Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/188

 Lord Houghton, much improved by the addition, forming a book of great beauty.

Many of these designs, taken by themselves, are, however, surpassingly imaginative and noble: as the first—'Death in the character of an old man, having swept away with one hand part of a family, is presenting with the other their spirits to immortality;' in which, as often happens with Blake, separate parts are even more beautiful compositions than the whole. And again, the literal translation into outline of a passage few other artists would have selected, to render closely:—

Again, the illustration to the line—

in which 'the hours are drawn as aërial and shadowy beings some of whom are bringing their scrolls to the inquirer, while others are carrying their records to heaven.' Again, 'the author, encircled by thorns emblematical of grief, laments the loss of his friend to the midnight hours,' here also represented as aërial, shadowy beings. A grand embodiment is that of the Vale of Death, where 'the power of darkness broods over his victims as they are borne down to the grave by the torrent of a sinful life;' the life stream showing imploring upturned faces, rising to the suface [sic], of infancy, youth, age; while the pure, lovely figure of Narcissa wanders in the shade beside.

Of a higher order still, are some illustrations in which the designer chooses themes of his own, parallel to, or even independent of the text, not mere translations of it. As to the line—