In 1790, when Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery was a success, "bookseller" Johnson was fired with the idea of bringing out a magnificent Milton Gallery, "surpassing any work that had appeared in England." It was to contain Cowper's notes and translations and Fuseli's illustrations, for which the best engravers were to be found. The services of Sharpe and Bartolozzi were enlisted, and Blake was asked to engrave _Adam and Eve observed by Satan_. The project fell through owing to Cowper's mental indisposition; but when Hayley was engaged on the _Life of Cowper_ and Blake on its engravings, Cowper's _Milton_ came uppermost again in their minds, and it occurred to Hayley that it would be a good plan to bring out a fine edition of the delayed work, with engravings after designs by Romney, Flaxman, and Blake. The profits of the work were "to be appropriated to erect a monument to the memory of Cowper in St Paul's or Westminster Abbey." To this work was to be added Hayley's _Life of Milton_, so that the whole necessarily would spread out to three quarto volumes. The project was abandoned. Instead of the three volumes, one volume with Cowper's notes finally appeared in 1808, and instead of the proceeds going to a monument in St Paul's, they were given for the emolument of an orphan godson of the Sussex Bard. Thus Blake's thought and time were fully occupied. Besides the designs for Hayley's ballads, engravings were required for the Cowper _Life_. Butts was to be kept supplied with a fresh picture as fast as Blake could paint it; and his own more secret thought was ruminating over Milton, and his stay at Felpham, and his dreams for the future. These were to take form in his longest poetical works--_Milton_, _The Four Zoas_, and _Jerusalem_; but as they are of extreme importance for understanding Blake, they must be kept over to another chapter. Blake was thoroughly interested in this work, for he admired Cowper, and considered that his letters were "the very best letters that were ever published." It is necessary to remember his reverence for Cowper, as also for Wesley and Whitefield, because in the poems there are many vigorous attacks made on religion, and some of Blake's modern imitators follow him in the attack. The moderns for the most part are irreligious, but Blake professed to love true religion and true science. What he hated above all things was religion divorced from life and art. Such religion becomes very intense, as in the Pharisees, and when great decisions are called for, as in the trial of Christ, it invariably utters its voice on the wrong side. Blake's engravings for the Cowper _Life_ were after designs by other artists, the most important being the head of Cowper by Romney. To engrave after another is irksome, and there was further irritation when he found that Hayley was as ready to instruct him how to engrave as to paint miniatures. [Illustration: MIRTH AND HER COMPANIONS.]