eb4 ,on the #agth ,i called on him in his house in ,fountain's ,court in the ,strand4 ,the interview was a short one1 and what ,i saw was more remarkable than what ,i heard4 ,he was at work engraving in a small bedroom1 light1 and looking out on a mean yard4 ,everything in the room squalid and indicating poverty1 except himself4 ,and there was a natural gentility about him1 and an insensibility to the seeming poverty1 which quite removed the impression4 ,besides1 his linen was clean1 his hand white1 and his air quite unembarrassed when he begged me to sit down as if he were in a palace4 ,there was but one chair in the room besides that on which he sat4 ,on my putting my hand to it1 ,i found that it would have fallen to pieces if ,i had lifted it1 so1 as if ,i had been a ,sybarite1 ,i said with a smile1 ',will you let me indulge myself8' and ,i sat on the bed1 and near him1#ab and during my short stay there was nothing in him that betrayed that he was aware of what to other persons might have been even offensive1 not in his person1 but in all about him4 ,his wife ,i saw at this time1 and she seemed to be the very woman to make him happy4 ,she had been formed by him4 ,indeed1 otherwise1 she could not have lived with him4 ,notwithstanding her dress1 which was poor and dirty1 she had a good expression in her countenance1 and1 with a dark eye1 had remains#ac of beauty in her youth4 ,she had that virtue of virtues in a wife1 an implicit reverence of her husband4 ,it is quite certain that she believed in all his visions4 ,and on one occasion1 not this day1 speaking of his ,visions1 she said1 ',you know1 dear1 the first time you saw ,god was when you were four years old1 and he put his head to the window and set you a-screaming4' ,in a word1 she was formed on the ,miltonic model1 and like the first ,wife ,eve worshipped ,god in her husband4 ,he being to her what ,god was to him4 ,vide ,milton's ,paradise ,lost--passim4 #bf_/b_/eb4 ,he was making designs or engravings1 ,i forget which4 ,carey's ,dante was before sic4 ,he showed me some of his designs from ,dante1 of which ,i do not presume to speak4 ,they were too much above me4 ,but ,gtzenberger1 whom ,i afterwards took to see them1 expressed the highest admiration of them4 ,they are in the hands of ,linnell the painter1 and1 it has been suggested1 are reserved by him for publication when ,blake may have become#ad an object of interest to a greater number than he could be at this age4 ,dante was again the subject of our conversation4 ,and ,blake declared him a mere politician and atheist1 busied about this world's affairs2 as ,milton was till1 in his 7,m4's7 old age1 he returned back to the ,god he had abandoned in childhood4#ae ,i in vain endeavoured to obtain from him a qualification of the term atheist1 so as not to include him in the ordinary reproach4 ,and yet he afterwards spoke of ,dante's being then with ,god4 ,i was more successful when he also called ,locke an atheist1 and imputed to him willful deception1 and seemed satisfied with my admission1 that ,locke's philosophy led to the ,atheism of the ,french school4 ,he reiterated his former strange notions on morals--would allow of no other education than what lies in the cultivation of the fine arts and the imagination4 ',what are called the ,vices in the natural world1 are the highest sublimities in the spiritual world4' ,and when ,i supposed the case of his being the father of a vicious son and asked him how he would feel1 he evaded the question by saying that in trying to think correctly he must not regard his own weaknesses any more than other people's4 ,and he was silent to the observation that his doctrine denied evil4 ,he seemed not unwilling to admit the ,manichaean doctrine of two principles1 as far as it is found in the idea of the ,devil4 ,and said expressly said sic he did not believe in the omnipotence of ,god4 ,the language of the ,bible is only poetical or allegorical on the subject1 yet he at the same time denied the reality of the natural world4 ,satan's empire is the empire of nothing4 ,as he spoke of frequently seeing ,milton1 ,i ventured to ask1 half ashamed at the time1 which of the three or four portraits in ,hollis's ,memoirs 7vols4 in #dto7 is the most like4 ,he answered1 ',they are all like1 at different ages4 ,i have seen him as a youth and as an old man with a long flowing beard4 ,he came lately as an old man--he said he came to ask a favor of me4 ,he said he had committed an error in his ,paradise ,lost1 which he wanted me to correct1 in a poem or picture2 but ,i declined4 ,i said ,i had my own duties to perform4' ,it is a presumptuous question1 ,i replied--might ,i venture to ask--what that could be4 ',he wished me to expose the falsehood of his doctrine1 taught in the ,paradise ,lost1 that#af sexual intercourse arose out of the ,fall4 ,how that cannot be1 for no good can spring out of evil4' ,but1 ,i replied1 if the consequence were evil1 mixed with good1 then the good might be ascribed to the common cause4 ,to this he answered by a reference to the androgynous state1 in which ,i could not possibly follow him4 ,at the time that he asserted his own possession of this gift of ,vision1 he did not boast of it as peculiar to himself2 all men might have it if they would4 #ahbf #bg_/b_/eb4 ,on the #bdth ,i called a second time on him4 ,and on this occasion it was that ,i read to him ,wordsworth's ,ode on the supposed pre-existent ,state1 and the subject of ,wordsworth's religious character was discussed when we met on the #ahth of ,feb41 and the #abth of ,may4 ,i will here bring together ,blake's declarations concerning ,wordsworth1 and set down his marginalia in the #hvo4 edit4 ,a4,d4 #ahae1 vol4 ,i4 ,i had been in the habit1 when reading this marvelous ,ode to friends1 to omit one or two passages1 especially that beginning3 ',but there's a ,tree1 of many one1' ,lest ,i should be rendered ridiculous1 being unable to explain precisely what ,i admired4 ,not that ,i acknowledged this to be a fair test4 ,but with ,blake ,i could fear nothing of the kind4 ,and it was this very stanza which threw him almost into a hysterical rapture4 ,his delight in ,wordsworth's poetry was intense4#ag ,nor did it seem less1 notwithstanding the reproaches he continually cast on ,wordsworth for his imputed worship of nature2#ah which in the mind of ,blake constituted ,atheism see ,introduction44 #bh_/b_/eb4 ,the combination of the wannest praise with imputations which from another would assume the most serious character1 and the liberty he took to interpret as he pleased1 rendered it as difficult to be offended as to reason with him4 ,the eloquent descriptions of ,nature in ,wordsworth's poems were conclusive proofs of atheism1 for whoever believes in ,nature1 said ,blake1 disbelieves in ,god4 ,for ,nature is the work of the ,devil4 ,on my obtaining from him the declaration that the ,bible was the ,word of ,god1 ,i referred to the commencement of ,genesis--,in the beginning ,god created the ,heavens and the ,earth4 ,but ,i gained nothing by this1 for ,i was triumphantly told that this ,god was not ,jehovah1 but the ,elohim2 and the doctrine of the ,gnostics repeated with sufficient consistency to silence one so unlearned as myself4 ,the ,preface to the ,excursion1 especially the verses quoted from book i4 of the ,recluse1 so troubled him as to bring on a fit of illness4 ,these lines he singled out3 ,jehovah with his thunder1 and the ,choir ,of shouting ,angels1 and the ,empyreal throne1 ,i pass them unalarmed4' ,does ,mr4 ,wordsworth think he can surpass ,jehovah8 ,there was a copy of the whole passage in his own hand1#ai in the volume of ,wordsworth's poems sent to my chambers after his death4 ,there was this note at the end3 ',solomon1 when he married ,pharaoh's daughter1 and became a convert to the ,heathen ,mythology1 talked exactly in this way of ,jehovah1 as a very inferior object of ,man's contemplations2 he also passed him unharmed1 and was permitted4 ,jehovah dropped a tear and followed him by his ,spirit into the abstract void4 ,it is called the ,divine ,mercy4 ,sarah dwells in it1 but ,mercy does not dwell in ,him4' ,some of ,wordsworth's poems he maintained were from the ,holy ,ghost1 others from the ,devil4 ,i lent him the #hvo edition1 two vols41 of ,wordsworth's poems1 which he had in his possession at the time of his death4 ,they were sent me then4 ,i did not recognize the pencil notes he made in them to be his for some time1 and was on the point of rubbing them out under that impression1 when ,i made the discovery4 ,the following are found in the #crd vol41 in the fly-leaf under the words3 ,poems referring to the ,period of ,childhood4 #bi_/b_/eb4 ',i see in ,wordsworth the ,natural man rising up against the ,spiritual man continually1 and then he is no poet1 but a ,heathen ,philosopher at ,enmity against all true poetry or inspiration4' ,under the first poem3 ',and ,i could wish my days to be ,bound each to each by natural piety1' ,he had written1 ',there is no such thing as natural piety1 because the natural man is at enmity with ,god4' ,p4 #dc1 under the ,verses ',to ,h4 ,c41 six years old'--',this is all in the highest degree imaginative and equal to any poet1 but not superior4 ,i cannot think that real poets have any competition4 ,none are greatest in the kingdom of heaven4 ,it is so in poetry4' ,p4 #dd1 ',on the ,influence of ,natural ,objects1' at the bottom of the page4 ',natural objects always did and now do weaken1 deaden1 and obliterate imagination in me4 ,wordsworth must know that what he writes valuable is not to be found in ,nature4 ,bead ,michael ,angelo's sonnet1 vol4 iv4 p4 #agi4' ,that is1 the one beginning3 ',no mortal object did these eyes behold ,when first they met the placid light of thine4'#bj ,it is remarkable that ,blake1 whose judgements were on most points so very singular1 on one subject closely connected with ,wordsworth's poetical reputation should have taken a very commonplace view4 ,over the heading of the ',essay ,supplementary to the ,preface' at the end of the vol4 he wrote1 ',i do not know who wrote these ,prefaces2 they are very mischievous1 and direct contrary to ,wordsworth's own practice' 7see ,,iii4 ,from ,lady ,charlotte ,bury's ,diary47 ,this is not the defense of his own style in opposition to what is called ,poetic ,diction1 but a sort of historic vindication of the unpopular poets4 ,on ,macpherson1 p4 #cfd1 ,wordsworth wrote with the severity with which all great writers have written of him4 ,blake's comment below was1 ',i believe both ,macpherson and ,chatterton1 that what they say is ancient is so4' ,and in the following page1 ',i own myself an admirer of ,ossian equally with any other poet whatever4 ,rowley and ,chatterton also4' ,and at the end of this ,essay he wrote1 ',it appears to me as if the last paragraph beginning ,is it the spirit of the whole1 etc41 was written by another hand and mind from the rest of these ,prefaces2 they are the opinions of landscape-painter4 ,imagination is the divine vision not of the world1 nor of man1 nor from man as he is a natural man1 but only as he is a spiritual man4 ,imagination has nothing to do with memory4' #ahbf #a_/c_/eb4 #aith ,feb4 ,it was this day in connection with the assertion that#ba the ,bible is the ,word of ,god and all truth is to be found in it1 he using language concerning man's reason being opposed to grace very like that used by the ,orthodox ,christian1 that he qualified1 and as the same ,orthodox would say utterly nullified all he said by declaring that he understood the ,bible in a ,spiritual sense4 ,as to the natural sense1 he said ,voltaire was commissioned by ,god to expose that4 ',i have had1' he said1 'much intercourse with ,voltaire1 and he said to me1 ,i blasphemed the ,son of ,man1 and it shall be forgiven me1 but they 7the enemies of ,voltaire7 blasphemed the ,holy ,ghost in me1 and it shall not be forgiven to them4 ',i ask him in what language ,voltaire spoke4 ,his answer was ingenious and gave no encouragement to cross-questioning3 ',to my sensations it was ,english4 ,it was like the touch of a musical key2 he touched it probably ,french1 but to my ear it became ,english4' ,i also enquired as ,i had before about the form of the persons#bb who appeared to him1 and asked why he did not draw them4 ',it is not worth while1' he said4 ',besides there are so many that the labour would be too great4 ,and there would be no use in it4' ,in answer to an enquiry about ,shakespeare1 'he is exactly like the old engraving--which is said to be a bad one4 ,i think it very good4' ,i enquired about his own writings4 ',i have written1' he answered1 'more than ,rousseau or ,voltaire--six or seven ,epic poems as long as ,homer and #bj ,tragedies as long as ,macbeth4' ,he shewed me his ',version of ,genesis1'#bc for so it may be called1 as understood by a ,christian ,visionary4 ,he read a wild passage in a sort of ,bible style4 ',i shall print#bd no more1' he said4 ',when ,i am commanded by the ,spirits1 then ,i write1 and the moment ,i have written1 ,i see the words fly about the room in all directions4 ,it is then published4 ,the ,spirits can read1 and my ,,ms4 is of no further use4 ,i have been tempted to burn my ,,ms41 but my wife won't let me4' ,she is right1 ,i answered2 you write not from yourself but from higher order4 ,the ,,mss4 are their property1 not yours4 ,you cannot tell what purpose they may answer4 ,this was addressed ad hominem4 ,and it indeed amounted only to a deduction from his own principles4 ,he incidentally denied causation1 every thing being the work of ,god or ,devil4 ,every man has a ,devil in himself1 and the conflict between his ,self and ,god is perpetually going on4 ,i ordered of him to-day a copy of his songs for #e guineas4 ,my#be manner of receiving his mention of price pleased him4 ,he spoke of his horror of money and of turning pale when it was offered him1 and this was certainly unfeigned4 ,in the ,no4 of the ,gents4 ,magazine for last ,jan4 there is a letter by ,gromek to ,blake printed in order to convict ,blake of selfishness4 ,it cannot possibly be substantially true4 ,i may elsewhere notice it4 #acth ,june4 ,i saw him again in ,june4 ,he was as wild as ever1 says my journal1 but he was led today to make assertions more palpably mischievous1 if capable of influencing other minds1 and immoral1 supposing them to express the will#bf of a responsible agent1 than anything he had said before4 ,as1 for instance1 that he had learned from the ,bible that ,wives should be in common4 ,and when ,i objected that marriage was a ,divine institution1 he referred to the ,bible--'that from the beginning it was not so4' ,he affirmed that he had committed many murders1 and repeated his doctrine1 that reason is the only sin1 and that careless1 gay people are better than those who think1 etc4 etc4 ,it was1 ,i believe1 on the #gth of ,december that ,i saw him last4 ,i had just heard of the death of ,flaxman1 a man whom he professed to admire1 and was curious to know how he would receive the intelligence4 ,it was as ,i expected4#bg ,he had been ill during the summer1 and he said with a smile1 ',i thought ,i should have gone first4' ,he then said1 ',i cannot think of death as more than the going out of one room into another4' ,and ,flaxman was no longer thought of4 ,he relapsed into his ordinary train of thinking4 ,indeed ,i had by this time learned that there was nothing to be gained by frequent intercourse4 ,and therefore it was that after this interview ,i was not anxious to be frequent in my visits4 ,this day he said1 ',men are born with an ,angel and1 a ,devil4' ,this he himself interpreted as ,soul and ,body1 and as ,i have long since said of the strange sayings of a man who enjoys a high reputation1 'it is more in the language than the thought that this singularity is to be looked for4' ,and this day he spoke of the ,old ,testament as if sic were the evil element4 ,christ1 he said1 took much after his mother1 and in so far was one of the worst of men4 ,on my asking him for an instance1 he referred to his turning the moneychangers out of the ,temple--he had no right to do that4 ,he digressed into a condemnation of those who sit in judgement on others4 ',i have never known a very bad man who had not something very good about him4' ,speaking of the ,atonement in the ordinary ,calvinistic sense1 he said1 ',it is a horrible doctrine2 if another pay your debt1 ,i do not forgive it4' ,i have no account of any other call--but there is probably an omission4 ,i took ,gtzenberger to see him1 and he met the ,masqueriers in my chambers4 ,masquerier was not the man to meet him4 ,he could not humour ,blake nor understand the peculiar sense in which he was to be received4#bh #ahbg ,my journal of this year contains nothing about ,blake4 ,but in ,january #ahbh ,barron ,field and myself called on ,mrs4 ,blake4 ,the poor old lady was more affected than ,i expected she would be at the sight of me4 ,she spoke of her husband as dying like an angel4 ,she informed me that she was going to live with ,linnell as his housekeeper4 ,and we understood that she would live with him1 and he1 as it were1 to farm her services and take all she had4 ,the engravings of ,job were his already4 ,chaucer's ,canterbury ,pilgrims were hers4 ,i took two copies--one ,i gave to ,c4 ,lamb4 ,barron ,field took a proof4 ,mrs4 ,blake died within a few years1 and since ,blake's death ,linnell has not found the market ,i took for granted he would seek for ,blake's works4 ,wilkinson printed a small edition of his poems1 including the ',songs of ,innocence and ,experience1'#bi a few years ago1 and ,monkton ,mylne talks of printing an edition4 ,i have a few colored engravings--but ,blake is still an object of interest exclusively to men of imaginative taste and psychological curiosity4 ,i doubt much whether these mems will be of any use to this small class4 ,i have been reading since the ,life of ,blake by ,allan ,cunningham1 vol4 ,,ii4 p4 #adc of his ,lives of the ,painters4 ,it recognizes more perhaps of ,blake's merit than might be expected of a ,scotch realist4 #bb_/c_/eb4 ,footnote #a3 ,the article appeared under the title3 ',william ,blake1 ,knstler1 ,dichter und religiser ,schwrmer' 7aus dem ,englischen7 on pp4 #ajg-aca of the ,vaterlndisches ,museum1 ,zweiter ,band1 ,erstes ,heft4 ,hamburg1 bey ,friedrich ,perthes4 #ahaa4' ,it has the motto3 ',the lunatic1 the lover1 and the poet ,are of imagination all compact4' ,,shakespeare4 ,five of ,blake's poems1 ',to the ,muse81 ,piping down the valleys wild1 ,holy ,thursday1 ,the ,tyger1 ,the ,garden of ,love1' together with ten lines from the ,prophetic ,books1 are quoted1 with ,german versions in the metres of the original by ,dr4 ,julius1 the translator of the article4 ,on p4 #aja there is an article1 ',von der neuesten englischen ,poesie1' containing notices of ',poems by ,w4 ,cowper' 7#ahjc71 ',works of ,r4 ,burns1'and ',southey's ,poems' 7#ahja7 and ',metrical ,tales' 7#ahjc74 ,footnote #b3 ',like' is first written1 and replaced by 'live4' ,footnote #c3 ',took' crossed out4 ,footnote #d3 ',with an air of feebleness' crossed out4 ,footnote #e3 ,after 'indifference and' 'the entire absence of anything like blame 'reproach' crossed out1 and ,i do not think that ,i ever heard him blame anything1 then or afterwards crossed out4 ,footnote #f3 ',pretty much' crossed out4 ,footnote #g3 ',comparing these fragmentary memoranda' crossed out4 ,footnote #h3 ,crossed out3 ',yet this did not appear to affect the truth of his ,visions4 ,i could not reconcile this with his blaming ,wordsworth for being a ,platonist--not a ,christian4 ,he asked whether ,wordsworth acknowledged the ,scriptures as ,divine1 and declared on my answering in the affirmative that the ,introduction to the ,excursion had troubled him so as to bring on a fit of illness4 ,the passage that offended ,blake was3 ',jehovah with his thunder and the choir ,of shouting ,angels and the empyreal throne1 ,i pass them unalarmed4 ,does ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 said ,blake1 think his mind can surpass ,jehovah's4 ,i tried in vain to rescue ,wordsworth from the imputation of being a ,pagan or perhaps an ,atheist1 but this did not rob him of the character of being the great poet4 ,indeed ,atheism meant but little in ,blake's mind as will hereafter appear4 ,therefore when he declared ,dante to be an ,atheist1 etc4' ,in the margin3 ,see of ,wordsworth as ,blake judged of him1 p4 #df et seq4 7i4e4 #ahbf1 #bg_/b_/eb below47 ,footnote #i3 ',dante saw ,devils where ,i saw none' crossed out4 ,footnote #aj3 ',most unconscious simplicity' crossed out4 ,footnote #aa3 ',it was after my first interview with him that ,i expressed what ,i must repeat now--my regret' crossed out4 ,footnote #ab3 ',he smiled' omitted4 ,footnote #ac3 ',marks' crossed out4 ,footnote #ad3 ',more' crossed out4 ,footnote #ae3 ',and yet he afterwards said that he was then with ,god' crossed out4 ,footnote #af3 ',the plea' crossed out4 ,footnote #ag3 ',and seemingly undisturbed by the' crossed out4 ,footnote #ah3 ',which ,i have anticipated1 and which he characterised as ,atheism1 that is1 in worshipping ,nature4 ,see page' crossed out4 ,footnote #ai3 ',he gave me a copy of these lines in his hand1 with this note at the end' crossed out4 ,footnote #bj3 ',an admirable assertion of the ideal' crossed out4 ,footnote #ba3 ',some of ,wordsworth's' crossed out4 ,footnote #bb3 ',spirits' crossed out4 ,footnote #bc3 ',vision of ,genesis' crossed out4 ,footnote #bd3 ',write' crossed out4 ,footnote #be3 ',immediate 'crossed out4 ,footnote #bf3 ',character' crossed out4 ,footnote #bg3 ',as might have been expected' crossed out4 ,footnote #bh3 ',understood' crossed out4 ,footnote #bi3 ',and some other poems' crossed out4 7,,ii47 ,,from ',a ,,father',s ,,memoirs ,,of ,,his ,,child1' ,,by ,,benjamin ,,heath ,,malkin 7#ahjf7 ,this1 the first printed account of ,blake1 is taken from the dedicatory epistle of ',a ,father's ,memoirs of his ,child1' by ,benj4 ,heath ,malkin1 ,esq41 ,m4,a41 ,f4,a4,s4 7,london3 ,printed for ,longmans1 ,hurst1 ,rees1 and ,orme1 ,paternoster ,row1 by ,t4 ,bensley1 ,bolt ,court1 ,fleet ,street1 #ahjf71 to ,thomas ,johnes1 the translator of ,froissart4 ,i have given everything that relates to ,blake1 with enough of the remainder to explain the purpose of the dedication4 ,malkin was himself1 perhaps1 already engaged on the translation of ,gil ,blas1 which he brought out in #ahji4 ,the frontispiece to the ,memoirs1 designed by ,blake1 and engraved by ,cromek1 consists of a portrait of little ,malkin1 from a miniature1 surrounded by a design of the child saying good-bye to his mother1 and floating up to heaven1 hand in hand with an ample