Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/42

 xxxvi for ever those, "who pretend to Poetry, that they may destroy Imagination by imitation of Nature's Images drawn from Remembrance." Such an one as Hayley, the mere "Polypus of soft affections without Thought or Vision," is no longer to have dominion over those whose care is alone for the things of the Spirit.

It is well to point out here that Blake's Jerusalem, though in all probability it was not published before about 1818, has also the date 1804 upon its title-page, and is also largely concerned with the author's sojourn at Felpham, and has therefore a considerable amount of autobiographical interest; in fact, Blake seems to have transferred a good deal of the material originally intended for Milton to its pages.

We have now reached the period of Blake's artistic maturity, following upon the elaboration of the theory of art, which had been constructed during these three years, and on account of which, as has been already pointed out. In spite of the incompatibility of their intelligences, he never ceased to be grateful to his patron. In 1804 came the visit to the Truchsessian Picture Gallery of old masters (of which a description may be found in Gilchrist), accompanied by a new burst of intellectual vision. The history of mysticism provides countless similar instances of the way in