Письма Уильяма Блейка/Джону Флаксману 12 сентября 1800

http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/erdman.xq?id=b15.14

14 [To] Mr [John] Flaxman, Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, London

Felpham Septr. 21. . 1800 Sunday Morning

Dear Sculptor of Eternity

We are safe arrived at our Cottage which is more beautiful than I thought it. & more convenient. It is a perfect Model for Cottages & I think for Palaces of Magnificence only Enlarging not altering its proportions & adding ornaments & not principals. Nothing can be more Grand than its Simplicity & Usefulness. Simple without Intricacy it seems to be the Spontaneous Effusion of Humanity congenial to the wants of Man. No other formed House can ever please me so well nor shall I ever be perswaded I believe that it can be improved either in Beauty or Use

Mr Hayley recievd 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 & their forms more distinctly seen & my Cottage is also a Shadow of their houses. My Wife & Sister are both well. courting Neptune for an Embrace

Our journey was very pleasant & tho we had a great deal of Luggage. No Grumbling all was Chearfulness & Good Humour on the Road & yet we could not arrive at our Cottage before half past Eleven at night. owing to the necessary shifting of our Luggage from one Chaise to another for we had Seven Different Chaises & as many different drivers We s[e]t out between Six & Seven in the Morning of Thursday. with Sixteen heavy boxes & portfolios full of prints. 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 concieve In my Brain are studies & Chambers filld with books & pictures of old which I wrote & painted in ages of Eternity. before my mortal life & whose works are the delight & Study of Archangels. Why then should I be anxious about the riches or fame of mortality. The Lord our father will do for us & with us according to his Divine will for our Good

You O Dear Flaxman are a Sublime Archangel My Friend & Companion from Eternity in the Divine bosom is our Dwelling place I look back into the regions of Reminiscence & behold our ancient days before this Earth appeard in its vegetated mortality to my mortal vegetated Eyes. I see our houses of Eternity which can never be separated tho our Mortal vehicles should stand at the remotest corners of heaven from Each other

Farewell My Best Friend Remember Me & My Wife in Love & Friendship to our Dear Mr Flaxman whom we ardently desire to Entertain beneath our thatched roof of rusted gold & believe me for ever to remain

Your Grateful & Affectionate

WILLIAM BLAKE