and benign angel4 ,,to ,,thomas ,,johnes1 ,,of ,,hafod1 ,,esq41 ,m4,p41 ,,lord ,,lieutenant ,,of ,,the ,,county ,,of ,,cardigan1 ,,etc4 ,,etc4 ,,etc4 ,,my ,,dear ,,friend1 ,i have been influenced by several motives1 in prefixing your name to the following pages4 ,my pen seems destined to owe its employment1 in some shape or other1 to ,hafod4444 ,you may perhaps recollect1 that while ,i was staying with you last summer1 our conversations were nearly as rambling and as various1 as our rides over your new mountain-farms1 or as the subject matter of these preliminary remarks seems likely to be4444 ,it would have been unnatural1 to have concealed the mark of an afflicting dispensation1 in society so capable of consoling the survivor1 and appreciating the merit of the departed4 ,in the interchange of our thoughts on this subject1 the task of furnishing the public with the following facts was urged upon me1 at once as a tribute to the latter1 and a relief to the feelings of the former4444 ,on mentioning my design to some of my friends1 they expressed their regret1 that ,i had not determined on it sooner4444 ,in every other respect1 but that of catching attention while the object is still before the eye1 the interval must be considered as an advantage4444 ,i have been asked1 ',how could you get over such a loss8' ,i need not say1 that this was not your question1 for you could never have found it on the list of possible interrogatories3 and to you1 for that very reason1 will ,i answer it4 ,i got over this great loss1 by considering at once what ,i had left2 how unavailing the lengthened and excessive indulgence of grief would have been to myself1 and how useless it would have rendered me to others4444 ,besides this comparison of my own1 with the probable or actual circumstances of others1 ,i bore my disappointment the better for the recollection1 that personal regards are selfish4 ,if my thoughts were disposed to dwell on the mortifying idea1 that society might have lost an ornament derived to it through me1 they were soon checked1 and ashamed of their presumption4 ,topics of private bewailing or condolence1 of whatever magnitude they may appear to the individual1 can never be modestly transferred to general interest4 ,but it was my principal consolation1 that the change to him must have been for the better4 ,supposing the opinion to have been rational and probable1 that the promise of this child would have ripened into something more than fair capacity and marketable talent1 the prolongation of life was to himself perhaps the less desirable on that very account4 ,it rarely happens1 that the world affords even the ordinary allowance of happiness to men of transcendent faculties4 ,their merits are too frequently denied the protection and encouragement1 to which they feel themselves entitled1 from the private intimations of their own scrutinizing spirit4 ,when they are most successful1 the composure of their minds does not always keep pace with the prosperity of their fortunes4 ,they necessarily have but few companions2 few1 who are capable of appreciating their high endowments1 and entering into the grandeur of their conceptions4 ,of these few1 those who come the nearest to their own rank and standard1 those who might be the associates of their inmost thoughts1 and the partners of their dearest interests1 are too often envious of their fame4 ,it is a common remark1 that great men are not gregarious4 ,this is but too just2 and so much of man's happiness depends upon society1 that the comparative solitude1 to which a commanding genius condemns its possessor1 detracts considerably from the sum of his personal enjoyment4 ,while ,i am on this subject1 ,i cannot forbear enlarging somewhat on an instance the more apposite1 as being casually connected with the subsequent pages4 ,hitherto1 it has confirmed the observation just hazarded1 on the probable fate of stubborn originality in human life4 ,there seems now indeed some prospect1 that the current will turn3 and ,i shall be eager1 on the evidence of the very first deponent1 to disencumber myself of an opinion1 which pays so ill a compliment to our nature4 ,in the meantime1 ,i am confident that you1 and my other readers of taste and feeling1 will readily forgive my travelling a little out of the record1 for the purpose of descanting on merit1 which ought to be more conspicuous1 and which must have become so long since1 but for opinions and habits of an eccentric kind4 ,it is1 ,i hope1 unnecessary to call your attention to the ornamental device1 round the portrait in this book2 but ,i cannot so easily refrain from introducing to you the designer4 ,mr4 ,william ,blake1 very early in life1 had the ordinary opportunities of seeing pictures in the houses of noblemen and gentlemen1 and in the king's palaces4 ,he soon improved such casual occasions of study1 by attending sales at ,langford's1 ,christie's1 and other auction-rooms4 ,at ten years of age he was put to ,mr4 ,pars's drawing-school in the ,strand1 where he soon attained the art of drawing from casts in plaster of the various antiques4 ,his father bought for him the ,gladiator1 the ,hercules1 the ,venus of ,medicis1 and various heads1 hands and feet4 ,the same indulgent parent soon supplied him with money to buy prints2 when he immediately began his collection1 frequenting the shops of the print-dealers1 and the sales of the auctioneers4 ,langford called him his little connoisseur2 and often knocked down to him a cheap lot1 with friendly precipitation4 ,he copied ,raphael and ,michael ,angelo1 ,martin ,hemskerck and ,albert ,drer1 ,julio ,romano1 and the rest of the historic class1 neglecting to buy any other prints1 however celebrated4 ,his choice was for the most part contemned by his youthful companions1 who were accustomed to laugh at what they called his mechanical taste4 ,at the age of fourteen1 he fixed on the engraver of ,stuart's ,athens and ,west's ,pylades and ,orestes for his master1 to whom he served seven years' apprenticeship4 ,basire1 whose taste was like his own1 approved of what he did4 ,two years passed over smoothly enough1 till two other apprentices were added to the establishment1 who completely destroyed its harmony4 ,blake1 not choosing to take part with his master against his fellow apprentices1 was sent out to make drawings4 ,this circumstance he always mentions with gratitude to ,basire1 who said that he was too simple and they too cunning4 ,he was employed in making drawings from old buildings and monuments1 and occasionally1 especially in winter1 in engraving from those drawings4 ,this occupation led him to an acquaintance with those neglected works of art1 called ,gothic monuments4 ,there he found a treasure1 which he knew how to value4 ,he saw the simple and plain road to the style of art at which he aimed1 unentangled in the intricate windings of modern practice4 ,the monuments of ,kings and ,queens in ,westminster ,abbey1 which surround the chapel of ,edward the ,confessor1 particularly that of ,king ,henry the ,third1 the beautiful monument and figure of ,queen ,elinor1 ,queen ,philippa1 ,king ,edward the ,third1 ,king ,richard the ,second and his ,queen1 were among his first studies4 ,all these he drew in every point he could catch1 frequently standing on the monument1 and viewing the figures from the top4 ,the heads he considered as portraits2 and all the ornaments appeared as miracles of art1 to his ,gothicised imagination4 ,he then drew ,aymer de ,valence's monument1 with his fine figure on the top4 ,those exquisite little figures which surround it1 though dreadfully mutilated1 are still models for the study of drapery4 ,but ,i do not mean to enumerate all his drawings1 since they would lead me over all the old monuments in ,westminster ,abbey1 as well as over other churches in and about ,london4 ,such was his employment at ,basire's4 ,as soon as he was out of his time1 he began to engrave two designs from the ,history of ,england1 after drawings which he had made in the holiday hours of his apprenticeship4 ,they were selected from a great number of historical compositions1 the fruits of his fancy4 ,he continued making designs for his own amusement1 whenever he could steal a moment from the routine of business2 and began a course of study at the ,royal ,academy1 under the eye of ,mr4 ,moser4 ,here he drew with great care1 perhaps all1 or certainly nearly all the noble antique figures in various views4 ,but now his peculiar notions began to intercept him in his career4 ,he professes drawing from life always to have been hateful to him2 and speaks of it as looking more like death1 or smelling of mortality4 ,yet still he drew a good deal from life1 both at the academy and at home4 ,in this manner has he managed his talents1 till he is himself almost become a ,gothic monument4 ,on a view of his whole life1 he still thinks himself authorized to pronounce1 that practice and opportunity very soon teach the language of art3 but its spirit and poetry1 which are seated in the imagination alone1 never can be taught2 and these make an artist4 ,mr4 ,blake has long been known to the order of men among whom he ranks2 and is highly esteemed by those1 who can distinguish excellence under the disguise of singularity4 ,enthusiastic and high-flown notions on the subject of religion have hitherto1 as they usually do1 prevented his general reception1 as a son of taste and of the muses4 ,the sceptic and the rational believer1 uniting their forces against the visionary1 pursue and scare a warm and brilliant imagination1 with the hue and cry of madness4 ,not contented with bringing down the reasonings of the mystical philosopher1 as they well may1 to this degraded level1 they apply the test of cold calculation and mathematical proof to departments of the mind1 which are privileged to appeal from so narrow and rigorous a tribunal4 ,they criticize the representations of corporeal beauty1 and the allegoric emblems of mental perfections2 the image of the visible world1 which appeals to the senses for a testimony to its truth1 or the type of futurity and the immortal soul1 which identifies itself with our hopes and with our hearts1 as if they were syllogisms or theorems1 demonstrable propositions or consecutive corollaries4 ,by them have the higher powers of this artist been kept from public notice1 and his genius tied down1 as far as possible1 to the mechanical department of his profession4 ,by them1 in short1 has he been stigmatized as an engraver1 who might do tolerably well1 if he was not mad4 ,but men1 whose names will bear them out1 in what they affirm1 have now taken up his cause4 ,on occasion of ,mr4 ,blake engaging to illustrate the poem of ,the ,grave1 some of the first artists in this country have stept forward1 and liberally given the sanction of ardent and encomiastic applause4 ,mr4 ,fuseli1 with a mind far superior to that jealousy above described1 has written some introductory remarks in the ,prospectus of the work4 ,to these he has lent all the penetration of his understanding1 with all the energy and descriptive power characteristic of his style4 ,mr4 ,hope and ,mr4 ,locke have pledged their character as connoisseurs1 by approving and patronizing these designs4 ,had ,i been furnished with an opportunity of showing them to you1 ,i should1 on ,mr4 ,blake's behalf1 have requested your concurring testimony1 which you would not have refused me1 had you viewed them in the same light4 ,neither is the capacity of this untutored proficient limited to his professional occupation4 ,he has made several irregular and unfinished attempts at poetry4 ,he has dared to venture on the ancient simplicity2 and feeling it in his own character and manners1 has succeeded better than those1 who have only seen it through a glass4 ,his genius in this line assimilates more with the bold and careless freedom1 peculiar to our writers at the latter end of the sixteenth1 and former part of the seventeenth century1 than with the polished phraseology1 and just1 but subdued thought of the eighteenth4 ,as the public have hitherto had no opportunity of passing sentence on his poetical powers1 ,i shall trespass on your patience1 while ,i introduce a few specimens from a collection1 circulated only among the author's friends1 and richly embellished by his pencil4 ,,laughing ,,song ,when the green woods laugh with the voice of joy1 ,and the dimpling stream runs laughing by1 ,when the air does laugh with our merry wit1 ,and the green hill laughs with the noise of it1 ,when the meadows laugh with lively green1 ,and the grasshopper laughs in this merry scene1 ,when ,mary and ,susan and ,emily1 ,with their sweet round mouths1 sing ,ha1 ha1 he6 ,when the painted birds laugh in the shade1 ,where our table with cherries and nuts is spread1 ,come live and be merry and join with me1 ,to sing the sweet chorus of ,ha1 ha1 he6 ,the ,fairy ,glee of ,oberon1 which ,stevens's exquisite music has familiarized to modern ears1 will immediately occur to the reader of these laughing stanzas4 ,we may also trace another less obvious resemblance to ,jonson1 in an ode gratulatory to the ,right ,honourable ,hierome1 ,lord ,weston1 for his return from his embassy1 in the year #afcb4 ,the accord is to be found1 not in the words nor in the subject2 for either would betray imitation3 but in the style of thought1 and1 if ,i may so term it1 the date of the expression4 ,such pleasure as the teeming earth ,doth take in easy nature's birth1 ,when she puts forth the life of every thing3 ,and in a dew of sweetest rain1 ,she lies delivered without pain1 ,of the prime beauty of the year1 the spring4 ,the rivers in their shores do run1 ,the clouds rack clear before the sun1 ,the rudest winds obey the calmest air3 ,rare plants from every bank do rise1 ,and every plant the sense surprise1 ,because the order of the whole is fair6 ,the very verdure of her nest1 ,wherein she sits so richly drest1 ,as all the wealth of season there was spread2 ,doth show the graces and the hours ,have multiplied their arts and powers1 ,in making soft her aromatic bed4 ,such joys1 such sweets1 doth your return ,bring all your friends1 fair lord1 that burn ,with love1 to hear your modesty relate ,the bus'ness of your blooming wit1 ,with all the fruit shall follow it1 ,both to the honor of the king and state4 ,the following poem of ,blake is in a different character4 ,it expresses with majesty and pathos the feelings of a benevolent mind1 on being present at a sublime display of national munificence and charity4 ,,holy ,,thursday ',twas on a ,holy ,thursday1 their innocent faces clean1 ,the children walking two and two1 in red and blue and green2 ,grey-headed beadles walked before1 with wands as white as snow2 ,till into the high dome of ,paul's1 they1 like ,thames' waters1 flow4 ,oh6 ,what a multitude they seemed1 these flowers of ,london town6 ,seated in companies they sit1 with radiance all their own6 ,the hum of multitudes was there1 but multitudes of lambs2 ,thousands of little boys and girls1 raising their innocent hands4 ,now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song1 ,or like harmonious thunderings1 the seats of heaven among6 ,beneath them sit the aged men1 wise guardians of the poor3 ,then cherish pity1 lest you drive an angel from your door4 ,the book of ,revelation1 which may well be supposed to engross much of ,mr4 ,blake's study1 seems to have directed him1 in common with ,milton1 to some of the foregoing images4 ',and ,i heard as it were the voice of a great multitude1 and as the voice of many waters1 and as the voice of mighty thunderings1 saying1 ,alleluia3 for the ,lord ,god omnipotent reigneth4' ,milton comprises the mighty thunderings in the epithet 'loud1' and adopts the comparison of many waters1 which image our poet1 having in the first stanza appropriated differently1 to their flow rather than to their sound1 exchanges in the last for that of a mighty wind4 ,he ended2 and the heav'nly audience loud ,sung hallelujah1 as the sound of sees1 ,through multitude that sung4 ,paradise ,lost1 ,book ,x4 #fda4 ,it may be worth a moment's consideration1 whether ,dr4 ,johnson's remarks on devotional poetry1 though strictly just where he applies them1 to the artificial compositions of ,waller and ,watts1 are universally and necessarily true4 ,watts seldom rose above the level of a mere versifier4 ,waller1 though entitled to the higher appellation of poet1 had formed himself rather to elegance and delicacy1 than to passionate emotions or a lofty and dignified deportment4 ,the devotional pieces of the ,hebrew bards are clothed in that simple language1 to which ,johnson with justice ascribes the character of sublimity4 ,there is no reason therefore why the poets of other nations should not be equally successful1 if they think with the same purity1 and express themselves in the same unaffected terms4 ,he says indeed with truth1 that ',repentance trembling in the presence of the judge1 is not at leisure for cadences and epithets4' ,but though we should exclude the severer topics from our catalogue1 mercy and benevolence may be treated poetically1 because they are in unison with the mild spirit of poetry4 ,they are seldom treated successfully2 but the fault is not in the subject4 ,the mind of the poet is too often at leisure for the mechanical prettinesses of cadence and epithet1 when it ought to be engrossed by higher thoughts4 ,words and numbers present themselves unbidden1 when the soul is inspired by sentiment1 elevated by enthusiasm1 or ravished by devotion4 ,i leave it to the reader to determine1 whether the following stanzas have any tendency to vindicate this species of poetry2 and whether their simplicity and sentiment at all make amends for their unartificial and unassuming construction4 ,,the ,,divine ,,image ,to ,mercy1 ,pity1 ,peace1 and ,love1 ,all pray in their distress1 ,and to these virtues of delight ,return their thankfulness4 ,for ,mercy1 ,pity1 ,peace1 and ,love ,is ,god our ,father dear3 ,and ,mercy1 ,pity1 ,peace1 and ,love1 ,is man1 his child and care4 ,for ,mercy has a human heart2 ,pity1 a human face2 ,and ,love1 the human form divine1 ,and ,peace1 the human dress4 ,then every man1 of every clime1 ,that prays in his distress1 ,prays to the human form divine1 ,love1 ,mercy1 ,pity1 ,peace4 ,and all must love the human form4 ,in ,heathen1 ,turk1 or ,jew6 ,where ,mercy1 ,love1 and ,pity dwell1 ,there ,god is dwelling too4 ,shakespeare's ,venus and ,adonis1 ,tarquin and ,lucrece1 and his ,sonnets1 occasioned it to be said by a contemporary1 that1 ',as the soul of ,euphorbus was thought to live in ,pythagoras1 so the sweet witty soul of ,ovid lives in mellifluous honey-tongued ,shakespeare4' ,these poems1 now little read1 were favorite studies of ,mr4 ,blake's early days4 ,so were ,jonson's ,underwoods and ,miscellanies1 and he seems to me to have caught his manner1 more than that of ,shakespeare in his trifles4 ,the following song is a good deal in the spirit of the ,hue and ,cry after ,cupid1 in the ,masque on ,lord ,haddington's marriage4 ,it was written before the age of fourteen1 in the heat of youthful fancy1 unchastized by judgment4 ,the poet1 as such1 takes the very strong liberty of equipping himself with wings1 and thus appropriates his metaphorical costume to his corporeal fashion and seeming4 ,the conceit is not unclassical2 but ,pindar and the ancient lyrics arrogated to themselves the bodies of swans for their august residence4 ,our ,gothic songster is content to be encaged by ,cupid2 and submits1 like a young lady's favorite1 to all the vagaries of giddy curiosity and tormenting fondness4 ,how sweet ,i roamed from field to field1 ,and tasted all the summer's pride1 ,till ,i the prince of love beheld1 ,who in the sunny beams did glide6 ,he showed me lilies for my hair1 ,and blushing roses for my brow2 ,he led me through his gardens fair1 ,where all his golden pleasures grow4 ,with sweet ,may dews my wings were wet1 ,and ,phoebus fired my vocal rage2 ,he caught me in his silken net1 ,and shut me in his golden cage4 ,he loves to sit and hear me sing1 ,then1 laughing1 sports and plays with me2 ,then stretches out my golden wing1 ,and mocks my loss of liberty4 ,the playful character ascribed to the prince of love1 especially his wanton and fantastic action while sporting with his captive1 in the two last stanzas1 render it probable that the author had read the ,hue and ,cry after ,cupid4 ,if so1 it had made its impression2 but the lines could scarcely have been remembered at the time of writing1 or the resemblance would have been closer4 ,the stanzas to which ,i especially allude1 are these4 ,wings he hath1 which though ye clip1 ,he will leap from lip to lip1 ,over liver1 lights1 and heart1 ,but not stay in any part2 ,and1 if chance his arrow misses1 ,he will shoot himself1 in kisses4 ,idle minutes are his reign2 ,then the straggler makes his gain1 ,by presenting maids with toys1 ,and would have ye think'em joys3 ',tis th' ambition of the elf1 ,to have all childish as himself4 ,the two following little pieces are added1 as well by way of contrast1 as for the sake of their respective merits4 ,in the first1 there is a simple and pastoral gaiety1 which the poets of a refined age have generally found much more difficult of attainment1 than the glitter of wit1 or the affectation of antithesis4 ,the second rises with the subject4 ,it wears that garb of grandeur1 which the idea of creation communicates to a mind of the higher order4 ,our bard1 having brought the topic he descants on from warmer latitudes than his own1 is justified in adopting an imagery1 of almost oriental feature and complexion4 ,,song ,i love the jocund dance1 ,the softly breathing song1 ,where innocent eyes do glance1 ,and where lisps the maiden's tongue4 ,i love the laughing gale1 ,i love the echoing hill1 ,where mirth does never fail1 ,and the jolly swain laughs his fill4 ,i love the pleasant cot1 ,i love the innocent bower1 ,where white and brown is our lot1 ,or fruit in the midday hour4 ,i love the oaken seat1 ,beneath the oaken tree1 ,where all the old villagers meet1 ,and laugh our sports to see4 ,i love our neighbors all1 ,but1 ,kitty1 ,i better love thee2 ,and love them ,i ever shall2 ,but thou art all to me4 ,,the ,,tiger ,tiger1 ,tiger1 burning bright1 ,in the forest of the right6 ,what immortal hand or eye ,could frame thy fearful symmetry8 ,in what distant deeps or skies1 ,burnt the fire of thine eyes8 ,on what wings dare he aspire8 ,what the hand dare seize the fire8 ,and what shoulder1 and what art1 ,could twist the sinews of thy heart8 ,when thy heart began to beat1 ,what dread hand forged thy dread feet8 ,what the hammer8 ,what the chain8 ,in what furnace was thy brain8 ,what the anvil8 ,what dread grasp ,dared its deadly terrors clasp8 ,when the stars threw down their spears1 ,and watered heaven with their tears1 ,did he smile his work to see8 ,did he1 who made the lamb1 make thee8 ,tiger1 tiger1 burning bright1 ,in the forest of the night2 ,what immortal hand or eye ,dare frame thy fearful symmetry8 ,besides these lyric compositions1 ,mr4 ,blake has given several specimens of blank verse4 ,here1 as might be expected1 his personifications are bold1 his thoughts original1 and his style of writing altogether epic in its structure4 ,the unrestrained measure1 however1 which should warn the poet to restrain himself1 has not infrequently betrayed him into so wild a pursuit of fancy1 as to leave harmony unregarded1 and to pass the line prescribed by criticism to the career of imagination4 ,but ,i have been leading you beside our subject1 into a labyrinth of poetical comment1 with as little method or ceremony1 as if we were to have no witness of our correspondence4 ,it is time we should return from the masking regions of poetry1 to the business with which we set out4 ,donne1 in his ,anatomy of the ,world1 remarks the ,egyptians to have acted wisely1 in bestowing more cost upon their tombs than on their houses4 ,this example he adduces1 to justify his own ,funeral ,elegies3 and ,i may perhaps be allowed to adopt it1 as an additional plea1 should my former be of no avail1 for coming forward with this piece of almost infantine biography4444 ,i regret1 my dear friend1 that it was not in my power to furnish you and my readers with a portrait of a later date4 ,we had often talked of allowing ourselves that indulgence2 but we were not privy to the event1 which was to have communicated to it an incalculable value4 ,the engraving here given1 though it might well be taken to represent a much older child1 is from a very beautiful miniature1 painted by ,paye1 when ,thomas was not quite two years old4 ,he then was only beginning to speak2 but there was even at that early period an intelligence in his eye1 and an expression about his mouth1 which are1 ,i hope1 sufficiently characterized in the delineation to afford no inadequate idea of his physiognomy4444 ,at all events1 this work1 though it should escape censure1 can rank no higher than a trifle4 ,what apology must ,i make for addressing it to a fellow-laborer1 who has accomplished the serious and difficult task of giving an ,english dress to ,froissart8 ,i think it was ,gray who denominated your venerable original the ,herodotus of a barbarous age2 ,but surely that age is entitled to a more respectful epithet1 when ,france could boast its ,froissart1 ,italy its ,petrarch1 ,england its ,wickliffe1 the father of our reformation1 and ,chaucer1 the father of our poetry4 ,if ,i might slightly alter the designation of so complete a critic1 ,i would prefer calling this simple and genuine historian1 the ,herodotus of chivalry4 ,but by whatever title we are to greet him1 the interesting minuteness of his recital1 affording a strong pledge of its fidelity1 the lively delineation of manners1 and the charm of unadulterated language1 all conspire to place him in the first rank of early writers4 ,the public began to revolt from that spirit of philosophizing on the most common occasions1 in consequence of which our modern historians seem to be more ingenious in assigning causes and motives1 than assiduous to ascertain facts4 ,we are returning home to plain tales and first-hand authorities2 and you will share the honor of pointing out the way4 ,froissart1 hitherto inaccessible to ,english readers in general1 from the obsolete garb both of the ,french and of ,lord ,berners's translation1 may now be read in such a form1 as to unite a peculiar thought and turn of the ancient with the intelligible phraseology of modern times4 ,with my best congratulations on your success1 and my earnest request to be forgiven for thus intruding on your leisure1 believe me to be1 my dear friend1 faithfully yours1 ,b4 ,h4 ,,malkin4 ,,hackney1 ,january #d1 #ahjf4 7,,iii47 ,,from ,,lady ,,charlotte ,,bury',s ,,diary 7#ahbj7 ,this extract from the ,diary illustrative of the ,times of ,george the ,fourth1 by ,lady ,charlotte ,bury1 afterwards ,lady ,charlotte ,campbell1 published anonymously1 and edited by ,john ,galt1 in four volumes1 in #ahci1 was first noticed by ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti1 who printed it in the ,athenaeum4 ,it is from vol4 iii4 pp4 #cde-cah4 ,,from ,,lady ,,charlotte ,,bury',s ,,diary 7#ahbj7 ,tuesday1 the #bjth of ,january #ahbj4--;,i dined at ,lady ,c4 ,l----'s4 ,she had collected a strange party of artists and literati and one or two fine folks1 who were very ill assorted with the rest of the company1 and appeared neither to give nor receive pleasure from the society among whom they were mingled4 ,sir ,t4 ,lawrence1 next whom ,i sat at dinner1 is as courtly as ever4 ,his conversation is agreeable1 but ,i never feel as if he was saying what he really thought4444 ,besides ,sir ,t41 there was also present of this profession ,mrs4 ,m41 the miniature painter1 a modest1 pleasing person2 like the pictures she executes1 soft and sweet4 ,then there was another eccentric little artist1 by name ,blake2 not a regular professional painter1 but one of those persons who follow the art for its own sweet sake1 and derive their happiness from its pursuit4 ,he appeared to me to be full of beautiful imaginations and genius2 but how far the execution of his designs is equal to the conceptions of his mental vision1 ,i know not1 never having seen them4 ,main-d'oeuvre is frequently wanting where the mind is most powerful ,mr4 ,blake appears unlearned in all that concerns this world1 and1 from what he said1 ,i should fear he is one of those whose feelings are far superior to his situation in life4 ,he looks care-worn and subdued2 but his countenance radiated as he spoke of his favorite pursuit1 and he appeared gratified by talking to a person who comprehended his feelings4 ,i can easily imagine that he seldom meets with any one who enters into his views2 for they are peculiar1 and exalted above the common level of received opinions4 ,i could not help contrasting this humble artist with the great and powerful ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence1 and thinking that the one was fully if not more worthy of the distinction and the fame to which the other has attained1 but from which he is far removed4 ,mr4 ,blake1 however1 though he may have as much right1 from talent and merit1 to the advantages of which ,sir ,thomas is possessed1 evidently lacks that worldly wisdom and that grace of manner which make a man gain an eminence in his profession1 and succeed in society4 ,every word he uttered spoke the perfect simplicity of his mind1 and his total ignorance of all worldly matters4 ,he told me that ,lady ,c---- ,l---- had been very kind to him4 ',ah6' said he1 'there is a deal of kindness in that lady4' ,i agreed with him1 and though it was impossible not to laugh at the strange manner in which she had arranged this party1 ,i could not help admiring the goodness of heart and discrimination of talent which had made her patronize this unknown artist4 ,sir ,t4 ,lawrence looked at me several times whilst ,i was talking with ,mr4 ,b41 and ,i saw his lips curl with a sneer1 as if he despised me for conversing with so insignificant a person4#a ,it was very evident ,sir ,thomas did not like the company he found himself in1 though he was too well-bred and too prudent to hazard a remark upon the subject4 ,the literati were also of various degrees of eminence1 beginning with ,lord ,b----1 and ending with----4 ,the grandees were ,lord ,l----1 who appreciates talent1 and therefore not so ill assorted with the party as was ,mrs4 ,g----and ,lady ,c----1 who did nothing but yawn the whole evening1 and ,mrs ,a----1 who all looked with evident contempt upon the surrounding company4 ,footnote #a3 ,there is surely some mistake in this supposition1 for ,sir ,t4 ,lawrence was1 afterwards at least1 one of ,mr4 ,blake's great patrons and admirers4 7,,iv47 ,,blake',s ,,horoscope 7#ahbe7 ,blake's horoscope was cast during his lifetime in ,urania1 or1 the ,astrologer's ,chronicle1 and ,mystical ,magazine2 edited by ,merlinus ,anglicanus1 jun41 the ,astrologer of the ,nineteenth ,century1 assisted by the ,metropolitan ,society of ,occult ,philosophers 7,no4 ,i1 ,london1 #ahbe71 the first and only number of an astrological magazine1 published under the pseudonym of ,merlinus ,anglicanus by ,r4 ,c4 ,smith1 an astrologer of the period1 and it is highly probable1 as ,dr4 ,garnett suggests1 that the date 7confirmed by the birth register at ,st4 ,james's1 ,westminster7 was derived from ,varley1 who would have had it from ,blake himself4 ,i give the map1 not as it is printed in the book1 but in the clearer and simpler form in which it was copied and given to me by ,dr4 ,garnett4 ,i am told that the most striking thing in the map1 from an astrological point of view1 is the position and aspect of ,uranus1 the occult planet1 which indicate in the highest degree 'an inborn and supreme instinct for things occult1' without showing the least tendency towards madness4 ,the ',nativity of ,mr4 ,blake' is the last entry1 ,footnote #b in ,william ,blake1 chapter ,,ii4 ,illustration #jb ,,nativity ,,of ,,mr4 ,,blake1 ,,the ,,mystical ,,artist ,illustration #jc ,the above horoscope is calculated for the estimate time of birth1 and ,mr4 ,blake1 the subject thereof1 is well known amongst scientific characters1 as having a most peculiar and extraordinary turn of genius and vivid imagination4 ,his illustrations of the ,book of ,job have met with much and deserved praise2 indeed1 in the line which this artist has adopted1 he is perhaps equalled by none of the present day4 ,mr4 ,blake is no less peculiar and outr in his ideas1 as he seems to have some curious intercourse with the invisible world2 and1 according to his own account 7in which he is certainly1 to all appearance1 perfectly sincere71 he is continually surrounded by the spirits of the deceased of all ages1 nations1 and countries4 ,he has1 so he affirms1 held actual conversations with ,michael ,angelo1 ,raphael1 ,milton1 ,dryden1 and the worthies of antiquity4 ,he has now by him a long poem nearly finished1 which he affirms was recited to him by the spirit of ,milton2 and the mystical drawings of this gentleman are no less curious and worthy of notice1 by all those whose minds soar above the cloggings of this terrestrial element1 to which we are most of us too fastly chained to comprehend the nature and operations of the world of spirits4 ,mr4 ,blake's pictures of the last judgment1 his profiles of ,wallace1 ,edward the ,sixth1 ,harold1 ,cleopatra1 and numerous others which we have seen1 are really wonderful for the spirit in which they are delineated4 ,we have been in company with this gentleman several times1 and have frequently been not only delighted with his conversation1 but also filled with feelings of wonder at his extraordinary faculties2 which1 whatever some may say to the contrary1 are by no means tinctured with superstition1 as he certainly believes what he promulgates4 ,our limits will not permit us to enlarge upon this geniture1 which we merely give as an example worthy to be noticed by the astrological student in his list of remarkable nativities4 ,but it is probable that the extraordinary faculties and eccentricities of idea which this gentleman possesses1 are the effects of the ,moon in ,cancer in the twelfth house 7both sign and house being mystical71 in trine to ,herschell from the mystical sign ,pisces1 from the house of science1 and from the mundane trine to ,saturn in the scientific sign ,aquarius1 which latter planet is in square to ,mercury in ,scorpio1 and in quintile to the ,sun and ,jupiter1 in the mystical sign ,sagittarius4 ,the square of ,mars and ,mercury1 from fixed signs1 also1 has a remarkable tendency to sharpen the intellects1 and lay the foundation of extraordinary ideas4 ,there are also many other reasons for the strange peculiarities above noticed1 but these the student will no doubt readily discover4 7,v47 ,,obituary ,,notices ,,in ,,the ,,literary ,,gazette' ,,and ',,gentleman',s ,,magazine1' #ahbg4 ,obituary ,notices of ,blake appeared in the ,literary ,gazette of ,august #ah1 #ahbg 7pp4 #edj-da71 the ,gentleman's ,magazine of ,october #ahbg 7pp4 #cgg-h71 and the ,annual ,register of #ahbg1 in its ,appendix of ,deaths 7pp4 #bec-d74 ,the notice in the ,gentleman's ,magazine is largely condensed from that in the ,literary ,gazette1 but with a different opening1 which ,i have given after the notice in the ,literary ,gazette4 ,the notice in the ,annual ,register is merely condensed from the ,gentleman's ,magazine4 ,i ,,william ,,blake ,the ,illustrator of the ,grave1 etc4 ,to those few who have sympathies for the ideal and 7comparatively speaking7 the intellectual in art1 the following notice is addressed4 ,few persons of taste are unacquainted with the designs by ,blake1 appended as illustrations to a #dto edition of ,blair's ,grave4 ,it was borne forth into the world on the warmest praises of all our prominent artists1 ,hoppner1 ,phillips1 ,stothard1 ,flaxman1 ,opie1 ,tresham1 ,westmacott1 ,beechey1 ,lawrence1 ,west1 ,nollekins1 ,shee1 ,owen1 ,rossi1 ,thomson1 ,cosway1 and ,soane2 and doubly assured with a preface by the learned and severe ,fuseli1 the latter part of which we transcribe--',the author of the moral series before us has endeavored to wake sensibility by touching our sympathies with nearer1 less ambiguous1 and less ludicrous imagery1 than what mythology1 ,gothic superstition1 or symbols as far-fetched as inadequate could supply4 ,his invention has been chiefly employed to spread a familiar and domestic atmosphere round the most important of all subjects--to connect the visible and the invisible world1 without provoking probability--and to lead the eye from the milder light of time to the radiations of eternity4 ,such is the plan and the moral part of the author's invention2 the technic part1 and the execution of the artist1 though to be examined by other principles1 and addressed to a narrower circle1 equally claim approbation1 sometimes excite our wonder1 and not seldom our fears1 when we see him play on the very verge of legitimate invention2 but wildness so picturesque in itself1 so often redeemed by taste1 simplicity1 and elegance--what child of fancy1 what artist1 would wish to discharge8 ,the groups and single figures1 on their own basis1 abstracted from the general composition1 and considered without attention to the plan1 frequently exhibit those genuine and unaffected attitudes1 those simple graces1 which nature and the heart alone can dictate1 and only an eye inspired by both discover4 ,every class of artists1 in every stage of their progress and attainments1 from the student to the finished master1 and from the contriver of ornament to the painter of history1 will here find materials of art1 and hints of improvement6' ,when it is stated1 that the pure-minded ,flaxman pointed out to an eminent literary man the obscurity of ,blake as a melancholy proof of ,english apathy towards the grand1 the philosophic1 or the enthusiastically devotional painter2 and that he 7,blake7 has been several times employed for that truly admirable judge of art1 ,sir ,t4 ,lawrence1 any further testimony to his extraordinary powers is unnecessary4 ,yet has ,blake been allowed to exist in a penury which most artists#a--;beings necessarily of a sensitive temperament--would deem intolerable4 ,pent1 with his affectionate wife1 in a close back-room in one of the ,strand courts1 his bed in one corner1 his meagre dinner in another1 a rickety table holding his copper-plates in progress1 his colors1 books 7among which his ,bible1 a ,sessi ,velutello's ,dante1 and ,mr4 ,carey's translation1 were at the top71 his large drawings1 sketches1 and ,,mss42--his ankles frightfully swelled1 his chest disordered1 old age striding on1 his wants increased1 but not his miserable means and appliances3 even yet was his eye undimmed1 the fire of his imagination unquenched1 and the preternatural1 never-resting activity of his mind unflagging4 ,he had not merely a calmly resigned1 but a cheerful and mirthful countenance2 in short1 he was a living commentary on ,jeremy ,taylor's beautiful chapter on ,contentedness4 ,he took no thought for his life1 what he should eat1 or what he should drink2 nor yet for his body1 what he should put on2 but had a fearless confidence in that ,providence which had given him the vast range of the world for his recreation and delight4 ,blake died last ,monday6 ,died as he lived6 piously cheerful1 talking calmly1 and finally resigning himself to his eternal rest1 like an infant to its sleep4 ,he has left nothing except some pictures1 copper-plates1 and his principal work of a series of a hundred large designs from ,dante4 ,william ,blake was brought up under ,basire1 the eminent engraver4 ,he was active in mind and body1 passing from one occupation to another1 without an intervening minute of repose4 ,of an ardent1 affectionate1 and grateful temper1 he was simple in manner and address1 and displayed an inbred courteousness1 of the most agreeable character4 ,next ,november he would have been sixty-nine4 ,at the age of sixty-six he commenced the study of ,italian1 for the sake of reading ,dante in the original1 which he accomplished6 ,his widow is left 7we fear1 from the accounts which have reached us7 in a very forlorn condition1 ,mr4 ,blake having latterly been much indebted for succor and consolation to his friend ,mr4 ,linnell1 the painter4 ,we have no doubt but her cause will be taken up by the distributors of those funds which are raised for the relief of distressed artists1 and also by the benevolence of private individuals4 ,when further time has been allowed us for inquiry1 we shall probably resume this matter2 at present 7owing the above information to the kindness of a correspondent7 we can only record the death of a singular and very able man4 ,,ii ,,mr4 ,,william ,,blake ,aug4 #ac1 aged #fh1 ,mr4 ,william ,blake1 an excellent1 but eccentric1 artist4 ,he was a pupil of the engraver ,basire2 and among his earliest productions were eight beautiful plates in the ,novelist's ,magazine4 ,in #agic he published in #abmo1 ',the ,gates of ,paradise1' a very small book for children1 containing fifteen plates of emblems2 and 'published by ,w4 ,b41 #ac ,hercules ,buildings1 ,lambeth'2 also about the same time1 ',songs of ,experience1 with plates'2 ',america2 a ,prophecy1' folio1 and ',europe1 a ,prophecy1' #agid1 folio4 ,these are now become very scarce4 ,in #agig he commenced1 in large folio1 an edition of ,young's ,night ,thoughts1 of which every page was a design1 but only one number was published4 ,in #ahje were produced in #hvo numbers1 containing five engravings by ,blake1 some ballads by ,mr4 ,hayley1 but which also were abruptly discontinued4 ,few persons of taste are unacquainted with the designs by ,blake1 engraved by ,schiavonetti1 as illustrations to a #dto edition of ,blair's ,grave4 ,they are twelve in number1 and an excellent portrait of ,blake1 from a picture by ,t4 ,phillips1 ,r4,a41 is prefixed4 ,it was borne forth 444 ,here follows the third sentence1 p4 #cde above1 to the end of the paragraph4 ,in #ahji was published in #abmo1 ',a ,descriptive ,catalogue of sixteen pictures1 poetical and historical inventions1 painted by ,william ,blake in watercolors1 being the ancient method of fresco painting restored1 and drawings1 for public inspection1 and for sale by private contract4' ,among these was a design of ,chaucer's ,pilgrimage to ,canterbury1 from which an etching has been published4 ,mr4 ,blake's last publication is a set of engravings to illustrate the ,book of ,job4 ,to ,fuseli's testimony of his merit above quoted1 it is sufficient to add1 that he has been employed by that truly admirable judge of art1 ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence2 and that the pure-minded ,flaxman4444 ,the remainder is condensed from the ,literary ,gazette1 in ,the ,illustrator of the ,grave1 above1 with the occasional change of a word1 or the order of a sentence4 ,footnote #a3 ,the term is employed in its generic and comprehensive sense4 7,,vi47 ,,extract ,,from ,,varley',s ,,zodiacal ,,physiognomy 7#ahbh7 ,john ,varley1 astrologer and water-color painter1 was introduced to ,blake by ,linnell1 and it was for him that ,blake did the 'visionary heads' described by ,allan ,cunningham4 7see ,,viii ,life of ,blake by ,allan ,cunningham47 ',the ,ghost of a ,flea' exists in both forms described by ,varley1 in a sketch of the head 7which he reproduces1 engraved by ,linnell1 in a plate at the end of his book1 together with two other heads in outline71 and in a full-length picture in tempera4 ,the passage which follows is taken from pp4 #ed1 #ee of ',a ,treatise on ,zodiacal ,physiognomy2 illustrated with engravings of heads and features3 accompanied by tables of the times of rising of the twelve signs of the ,zodiac2 and containing also new and astrological explanation of some remarkable portions of ,ancient ,mythological ,history4' ,by ,john ,varley4 ,london3 ,printed for the ,author1 #ahbh4 ,,extract ,,from ,,varley',s ,,zodiacal ,,physiognomy ,with respect to the vision of the ,ghost of the ,flea1 seen by ,blake1 it agrees in countenance with one class of people under ,gemini1 which sign is the significator of the ,flea2 whose brown color is appropriate to the color of the eyes in some full-toned ,gemini persons4 ,and the neatness1 elasticity1 and tenseness of the ,flea are significant of the elegant dancing and fencing sign ,gemini4 ,this spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect4 ,as ,i was anxious to make the most correct investigation in my power1 of the truth of these visions1 on hearing of this spiritual apparition of a ,flea1 ,i asked him if he could draw for me the resemblance of what he saw3 he instantly said1 ',i see him now before me4' ,i therefore gave him paper and a pencil1 with which he drew the portrait1 of which a facsimile is given in this number4 ,i felt convinced by his mode of proceeding that he had a real image before him1 for he left off1 and began on another part of the paper to make a separate drawing of the mouth of the ,flea1 which the spirit having opened1 he was prevented from proceeding with the first sketch1 till he had closed it4 ,during the time occupied in completing the drawing1 the ,flea told him that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men as were by nature blood-thirsty to excess1 and were therefore providentially confined