Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/229

engravings will do, as outline entirely omits his chief beauties; but there are some which may be executed in a slighter manner than others, and Mr. Parker, whose eminence as an engraver makes his opinion deserve notice, has advised that four should be done in the highly finished manner, and four in a less finished; and on my desiring him to tell me for what he would undertake to engrave one in each manner, the size to be about 7 inches by 5{frac|1|4}}, which is the size of a quarto printed page, he answered: "Thirty guineas the finished, and half the sum for the less finished; but as you tell me that they will be wanted in November, I am of opinion that if eight different engravers are employed, the eight plates will not be done by that time; as for myself" (note Parker now speaks), "I have to-day turned away a plate of four hundred guineas because I am too full of work to undertake it, and I know that all the good engravers are so engaged that they will be hardly prevailed upon to undertake more than one of the plates on so short a notice." This is Mr. Parker's account of the matter, and perhaps may discourage you from the pursuit of so expensive an undertaking. It is certain that the pictures deserve to be engraved by the hands of angels, and must not by any means be done in a careless or too hasty manner. The price Mr. Parker has affixed to each is exactly