Page:Works Of William Blake Volume 1.pdf/5

 IX

PREFACE

occurred to the editor whose name stands first on tho present title-page, in the year 1870. The suggestion arose through a remark in tho first edition of Gilchrist’s “ Life of Blake,” where the poem “ To the Jews,” from “ Jerusalem,” was printed with a challenge at the beginning, calling on those who could do so, to offer an interpretation.

In the later edition this challenge was withdrawn, probably under the impression that it had not been accepted. The glove, however, had been quietly taken up. “ What if Blake should turn out to use the quarters of London to indicate the points of the compass, as he uses these to group certain qualities of mind associated with certain of the senses and the elements?” This was the idea that presented itself, and eventually led us to shape the master-key that unlocked all the closed doors of the poet’s house.

It happened, however, that the idea was fated to be laid aside almost unused for many years. The maker of the lucky guess had only given a week or two of study, and barely succeeded in assuring himself that he was on the right track, when the course of destiny took him to Italy and kept him there, with only brief and busy visits to England and other countries, until a few years ago. In the meantime the other editor had grown up, and become a student of mysticism. He came one day and asked to have Blake explained. Very little could be given him to satisfy so large a demand, but with his eye for symbolic systems, he needed no more to enable him to perceive that here was a myth as well worth study as any that has been offered to the world, since first men learned that myths wero briefer and more beautiful than exposition as