Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/43

 Rh which an apparently trivial circumstance may be possessed of the highest spiritual significance: and a reference to the letter to Hayley, of 23rd October 1804, will show that we are justified by Blake himself in regarding this visit as a landmark in his career, when he became able to carry out his new code of art with all the joy and enthusiasm which inspired the productions of his youth. Evidence style induces me to assign to the beginning of the new period a water-colour drawing entitled "The River of Life," which for the purity and beauty of its colouring as well as the sheer inspiration of its joyous and life-giving qualities, rather than for any definable superiority of design or execution, has found a number of admirers at two recent exhibitions of Blake's work. Its subject is Revelation xxii. 1, 2. The lovely clear blue river of water of life is flowing by a winding course, proceeding out of the throne of God, which is represented by a vast yellow sun encircled by a glory of angelic figures. Upon its banks are the tree of life, with its twelve manner of fruits, and the many "tents and pavilions, gardens and groves" of Paradise, "with its inhabitants walking up and down, in conversations concerning mental delights." Over the midst of the stream is a male figure flying downwards towards his wife, who, with her two infants, is stemming