Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/200

 134 will be at no loss. I sincerely wish with you that the trial was over, that our poor friend's peace of mind might be restored; although I have no doubt from what I have heard of the soldier's character and the merits of the case, that the bill will at least be thrown out by the Court as groundless and vexatious. Blake's irritability, as well as the association and arrangement of his ideas, do not seem likely to be soothed or more advantageously disposed by any power inferior to That by which man is originally endowed with his faculties. I wish all our defects were fewer; certainly my own among the rest. But if we really are desirous this should come to pass, we are told to whom and by what means we should apply.

I wonder, my good friend, as you admired the genius of Romney so much, that you do not remember the whole catalogue of his chalk cartoons; as I think it was your opinion, in common with other sufficient judges, that they were the noblest of his studies. Besides, they were but few in number. The following were the subjects: "A Lapland Witch raising a Storm"; "Charity and her Children"; "Pliny and his Mother flying from

Dereham, containing the Grave of William Cowper, Esq." Francis Stone, del.; W. Blake, sculpt. (2) Plate facing p. 416, "A Sketch of the Monument Erected in the Church of East Dereham in Norfolk, in Memory of William Cowper, Esqre." Etch'd by W. Blake from the original Model by John Flaxman.