The New York herald., 1921-10-16

LIS, who "had collected strang
or two fine folks, who were very il
pany. and appeared neither to give
nor receive pleasure from the society
among whom they were mingled. Sir
T. Lawrence, next whom / sat at din
ner. is as courtly as ever. His con-
versation is agreeable, but I never
feel as II he was saying what he
really thought"
Yet In spite Of his eccentricities
Slake appeared to Lady Charlotte ito
be fun Of beautiful imaginations and
5nius." and his Views, though Pc
liar. were "exalted above the COM
ION level OF received opinions" She
,uld not help Contrasting this hum
e artist with the great and powerful
7. Lawrence. and thinking that
. one was fully II not more worthy
Z the distinction and fame to which
he other has attained, but from which
70 Is far removed. Sir T.
Lawrence looked at me several times
whilst was talking with Mr.. B. and I
saw his lips curl with sneer, as If
he despised me for conversing with so
Insignificant person"
succumbed to Polarization.
Crabb Robinson. who was as proper an
Englishman as ever lived. had natural
qualms at the dirt and disorder Of
Blake's abode, but succumbed to polari-
Bury. SO much SO that when later no
was invited to contribute an article to
Il German review he wrote about Blake,
thinking It time that foreigners should
know of this most remarkable man.
Crabb Robinson's Diary is worth quoting
for the sake of the glimpse into Blake's
studio. which was both bedroom and
studio and looked out on a mean yard.
Everything in the room squalid and
indicating poverty. except himself. And
there was a. natural gentility about him
and an insensibility to the seeming pow
erty which quito removed the impress
sion. Besides. his linen was clean, his
hand white and his air quite unembar-
rassed when he begged me to sit down
as If he were in a palace. There was
but one chair In the room beside that
n which he sat. On my putting my
and to II I found that 1t would have
allen to pieces II I had lifted It, so. as
II had been Sybarite, I said with a
smile: Will you let me indulge myscif?'
and I sat on the bed, and near him, and
during my short stay there was nothing
in him that betrayed that he was aware
Of what to other persons might have
been even offensive. not In his person,
but In all about him."
But II is far cry from the little.
mild Blake of those days to the mighty
and thunderous Blake of the present.
All the timorous uncertainties as to
whether he was or was not sane, as to
whether he was or was not an artist,
have vanished. Noto when we speak of
him we do not shift for comparison to
q contemplation of Sir T. Lawrence or
F'laxman. hut range him at once with
the worlds truly great. Arthur Symons
begins his recent and exceedingly clever
book on Blake by Weighing him with
Nietzsche and finding. II anything. that
this giant whom some bookish people
consider moro responsible for the recent
great war than any other single In
dividual who may be mentioned, Is upon
the whole the lighter of the two.
THE philosophy of Nietzsche was made
out of his nerves and was suffering. but
to Blake 1t entered like sunlight into the
eyes. To Nietzsche the sense
Of divine haunting became too heavy
n burden for his somewhat inhuman soli-
tude, the solitude of Alpine regions, with
their steadfast glitter, their thin. high.
intoxicating air. Is this obtruslveness
of heaven he cries, this inevitable su-
perhuman neighbor, not enough to drivt
one mad7' But Blake. when he says,
I am under the direction OF messengers
from heaven. daily and nightly speaks
out Of natural joy, which is wholly hu-
nility and II Is only If we fear to do
the dictates of our angels. and tremble
at the tasks set before US 1t is only
then that he dreads as the one punish
ment, that every ono In eternity, will
leave him."
Merit of Unexpectedness.
But all of us. as have said. now have
TO fetch out our big guns FOR Blake and
there will bs necessarily much unmask-
ing of batteries for the exhibition that
now pens the season in the galleries OF
Scott and Fowles. 1t Is Blake, than
which, 1t might be supposed. nothing fur
ther need be said, but it happens also to
have the newspaper merit OF unexpected
ness, for these drawings to illustrate
Dante are in water color. brilliantly pre-
served. and have not been seen here
before. There are twenty of them. from
the Linnell collection. which was sold
en- bloc at Christie's in 1918" Mr.. Mar
In Birnbaum explains in the catalogue.
to tho National Art Collection Fund
and distributed among various English
and Colonial museums. Twenty of the
drawings found their way to America.
but fortunately movement Is on foot
TO reproduce worthily in collotype the
entire series, and Quaritch has an
nounced the publication In the near
future"
The Linnell who owned these water
colors Is. of course. the Linnell who was
Biakes early. and Crabb Robinson hints.
not altogether dis interested friend 1t
is TO this reason that the unusual fresh
ness OF the color is attributed since the
drawings have reposed In portfolios in
frequently seeing the light. Blake used
himself to brag innocently about his
color saying 1t was unbeatable, 'since no
one can beat the Holy Ghost" and Blake
painted, of course. entirely under that
influence. Whatever the influence or
whatever the reason the coiors are GER