Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/40

porate into his work all the graces of Venice and Flanders as well as the linear austerity of the Florentines, and when his mind was perturbed by a hundred conflicting doubts and fears, were clearly things to be thankful for, and he was by no means oblivious of his debt. The three years at Felpham were years of retreat, during which he was enabled to devote himself to bringing to an end the period of mental war; and the conflict was there fiercest because it had passed into the ultimate world of vision. The book of Milton, in which the story of this final struggle is chronicled, was begun during the last days at Felpham and finished in London. The year 1804, however, upon the title-page must be taken to mark the completion of the composition rather than the date of publication; since the engraving of the poem seems to have been delayed, by pressure of other work, for several years; and even in the end the original plan had to be modified considerably, and the number of books reduced from twelve to two. That the whole labour of producing the book was not over at any rate before 1808, is shown by the following allusion to it in the Public Address belonging to that year. "The manner in which my character has been blasted these thirty years, both as an artist and a man, may be seen particularly in a