Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/242

 176 ten pounds, I thought it was due on "The Shipwreck" (which it was), but I did not advert to the twelve guineas which you lent me when I made up thirty pounds to pay our worthy Seagrave in part of his account. I am therefore that twelve guineas in your debt, which if I had considered, I should have used more consideration, and more ceremony also, in so serious an affair as the calling on you for more money; but, however, your kind answer to my request makes me doubly thank you.

The two cartoons which I have of "Hecate" and "Pliny" are very unequal in point of finishing: the "Pliny" in a sketch, though admirably contrived for an effect equal to Rembrandt. But the "Hecate" is a finished production, which will call for all the engraver s nicest attention. Indeed it is more finished than "The Shipwreck"; it is everbody['s] favourite who have seen it, and they regularly prefer it to "The Shipwreck" as a work of genius. As to the price of the plates, Flaxman declares to me that he will not pretend to set a price upon engraving. I think it can only be done by some engraver. I consulted Mr. Parker on the subject, before I decided on "The Shipwreck," and it was his opinion, and he says it still is so, that a print of that size cannot be done under thirty guineas, if finished, and, if a sketch, fifteen guineas; as, therefore, "Hecate" must be a