Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/408

 year or two, been failing, but not his faculties. He died in his eighty-fourth year; neglected by picture buyers, honoured by all in his own profession, by men of letters, by some among 'the great,' and not without a fair share of the goods of fortune. Of Fuseli Blake had always been a warm and generous admirer, and was wont to declare, 'This country must advance two centuries in civilisation before it can appreciate him.' Let us hope few of that remarkable man's original, if mannered and undisciplined, works will survive the extraordinary and disproportioned neglect which has exiled them to the cellar and the garret.