New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-03-19
WILLIAM BLAKE.
A NEW EDITION OF TIE POEMS.

Dryden wrote before the Investigations of mod
ern science had been pursued into certain realms
which even in cur own day are but unwillnsly
opened TO the adventures Of materiastic analysts,
and he stated what the seventeenth century was
well prepared TO receive when he uttered the IA
miliar line. Great wits are sure to madness near
allied" The world las moved since then NO
one is prepared to deny that some great wits have
been colorcd by madncss-a poet like Eeddoes would
furnish q case in point-but the unanswerable
argument that insanity is hereditary while genius
IL not, ought TO remove any doubt which may
lngcr 10 the separation of physiological and
spiritual conditions. Febre excitement may in
duce physical collapse but it has yet TO be
proved that the frenzy of the lunatic has any
thing in common with the ecstasy of the authentic
poet II would be beside the facts to assert that
the editors OF these three stout volumes have as
sumcd the burden of such proof plausihly as
the scofcr might say that they have, for it is now
a toleratly sure conclusion that William Blake
carried sound mind in his extraordinarily sound
body. 1t does not follow, however, that because
Blake exercised lucid powers Of reasoning in most
of the relations of life he always wrote necessarily
lucid verse, and il is not unfair TO describe the
editorial ahors OF McsSrs. Ellis and Yeats as an
effort TO bring poetic order out OF chaos TO which
we hesitate to apply the epthct Poetic. IL is true
that their criticism of tie famous Prophetic
Books" deals chiefly with prophecy, aims at the
calculation OF Bakes mystic symbols. and would
provide with prolegomcna to a system OF
thought rather than with the signs whereby the
expression of that system might be recognized as
great poetic creation. But it is true also that
they regard the author of the Visions Of the
Daughters Of Albion as high priest OF poetic as
we'll as of prophetic mysteries. On neither side is
,1,o;. III,
tons. 1t would have been possible. perhaps. for
the late Mr.. Gichrst, Blakes earlier and best
known editor. He tried in vain TO solve all his
authors meanings and if he failed it was not Tor
lack Of willingness TO believe. 1T would have
been possible also for Dante Rossetti, though he
might have had some misgivngs Finally II
would probably he possible, after some persuasion'
for Rossetti's brother, who edited Blake for the
"Aldine poets" and who is still living and we
have not the smallest doubt that Mr.. Swnburne
will dwell fondly on this imposing tribute to one
whom he revcres Fortunately these names, sig
nifcant as they are, have not yet been sufficient TO
fix Blake in the armament by their influence, ana
it is permissible to speculate as to whether or not
he is star of any magnitude there without WIFI
ing ones self down anathema maranatha
The first of these Volumes comprises full and
exceedingly interesting memoir of Blake which
events of his career short sketch of the literary
work belonging to his earliest period; and
resume, with explanatory charts of his symbolic
system. Volume second gives an Interpretation OF
the POEMS from the we'll known Songs of limo
cence" to the hitherto unpublished work entitled
"Vaa," which the editors regard as Blakes " lit
erary masterpiece: a few chapters on the artistic
characteristics of their poet with his curious notes
on Sir Josfn9s "Discourses the descriptive cata-
logue prepared by Blake for the exhibition he held
in ls09, and -sen1p few other documents In the
last and -thtckest&v oume the POEMS. themselves
are printed. the prophetic books being given IN
fair fac-simes of Bakc's engraved plates, with
the exception of the "Vala,' of which nineteen
pages are reproduced from the manuscript in the
possession OF the Linnel family, while the entire
poem is printed after them in plain type, as are
also the poetcal Sketches and the Songs of
Innocence The sum and substance OF the
memoir of Blake tan essay which is plainly i'm
partial for all that the writer's are Blake cnthusl-
asts OF many years standingl is that the poet
came into this world only to live in another from
the hours in which his intellect, or Imagination,
rather, began to expand, up to the day OF his
death lie was endowed with the gift Of mO"ing
and having his being in the sphere Of imagination;
and throughout his lifetime and the controversies
which have been waged about him the mystery
surrounding MN mas been cduScu ny HIS dtcHP'o
10 reconcile his spirit life what lie would have
called his true life with the life in which lie and
his wife, Flaxman and IIayley, Crabb Robinson
and Leigh Hunt. were very tangible facts. Some
fugitive lines of Blakes express thought which
might have sprung from "reminiscences Of the
prosaic, unimas NATIVE and therefore anything but
stimulating family circle into which he was born.
circle composed Of an Irish hoser with his wife
and children settled in London:
The Angel that presided DER my birth
Said. Little creature formed for joy and nirth,
Go love without the help of anything on earth
Yet he was not to travel through fife without
sympatly lie married in his twenty-iiftli year
the wife Of whom on his death bed he made
sketch dedicating ii thus: Kate, you have been
an angel 10 me- and who herself became vision
ary. Even earlier he fell upon a powerful cAcit-
ant and inspiration in the writings OF Sweden
borg. Tor whom, rather strangely, his matter-0f-
fact and uncultvatcd father had no dislike On
the contrary the present editors surnisc that the
elder Blake encouraged his family in the study of
what was then much less approved doctrine than
il is to-day. Blake was apprenticed TO Basre the
engraver, when he fourteen, Tut up to that
time had had no systematic obstruction of any sort
to speak of, spending his time in intcrmlnabe
country walks and reading what he chose lie
chose Swcdcnborg and may have chosen Boehmen,
the hardly less noted Lusatan mystic; and he
found in them. there can be no question, abundant
confirmation of his natural impulse toward life
of occult illumination. What turn Bhkes mind
might have taken had any OF the Italian mystics
fallen into his hands at this period is question
afYording matter for quite futile and yet amusing
reflection bake under the spell of Joachim da
Flora is possibility which touches the fancy.
Yet he seems to have given evidence Of the powers
of the seer long before Swedenborg or any other
sympathctic writer could have touched him. 1t
ia told that when 81 little more than child he
was beaten ~ his mother for having declared that
he had seen Ezekiel. As the years went on the