LETTERS OF WILLIAM BLAKE.
71
principal happiness of my life. I have presumed on your friendship in staying so long away and not calling to know of your welfare, but hope now everything is nearly completed for our removal to Felpham, that I shall see you on Sunday, as we have appointed Sunday afternoon to call on Mrs. Flaxman at Hampstead. I send you a few lines, which I hope you will excuse. And as the time is arrived when men shall again converse in Heaven and walk with angels, I know you will be pleased with the intention, and hope you will forgive the poetry.
TO MY DEAREST FRIEND, JOHN FLAXMAN, THESE LINES:
I bless thee, O Father of Heaven and Earth, that ever I saw Flaxman's face.[1]
Angels stand round my Spirit in Heaven, the blessed of Heaven are my friends upon earth.
When Flaxman was taken to Italy, Fuseli was given to me for a season.
And now Flaxman hath given me Hayley his friend to be mine, such my lot upon Earth.
Now my lot in the Heavens is this, Milton[2] lov'd me in childhood and shew'd me his face.
Ezra came with Isaah[3] the Prophet, but Shakespeare in riper years gave me his hand,
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- ↑ Flaxman met Blake, through Stothard, about 1780. In 1787 he went to Italy, and remained there until 1794.
- ↑ Milton is several times alluded to in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), and afterwards gave his name to one of the prophetical books, dated 1804.
- ↑ See Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