to the size and form of insects2 otherwise1 were he himself1 for instance1 the size of a horse1 he would depopulate a great portion of the country4 ,he added1 that if in attempting to leap from one island to another1 he should fall into the sea1 he could swim1 and should not be lost4 ,this spirit afterwards appeared to ,blake1 and afforded him a view of his whole figure2 an engraving of which ,i shall give in this work4 7,,vii47 ,,biographical ,,sketch ,,of ,,blake ,,by ,j4 ,t4 ,,smith 7#ahbh7 ,the ,memoir of ,blake by ,john ,thomas ,smith1 ,keeper of the ,prints and ,drawings in the ,british ,museum1 is the last of the ',biographical ,sketches and ,anecdotes of several ,artists and others contemporary with ,nollekens1' contained in the second volume of ',nollekens and his ,times3 comprehending a ,life of that celebrated ,sculptor2 and ,memoirs of several contemporary ,artists1 from the' time of ,roubiliac1 ,hogarth1 and ,reynolds1 to that of ,fuseli1 ,flaxman1 and ,blake4' 7,london3 ,henry ,colburn1 ,new ,burlington ,street1 #ahbh47 ,it contains more facts at first hand than any other account of ,blake1 and is really the foundation of all subsequent biographies4 ,i have added a page1 which is not without its significance1 from a later book by ,smith1 ',a ,book for a ,rainy ,day2 or1 ,recollections of the ,events of the last ,sixty-five ,years' 7#ahde71 where it occurs under date #aghd1 on pp4 #ha1 #hb4 ,,biographical ,,sketch ,,of ,,blake ,i believe it has been invariably the custom of every age1 whenever a man has been found to depart from the usual mode of thinking1 to consider him of deranged intellect1 and not infrequently stark staring mad2 which judgment his calumniators would pronounce with as little hesitation1 as some of the uncharitable part of mankind would pass sentence of death upon a poor half-drowned cur who had lost his master1 or one who had escaped hanging with a rope about his neck4 ,cowper1 in a letter to ,lady ,hesketh1 dated ,june #c1 #aghh1 speaking of a dancing-master's advertisement1 says1 ',the author of it had the good hap to be crazed1 or he had never produced anything half so clever2 for you will ever observe1 that they who are said to have lost their wits1 have more than other people4' ,bearing this stigma of eccentricity1 ,william ,blake1 with most extraordinary zeal1 commenced his efforts in ,art under the roof of ,no4 #bh ,broad ,street1 ,carnaby ,market2 in which house he was born1 and where his father carried on the business of a hosier4 ,william1 the subject of the following pages1 who was his second son1 showing an early stretch of mind1 and a strong talent for drawing1 being totally destitute of the dexterity of a ,london shopman1 so well described by ,dr4 ,johnson1 was sent away from the counter as a booby1 and placed under the late ,mr4 ,james ,basire1 an artist well known for many years as engraver to the ,society of ,antiquaries4 ,from him he learned the mechanical part of his art1 and as he drew carefully1 and copied faithfully1 his master frequently and confidently employed him to make drawings from monuments to be engraved4 ,after leaving his instructor1 in whose house he had conducted himself with the strictest propriety1 he became acquainted with ,flaxman1 the sculptor1 through his friend ,stothard1 and was also honored by an introduction to the accomplished ,mrs4 ,mathew1 whose house1 ,no4 #bg1 in ,rathbone ,place1 was then frequented by most of the literary and talented people of the day4 ,this lady--to whom ,i also had the honor of being known1 and whose door and purse were constantly open and ready to cherish persons of genius who stood in need of assistance in their learned and arduous pursuits1 worldly concerns1 or inconveniences--was so extremely zealous in promoting the celebrity of ,blake1 that upon hearing him read some of his early efforts in poetry1 she thought so well of them1 as to request the ,bev4 ,henry ,mathew1 her husband1 to join ,mr4 ,flaxman in his truly kind offer of defraying the expense of printing them2 in which he not only acquiesced1 but1 with his usual urbanity1 wrote the following advertisement1 which precedes the poems3 ',the following sketches were the production of an untutored youth1 commenced in his twelfth1 and occasionally resumed by the author till his twentieth year2 since which time1 his talents having been wholly directed to the attainment of excellence in his profession1 he has been deprived of the leisure requisite to such a revisal of these sheets1 as might have rendered them less unfit to meet the public eye4 ',conscious of the irregularities and defects to be found in almost every page1 his friends have still believed that they possessed a poetical originality1 which merited some respite from oblivion4 ,these1 their opinions1 remain1 however1 to be now reproved or confirmed by a less partial public4' ,the annexed ,song is a specimen of the juvenile playfulness of ,blake's muse1 copied from page #aj of these ,poems4#a ,,song ',how sweet ,i roam'd from field to field1 ,and tasted all the ,summer's pride1 ,till ,i the ,prince of ,love beheld1 ,who in the sunny beams did glide6 ',he show'd me lilies for my hair1 ,and blushing roses for my brow2 ,he led me through his gardens fair1 ,where all his golden pleasures grow4 ',with sweet ,may-dews my wings were wet1 ,and ,phoebus fired my vocal rage2 ,he caught me in his silken net1 ,and shut me in his golden cage4 ',he loves to sit and hear me sing1 ,then1 laughing1 sports and plays with me2 ,then stretches out my golden wing1 ,and mocks my loss of liberty4' ,but it happened1 unfortunately1 soon after this period1 that in consequence of his unbending deportment1 or what his adherents are pleased to call his manly firmness of opinion1 which certainly was not at all times considered pleasing by every one1 his visits were not so frequent4 ,he1 however1 continued to benefit by ,mrs4 ,mathew's liberality1 and was enabled to continue in partnership1 as a print-seller1 with his fellow-pupil1 ,parker1 in a shop1 ,no4 #bg1 next door to his father's1 in ,broad ,street2 and being extremely partial to ,robert1 his youngest brother1 considered him as his pupil4 ,bob1 as he was familiarly called1 was one of my playfellows1 and much beloved by all his companions4 ,much about this time1 ,blake wrote many other songs1 to which he also composed tunes4 ,these he would occasionally sing to his friends2 and though1 according to his confession1 he was entirely unacquainted with the science of music1 his ear was so good1 that his tunes were sometimes most singularly beautiful1 and were noted down by musical professors4 ,as for his later poetry1 if it may be so called1 attached to his plates1 though it was certainly in some parts enigmatically curious as to its application1 yet it was not always wholly uninteresting2 and ,i have unspeakable pleasure in being able to state1 that though ,i admit he did not for the last forty years attend any place of ,divine worship1 yet he was not a ,freethinker1 as some invidious detractors have thought proper to assert1 nor was he ever in any degree irreligious4 ,through life1 his ,bible was everything with him2 and as a convincing proof how highly he reverenced the ,almighty1 ,i shall introduce the following lines with which he concludes his address to the ,deists3 ',for a tear is an intellectual thing2 ,and a sigh is the sword of an ,angel-,king2 ,and the bitter groan of a ,martyr's woe ,is an arrow from the ,almighty's bow4' ,again1 at page #gg1 in his address to the ,christians3 ',i give you the end of a golden string2 ,only wind it into a ball1 ,it will lead you in at ,heaven's gate1 ,built in ,jerusalem's wall4' ,in his choice of subjects1 and in his designs in ,art1 perhaps no man had higher claim to originality1 nor ever drew with a closer adherence to his own conception2 and from what ,i knew of him1 and have heard related by his friends1 ,i most firmly believe few artists have been guilty of less plagiarisms than he4 ,it is true1 ,i have seen him admire and heard him expatiate upon the beauties of ,marc ,antonio and of ,albert ,drer2 but ,i verily believe not with any view of borrowing an idea2 neither do ,i consider him at any time dependent in his mode of working1 which was generally with the graver only2 and as to printing1 he mostly took off his own impressions4 ,after his marriage1 which took place at ,battersea1 and which proved a mutually happy one1 he instructed his beloved1 for so he most frequently called his ,kate1#b and allowed her1 till the last moment of his practice1 to take off his proof impressions and print his works1 which she did most carefully1 and ever delighted in the task3 nay1 she became a draughts-woman2 and as a convincing proof that she and her husband were born for each others comfort1 she not only entered cheerfully into his views1 but1 what is curious1 possessed a similar power of imbibing ideas1 and has produced drawings equally original and1 in some respects1 interesting4 ,blake's peace of mind1 as well as that of his ,catherine1 was much broken by the death of their brother ,robert1 who was a most amicable link in their happiness2 and1 as a proof how much ,blake respected him1 whenever he beheld him in his visions1 he implicitly attended to his opinion and advice as to his future projected works4 ,i should have stated1 that ,blake was supereminently endowed with the power of disuniting all other thoughts from his mind1 whenever he wished to indulge in thinking of any particular subject2 and so firmly did he believe1 by this abstracting power1 that the objects of his compositions were before him in his mind's eye1 that he frequently believed them to be speaking to him4 ,this ,i shall now illustrate by the following narrative4 ,blake1 after deeply perplexing himself as to the mode of accomplishing the publication of his illustrated songs1 without their being subject to the expense of letterpress1 his brother ,robert stood before him in one of his visionary imaginations1 and so decidedly directed him in the way in which he ought to proceed1 that he immediately followed his advice1 by writing his poetry1 and drawing his marginal subjects of embellishments in outline upon the copper-plate with an impervious liquid1 and then eating the plain parts or lights away with aqua-fortis considerably below them1 so that the outlines were left as a stereotype4 ,the plates in this state were then printed in any tint that he wished1 to enable him or ,mrs4 ,blake to color the marginal figures up by hand in imitation of drawings4 ,the following are some of his works produced in this manner1 viz42 ',songs of ,innocence and ,songs of ,experience1 ,the ,book of ,jerusalem1' consisting of an hundred plates1 ',the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1' ',europe and ,america'2 and another work1 which is now very uncommon1 a pretty little series of plates1 entitled ',gate of ,paradise4' ,blake1 like those artists absorbed in a beloved study1 cared not for money beyond its use for the ensuing day2 and indeed he and his 'beloved' were so reciprocally frugal in their expenses1 that1 never sighing for either gilded vessels1 silver-laced attendants1 or turtle's livers1 they were contented with the simplest repast1 and a little answered their purpose4 ,yet1 notwithstanding all their economy1 ,dame ,fortune being1 as it is pretty well known to the world1 sometimes a fickle jade1 they1 as well as thousands more1 have had their intercepting clouds4 ,as it is not my intention to follow them through their lives1 ,i shall confine myself to a relation of a few other anecdotes of this happy pair2 and as they are connected with the ,arts1 in my opinion they ought not to be lost1 as they may be considered worthy the attention of future biographers4 ,for his marginal illustrations of ',young's ,night ,thoughts1' which possess a great power of imagination1 he received so despicably low a price1 that ,flaxman1 whose heart was ever warm1 was determined to serve him whenever an opportunity offered itself2 and with his usual voice of sympathy1 introduced him to his friend ,hayley1 with whom it was no new thing to give pleasure1 capricious as he was4 ,this gentleman immediately engaged him to engrave the plates for his quarto edition of ',the ,life of ,cowper1' published in #ahjc-d2 and for this purpose he went down to ,felpham1 in order to be near that highly respected ,hermit4 ,here he took a cottage1 for which he paid twenty pounds a year1 and was not1 as has been reported1 entertained in a house belonging to ,mr4 ,hayley rent-free4 ,during his stay he drew several portraits1 and could have had full employment in that department of the ,art2 but he was born to follow his own inclinations1 and was willing to rely upon a reward for the labours of the day4 ,mr4 ,flaxman1 knowing me to be a collector of autographs1 among many others1 gave me the following letter1 which he received from ,blake immediately after his arrival at ,felpham1 in which he styles him4 ',,dear ,,sculptor ,,of ,,eternity1 ',we are safe arrived at our cottage1 which is more beautiful than ,i thought it1 and more convenient4 ,it is a perfect model for cottages1 and1 ,i think1 for palaces of magnificence2 only enlarging1 not altering1 its proportions1 and adding ornaments and not principals4 ,nothing can be more grand than its simplicity and usefulness4 ,simple without intricacy1 it seems to be the spontaneous effusion of humanity1 congenial to the wants of man4 ,no other-formed house can ever please me so well2 nor shall ,i ever be persuaded1 ,i believe1 that it can be improved either in beauty or use4 ',mr4 ,hayley received us with his usual brotherly affection4 ,i have begun to work4 ,felpham is a sweet place for study1 because it is more spiritual than ,london4 ,heaven opens here on all sides her golden gates2 her windows are not obstructed by vapors2 voices of celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard1 and their forms more distinctly seen1 and my cottage is also a shadow of their houses4 ,my wife and sister are both well1 courting ,neptune for an embrace4 ',our journey was very pleasant2 and though we had a great deal of luggage1 no grumbling4 ,all was cheerfulness and good-humour on the road1 and yet we could not arrive at our cottage before half-past eleven at night1 owing to the necessary shifting of our luggage from one chaise to another2 for we had seven different chaises1 and as many different drivers4 ,we set out between six and seven in the morning of ,thursday1 with sixteen heavy boxes1 and portfolios full of prints4 ',and now begins a new life1 because another covering of earth is shaken off4 ,i am more famed in ,heaven for my works than ,i could well conceive4 ,in my brain are studies and chambers filled with books and pictures of old1 which ,i wrote and painted in ages of eternity1 before my mortal life2 and those works are the delight and study of archangels4 ,why then should ,i be anxious about the riches or fame of mortality8 ,the ,lord1 our father1 will do for us and with us according to his ,divine will for our good4 ',you1 ,o dear ,flaxman6 are a sublime ,archangel1 my friend and companion from eternity4 ,in the ,divine bosom is our dwelling-place4 ,i look back into the regions of reminiscence1 and behold our ancient days before this earth appeared in its vegetated mortality to my mortal-vegetated eyes4 ,i see our houses of eternity which can never be separated1 though our mortal vehicles should stand at the remotest corners of ,heaven from each other4 ',farewell1 my best friend6 ,remember me and my wife in love and friendship to our dear ,mrs4 ,flaxman1 whom we ardently desire to entertain beneath our thatched roof of rusted gold2 and believe me for ever to remain1 ',your grateful and affectionate1 ',,william ,,blake4 ',felpham1 ,sept4 #ba1 #ahjj4 ',sunday morning4' ,in a copy of ,hayley's ',triumphs of ,temper1' illustrated by ,stothard1 which had been the one belonging to the ,author's son1 and which he gave after his death to ,blake1 are these verses in ,,ms4 by the hand of the donor3 ',accept1 my gentle visionary1 ,blake1 ,whose thoughts are fanciful and kindly mild2 ,accept1 and fondly keep for friendship's sake1 ,this favor'd vision1 my poetic child4 ',rich in more grace than fancy ever won1 ,to thy most tender mind this book will be1 ,for it belong'd to my departed son2 ,so from an angel it descends to thee4 ,w4 ,h4 ,july1 #ahjj4'c ,upon his return from ,felpham1 he addressed the public1 in page #c of his ,book of ,jerusalem1 in these words1 ',after my three years' slumber on the banks of the ocean1 ,i again display my giant-forms to the public1' etc4 ,some of the 'giant-forms1' as he calls them1 are mighty and grand1 and if ,i were to compare them to the style of any preceding artist1 ,michel ,angelo1 ,sir ,joshua's favorite1 would be the one2 and were ,i to select a specimen as a corroboration of this opinion1 ,i should instance the figure personifying the ',ancient of ,days1' the frontispiece to his ',europe1 a ,prophecy4' ,in my mind1 his knowledge of drawing1 as well as design1 displayed in this figure1 must at once convince the informed reader of his extraordinary abilities4 ,i am now under the painful necessity of relating an event promulgated in two different ways by two different parties2 and as ,i entertain a high respect for the talents of both persons concerned1 ,i shall1 in order to steer clear of giving umbrage to the supporters of either1 leave the reader to draw his own conclusions1 unbiassed by any insinuation whatever of mine4 ,an engraver of the name of ,cromek1 a man who endeavored to live by speculating upon the talents of others1 purchased a series of drawings of ,blake1 illustrative of ,blair's ',grave1' which he had begun with a view of engraving and publishing4 ,these were sold to ,mr4 ,cromek for the insignificant sum of one guinea each1 with the promise1 and indeed under the express agreement1 that ,blake should be employed to engrave them2 a task to which he looked forward with anxious delight4 ,instead of this negotiation being carried into effect1 the drawings1 to his great mortification1 were put into the hands of ,schiavonetti4 ,during the time this artist was thus employed1 ,cromek had asked ,blake--what work he had in mind to execute next4 ,the unsuspecting artist not only told him1 but without the least reserve showed him the designs sketched out for a fresco picture2 the subject ,chaucer's ',pilgrimage to ,canterbury'2 with which ,mr4 ,cromek appeared highly delighted4 ,shortly after this1 ,blake discovered that ,stothard1 a brother-artist to whom he had been extremely kind in early days1 had been employed to paint a picture1 not only of the same subject1 but in some instances similar to the fresco sketch which he had shown to ,mr4 ,cromek4 ,the picture painted by ,stothard became the property of ,mr4 ,cromek1 who published proposals for an engraving from it1 naming ,bromley as the engraver to be employed4 ,however1 in a short time1 that artist's name was withdrawn1 and ,schiavonetti's substituted1 who lived only to complete the etching2 the plate being finished afterwards by at least three different hands4 ,blake1 highly indignant at this treatment1 immediately set to work1 and proposed an engraving from his fresco picture1 which he publicly exhibited in his brother ,james's shop-window1 at the corner of ,broad ,street1 accompanied with an address to the public1 stating what he considered to be improper conduct4 ,so much on the side of ,blake4#d ,on the part of ,stothard1 the story runs thus4 ,mr4 ,cromek had agreed with that artist to employ him upon a picture of the ,procession of ,chaucer's ,pilgrimage to ,canterbury1 for which he first agreed to pay him sixty guineas1 but in order to enable him to finish it in a more exquisite manner1 promised him forty more1 with an intention of engaging ,bromley to engrave it2 but in consequence of some occurrence1 his name was withdrawn1 and ,schiavonetti was employed4 ,during the time ,stothard was painting the picture1 ,blake called to see it1 and appeared so delighted with it1 that ,stothard1 sincerely wishing to please an old friend with whom he had lived so cordially for many years1 and from whose works he always most liberally declared he had received much pleasure and edification1 expressed a wish to introduce his portrait as one of the party1 as a mark of esteem4 ,mr4 ,hoppner1 in a letter to a friend1 dated ,may #cj1 #ahjg1 says of it3 ',this intelligent group is rendered still more interesting by the charm of coloring1 which though simple is strong1 and most harmoniously distributed throughout the picture4 ,the landscape has a deep-toned brightness that accords most admirably with the figures2 and the painter has ingeniously contrived to give a value to a common scene and very ordinary forms1 that would hardly be found1 by unlearned eyes1 in the natural objects4 ,he has expressed too1 with great vivacity and truth1 the freshness of morning1 at that season when ,nature herself is most fresh and blooming--the ,spring2 and it requires no great stretch of fancy to imagine we perceive the influence of it on the cheeks of the ,fair ,wife of ,bath1 and her rosy companions1 the ,monk and ,friar4 ',in respect of the execution of the various parts of this pleasing design1 it is not too much praise to say1 that it is wholly free from that vice which painters term manner2 and it has this peculiarity beside1 which ,i do not remember to have seen in any picture1 ancient or modern1 namely1 that it bears no mark of the period in which it was painted1 but might very well pass for the work of some able artist of the time of ,chaucer4 ,this effect is not1 ,i believe1 the result of any association of ideas connected with the costume1 but appears in primitive simplicity1 and the total absence of all affectation1 either of coloring or pencilling4 ',having attempted to describe a few of the beauties of this captivating performance1 it remains only for me to mention one great defect4 ,the picture is1 notwithstanding appearances1 a modern one4 ,but if you can divest yourself of the general prejudice that exists against contemporary talents1 you will see a work that would have done honor to any school1 at any period4'#e ,in #ahaj1 ,stothard1 to his great surprise1 found that ,blake had engraved and published a plate of the same size1 in some respects bearing a similarity to his own4#f ,such are the outlines of this controversy4 ,blake's ideas were often truly entertaining1 and after he had conveyed them to paper1 his whimsical and novel descriptions frequently surpassed his delineations2 for instance1 that of his picture of the ,transformation of the ,flea to the form of a ,man1 