Уильям Блейк в русской культуре (1834–2020)

37

«I have this morning been reading a strange publication – viz. Poems with very wild and interesting pictures, as the swathing, etched (I suppose) but it is said – printed and painted by the Author, W. Blake. He is a man of Genius – and I apprehend, a Swedenborgian – certainly, a mystic empathically You perhaps smile at my calling another Poet, a Mystic; but verily I am in the very mire of commonplace common-sense compared with Mr. Blake, apo- or rather anacalyptic Poet, and Painter!»

38

«Blake's prophetic visions thus do not reveal previously hidden truths, but return any glimmer of truth to obscurity».

39

«Title page and the following emblem contain all the faults of the Drawings with <…> few beauties».

40

«a Babe two days old does not, cannot smile – and innocence and the very truth of Nature must go together. Infancy is too holy a thing to be ornamented».