Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/128

your wishes shall in due time be fulfilled. The immense flood of Grecian light and glory which is coming on Europe will more than realise our warmest wishes. ... I begin to emerge from a deep pit of melancholy,—melancholy without any real reason,—a disease which God keep you from. Our artists of all ranks praise your outlines and wish for more. Flaxman is very warm in your commendation. Mr. Hayley has lately mentioned your work on outline^[1] in notes to an Essay on Sculpture.^[2] . . . Poor Fuseli, sore from the lash of envious tongues, praises you and dispraises with the same breath. . . . I am still employed in making designs and little pictures, with now and then an engraving, and find that in future to live will not be so difficult as it has been. . . .

10.

To John Flaxman.^[3]

12th September 1800.

My dearest Friend,—It is to you I owe all my present happiness.^[4] It is to you I owe perhaps the

1. See note 1, p. 53.
2. Published in 1800, with three engravings by Blake (see note 1, p. 69).
3. See note 1, p. 51.
4. Flaxman had been the means of introducing him to Hayley, and thus of his going to Felpham.