is extremely curious4 ,this personification1 which he denominated a ,cupper1 or ,blood-sucker1 is covered with coat of armor1 similar to the case of the flea1 and is represented slowly pacing in the night1 with a thorn attached to his right hand1 and a cup in the other1 as if ready to puncture the first person whose blood he might fancy1 like ,satan prowling about to seek whom he could devour4 ,blake said of the flea1 that were that lively little fellow the size of an elephant1 he was quite sure1 from the calculations he had made of his wonderful strength1 that he could bound from ,dover to ,calais in one leap4#g ,whatever may be the public opinion hereafter of ,blake's talents1 when his enemies are dead1 ,i will not presume to predict2#h but this ,i am certain of1 that on the score of industry at least1 many artists must strike to him4 ,application was a faculty so engendered in him that he took little bodily exercise to keep up his health3 he had few evening walks and little rest from labour1 for his mind was ever fixed upon his art1 nor did he at any time indulge in a game of chess1 draughts1 or backgammon2 such amusements1 considered as relaxations by artists in general1 being to him distractions4 ,his greatest pleasure was derived from the ,bible--a work ever at his hand1 and which he often assiduously consulted in several languages4 ,had he fortunately lived till the next year's exhibition at ,somerset ,house1 the public would then have been astonished at his exquisite finishing of a ,fresco picture of the ,last ,judgment1 containing upwards of one thousand figures1 many of them wonderfully conceived and grandly drawn4 ,the lights of this extraordinary performance have the appearance of silver and gold2 but upon ,mrs4 ,blake's assuring me that there was no silver used1 ,i found1 upon a closer examination1 that a blue wash had been passed over those parts of the gilding which receded1 and the lights of the forward objects1 which were also of gold1 were heightened with a warm color1 to give the appearance of the two metals4 ,it is most certain1 that the uninitiated eye was incapable of selecting the beauties of ,blake2 his effusions were not generally felt2 and in this opinion ,i am borne out in the frequent assertions of ,fuseli and ,flaxman4 ,it would1 therefore1 be unreasonable to expect the booksellers to embark in publications1 not likely to meet remuneration4 ,circumstanced1 then1 as ,blake was1 approaching to threescore years and ten1 in what way was he to persevere in his labours8 ,alas1 he knew not6 until the liberality of ,mr4 ,linnell1 a brother-artist of eminence1 whose discernment could well appreciate those parts of his designs which deserved perpetuity1 enabled him to proceed and execute in comfort a series of twenty-one plates1 illustrative of the ,book of ,job4 ,this was the last work he completed1 upon the merits of which he received the highest congratulations from the following ,royal ,academicians3 ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence1 ,mr4 ,baily1 ,mr4 ,philips1 ,mr4 ,chantrey1 ,mr4 ,james ,ward1 ,mr4 ,arnald1 ,mr4 ,collins1 ,mr4 ,westmacott1 and many other artists of eminence4 ,as to ,blake's system of coloring1 which ,i have not hitherto noticed1 it was in many instances most beautifully prismatic4 ,in this branch of the art he often acknowledged ,apelles to have been his tutor1 who was1 he said1 so much pleased with his style1 that once when he appeared before him1 among many of his observations1 he delivered the following3--',you certainly possess my system of coloring2 and ,i now wish you to draw my person1 which has hitherto been untruly delineated4' ,i must own that until ,i was favoured by ,mr4 ,upcott with a sight of some of ,blake's works1 several of which ,i had never seen1 ,i was not so fully aware of his great depth of knowledge in coloring4 ,of these most interesting specimens of his art1 which are now extremely rare1 and rendered invaluable by his death1 as it is impossible for any one to color them with his mind1 should the plates remain1 ,mr4 ,richard ,thomson1 another truly kind friend1 has favoured me with the following descriptive lists4 ,,songs ,,of ,,experience4 ,the author and printer1 ,w4 ,blake4 ,small octavo2 seventeen plates1 including the title-page4 ,frontispiece1 a winged infant mounted on the shoulders of a youth4 ,on the title-page1 two figures weeping over two crosses4 ,introduction4 ,four ,stanzas on a cloud1 with a night-sky behind1 and beneath1 a figure of ,earth stretched on a mantle4 ,earths ,answer4 ,five ,stanzas2 a serpent on the ground beneath4 ,the ,clod1 and the ,pebble4 ,three ,stanzas2 above1 a headpiece of four sheep and two oxen2 beneath1 a duck and reptiles4 ,a ,poison ,tree4 ,four ,stanzas3 ,the tree stretches up the right side of the page2 and beneath1 a dead body killed by its influence4 ,the ,fly4 ,five ,stanzas4 ,beneath1 a female figure with two children4 ,holy ,thursday4 ,four ,stanzas4 ,head-piece1 a female figure discovering a dead child4 ,on the right-hand margin a mother and two children lamenting the loss of an infant which lies beneath4 ,perhaps this is one of the most tasteful of the set4 ,the ,chimney-,sweeper4 ,three ,stanzas4 ,beneath1 a figure of one walking in snow towards an open door4 ,london4 ,four ,stanzas4 ,above1 a child leading an old man through the street2 on the right hand1 a figure warming itself at a fire4 ,if in any instance ,mr4 ,blake has copied himself1 it is in the figure of the old man upon this plate1 whose position appears to have been a favorite one with him4 ,the ,tiger4 ,six ,stanzas4 ,on the right-hand margin1 the trunk of a tree2 and beneath1 a tiger walking4 ,a ,little ,boy ,lost4 ,six ,stanzas4 ,ivy-leaves on the right hand1 and beneath1 weeping figure before a fire1 in which the verses state that the child had been burned by a ,saint4 ,the ,human ,abstract4 ,six ,stanzas4 ,the trunk of a tree on the right-hand margin1 and beneath1 an old man in white drawing a veil over his head4 ,the ,angel4 ,four ,stanzas4 ,head-piece1 a female figure lying beneath a tree1 and pushing from her a winged boy4 ,my ,pretty ,rose-,tree4 ,two ,stanzas3 succeeded by a small vignette1 of a figure weeping1 and another lying reclined at the foot of a tree4 ,beneath1 are two verses more1 entitled1 ,ah6 ,sun-,flower2 and a single stanza1 headed ,the ,lily4 ,nurse's ,song4 ,two ,stanzas4 ,beneath1 a girl with a youth and a female child at a door surrounded by vine-leaves4 ,a ,little ,girl ,lost4 ,seven ,stanzas2 interspersed with birds and leaves1 the trunk of a tree on the right-hand margin4 ,the whole of these plates are colored in imitation of fresco4 ,the poetry of these songs is wild1 irregular1 and highly mystical1 but of no great degree of elegance or excellence1 and their prevailing feature is a tone of complaint of the misery of mankind4 ,,america3 a ,prophecy4 ,lambeth3 ,printed by ,william ,blake1 in the year #agic2 folio2 eighteen plates or twenty pages1 including the frontispiece and title-page4 ,after a ,preludium of thirty-seven lines commences the ,prophecy of #bbf1 which are interspersed with numerous headpieces1 vignettes1 and tail-pieces1 usually stretching along the left-hand margin and enclosing the text2 which sometimes appears written on a cloud1 and at others environed by flames and water4 ,of the latter subject a very fine specimen is shown upon page #ac1 where the tail-piece represents the bottom of the sea1 with various fishes coming together to prey upon a dead body4 ,the head-piece is another dead body lying on the surface of the waters1 with an eagle feeding upon it with outstretched wings4 ,another instance of ,mr4 ,blake's favorite figure of the old man entering at ,death's door1 is contained on page #ab of this poem4 ,the subject of the text is a conversation between the ,angel of ,albion1 the ,angels of the ,thirteen ,states1 ,washington1 and some others of the ,american generals1 and ',red ,ore1' the spirit of war and evil4 ,the verses are without rhyme1 and most resemble hexameters1 though they are by no means exact2 and the expressions are mystical in a very high degree4 ,,europe3 a ,prophecy4 ,lambeth3 ,printed by ,william ,blake1 #agid2 folio2 seventeen plates on the leaves1 inclusive of the frontispiece and title-page4 ,colored to imitate the ancient fresco painting4 ,the ,preludium consists of thirty-three lines1 in stanzas without rhyme1 and the ,prophecy of two hundred and tight2 the decorations to which are larger than most of those in the former book1 and approach nearest to the character of paintings1 since1 in several instances1 they occupy the whole page4 ,the frontispiece is an uncommonly fine specimen of art1 and approaches almost to the sublimity of ,raffaelle or ,michel ,angelo4 ,it represents ',the ,ancient of ,days1' in an orb of light surrounded by dark clouds1 as referred to in ,proverbs ,,viii4 #bg1 stooping down with an enormous pair of compasses to describe the destined orb of the world1#i 'when he set a compass upon the face of the earth4' ',in ,his hand ,he took the golden compasses1 prepar'd ,in ,god's eternal store1 to circumscribe ,this universe1 and all created things3 ,one foot he centred1 and the other turn'd ,round through the vast profundity obscure2 ,and said1 ,thus far extend1 thus far thy bounds1 ,this be thy just circumference1 ,o ,world6' ,paradise ,lost1 book ,,vii4 line #bcf4 ,another splendid composition in this work are the two angels pouring out the black-spotted plague upon ,england1 on page #i2 in which the fore-shortening of the legs1 the grandeur of their positions1 and the harmony with which they are adapted to each other and to their curved trumpets1 are perfectly admirable4 ,the subject-matter of the work is written in the same wild and singular measures as the preceding1 and describes1 in mystical language1 the terrors of plague and anarchy which overspread ,england during the slumbers of ,enitharmon for eighteen hundred years2 upon whose awaking1 the ferocious spirit ,ore burst into flames 'in the vineyards of red ,france4' ,at the end of this poem are seven separate engravings on folio pages1 without letterpress1 which are colored like the former part of the work1 with a degree of splendor and force1 as almost to resemble sketches in oil-colors4 ,the finest of these are a figure of an angel standing in the sun1 a group of three furies surrounded by clouds and fire1 and a figure of a man sitting beneath a tree in the deepest dejection2 all of which are peculiarly remarkable for their strength and splendor of coloring4 ,another publication by ,mr4 ,blake consisted only of a small quarto volume of twenty-three engravings of various shapes and sizes1 colored as before1 some of which are of extraordinary effect and beauty4 ,the best plates in this series are--the first of an aged man1 with a white heard sweeping the ground1 and writing in a book with each hand1 naked2 a human figure pressing out his brain through his ears2 and the great sea-serpent2 but perhaps the best is a figure sinking in a stormy sea at sunset1 the splendid light of which1 and the foam upon the black waves1 are almost magical effects of coloring4 ,beneath the first design is engraved ',lambeth1 printed by ,w4 ,blake1 #agid4' ,blake's modes of preparing his ground1 and laying them over his panels for painting1 mixing his colors1 and manner of working1 were those which he considered to have been practized by the earliest fresco painters1 whose productions still remain1 in numerous instances1 vivid and permanently fresh4 ,his ground was a mixture of whiting and carpenter's glue1 which he passed over several times in thin coatings3 his colors he ground himself1 and also united them with the same sort of glue1 but in a much weaker state4 ,he would1 in the course of painting a picture1 pass a very thin transparent wash of glue-water over the whole of the parts he had worked upon1 and then proceed with his finishing4#aj ,this process ,i have tried1 and find1 by using my mixture warm1 that ,i can produce the same texture as possessed in ,blake's pictures of the ,last ,judgment1 and others of his productions1 particularly in ,varley's curious picture of the personified ,flea4 ,blake preferred mixing his colors with carpenter's glue1 to gum1 on account of the latter cracking in the sun1 and becoming humid in moist weather4 ,the glue-mixture stands the sun1 and change of atmosphere has no effect upon it4 ,every carpenter knows that if a broken piece of stick be joined with good glue1 the stick will seldom break again in the glued parts4 ,that ,blake had many secret modes of working1 both as a colorist and an engraver1 ,i have no doubt4 ,his method of eating away the plain copper1 and leaving his drawn lines of his subjects and his words as stereotype1 is1 in my mind1 perfectly original4 ,mrs4 ,blake is in possession of the secret1 and she ought to receive something considerable for its communication1 as ,i am quite certain it may be used to the greatest advantage both to artists and literary characters in general4 ,that ,blake's colored plates have more effect than others where gum has been used1 is1 in my opinion1 the fact1 and ,i shall rest my assertion upon those beautiful specimens in the possession of ,mr4 ,upcott1 colored purposely for that gentleman's godfather1 ,ozias ,humphrey1 ,esq41 to whom ,blake wrote the following interesting letter4 ,,to ,,ozias ,,humphrey1 ,,esq4 ',the design of ,the ,last ,judgment1 which ,i have completed by your recommendation for the ,countess of ,egremont1 it is necessary to give some account of2 and its various parts ought to be described1 for the accommodation of those who give it the honor of their attention4 ',christ seated on the ,throne of ,judgment3 the ,heavens in clouds rolling before him and around him1 like a scroll ready to be consumed in the fires of the ,angels2 who descend before his feet1 with their four trumpets sounding to the four winds4 ',beneath1 the ,earth is convulsed with the labours of the ,resurrection4 ,in the caverns of the earth is the ,dragon with seven heads and ten horns1 chained by two ,angels2 and above his cavern1 on the earth's surface1 is the ,harlot1 also seized and bound by two ,angels with chains1 while her palaces are falling into ruins1 and her counsellors and warriors are descending into the abyss1 in wailing and despair4 ',hell opens beneath the harlot's seat on the left hand1 into which the wicked are descending4 ',the right hand of the design is appropriated to the ,resurrection of the ,just3 the left hand of the design is appropriated to the ,resurrection and ,fall of the ,wicked4 ',immediately before the ,throne of ,christ are ,adam and ,eve1 kneeling in humiliation1 as representatives of the whole human race2 ,abraham and ,moses kneel on each side beneath them2 from the cloud on which ,eve kneels1 and beneath ,moses1 and from the tables of stone which utter lightning1 is seen ,satan wound round by the ,serpent1 and falling headlong2 the ,pharisees appear on the left hand pleading their own righteousness before the ,throne of ,christ3 ,the ,book of ,death is opened on clouds by two ,angels2 many groups of figures are falling from before the throne1 and from the sea of fire1 which flows before the steps of the throne2 on which are seen the seven ,lamps of the ,almighty1 burning before the throne4 ,many figures chained and bound together fall through the air1 and some are scourged by ,spirits with flames of fire into the abyss of ,hell1 which opens to receive them beneath1 on the left hand of the harlot's seat2 where others are howling and descending into the flames1 and in the act of dragging each other into ,hell1 and of contending in fighting with each other on the brink of perdition4 ',before the ,throne of ,christ on the right hand1 the ,just1 in humiliation and in exultation1 rise through the air1 with their ,children and ,families2 some of whom are bowing before the ,book of ,life1 which is opened by two ,angels on clouds3 many groups arise with exultation2 among them is a figure crowned with stars1 and the moon beneath her feet1 with six infants around her1 she represents the ,christian ,church4 ,the green hills appear beneath2 with the graves of the blessed1 which are seen bursting with their births of immortality2 parents and children embrace and arise together1 and in exulting attitudes tell each other that the ,new ,jerusalem is ready to descend upon earth2 they arise upon the air rejoicing2 others newly awaked from the graves1 stand upon the earth embracing and shouting to the ,lamb1 who cometh in the clouds with power and great glory4 ',the whole upper part of the design is a view of ,heaven opened2 around the ,throne of ,christ1 four living creatures filled with eyes1 attended by seven angels with seven vials of the wrath of ,god1 and above these seven ,angels with the seven trumpets compose the cloud1 which by its rolling away displays the opening seats of the ,blessed1 on the right and the left of which are seen the four-and-twenty ,elders seated on thrones to judge the dead4 ',behind the seat and ,throne of ,christ appears the ,tabernacle with its veil opened1 the ,candlestick on the right1 the ,table with ,show-bread on the left1 and in the midst1 the ,cross in place of the ,ark1 with the two ,cherubim bowing over it4 ',on the right hand of the ,throne of ,christ is ,baptism1 on his left is the ,lord's ,supper--the two introducers into ,eternal ,life4 ,women with infants approach the figure of an aged ,apostle1 which represents ,baptism2 and on the left hand the ,lord's ,supper is administered by ,angels1 from the hands of another aged ,apostle2 these kneel on each side of the ,throne1 which is surrounded by a glory3 in the glory many infants appear1 representing ,eternal ,creation flowing from the ,divine ,humanity in ,jesus2 who opens the ,scroll of ,judgment upon his knees before the living and the dead4 ',such is the design which you1 my dear ,sir1 have been the cause of my producing1 and which1 but for you1 might have slept till the ,last ,judgment4 ',,william ,,blake4 ',january #ah1 #ahjh4' ,blake and his wife were known to have lived so happily together1 that they might unquestionably have been registered at ,dunmow4 ',their hopes and fears were to each other known1' and their days and nights were passed in each other's company1 for he always painted1 drew1 engraved1 and studied1 in the same room where they grilled1 boiled1 stewed1 and slept2 and so steadfastly attentive was he to his beloved tasks1 that for the space of two years he had never once been out of his house2 and his application was often so incessant1 that in the middle of the night1 he would1 after thinking deeply upon a particular subject1 leap from his bed and write for two hours or more2 and for many years he made a constant practice of lighting the fire1 and putting on the kettle for breakfast before his ,kate awoke4 ,during his last illness1 which was occasioned by the gall mixing with his blood1 he was frequently bolstered-up in his bed to complete his drawings1 for his intended illustration of ,dante2 an author so great a favorite with him1 that though he agreed with ,fuseli and ,flaxman1 in thinking ,carey's translation superior to all others1 yet1 at the age of sixty-three years1 he learned the ,italian language purposely to enjoy ,dante in the highest possible way4 ,for this intended work1 he produced seven engraved plates of an imperial quarto size1 and nearly one hundred finished drawings of a size considerably larger2 which will do equal justice to his wonderful mind1 and the liberal heart of their possessor1 who engaged him upon so delightful a task at a time when few persons would venture to give him employment1 and whose kindness softened1 for the remainder of his life1 his lingering bodily sufferings1 which he was seen to support with the most ,christian fortitude4 ,on the day of his death1 ,august #ab1aa #ahbg1 he composed and uttered songs to his ,maker so sweetly to the ear of his ,catherine1 that when she stood to hear him1 he1 looking upon her most affectionately1 said1 ',my beloved1 they are not mine--no--they are not mine4' ,he expired at six in the evening1 with the most cheerful serenity4 ,some short time before his death1 ,mrs4 ,blake asked him where he should like to be buried1 and whether he would have the ,dissenting ,minister1 or the ,clergyman of the ,church of ,england1 to read the service3 his answers were1 that as far as his own feelings were concerned1 they might bury him where she pleased1 adding1 that as his father1 mother1 aunt1 and brother were buried in ,bunhill ,bow1 perhaps it would be better to lie there1 but as to service1 he should wish for that of the ,church of ,england4 ,his hearse was followed by two mourning-coaches1 attended by private friends3 ,calvert1 ,richmond1 ,tatham1 and his brother1 promising young artists1 to whom he had given instructions in the ,arts1 were of the number4 ,tatham1 ill as he was1 travelled ninety miles to attend the funeral of one for whom1 next to his own family1 he held the highest esteem4 ,blake died in his sixty-ninth year1 in the back-room of the first-floor of ,no4 #c ,fountain ,court1 ,strand1 and was buried in ,bunhill ,fields1 on the #agth of ,august1 at the distance of about twenty-five feet from the north wall1 numbered eighty4 ,limited as ,blake was in his pecuniary circumstances1 his beloved ,kate survives him clear of even a sixpenny debt2 and in the fullest belief that the remainder of her days will be rendered tolerable by the sale of the few copies of her husband's works1 which she will dispose of at the original price of publication2 in order to enable the collector to add to the weight of his bookshelves1 without being solicited to purchase1 out of compassion1 those specimens of her husband's talents which they ought to possess4 ,,extract ,,from ',a ,,book ,,for ,a ,,rainy ,,day' #aghd4--,this year ,mr4 ,flaxman1 who then lived in ,wardour ,street1 introduced me to one of his early patrons1 the ,rev4 ,henry ,mathew1 of ,percy ,chapel1 ,charlotte ,street1 which was built for him2 he was also afternoon preacher at ,saint ,martin's-in-the-,fields4 ,at that gentleman's house1 in ,rathbone ,place1 ,i became acquainted with ,mrs4 ,mathew and her son4 ,at that lady's most agreeable conversaziones ,i first met the late ,william ,blake1 the artist1 to whom she and ,mr4 ,flaxman had been truly kind4 ,there ,i have often heard him read and sing several of his poems4 ,he was listened to by the company with profound silence1 and allowed by most of the visitors to possess original and extraordinary merit4'#ab ,footnote #a3 ,the whole copy of this little work1 entitled ',poetical ,sketches1 by ,w4 ,b41' containing seventy pages1 octavo1 bearing the date of #aghc1 was given to ,blake to sell to friends1 or publish1 as he might think proper4 ,footnote #b3 ,a friend has favoured me with the following anecdotes1 which he received from ,blake1 respecting his courtship4 ,he states that ',our ,artist fell in love with a lively little girl1 who allowed him to say everything that was loving1 but would not listen to his overtures on the score of matrimony4 ,he was lamenting this in the house of a friend1 when a generous-hearted lass declared that she pitied him from her heart4 ,do you pity me8 asked ,blake4 ,yes2 ,i do1 most sincerely4--,then1 said he1 ,i love you for that4--,well1 said the honest girl1 and ,i love you4 ,the consequence was1 they were married1 and lived the happiest of lives4' ,footnote #c3 ,i copied the above from the book now in the possession of ,mrs4 ,blake4 ,footnote #d3 ,in #ahji1 ,blake exhibited sixteen poetical and historical inventions1 in his brother's first-floor in ,broad ,street2 eleven pictures in fresco1 professed to be painted according to the ancient method1 and seven drawings1 of which an explanatory catalogue was published1 and is perhaps the most curious of its kind ever written4 ,at page #g1 the description of his fresco painting of ,geoffrey ,chaucer's ,pilgrimage commences4 ,this picture1 which is larger than the print1 is now in the possession of ,thomas ,butts1 ,esq41 a gentleman friendly to ,blake1 and who is in possession of a considerable number of his works4 ,footnote #e3 ,see the ',artist1' by ,prince ,hoare1 ,esq41 ,no4 #ac1 vol4 ,i4 p4 #ac4 ,footnote #f3 ,i must do ,mr4 ,stothard the justice to declare1 that the very first time ,i saw him after he had read the announcement of ,blake's death1 he spoke in the handsomest terms of his talents1 and informed me that ,blake made a remarkably correct and fine drawing of the head of ,queen ,philippa1 from her monumental effigy in ,westminster ,abbey1 for ,gough's ,sepulchral ,monuments1 engraved by ,basire4 ,the collectors of ,stothard's numerous and elegant designs will recollect the name of ,blake as the engraver of several plates in the ,novelist's ,magazine1 the ,poetical ,magazine1 and also others for a work entitled the ,wit's ,magazine1 from drawings produced by the same artist4 ,trotter1 the engraver1 who received instructions from ,blake1 and who was a pattern-draughtsman to the calico-printers1 introduced his friend ,stothard to ,blake1 and their attachment for each other coutinued most cordially to exist in the opinion of the public1 until they produced their rival pictures of ,chaucer's ,canterbury ,pilgrimage4 ,footnote #g3 ,this interesting little picture is painted in fresco4 ,it is now the property of ,john ,varley1 the artist1 whose landscapes will ever be esteemed as some of the finest productions in ,art1 and who may fairly be considered as one of the founders of the ,society of ,artists in ,water-,colors2 the annual exhibitions of which continue to surpass those of the preceding seasons4 ,footnote #h3 ,blake's talent is not to be seen in his engravings from the designs of other artists1 though he certainly honestly endeavored to copy the beauties of ,stothard1 ,flaxman1 and those masters set before him by the few publishers who employed him2 but his own engravings from his own mind are the productions which the man of true feeling must ever admire1 and the predictions of ,fuseli and ,flaxman may hereafter be verified ',that a time will come when ,blake's finest works will be as much sought after and treasured up in the portfolios of men of mind1 as those of ,michel ,angelo are at present4' ,footnote #i3 ,he was inspired with the splendid grandeur of this figure1 by the vision which he declared hovered over his head at the top of his staircase2 and he has been frequently heard to say1 that it made a more powerful impression upon his mind than all he had ever been visited by4 ,this subject was such a favorite with him1 that he always bestowed more time and enjoyed greater pleasure when coloring the print1 than anything he ever produced4 ,mr4 ,f4 ,tatham employed him to tint an impression of it1 for which ,i have heard he paid him the truly liberal sum of three guineas and a half4 ,i say liberal1 though the specimen is worth any price1 because the sum was so considerably beyond what ,blake generally had been accustomed to receive as a remuneration for his extraordinary talents4 ,upon this truly inestimable impression1 which ,i have now before me1 ,blake worked when bolstered-up in his bed only a few days before he died2 and my friend ,f4 ,tatham has just informed me1 that after ,blake had frequently touched upon it1 and had as frequently held it at a distance1 he threw it from him1 and with an air of exulting triumph exclaimed1 ',there1 that will do6 ,i cannot mend it4' ,however1 this was not his last production2 for immediately after he had made the above declaration to his beloved ,kate1 upon whom his eyes were steadfastly fixed1 he vociferated1 ',stay6 keep as you are6 you have ever been an angel to me1 ,i will draw you'2 and he actually made a most spirited fineness of her1 though within so short a period of his earthly termination4 ,footnote #aj3 ,loutherbourgh was also1 in his way1 very ingenious in his contrivances4 ,to oblige his friend ,garrick1 he enriched a drama1 entitled ',the ,christmas ,tale1' with scenery painted by himself1 and introduced such novelty and brilliancy of effect1 as formed a new era in that species of art4 ,this he accomplished by means of differently colored silks placed before the lamps at the front of the stage1 and by the lights behind the side scenes4 ,the same effects were used for distance and atmosphere4 ,as for instance1 ,harlequin in a fog was produced by tiffany hung between the audience and himself4 ,mr4 ,seguire1 the father of the ,keeper of the ,king's ,pictures1 and those of the ,national ,gallery1 purchased of ,mr4 ,loutherbourgh ten small designs for the scenery of ,omiah1 for which scenes the manager paid him one thousand pounds4 ,mr4 ,loutherbourgh never would leave any paper or designs at the theatre1 nor would he ever allow any one to see what he intended to produce2 as he secretly held small cards in his hand1 which he now and then referred to in order to assist him in his recollections of his small drawings4 ,footnote #aa3 ,not the #acth1 as has been stated by several editors who have noticed his death4 ,footnote #ab3 ,a time will come when the numerous1 though now very rare works of ,blake 7in consequence of his taking very few impressions from the plates before they were rubbed out to enable him to use them for other subjects71 will be sought after with the most intense avidity4 ,he was considered by ,stothard and ,flaxman 7and will be by those of congenial minds1 if we can reasonably expect such again7 with their highest admiration4 ,these artists allowed him their utmost unqualified praise1 and were ever anxious to recommend him and his productions to the patrons of the ,arts2 but1 alas6 they were not sufficiently appreciated as to enable ,blake1 as every one could wish1 to provide an independence for his surviving partner1 ,kate1 who adored his memory4 7,,viii47 ,,life ,,of ,,blake ,,by ,,allan ,,cunningham 7#ahcj7 ,allan ,cunningham's ,life of ,blake occupies pp4 #adb-agi of the second volume of his ,lives of the most eminent ,british ,painters1 ,sculptors1 and ,architects4 7,london3 ,john ,murray1 ,albemarle ,street1 ,,mdcccxxx47 ,it is largely indebted to ,smith1 but contains a few anecdotes not found elsewhere1 and probably derived from ,varley and ,linnell4 ,in a letter to ,linnell1 printed in ,mr4 ,story's ,life1 ,cunningham says that 'much valuable information' has been received from ,varley1 and asks for more1 adding1 with characteristic impertinence3 ',i know ,blake's character1 for ,i knew the man4 ,i shall make a judicious use of my materials1 and be merciful where sympathy is needed4' ,he reproduces the ,phillips portrait of ,blake1 which had been engraved by ,schiavonetti for ,blair's ,grave1 in a less showy and more lifelike engraving by ,w4 ,c4 ,edwards4 ,painting1 like poetry1 has followers1 the body of whose genius is light compared to the length of its wings1 and who1 rising above the ordinary sympathies of our nature1 are1 like ,napoleon1 betrayed by a star which no eye can see save their own4 ,to this rare class belonged ,william ,blake4 ,he was the second son of ,james ,blake and ,catherine his wife1 and born on the #bhth of ,november1 #ageg1 in #bh ,broad ,street1 ,carnaby ,market1 ,london4 ,his father1 a respectable hosier1 caused him to be educated for his own business1 but the love of art came early upon the boy2 he neglected the figures of arithmetic for those of ,raphael and ,reynolds2 and his worthy parents often wondered how a child of theirs should have conceived a love for such unsubstantial vanities4 ,the boy1 it seems1 was privately encouraged by his mother4 ,the love of designing and sketching grew upon him1 and he desired anxiously to be an artist4 ,his father began to be pleased with the notice which his son obtained--and to fancy that a painter's study might after all be a fitter place than a hosier's shop for one who drew designs on the backs of all the shop bills1 and made sketches on the counter4 ,he consulted an eminent artist1 who asked so large a sum for instruction1 that the prudent shopkeeper hesitated1 and young ,blake declared he would prefer being an engraver--a profession which would bring bread at least1 and through which he would be connected with painting4 ,it was indeed time to dispose of him4 ,in addition to his attachment to art1 he had displayed poetic symptoms--scraps of paper and the blank leaves of books were found covered with groups and stanzas4 ,when his father saw sketches at the top of the sheet and verses at the bottom1 he took him away to ,basire1 the engraver1 in ,green ,street1 ,lincoln's ,inn ,fields1 and bound him apprentice for seven years4 ,he was then fourteen years old4 ,it is told of ,blake that at ten years of age he became an artist1 and at twelve a poet4 ,of his boyish pencillings ,i can find no traces--but of his early intercourse with the ,muse the proof lies before me in seventy pages of verse1 written1 he says1 between his twelfth and his twentieth year1 and published1 by the advice of friends1 when he was thirty4 ,there are songs1 ballads1 and a dramatic poem2 rude sometimes and melodious1 but full of fine thought and deep and peculiar feeling4 ,to those who love poetry for the music of its bells1 these seventy pages will sound harsh and dissonant2 but by others they will be more kindly looked upon4 ,john ,flaxman1 a judge in all things of a poetic nature1 was so touched with many passages1 that he not only counseled their publication1 but joined with a gentleman of the name of ,matthews in the expense1 and presented the printed sheets to the artist to dispose of for his own advantage4 ,one of these productions is an address to the ,muses--a common theme1 but sung in no common manner4 ',whether on ,ida's shady brow1 ,or in the chambers of the east1 ,the chambers of the sun1 that now ,from ancient melody have ceas'd2 ,whether in heaven ye wander fair1 ,or the green corners of the earth1 ,or the blue regions of the air1 ,where the melodious winds have birth2 ,whether on crystal rocks ye rove1 ,beneath the bosom of the sea1 ,wandering in many a coral grove1 ,fair ,nine6 forsaking poesie2 ,how have ye left the ancient love1 ,that ,bards of old enjoyed in you2-- ,the languid strings now scarcely move1 ,the sound is forced--the notes are few4' ,the little poem called ',the ,tiger' has been admired for the force and vigour of its thoughts by poets of high name4 ,many could weave smoother lines--few could stamp such living images4 ',tiger6 ,tiger6 burning bright ,in the forest of the night1 ,what immortal hand or eye ,framed thy fearful symmetry8 ,in what distant deeps or skies ,burned the fervour of thine eyes8 ,on what wings dare he aspire-- ,what the hand dare seize the fire8 ,and what shoulder and what art ,could twist the sinews of thy heart8 ,when thy heart began to beat1 ,what dread hand formed thy dread feet8 ,what the hammer6 what the chain6 ,formed thy strength and forged thy brain8 ,what the anvil6 ,what dread grasp ,dared thy deadly terrors clasp8 ,when the stars threw down their spheres1 ,and sprinkled heaven with shining tears1 ,did he smile1 his work to see8 ,did he who made the lamb make thee8' ,in the dramatic poem of ,king ,edward the ,third there are many nervous lines1 and even whole passages of high merit4 ,the structure of the verse is often defective1 and the arrangement inharmonious2 but before the ear is thoroughly offended1 it is soothed by some touch of deep melody and poetic thought4 ,the princes and earls of ,england are conferring together on the eve of the battle of ,cressy--the ,black ,prince takes ,chandos aside1 and says-- ',now we're alone1 ,john ,chandos1 ,i'll unburthen ,and breathe my hopes into the burning air-- ,where thousand ,deaths are posting up and down1 ,commissioned to this fatal field of ,cressy3 ,methinks ,i see them arm my gallant soldiers1 ,and gird the sword upon each thigh1 and fit ,the shining helm1 and string each stubborn bow1 ,and dancing to the neighing of the steeds2--,methinks the shout begins--the battle burns2--,methinks ,i see them perch on ,english crests1 ,and breathe the wild flame of fierce war upon ,the thronged enemy4' ,in the same high poetic spirit ,sir ,walter ,manny converses with a genuine old ,english warrior1 ,sir ,thomas ,dagworth4 ',o1 ,dagworth6--,france is sick6--the very sky1 ,though sunshine light1 it seems to me as pale ,as is the fainting man on his death-bed1 ,whose face is shown by light of one weak taper-- ,it makes me sad and sick unto the heart2 ,thousands must fall to-day4' ,sir ,thomas answers4 ',thousands of souls must leave this prison-house ,to be exalted to those heavenly fields ,where songs of triumph1 psalms of victory1 ,where peace1 and joy1 and love1 and calm content ,sit singing on the azure clouds1 and strew ,the flowers of heaven upon the banquet table4 ,bind ardent hope upon your feet1 like shoes1 ,and put the robe of preparation on4 ,the table1 it is spread in shining heaven4 ,let those who fight1 fight in good steadfastness2 ,and those who fall shall rise in victory4' ,i might transcribe from these modest and unnoticed pages many such passages4 ,it would be unfair not to mention that the same volume contains some wild and incoherent prose1 in which we may trace more than the dawning of those strange1 mystical1 and mysterious fancies on which he subsequently misemployed his pencil4 ,there is much that is weak1 and something that is strong1 and a great deal that is wild and mad1 and all so strangely mingled1 that no meaning can be assigned to it2 it seems like a lamentation over the disasters which came on ,england during the reign of ,king ,john4 ,though ,blake lost himself a little in the enchanted region of song1 he seems not to have neglected to make himself master of the graver1 or to have forgotten his love of designs and sketches4 ,he was a dutiful servant to ,basire1 and he studied occasionally under ,flaxman and ,fuseli2 but it was his chief delight to retire to the solitude of his chamber1 and there make drawings1 and illustrate these with verses1 to be hung up together in his mother's chamber4 ,he was always at work2 he called amusement idleness1 sight-seeing vanity1 and money-making the ruin of all high aspirations4 ',were ,i to love money1' he said1 ',i should lose all power of thought6 desire of gain deadens the genius of man4 ,i might roll in wealth and ride in a golden chariot1 were ,i to listen to the voice of parsimony4 ,my business is not to gather gold1 but to make glorious shapes1 expressing godlike sentiments4' ,the day was given to the graver1 by which he earned enough to maintain himself respectably2 and he bestowed his evenings upon painting and poetry1 and intertwined these so closely in his compositions1 that they cannot well be separated4 ,when he was six-and-twenty years old1 he married ,katharine ,boutcher1 a young woman of humble connections--the dark-eyed ,kate of several of his lyric poems4 ,she lived near his father's house and was noticed by ,blake for the whiteness of her hand1 the brightness of her eyes1 and a slim and handsome shape1 corresponding with his own notions of sylphs and naiads4 ,as he was an original in all things1 it would have been out of character to fall in love like an ordinary mortal2 he was describing one evening in company the pains he had suffered from some capricious lady or another1 when ,katharine ,boutcher said1 ',i pity you from my heart4' ',do you pity me8' said ,blake1 'then ,i love you for that4' ',and ,i love you1' said the frank-hearted lass1 and so the courtship began4 ,he tried how well she looked in a drawing1 then how her charms became verse2 and finding moreover that she had good domestic qualities1 he married her4 ,they lived together long and happily4 ,she seemed to have been created on purpose for ,blake3--she believed him to be the finest genius on earth2 she believed in his verse--she believed in his designs2 and to the wildest flights of his imagination she bowed the knee1 and was a worshipper4 ,she set his house in good order1 prepared his frugal meal1 learned to think as he thought1 and1 indulging him in his harmless absurdities1 became1 as it were1 bone of his bone1 and flesh of his flesh4 ,she learned--what a young and handsome woman is seldom apt to learn--to despise gaudy dresses1 costly meals1 pleasant company1 and agreeable invitations--she found out the way of being happy at home1 living on the simplest of food1 and contented in the homeliest of clothing4 ,it was no ordinary mind which could do all this2 and she whom ,blake emphatically called his beloved1' was no ordinary woman4 ,she wrought off in the press the impressions of his plates--she colored them with a light and neat hand--made drawings much in the spirit of her husband's compositions1 and almost rivaled him in all things save in the power which he possessed of seeing visions of any individual living or dead1 whenever he chose to see them4 ,his marriage1 ,i have heard1 was not agreeable to his father2 and he then left his roof and resided with his wife in ,green ,street1 ,leicester ,fields4 ,he returned to ,broad ,street1 on the death of his father1 a devout man1 and an honest shopkeeper1 of fifty years' standing1 took a first-floor and a shop1 and in company with one ,parker1 who had been his fellow-apprentice1 commenced print-seller4 ,his wife attended to the business1 and ,blake continued to engrave1 and took ,robert1 his favorite brother1 for a pupil4 ,this speculation did not succeed--his brother too sickened and died2 he had a dispute with ,parker--the shop was extinguished1 and he removed to #bh ,poland ,street4 ,here he commenced that series of works which give him a right to be numbered among the men of genius of his country4 ,in sketching designs1 engraving plates1 writing songs1 and composing music1 he employed his time1 with his wife sitting at his side1 encouraging him in all his undertakings4 ,as he drew the figure he meditated the song which was to accompany it1 and the music to which the verse was to be sung1 was the offspring too of the same moment4 ,of his music there are no specimens--he wanted the art of noting it down--if it equalled many of his drawings1 and some of his songs1 we have lost melodies of real value4 ,the first fruits were the ',songs of ,innocence and ,experience1' a work original and natural1 and of high merit1 both in poetry and in painting4 ,it consists of some sixty-five or seventy scenes1 presenting images of youth and manhood--of domestic sadness1 and fireside joy--of the gaiety and innocence1 and happiness of childhood4 ,every scene has its poetical accompaniment1 curiously interwoven with the group or the landscape1 and forming1 from the beauty of the color and the prettiness of the pencilling1 a very fair picture of itself4 ,those designs are in general highly poetical2 more allied1 however1 to heaven than to earth1--a kind of spiritual abstractions1 and indicating a better world and fuller happiness than mortals enjoy4 ,the picture of ,innocence is introduced with the following sweet verses4 ',piping down the valleys wild1 ,piping songs of pleasant glee1 ,on a cloud ,i saw a child1 ,and he laughing said to me-- ,pipe a song about a lamb2 ,so ,i piped with merry cheer4 ,piper1 pipe that song again-- ,so ,i piped--he wept to hear4 ,drop thy pipe1 thy happy pipe1 ,sing thy songs of happy cheer-- ,so ,i sung the same again1 ,while he wept with joy to hear4 ,piper1 sit thee down and write ,in a book that all may read-- ,so he vanished from my sight3 ,and ,i plucked a hollow reed1 ,and ,i made a rural pen1 ,and ,i stained the water clear1 ,and ,i wrote my happy songs1 ,every child may joy to hear4' ,in a higher and better spirit he wrought with his pencil4 ,but then he imagined himself under spiritual influences2 he saw the forms and listened to the voices of the worthies of other days2 the past and the future were before him1 and he heard1 in imagination1 even that awful voice which called on ,adam amongst the trees of the garden4 ,in this kind of dreaming abstraction1 he lived much of his life2 all his works are stamped with it2 and though they owe much of their mysticism and obscurity to the circumstance1 there can be no doubt that they also owe to it much of their singular loveliness and beauty4 ,it was wonderful that he could thus1 month after month1 and year after year1 lay down his graver after it had won him his daily wages1 and retire from the battle for bread1 to disport his fancy amid scenes of more than earthly splendor1 and creatures pure as unfalled dew4 ,in this lay the weakness and the strength of ,blake1 and those who desire to feel the character of his compositions1 must be familiar with his history and the peculiarities of his mind4 ,he was by nature a poet1 a dreamer1 and an enthusiast4 ,the eminence which it had been the first ambition of his youth to climb1 was visible before him1 and he saw on its ascent or on its summit those who had started earlier in the race of fame4 ,he felt conscious of his own merit1 but w as not aware of the thousand obstacles which were ready to interpose4' ,he thought that he had but to sing songs and draw designs1 and become great and famous4 ,the crosses which genius is heir to had been wholly unforeseen--and they befell him early2 he wanted the skill of hand1 and fine tact of fancy and taste1 to impress upon the offspring of his