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ED; E702| 5
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[To] Revd Dr Trusler, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey
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13 Hercules Buildings,.Lambeth, August 23, 1799
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[Postmark: 28 August]
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Revd Sir
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I really am sorry that you are falln out with the Spiritual
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World Especially if I should have to answer for it I feel very
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sorry that your Ideas & Mine on Moral Painting differ so much as
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to have made you angry with my method of Study. If I am wrong I
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am wrong in good company. I had hoped your plan comprehended All
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Species of this Art & Especially that you would not reject that
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Species which gives Existence to Every other. namely Visions of
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Eternity You say that I want somebody to Elucidate my Ideas. But
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you ought to know that What is Grand is necessarily obscure to
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Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not
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worth my care. The wisest of the Ancients considerd what is not
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too Explicit as the fittest for Instruction because it rouzes the
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faculties to act. I name Moses Solomon Esop Homer Plato
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But as you have favord me with your remarks on my Design
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permit me in return to defend it against a mistaken one, which
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is. That I have supposed Malevolence without a Cause.--Is not
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Merit in one a Cause of Envy in another & Serenity & Happiness
&
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Beauty a Cause of Malevolence. But Want of Money & the Distress
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of A Thief can never be alledged as the Cause of his Thievery.
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for many honest people endure greater hard ships with Fortitude
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We must therefore seek the Cause elsewhere than in want of Money
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for that is the Misers passion, not the Thiefs
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I have therefore proved your Reasonings Ill proportiond
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which you can never prove my figures to be. They are those of
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Michael Angelo Rafael & the Antique & of the best living Models.
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I percieve that your Eye[s] is perverted by Caricature
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Prints, which ought not to abound so much as they do. Fun I love
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but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is
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better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth--I feel that a
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Man may be happy in This World. And I know that This World Is a
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World of Imagination & Vision I see Every thing I paint In This
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World, but Every body does not see alike. To the Eyes of a Miser
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a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun & a bag worn with the use
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of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with
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Grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes
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of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some See
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Nature all Ridicule & Deformity & by these I shall not regulate
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my proportions, & Some Scarce see Nature at all But to the Eyes
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of the Man of Imagination Nature is Imagination itself. As a man
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is So he Sees. As the Eye is formed such are its Powers You
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certainly Mistake when you say that the Visions of Fancy are not
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be found in This World. To Me This World is all One continued
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Vision of Fancy or Imagination & I feel Flatterd when I am told
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So. What is it sets Homer Virgil & Milton in so high a rank of
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Art. Why is the Bible more
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Entertaining & Instructive than any other book. Is it not
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because they are addressed to the Imagination which is Spiritual
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Sensation & but mediately to the Understanding or Reason Such is
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True Painting and such <was> alone valued by the Greeks & the
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best modern Artists. Consider what Lord Bacon says "Sense sends
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over to Imagination before Reason have judged & Reason sends over
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to Imagination before the Decree can be acted." See Advancemt of
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Learning Part 2 P 47 of first Edition
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But I am happy to find a Great Majority of Fellow Mortals
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who can Elucidate My Visions & Particularly they have been
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Elucidated by Children who have taken a greater delight in
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contemplating my Pictures than I even hoped. Neither Youth nor
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Childhood is Folly or Incapacity Some Children are Fools
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& so are some Old Men. But There is a vast Majority on the
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side of Imagination or Spiritual Sensation
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To Engrave after another Painter is infinitely more
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laborious than to Engrave ones own Inventions. And of the Size
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you require my price has been Thirty Guineas & I cannot afford to
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do it for less. I had Twelve for the Head I sent you as a
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Specimen, but after my own designs I could do at least Six times
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the quantity of labour in the same time which will account for
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the difference of price as also that Chalk Engraving is at least
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six times as laborious as Aqua tinta. I have no objection to
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Engraving after another Artist. Engraving is the profession I
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was apprenticed to, & should never have attempted to live by any
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thing else If orders had not come in for my Designs & Paintings,
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which I have the pleasure to tell you are Increasing Every Day.
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Thus If I am a Painter it is not to be attributed to Seeking
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after. But I am contented whether I live by Painting or
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Engraving
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I am Revd Sir Your very obedient servant
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WILLIAM BLAKE
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