Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/284

268 CRITICAL STUDIES come down among men ever withdraws its influence until it has attained (humanly) perfect embodiment. In eighty years the influence of this spirit has swelled from the " Songs of Innocence " to the poems of Emerson —a rapid increase of the tide in literature. Other signs of its increase meet us everywhere in the best books of verse published during the last few years. And perchance the increase has been even more rapid than the most of us have opportunity to learn, for we are informed by Mr. Rossetti that James John Garth Wilkinson has not only edited a collec- tion of Blake's Poems, but has himself produced a volume of poems entitled " Improvisations of the Spirit," bearing a strong family likeness to those of Blake ; and it may be that Wilkinson has the singing voice which Emerson has not. It would be a boon to the public, at any rate, to make these two volumes easily accessible. Emerson and Garth Wilkinson, the former un- doubtedly the supreme thinker of America, the latter as undoubtedly second to none in England, are surely in themselves sufficient attestation to the truth and depth of the genius of their forerunner, William Blake. He came to the desert of London town, Grey miles long ; He wandered up and he wandered down, Singing a quiet song. He came to the desert of London town, Mirk miles broad ; He wandered up and he wandered down, Ever alone with God.