"Then, naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise up on pure clouds and sport in the wind:
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father and never want joy.
"And so Tommy awoke and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work;
Though the morning was cold, he was happy and warm,
So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm."
In 1800, the Blakes were invited by Hayley to visit him at Felpham,
in Sussex, under the idea of providing the artist with occupation and
emolument. Upon this occasion Blake wrote thus to Flaxman:--
"Dear Sculptor of Eternity,--We are safe arrived at our cottage, which
is more beautiful than I thought it, and more convenient. It is a
perfect model for cottages, and I think for palaces of magnificence,
only enlarging--not altering its proportions, and adding ornaments
and not principles. Nothing can be more grand than its simplicity and
usefulness. Simple without intricacy, it seems to be the spontaneous
expression of humanity congenial to the wants of men. No other formed
house can ever please me so well, nor shall I ever be persuaded, I
believe, that it can be improved either in beauty or use. Mr. Hayley
received us with his usual brotherly affection. I have begun to work.
Felpham is a sweet place for study, because it is more spiritual than
London. Heaven opens here on all sides her golden gates; her windows
are not obstructed by vapours; voices of celestial inhabitants are more
distinctly heard, and their forms more distinctly seen; and my cottage
is also a shadow of their houses. My wife and sister are both well,
courting Neptune for an embrace.
* * * * *
"And now begins a new life, because another covering of earth is shaken
off. I am more famed in Heaven for my works than I could well conceive.
In my brain are studies and chambers filled with books and pictures of
old, which I wrote and painted in ages of eternity before my mortal
life; and those works are the delight and study of archangels. Why then
should I be anxious about riches or the fame of mortality? The Lord our
Father will do for us and with us according to his Divine will, for
our good. You, O dear Flaxman! are a sublime archangel--my friend and
companion from eternity. In the Divine bosom is our dwelling-place. I
look back into the regions of reminiscence, and behold our ancient
days before this earth appeared in its vegetated mortality to my
mortal vegetated eyes. I see our houses of eternity which can never
be separated, though our mortal vehicles should stand at the remotest
corners of heaven from each other. Farewell my best friend! Remember me
and my wife in love and friendship to our dear Mrs. Flaxman, whom we
ardently desire to entertain beneath our thatched roof of rusted gold.
And believe me for ever to remain your grateful and affectionate
"WILLIAM BLAKE."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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