thoughts that popular shape1 which gives such productions immediate circulation4 ,his works were looked coldly on by the world1 and were only esteemed by men of poetic minds1 or those who were fond of things out of the common way4 ,he earned a little fame1 but no money by these speculations1 and had to depend for bread on the labours of the graver4 ,all this neither crushed his spirit1 nor induced him to work more in the way of the world2 but it had a visible influence upon his mind4 ,he became more seriously thoughtful1 avoided the company of men1 and lived in the manner of a hermit1 in that vast wilderness1 ,london4 ,necessity made him frugal1 and honesty and independence prescribed plain clothes1 homely fare1 and a cheap habitation4 ,he was thus compelled more than ever to retire to worlds of his own creating1 and seek solace in visions of paradise for the joys which the earth denied him4 ,by frequent indulgence in these imaginings1 he gradually began to believe in the reality of what dreaming fancy painted--the pictured forms which swarmed before his eyes1 assumed1 in his apprehension1 the stability of positive revelations1 and he mistook the vivid figures1 which his professional imagination shaped1 for the poets1 and heroes1 and princes of old4 ,amongst his friends1 he at length ventured to intimate that the designs on which he was engaged were not from his own mind1 but copied from grand works revealed to him in visions2 and those who believed that1 would readily lend an ear to the assurance that he was commanded to execute his performances by a celestial tongue6 ,of these imaginary visitations he made good use1 when he invented his truly original and beautiful mode of engraving and tinting his plates4 ,he had made the sixty-five designs of his ,days of ,innocence1 and was meditating1 he said1 on the best means of multiplying their resemblance in form and in hue2 he felt sorely perplexed4 ,at last he was made aware that the spirit of his favorite brother ,robert was in the room1 and to this celestial visitor he applied for counsel4 ,the spirit advised him at once3 'write1' he said1 'the poetry1 and draw the designs upon the copper with a certain liquid 7which he named1 and which ,blake ever kept a secret72 then cut the plain parts of the plate down with aqua-fortis1 and this will give the whole1 both poetry and figures1 in the manner of a stereotype4' ,the plan recommended by this gracious spirit was adopted2 the plates were engraved1 and the work printed off4 ,the artist then added a peculiar beauty of his own4 ,he tinted both the figures and the verse with a variety of colors1 amongst which1 while yellow prevails1 the whole has a rich and lustrous beauty1 to which ,i know little that can be compared4 ,the size of these prints is four inches and a half high by three inches wide4 ,the original genius of ,blake was always confined1 through poverty1 to small dimensions4 ,sixty-five plates of copper were an object to him who had little money4 ,the ,gates of ,paradise1 a work of sixteen designs1 and those exceedingly small1 was his next undertaking4 ,the meaning of the artist is not a little obscure2 it seems to have been his object to represent the innocence1 the happiness1 and the upward aspirations of man4 ,they bespeak one intimately acquainted with the looks and the feelings of children4 ,over them there is shed a kind of mysterious halo which raises feelings of devotion4 ,the ,songs of ,innocence1 and the ,gates of ,paradise1 became popular among the collectors of prints4 ,to the sketch book and the cabinet the works of ,blake are unfortunately confined4 ,if there be mystery in the meaning of the ,gates of ,paradise1 his succeeding performance1 by name ,urizen1 has the merit or the fault of surpassing all human comprehension4 ,the spirit which dictated this strange work was undoubtedly a dark one2 nor does the strange kind of prose which is intermingled with the figures serve to enlighten us4 ,there are in all twenty-seven designs representing beings human1 demoniac1 and divine1 in situations of pain and sorrow and suffering4 ,one character--evidently an evil spirit--appears in most of the plates2 the horrors of hell1 and the terrors of darkness and divine wrath1 seem his sole portion4 ,he swims in gulps of fire--descends in cataracts of flame--holds combats with scaly serpents1 or writhes in anguish without any visible cause4 ,one of his exploits is to chase a female soul through 'a narrow gate and hurl her headlong down into a darksome pit4 ,the wild verses which are scattered here and there1 talk of the sons and the daughters of ,urizen4 ,he seems to have extracted these twenty-seven scenes out of many visions--what he meant by them even his wife declared she could not tell1 though she was sure they had a meaning and a fine one4 ,something like the fall of ,lucifer and the creation of ,man is dimly visible in this extravagant work2 it is not a little fearful to look upon2 a powerful1 dark1 terrible though undefined and indescribable impression is left on the mind--and it is in no haste to be gone4 ,the size of the designs is four inches by six2 they bear date1 ',lambeth1 #agid4' ,he had left ,poland ,street and was residing in ,hercules ,buildings4 ,the name of ,blake began now to be known a little1 and ,edwards1 the bookseller1 employed him to illustrate ,young's ,night ,thoughts4 ,the reward in money was small1 but the temptation in fame was great3 the work was performed something in the manner of old books with illuminated margins4 ,along the ample margins which the poetry left on the page the artist sketched his fanciful creations2 contracting or expanding them according to the space4 ,some of those designs were in keeping with the poems1 but there were others which alarmed fastidious people3 the serious and the pious were not prepared to admire shapes trembling in nudity round the verses of a grave divine4 ,in the exuberance of ,young there are many fine figures2 but they are figures of speech only1 on which art should waste none of its skill4 ,this work was so much1 in many parts1 to the satisfaction of ,flaxman1 that he introduced ,blake to ,hayley the poet1 who1 in #ahjj1 persuaded him to remove to ,felpham in ,sussex1 to make engravings for the ,life of ,cowper4 ,to that place he accordingly went with his wife and sister1 and was welcomed by ,hayley with much affection4 ,of his journey and his feelings he gives the following account to ,flaxman1 whom he usually addressed thus1 ',dear ,sculptor of ,eternity4' ',we are arrived safe at our cottage1 which is more beautiful than ,i thought it1 and more convenient4 ,it is a perfect model for cottages1 and ,i think for palaces of magnificence1 only enlarging and not altering its proportions1 and adding ornaments and not principals4 ,nothing can be more grand than its simplicity and usefulness4 ,felpham is a sweet place for study1 because it is more spiritual than ,london4 ,heaven opens here on all sides her golden1 gates2 her windows are not obstructed by vapors2 voices of celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard1 and their forms more distinctly seen1 and my cottage is also a shadow of their houses4 ,my wife and sister are both well1 and are courting ,neptune for an embrace4' ,thus far had he written in the language and feelings of a person of upper air2 though some of the expressions are tinctured with the peculiar enthusiasm of the man1 they might find shelter under the licence of figurative speech1 and pass muster as the poetic language of new-found happiness4 ,blake thus continues3-- ',and now begins a new life1 because another covering of earth is shaken off4 ,i am more famed in heaven for my works than ,i could well conceive4 ,in my brain are studies and chambers filled with books and pictures of old1 which ,i wrote and painted in ages of eternity before my mortal life1 and those works are the delight and study of archangels4 ,why then should ,i be anxious about the riches or fame of mortality8 ,you1 ,o dear ,flaxman1 are a sublime archangel1 my friend and companion from eternity4 ,farewell1 my dear friend1 remember me and my wife in love and friendship to ,mrs4 ,flaxman1 whom we ardently desire to entertain beneath our thatched roof of russet gold4' ,this letter1 written in the year #ahjj1 gives the true twofold image of the author's mind4 ,during the day he was a man of sagacity and sense1 who handled his graver wisely1 and conversed in a wholesome and pleasant manner2 in the evening1 when he had done his prescribed task1 he gave a loose to his imagination4 ,while employed on those engravings which accompany the works of ,cowper1 he saw such company as the country where he resided afforded1 and talked with ,hayley about poetry with a feeling to which the author of the ,triumphs of ,temper was an utter stranger2 but at the close of day away went ,blake to the seashore to indulge in his own thoughts and3 ',high converse with the dead to hold4' ,here he forgot the present moment and lived in the past2 he conceived1 verily1 that he had lived in other days1 and had formed friendships with ,homer and ,moses2 with ,pindar and ,virgil2 with ,dante and ,milton4 ,these great men1 he asserted1 appeared to him in visions1 and even entered into conversation4 ,milton1 in a moment of confidence1 entrusted him with a whole poem of his1 which the world had never seen2 but unfortunately the communication was oral1 and the poetry seemed to have lost much of its brightness in ,blake's recitation4 ,when asked about the looks of those visions1 he answered1 ',they are all majestic shadows1 gray but luminous1 and superior to the common height of men4' ,it was evident that the solitude of the country gave him a larger swing in imaginary matters4 ,his wife often accompanied him to these strange interviews2 she saw nothing and heard as little1 but she was certain that her husband both heard and saw4 ,blake's mind at all times resembled that first page in the magician's book of gramoury1 which made3 ',the cobweb on the dungeon wall1 ,seem tapestry in lordly hall4' ,his mind could convert the most ordinary occurrence into something mystical and supernatural4 ,he often saw less majestic shapes than those of the poets of old4 ',did you ever see a fairy's funeral1 madam8' he once said to a lady1 who happened to sit by him in company4 ',never1 sir6' was the answer4 ',i have1' said ,blake1 'but not before last night4 ,i was walking alone in my garden1 there was great stillness among the branches and flowers and more than common sweetness in the air2 ,i heard a low and pleasant sound1 and ,i knew not whence it came4 ,at last ,i saw the broad leaf of a flower move1 and underneath ,i saw a procession of creatures of the size and color of green and gray grasshoppers1 bearing a body laid out on a rose leaf1 which they buried with songs1 and then disappeared4 ,it was a fairy funeral4' ,it would1 perhaps1 have been better for his fame had he connected it more with the superstitious beliefs of his country--amongst the elves and fairies his fancy might have wandered at will--their popular character would perhaps have kept him within the bounds of traditionary belief1 and the sea of his imagination might have had a shore4 ,after a residence of three years in his cottage at ,felpham1 he removed to #ag ,south ,molton ,street1 ,london1 where he lived seventeen years4 ,he came back to town with a fancy not a little exalted by the solitude of the country1 and in this mood designed and engraved an extensive and strange work which he entitled ',jerusalem4' ,a production so exclusively wild was not allowed to make its appearance in an ordinary way3 he thus announced it4 ',after my three years' slumber on the banks of the ocean1 ,i again display my giant forms to the public4' ,of those designs there are no less than an hundred2 what their meaning is the artist has left unexplained4 ,it seems of a religious1 political1 and spiritual kind1 and wanders from hell to heaven and from heaven to earth2 now glancing into the distractions of our own days1 and then making a transition to the antediluvians4 ,the crowning defect is obscurity2 meaning seems now and then about to dawn2 you turn plate after plate and read motto after motto1 in the hope of escaping from darkness into light4 ,but the first might as well be looked at last2 the whole seems a riddle which no ingenuity can solve4 ,yet1 if the work be looked at for form and effect rather than for meaning1 many figures may be pronounced worthy of ,michael ,angelo4 ,there is wonderful freedom of attitude and position2 men1 spirits1 gods1 and angels1 move with an ease which makes one lament that we know not wherefore they are put in motion4 ,well might ,hayley call him his 'gentle visionary ,blake4' ,he considered the ,jerusalem to be his greatest work1 and for a set of the tinted engravings he charged twenty-five guineas4 ,few joined the artist in his admiration4 ,the ,jerusalem1 with all its giant forms1 failed to force its way into circulation4 ,his next work was the ,illustrations of ,blair's ,grave1 which came to the world with the following commendation by ,fuseli3 ',the author of the moral series before us has endeavored to awaken sensibility by touching our sympathies with nearer1 less ambiguous and less ludicrous imagery1 than what mythology1 ,gothic superstition1 or symbols as far fetched as inadequate could supply4 ,his avocation has been chiefly employed to spread a familiar and domestic atmosphere round the most important of all subjects1 to connect the visible and the invisible world without provoking probability1 and to lead the eye from the milder light of time to the radiations of eternity4' ,for these twelve ,inventions1' as he called them1 ,blake received twenty guineas from ,cromeck1 the engraver--a man of skill in art and taste in literature4 ,the price was little1 but nevertheless it was more than what he usually received for such productions2 he also undertook to engrave them4 ,but ,blake's mode of engraving was as peculiar as his style of designing2 it had little of that grace of execution about it1 which attracts customers1 and the ,inventions1 after an experiment or two1 were placed under the fashionable graver of ,louis ,schiavonetti4 ,blake was deeply incensed--he complained that he was deprived of the profit of engraving his own designs1 and1 with even less justice1 that ,schiavonetti was unfit for the task4 ,some of these twelve ',inventions' are natural and poetic1 others exhibit laborious attempts at the terrific and the sublime4 ,the old ,man at ,death's ,door is one of the best--in the ,last ,day there are fine groups and admirable single figures--the ,wise ,ones of the ,earth pleading before the inexorable ,throne1 and the ,descent of the ,condemned1 are creations of a high order4 ,the ,death of the ,strong ,wicked ,man is fearful and extravagant1 and the flames in which the soul departs from the body have no warrant in the poem or in belief4 ,the ,descent of ,christ into the ,grave is formal and tame1 and the hoary old ,soul in the ,death of the ,good ,man1 travelling heavenward between two orderly ,angels1 required little outlay of fancy4 ,the frontispiece--a naked ,angel descending headlong and rousing the ,dead with the ,sound of the last ,trumpet--alarmed the devout people of the north1 and made maids and matrons retire behind their fans4 ,if the tranquillity of ,blake's life was a little disturbed by the dispute about the twelve ,inventions1' it was completely shaken by the controversy which now arose between him and ,cromeck respecting his ,canterbury ,pilgrimage4 ,that two artists at one and the same time should choose the same subject for the pencil1 seems scarcely credible--especially when such subject was not of a temporary interest4 ,the coincidence here was so close1 that ,blake accused ,stothard of obtaining knowledge of his design through ,cromeck1 while ,stothard with equal warmth asserted that ,blake had commenced his picture in rivalry of himself4 ,blake declared that ,cromeck had actually commissioned him to paint the ,pilgrimage before ,stothard thought of his2 to which ,cromeck replied1 that the order had been given in a vision1 for he never gave it4 ,stothard1 a man as little likely to be led aside from truth by love of gain as by visions1 added to ,cromeck's denial the startling testimony that ,blake visited him during the early progress of his picture1 and expressed his approbation of it1 in such terms1 that he proposed to introduce ,blake's portrait in the procession1 as a mark of esteem4 ,it is probable that ,blake obeyed some imaginary revelation in this matter1 and mistook it for the order of an earthly employer2 but whether commissioned by a vision or by mortal lips1 his ,canterbury ,pilgrimage made its appearance in an exhibition of his principal works in the house of his brother1 in ,broad ,street1 during the summer of #ahji4 ,of original designs1 this singular exhibition contained sixteen--they were announced as chiefly 'of a spiritual and political nature'--but then the spiritual works and political feelings of ,blake were unlike those of any other man4 ,one piece represented ',the ,spiritual ,form of ,nelson guiding ,leviathan4' ,another1 ',the ,spiritual ,form of ,seth guiding ,behemoth4' ,this1 probably1 confounded both divines and politicians2 there is no doubt that plain men went wondering away4 ,the chief attraction was the ,canterbury ,pilgrimage1 not indeed from its excellence1 but from the circumstance of its origin1 which was well known about town1 and pointedly alluded to in the catalogue4 ,the picture is a failure4 ,blake was too great a visionary for dealing with such literal wantons as the ,wife of ,bath and her jolly companions4 ,the natural flesh and blood of ,chaucer prevailed against him4 ,he gives grossness of body for grossness of mind1--tries to be merry and wicked--and in vain4 ,those who missed instruction in his pictures1 found entertainment in his catalogue1 a wild performance1 overflowing with the oddities and dreams of the author--which may be considered as a kind of public declaration of his faith concerning art and artists4 ,his first anxiety is about his colors4 ',colouring1' says this new lecturer on the ,chiaroscuro1 'does not depend on where the colours are put1 but on where the lights and darks are put1 and all depends on form or outline4 ,where that is wrong the coloring never can be right1 and it is always wrong in ,titian and ,corregio1 ,rubens and ,rembrandt2 till we get rid of them we shall never equal ,raphael and ,albert ,drer1 ,michael ,angelo and ,julio ,romano4 ,clearness and precision have been my chief objects in painting these pictures--clear colors and firm determinate lineaments1 unbroken by shadows--which ought to display and not hide form1 as in the practice of the later schools of ,italy and ,flanders4 ,the picture of the ,spiritual ,form of ,pitt is a proof of the power of colors unsullied with oil or with any cloggy vehicle4 ,oil has been falsely supposed to give strength to colors1 but a little consideration must show the fallacy of this opinion4 ,oil will not drink or absorb color enough to stand the test of any little time and of the air4 ,let the works of artists since ,rubens' time witness to the villainy of those who first brought oil-painting into general opinion and practice1 since which we have never had a picture painted that would show itself by the side of an earlier composition4 ,this is an awful thing to say to oil-painters2 they may call it madness1 but it is true4 ,all the genuine old little pictures are in fresco and not in oil4' ,having settled the true principles and proper materials of color1 he proceeds to open up the mystery of his own productions4 ,those who failed to comprehend the pictures on looking at them1 had only to turn to the following account of the ,pitt and the ,nelson4 ',these two pictures1' he says1 'are compositions of a mythological cast1 similar to those ,apotheoses of ,persian1 ,hindoo1 and ,egyptian antiquity1 which are still preserved in rude monuments1 being copies from some stupendous originals now lost or perhaps buried to some happier age4 ,the artist having been taken1 in vision1 to the ancient republics1 monarchies1 and patriarchates of ,asia1 has seen those wonderful originals1 called in the sacred ,scriptures the cherubim1 which were painted and sculptured on the walls of temples1 towns1 cities1 palaces1 and erected in the highly-cultivated states of ,egypt1 ,moab1 and ,edom1 among the rivers of ,paradise1 being originals from which the ,greeks and ,hetrurians copied ,hercules1 ,venus1 ,apollo1 and all the groundworks of ancient art4 ,they were executed in a very superior style to those justly admired copies1 being with their accompaniments terrific and grand in the highest degree4 ,the artist has endeavored to emulate the grandeur of those seen in his vision1 and to apply it to modern times on a smaller scale4 ,the ,greek ,muses are daughters of ,memory1 and not of ,inspiration or ,imagination1 and therefore not authors of such sublime conceptions2 some of these wonderful originals were one hundred feet in height2 some were painted as pictures1 some were carved as bass-relieves1 and some as groups of statues1 all containing mythological and recondite meaning4 ,the artist wishes it was now the fashion to make such monuments1 and then he should not doubt of having a national commission to execute those pictures of ,nelson and ,pitt on a scale suitable to the grandeur of the nation who is the parent of his heroes1 in highly finished fresco1 where the colors would be as permanent as precious stones4' ,the man who could not only write down1 but deliberately correct the printer's sheets which recorded1 matter so utterly wild and mad1 was at the same time perfectly sensible to the exquisite nature of ,chaucer's delineations1 and felt rightly what sort of skill his inimitable ,pilgrims required at the hand of an artist4 ,he who saw visions in ,coele-,syria and statues an hundred feet high1 wrote thus concerning ,chaucer3 ',the characters of his pilgrims are the characters which compose all ages and nations3 as one age falls another rises1 different to mortal sight1 but to immortals only the same3 for we see the same characters repeated again and again1 in animals1 in vegetables1 and in men2 nothing new occurs in identical existence4 ,accident ever varies2 substance can never suffer change nor decay4 ,of ,chaucer's characters1 some of the names or titles are altered by time1 but the characters themselves for ever remain unaltered1 and consequently they are the physiognomies of universal human life1 beyond which nature never steps4 ,names alter--things never alter2 ,i