[1] November 20 has been stated as the date, but the above is shown to be correct by the horoscope drawn for November 28, 7.45 P.M. in Urania, or the Astrologer’s Chronicle, 1825, published therefore in Blake’s lifetime, and undoubtedly derived from Varley.

[2] If, however, the “Kitty” of “I love the jocund dance” is Catherine Boucher, this poem at least must be later than 1780, unless the name has been substituted for another, as has been known to happen.

[3] As for example “Man lies by a rock-bound shore, his thoughts flying forth from him in likeness of delicate airy figures driven by the wind to perish in the endless sea as soon as born.” In the absence of the drawings themselves such descriptions affect us like the projects for unwritten stories in Hawthorne’s American Note Book.

[4]

[5] Blake is seldom detected in borrowing, but when he tells us that

he is clearly, though perhaps unconsciously, reminiscent of Dyer’s

[6] The same remark is the subject of one of the finest passages of Lucretius:—

[7] Not always without assistance from the eyes of others; for the portrait of Edward the First is clearly a reminiscence of that which in Blake’s time adorned Goldsmith’s History.

[8] It is observable that Job’s wife, so disadvantageously treated in Scripture, is by Blake represented as the sufferer’s loving companion throughout. This was probably out of tenderness to Mrs. Blake, from whom, indeed, upon a comparison between her portrait as a young woman and the ideal representation of the Patriarch’s spouse, his model for the latter would seem to have been derived; but if so the inference seems justified that Blake regarded the story of Job as emblematic of his own history.

[9] It must be now about thirty-five years since we received a visit from this person; how he had found us out we cannot recollect. He stated that he had lived by painting miniatures, and, having been deprived of his customers by photography, proposed to devote himself to historical painting, to the great prospective advantage of British art. He considered his forte to be the delineation of bare arms, and wished to be recommended to a subject which would afford scope for the exercise of this department of the pictorial faculty. We suggested the interment of the young princes in the Tower; he thanked us and departed; and we saw no more of him. He admitted having parted with all the relics of Blake that had been in his possession, but sought to convey that they had been sold, not destroyed, which may be partly true.