[To]
George Cumberland Esqre, Culver Street, Bristol
N
3 Fountain Court Strand 12 April 1827
Dear
Cumberland
I
have been very near the Gates of Death & have returned very weak & an
Old Man feeble & tottering, but not in Spirit & Life not in The Real
Man The Imagination which Liveth for Ever. In that I am stronger& stronger
as this Foolish Body decays. I thank you for the Pains you have taken with Poor
Job. I know too well that a great majority of Englishmen are fond of The
Indefinite which they Measure by Newtons Doctrine of the Fluxions of an Atom. A
Thing that does not Exist. These are Politicians & think that Republican
Art is Inimical to their Atom. For a Line or Lineament is not formed by Chance
a Line is a Line in its Minutest Subdivision[s] Strait or Crooked It is Itself
& Not Intermeasurable with or by any Thing Else Such is Job but since the
French Revolution Englishmen are all Intermeasurable One by Another Certainly a
happy state of Agreement to which I for One do not Agree. God keep me from the
Divinity of Yes & No too The Yea Nay Creeping Jesus from supposing Up&
Down to be the same Thing as all Experimentalists must suppose
You
are desirous I know to dispose of some of my Works & to make <them>
Pleasin[g], I am obliged to you & to all who do so But having none
remaining of all that I had Printed I cannot Print more Except at a great loss
for at the time I printed those things I had a whole House to range in now I am
shut up in a Corner therefore am forced to ask a Price for them that I
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Page 784
scarce
expect to get from a Stranger. I am now Printing a Set of the Songs of
Innocence & Experience for a Friend at Ten Guineas which I cannot do under
Six Months consistent with my other Work, so that I have little hope of doing
any more of such things. the Last Work I produced is a Poem Entitled Jerusalem
the Emanation of the Giant Albion, but find that to Print it will Cost my Time
the amount of Twenty Guineas One I have Finishd It contains 100 Plates but it
is not likely that I shall get a Customer for it
As
you wish me to send you a list with the Prices of these things they are as
follows
L s d
America 6. 6. 0
Europe 6. 6. 0
Visions
&c 5. 5. 0
Thel 3. 3. 0
Songs
of Inn. & Exp 10. 10. 0
Urizen
6. 6. 0
The
Little Card I will do as soon as Possible but when you Consider that I have
been reduced to a Skeleton from which I am slowly recovering you will I hope
have Patience with me.
Flaxman
is Gone & we must All soon follow every one to his Own Eternal House
Leaving the Delusive Goddess Nature & her Laws to get into Freedom from all
Law of the Members into The Mind in which every one is King& Priest in his
own House God Send it so on Earth as it is in Heaven
I
am Dear Sir Yours Affectionately
WILLIAM
BLAKE