Page:Life of William Blake 2, Gilchrist.djvu/446

 342 To such influences grown men, also, do well to keep open their souls; for Blake in his 'Auguries of Innocence,' writes—

There is so much pleasure in copying out some of these fragments that we are tempted to linger a little longer over them. The silver Shakespearean song of 'Take, O take those lips away!' has always sounded like a honey-laden breeze of Hymettus. There is the same nameless spell in these words of Blake, rolled sweetly on each other as the rose-leaves curl toward the heart of the rose:—

Here are two stanzas, not so remarkable for their pure melody, but containing a wonderfully felicitous image:—

In a motto prefixed to the 'Auguries of Innocence,' he expresses that power which is given to genuine imagination, and which so distinctively separates it from the rest of the faculties, or rather enables it both to use, and master, and transcend them all—the power