have known multitudes of those who would have been monks in the age of monkery1 who in this deistical age are deists4 ,as ,linnaeus numbered the plants1 so ,chaucer numbered the classes of men4' ,his own notions and much of his peculiar practice in art are scattered at random over the pages of this curious production4 ,his love of a distinct outline made him use close and clinging dresses2 they are frequently very graceful--at other times they are constrained1 and deform the figures which they so scantily cover4 ',the great and golden rule of art 7says he7 is this3--that the more distinct and sharp and wiry the bounding line1 the more perfect the work of art2 and the less keen and sharp this external line1 the greater is the evidence of weak imitative plagiarism and bungling3 ,protogenes and ,apelles knew each other by this line4 ,how do we distinguish the oak from the beech2 the horse from the ox1 but by the bounding outline8 ,how do we distinguish one face or countenance from another1 but by the bounding line and its infinite inflexions and movements8 ,leave out this line and you leave out life itself3 all is chaos again1 and the line of the ,almighty must be drawn out upon it before man or beast can exist4' ,these abominations--concealed outline and tricks of colour--now bring on one of those visionary fits to which ,blake was so liable1 and he narrates with the most amusing wildness sundry revelations made to him concerning them4 ,he informs us that certain painters were demons--let loose on earth to confound the 'sharp wiry outline1' and fill men's minds with fears and perturbations4 ,he signifies that he himself was for some time a miserable instrument in the hands of ,chiaro-,scuro demons1 who employed him in making 'experiment pictures in oil4' ',these pictures1' says he1 'were the result of temptations and perturbations laboring to destroy imaginative power by means of that infernal machine called ,chiaro-,scuro1 in the hands of ,venetian and ,flemish demons1 who hate the ,roman and ,venetian schools4 ,they cause that everything in art shall become a machine2 they cause that the execution shall be all blocked up with brown shadows2 they put the artist in fear and doubt of his own original conception4 ,the spirit of ,titian was particularly active in raising doubts concerning the possibility of executing without a model4 ,rubens is a most outrageous demon1 and by infusing the remembrances of his pictures1 and style of execution1 hinders all power of individual thought4 ,corregio is a soft and effeminate1 consequently a most cruel demon1 whose whole delight is to cause endless labour to whoever suffers him to enter his mind4' ,when all this is translated into the language of sublunary life1 it only means that ,blake was haunted with the excellences of other men's works1 and1 finding himself unequal to the task of rivaling the soft and glowing colors and singular effects of light and shade of certain great masters1 betook himself to the study of others not less eminent1 who happened to have laid out their strength in outline4 ,to describe the conversations which ,blake held in prose with demons and in verse with angels1 would fill volumes1 and an ordinary gallery could not contain all the heads which he drew of his visionary visitants4 ,that all this was real1 he himself most sincerely believed2 nay1 so infectious was his enthusiasm1 that some acute and sensible persons who heard him expatiate1 shook their heads1 and hinted that he was an extraordinary man1 and that there might be something in the matter4 ,one of his brethren1 an artist of some note1 employed him frequently in drawing the portraits of those who appeared to him in visions4 ,the most propitious time for those 'angel-visits' was from nine at night till five in the morning2 and so docile were his spiritual sitters1 that they appeared at the wish of his friends4 ,sometimes1 however1 the shape which he desired-to draw was long in appearing1 and he sat with his pencil and paper ready and his eyes idly roaming in vacancy2 all at once the vision came upon him1 and he began to work like one possess4 ,he was requested to draw the likeness of ,sir4 ,william ,wallace--the eye of ,blake sparkled1 for he admired heroes4 ',william ,wallace6' he exclaimed1 ',i see him now--there1 there1 how noble he looks--reach me my things6' ,having drawn for some time1 with the same care of hand and steadiness of eye1 as if a living sitter had been before him1 ,blake stopped suddenly1 and said1 ',i cannot finish him--,edward the ,first has stept in between him and me4' ',that's lucky1' said his friend1 'for ,i want the portrait of ,edward too4' ,blake took another sheet of paper1 and sketched the features of ,plantagenet2 upon which his majesty politely vanished1 and the artist finished the head of ,wallace4 ',and pray1 sir1' said a gentleman1 who heard ,blake's friend tell his story--'was ,sir ,william ,wallace an heroic-looking man8 ,and what sort of personage was ,edward8' ,the answer was3 ',there they are1 sir1 both framed and hanging on the wall behind you1 judge for yourself4' ',i looked 7says my informant7 and saw two warlike heads of the size of common life4 ,that of ,wallace was noble and heroic1 that of ,edward stern and bloody4 ,the first had the front of a god1 the latter the aspect of a demon4' ,the friend who obliged me with these anecdotes1 on observing the interest which ,i took in the subject1 said1 ',i know much about ,blake--,i was his companion for nine years4 ,i have sat beside him from ten at night till 'three in the morning1 sometimes slumbering and sometimes waking1 but ,blake never slept2 he sat with a pencil and paper drawing portraits of those whom ,i most desired to see4 ,i will show you1 sir1 some of these works4' ,he took out a large book filled with drawings1 opened it1 and continued1 ',observe the poetic fervor of that face--it is ,pindar as he stood a conqueror in the ,olympic games4 ,and this lovely creature is ,corinna1 who conquered in poetry in the same place4 ,that lady is ,lais1 the courtesan--with the impudence which is part of her profession1 she stept in between ,blake and ,corinna1 and he was obliged to paint her to get her away4 ,there6 that is a face of a different stamp--can you conjecture who he is8' ',some scoundrel1 ,i should think1 sir4' ',there now--that is a strong proof of the accuracy of ,blake--he is a scoundrel indeed6 ,the very individual task-master whom ,moses slew in ,egypt4 ,and who is this now--only imagine who this is8' ',other than a good one1 ,i doubt1 sir4' ',you are right1 it is the ,devil--he resembles1 and this is remarkable1 two men who shall be nameless2 one is a great lawyer1 and the other--,i wish ,i durst name him--is a suborner of false witnesses4 ,this other head now8--this speaks for itself--it is the head of ,herod2 how like an eminent officer in the army6' ,he closed the book1 and taking out a small panel from a private drawer1 said1 ',this is the last which ,i shall show you2 but it is the greatest curiosity of all4 ,only look at the splendor of the coloring and the original character of the thing6' ',i see1' said ,i1 'a naked figure with a strong body and a short neck--with burning eyes which long for moisture1 and a face worthy of a murderer1 holding a bloody cup in its clawed hands1 out of which it seems eager to drink4 ,i never saw any shape so strange1 nor did ,i ever see any coloring so curiously splendid--a kind of glistening green and dusky gold1 beautifully varnished4 ,but what in the world is it8' ',it is a ghost1 sir--the ghost of a flea--a spiritualisation of the thing6' ',he saw this in a vision then1' ,i said4 ',i'll tell you all about it1 sir4 ,i called on him one evening1 and found ,blake more than usually excited4 ,he told me he had seen a wonderful thing--the ghost of a flea6 ,and did you make a drawing of him8 ,i inquired4 ,no1 indeed1 said he1 ,i wish ,i had1 but ,i shall1 if he appears again6 ,he looked earnestly into a corner of the room1 and then said1 here he is--reach me my things--,i shall keep my eye on him4 ,there he comes6 his eager tongue whisking out of his mouth1 a cup in his hand to hold blood and covered with a scaly skin of gold and green2--as he described him so he drew him4' ,these stories are scarcely credible1 yet there can be no doubt of their accuracy4 ,another friend1 on whose veracity ,i have the fullest dependence1 called one evening on ,blake1 and found him sitting with a pencil and a panel1 drawing a portrait with all the seeming anxiety of a man who is conscious that he has got a fastidious sitter2 he looked and drew1 and drew and looked1 yet no living soul was visible4 ',disturb me not1' said he1 in a whisper1 ',i have one sitting to me4' ',sitting to you6' exclaimed his astonished visitor1 'where is he1 and what is he8--,i see no one4' ',but ,i see him1 sir1' answered ,blake haughtily1 'there he is1 his name is ,lot--you may read of him in the ,scripture4 ,he is sitting for his portrait4' ,had he always thought so idly1 and wrought on such visionary matters1 this memoir would have been the story of a madman1 instead of the life of a man of genius1 some of whose works are worthy of any age or nation4 ,even while he was indulging in these laughable fancies1 and seeing visions at the request of his friends1 he conceived1 and drew1 and engraved1 one of the noblest of all his productions--the ,inventions for the ,book of ,job4 ,he accomplished this series in a small room1 which served him for kitchen1 bedchamber1 and study1 where he had no other companion but his faithful ,katherine1 and no larger income than some seventeen or eighteen shillings a week4 ,of these ,inventions1 as the artist loved to call them1 there are twenty-one1 representing the ,man of ,uz sustaining his dignity amidst the inflictions of ,satan1 the reproaches of his friends1 and the insults of his wife4 ,it was in such things that ,blake shone2 the ,scripture overawed his imagination1 and he was too devout to attempt aught beyond a literal embodying of the majestic scene4 ,he goes step by step with the narrative2 always simple1 and often sublime--never wandering from the subject1 nor overlaying the text with the weight of his own exuberant fancy4 ,the passages1 embodied1 will show with what lofty themes he presumed to grapple4 #a4 ,thus did ,job continually4 #b4 ,the ,almighty watches the good man's household4 #c4 ,satan receiving power over ,job4 #d4 ,the wind from the wilderness destroying ,job's children4 #e4 ,and ,i alone am escaped to tell thee4 #f4 ,satan smiting ,job with sore boils4 #g4 ,job's friends comforting him4 #h4 ,let the day perish wherein ,i was born4 #i4 ,then a spirit passed before my face4 #aj4 ,job laughed to scorn by his friends4 #aa4 ,with dreams upon my bed thou scarest me--thou affrightest me with visions4 #ab4 ,i am young and ye are old1 wherefore ,i was afraid4 #ac4 ,then the ,lord answered ,job out of the whirlwind4 #ad4 ,when the morning stars sang together1 and the sons of ,god shouted for joy4 #ae4 ,behold now ,behemoth1 which ,i made with thee4 #af4 ,thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked4 #ag4 ,i have heard thee with the hearing of my ear1 but now my eye rejoiceth in thee4 #ah4 ,also the ,lord accepted ,job4 #ai4 ,every one also gave him a piece of money4 #bj4 ,there were not found women fairer than the daughters of ,job4 #ba4 ,so the ,lord blessed the latter end of ,job more than the beginning4 ,while employed on these remarkable productions1 he was made sensible that the little approbation which the world had ever bestowed on him was fast leaving him4 ,the waywardness of his fancy1 and the peculiar execution of his compositions1 were alike unadapted for popularity2 the demand for his works lessened yearly from the time that he exhibited his ,canterbury ,pilgrimage2 and he could hardly procure sufficient to sustain life1 when old age was creeping upon him4 ,yet1 poverty-stricken as he was1 his cheerfulness never forsook him--he uttered no complaint--he contracted no debt1 and continued to the last manly and independent4 ,it is the fashion to praise genius when it is gone to the grave--the fashion is cheap and convenient4 ,of the existence of ,blake few men of taste could be ignorant--of his great merits multitudes knew1 nor was his extreme poverty any secret4 ,yet he was reduced--one of the ornaments of the age--to a miserable garret and a crust of bread1 and would have perished from want1 had not some friends1 neither wealthy nor powerful1 averted this disgrace from coming upon our country4 ,one of these gentlemen1 ,mr4 ,linnell1 employed ,blake to engrave his ,inventions of the ,book of ,job2 by this he earned money enough to keep him living--for the good old man still labored with all the ardor of the days of his youth1 and with skill equal to his enthusiasm4 ,these engravings are very rare1 very beautiful1 and very peculiar4 ,they are in the earlier fashion of workmanship1 and bear no resemblance whatever to the polished and graceful style which now prevails4 ,i have never seen a tinted copy1 nor am ,i sure that tinting would accord with the extreme simplicity of the designs1 and the mode in which they are handled4 ,the ,songs of ,innocence1 and these ,inventions for ,job1 are the happiest of ,blake's works1 and ought to be in the portfolios of all who are lovers of nature and imagination4 ,two extensive works1 bearing the ominous names of ,prophecies1 one concerning ,america1 the other ,europe1 next made their appearance from his pencil and graver4 ,the first contains eighteen and the other seventeen plates1 and both are plentifully seasoned with verse1 without the incumbrance of rhyme4 ,it is impossible to give a satisfactory description of these works2 the frontispiece of the latter1 representing the ,ancient of ,days1 in an orb of light1 stooping into chaos1 to measure out the world1 has been admired less for its meaning than for the grandeur of its outline4 ,a head and a tailpiece in the other have been much noticed--one exhibits the bottom of the sea1 with enormous fishes preying on a dead body--the other1 the surface1 with a dead body floating1 on which an eagle with outstretched wings is feeding4 ,the two angels pouring out the spotted plague upon ,britain--an angel standing in the sun1 attended by three furies--and several other ,inventions in these wild works1 exhibit wonderful strength of drawing and splendor of coloring4 ,of loose prints--but which were meant doubtless to form part of some extensive work--one of the most remarkable is the ,great ,sea ,serpent2 and a figure1 sinking in a stormy sea at sunset--the glow of which1 with the foam upon the dark waves1 produces a magical effect4 ,after a residence of seventeen years in ,south ,molton ,street1 ,blake removed 7not in consequence1 alas6 of any increase of fortune7 to ,no4 #c ,fountain ,court1 ,strand4 ,this was in the year #ahbc4 ,here he engraved by day and saw visions by night1 and occasionally employed himself in making ,inventions for ,dante2 and such was his application that he designed in all one hundred and two1 and engraved seven4 ,it was publicly known that he was in a declining state of health2 that old age had come upon him1 and that he was in want4 ,several friends1 and artists among the number1 aided him a little1 in a delicate way1 by purchasing his works1 of which he had many copies4 ,he sold many of his ,songs of ,innocence1 and also of ,urizen1 and he wrought incessantly upon what he counted his masterpiece1 the ,jerusalem1 tinting and adorning it1 with the hope that his favorite would find a purchaser4 ,no one1 however1 was found ready to lay out twenty-five guineas on a work which no one could have any hope of comprehending1 and this disappointment sank to the old man's heart4 ,he had now reached his seventy-first year1 and the strength of nature was fast yielding4 ,yet he was to the last cheerful and contented4 ',i glory1' he said1 'in dying1 and have no grief but in leaving you1 ,katherine2 we have lived happy1 and we have lived long2 we have been ever together1 but we shall be divided soon4 ,why should ,i fear death8 nor do ,i fear it4 ,i have endeavored to live as ,christ commands1 and have sought to worship4 ,god truly--in my own house1 when ,i was not seen of men4' ,he grew weaker and weaker--he could no longer sit upright2 and was laid in his bed1 with no one to watch over him1 save his wife1 who1 feeble and old herself1 required help in such a touching duty4 ,the ,ancient of ,days was such a favorite with ,blake1 that three days before his death1 he sat bolstered up in bed1 and tinted it with his choicest colors and in his happiest style4 ,he touched and retouched it--held it at arm's-length1 and then threw it from him1 exclaiming1 ',there6 that will do6 ,i cannot mend it4' ,he saw his wife in tears--she felt this was to be the last of his works--',stay1 ,kate6 7cried ,blake7 keep just as you are--,i will draw your portrait--for you have ever been an angel to me'--she obeyed1 and the dying artist' made a fine likeness4 ,the very joyfulness with which this singular man welcomed the coming of death1 made his dying moments intensely mournful4 ,he lay chanting songs1 and the verses and the music were both the offspring of the moment4 ,he lamented that he could no longer commit those inspirations1 as he called them1 to paper4 ',kate1' he said1 ',i am a changing man--,i always rose and wrote down my thoughts1 whether it rained1 snowed1 or shone1 and you arose too and sat beside me--this can' be no longer4' ,he died on the #abth of ,august1 #ahbh1 without any visible pain--his wife1 who sat watching him1 did not perceive when he ceased breathing4 ,william ,blake was of low stature and slender make1 with a high pallid forehead1 and eyes large1 dark1 and expressive4 ,his temper was touchy1 and when moved1 he spoke with an indignant eloquence1 which commanded respect4 ,his voice1 in general1 was low and musical1 his manners gentle and unassuming1 his conversation a singular mixture of knowledge and enthusiasm4 ,his whole life was one of labour and privation1--he had never tasted the luxury of that independence1 which comes from professional profit4 ,this untoward fortune he endured with unshaken equanimity--offering himself1 in imagination1 as a martyr in the great cause of poetic art2--pitying some of his more fortunate brethren for their inordinate love of gain2 and not doubting that whatever he might have won in gold by adopting other methods1 would have been a poor compensation for the ultimate loss of fame4 ,under this agreeable delusion1 he lived all his life--he was satisfied when his graver gained him a guinea a week--the greater the present denial1 the surer the glory hereafter4 ,though he was the companion of ,flaxman and ,fuseli1 and sometimes their pupil1 he never attained that professional skill1 without which all genius is bestowed in vain4 ,he was his own teacher chiefly2 and self-instruction1 the parent occasionally of great beauties1 seldom fails to produce great deformities4 ,he was a most splendid tinter1 but no colorist1 and his works were all of small dimensions1 and therefore confined to the cabinet and the portfolio4 ,his happiest flights1 as well as his wildest1 are thus likely to remain shut up from the world4 ,if we look at the man through his best and most intelligible works1 we shall find that he who could produce the ,songs of ,innocence and ,experience1 the ,gates of ,paradise1 and the ,inventions for ,job1 was the possessor of very lofty faculties1 with no common skill in art1 and moreover that1 both in thought and mode of treatment1 he was a decided original4 ,but should we1 shutting our eyes to the merits of those works1 determine to weigh his worth by his ,urizen1 his ,prophecies of ,europe and ,america1 and his ,jerusalem1 our conclusion would be very unfavorable2 we would say that1 with much freedom of composition and boldness of posture1 he was unmeaning1 mystical1 and extravagant1 and that his original mode of working out his conceptions was little better than a brilliant way of animating absurdity4 ,an overflow of imagination is a failing uncommon in this age1 and has generally received of late little quarter from the critical portion of mankind4 ,yet imagination is the life and spirit of all great works of genius and taste2 and1 indeed1 without it1 the head thinks and the hand labours in vain4 ,ten thousand authors and artists rise to the proper1 the graceful1 and the beautiful1 for ten who ascend into 'the heaven of invention4' ,a work--whether from poet or painter--conceived in the fiery ecstasy of imagination1 lives through every limb2 while one elaborated out by skill and taste only will look1 in comparison1 like a withered and sapless tree beside one green and flourishing4 ,blake's misfortune was that of possessing this precious gift in excess4 ,his fancy overmastered him--until he at length confounded 'the mind's eye' with the corporeal organ1 and dreamed himself out of the sympathies of actual life4 ,his method of coloring was a secret which he kept to himself1 or confided only to his wife2 he believed that it was revealed in a vision1 and that he was bound in honor to conceal it from the world4 ',his modes of preparing his grounds1' says ,smith1 in his ,supplement to the ,life of ,nollekens1 'and laying them over his panels for painting1 mixing his colors1 and manner of working1 were those which he considered to have been practized by the early fresco painters1 whose productions still remain in many instances vividly and permanently fresh4 ,his ground was a mixture of whiting and carpenters' glue1 which he passed over several times in the coatings2 his colors he ground himself1 and also united with them the same sort of glue1 but in a much weaker state4 ,he would1 in the course of painting a picture1 pass a very thin transparent wash of glue-water over the whole of the parts he had worked upon1 and then proceed with his finishing4 ,he had many secret modes of working1 both as a colorist and an engraver4 ,his method of eating away the plain copper1 and leaving the lines of his subjects and his words as stereotype1 is1 in my mind1 perfectly original4 ,mrs4 ,blake is in possession of the secret1 and she ought to receive something considerable for its communication1 as ,i am quite certain it may be used to advantage1 both to artists and literary characters in general4 ,the affection and fortitude of this woman entitled her to much respect4 ,she shared her husband's lot without a murmur1 set her heart solely upon his fame1 and soothed him in those hours of misgiving and despondency which are not unknown to the strongest intellects4 ,she still lives to lament the loss of ,blake--and fell it4'