49. 1803.-'I was naked.' 'Unto Adam and his Wife did the Lord God make coats of skins.' [Butts.]

'The Angel of the Divine Presence' (so phrased by Blake) encircles with downward arms Adam and Eve, both of whom clasp hands of humble gratitude: the Eve is exquisitely modest. Palm-trees over-canopy the group; an altar burns at each side. Very fine in quality, though the execution, especially in the figures, is not carried far.

50. 1803.-Ruth, the dutiful Daughter-in-law. [Butts.]

Extremely beautiful: the figures of Ruth herself and Naomi, the former clasping the latter round the waist, could not be designed with a more noble and pure simplicity. Orpah turns back. There is a good deal of landscape material in the background, of a rather primitive kind, yet pleasing.

51. *Circa 1803 (?).-Satan calling up his Legions-Paradise Lost. Tempera. See p. 159, Vol. II.

Blake terms this and Nos. 81 and 82 'Experiment Pictures.' All of them, it would seem, were free from oil-vehicle. Date conjectured, as in the case of No. 33. A highly finished and noble work.

52. Circa 1804 (?).—The same.

Tempera.

Referred to at p. 159, Vol. II. An elaborate, fine, and richlycoloured example, now half-ruined. The Satan, a nude figure standing on a rock, is not like the Fuseli type in such subjects. The composition is full of figures, flames, and rocks.

53. 1804.-Thomas Hayley. Tempera, or possibly oil.

The son of William Hayley, and pupil of Flaxman. Medallion portrait, life-size.

54. 1804 (?).-Thomas Hayley. Sepia.

Carefully finished. Full-faced, finger on chin. Has been bound into a MS. of Cunningham's 'Life of Blake.'

55. 1804.-A Man at an Anvil talking to a Spirit.

Published in the 'Jerusalem.'

56. 1804.-Three personages, one of them crowned, sunk in despondency.

Published in the 'Jerusalem,' p. 51; lugubrious in colour. In the water-colour, this very characteristic design has the names 'Vala, Hyle, Skofeld,' written under the figures-Vala being the crowned one. Might the name Skofeld be derived from the soldier Scholfield, who laid an information against Blake for seditious words? Given in Vol. I. Chap. XXI.

57. 1804.—The same design as the preceding. [Linnell.] Of larger size, and without the names. Very good.

58. 1805. After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judæa; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.'-John iii. 22. [Butts]. Water-colour with pen outline.

Evidently treated with a kind of symbolic bearing upon baptism as a part of the Christian scheme; Christ stands as

baptiser at a font, as it were in a church. There are severa! other figures. The colour is pale and sweet. The account printed at p. 278 seems to show that more than usual pains were bestowed upon this water-colour.

59. 1805.-Moses striking the rock. [Butts.]

Not very impressive at first sight, yet powerful in expression of the subject in the group of thirsting Israelites, some dozen or less in number. The principal male figure is taking measures for helping an infant first.

60. Circa 1805.-Fire. [Butts.]

Blake, the supreme painter of fire, in this his typical picture of fire, is at his greatest; perhaps it is not in the power of art to transcend this treatment of the subject in its essential features. The water-colour is unusually complete in execution. The conflagration, horrid in glare, horrid in gloom, fills the background; its javelin-like cones surge up amid conical forms of buildings ('Langham Church steeples,' they may be called, as in No. 175). In front, an old man receives from two youths a box and a bundle which they have recovered; two mothers and several children crouch and shudder, overwhelmed; other figures behind are running about, bewildered what to do next.

61. 1805.--*Plague. [Butts.] Water-colour with pen outline.

The admirable design engraved to face p. 55, Vol. I. : slight in colour.

62. 1805.-Pestilence The Death of the First-born. [Butts.] Water-colour with pen outline.

A vast scaled demon, green and many-tinted, pours deadly influence from his outstretched arms. The figures rushing together scared, by pale torch-light, to find themselves each bereaved, are powerfully rendered. In the centre, between the demon's legs, is seen a small Israelitish house, with an Angel in the doorway. Dark effect.

63. 1805.-*Famine. [Butts.]

Very terrible and grimly quiet, though not remarkable in executive respects; the colour laid-in pale. A child seeks the breast of its dead mother; a young woman paces about objectless and desolate; a man strips with his teeth the flesh off the arm of a naked corpse, while a woman, with famine-wrung features, turns away in horror. For scenery, a gaunt, leafless tree; the entrance to a savagely bare building like a sepulchre; and unclad hills, under an ordinary sky.

64. 1805.—The Whirlwind-Ezekiel's vision of the Cherubim and Eyed Wheels. [Butts.]

Not sightly in execution, but the Eyed Wheels very curious and living. The Deity is above; Ezekiel, very small comparatively to the other figures, lies below.

65. 1805.-*Samson bursting his bonds. [Butts.]

Samson has too much of an operatic aspect, yet the essentials of the subject are fully rendered. Dalilah, behind him, stares in

dismay at the upshot of her conspiracy; three mailed Philistines make off to the left, crowding each other in their precipitationan admirable group for consentaneous motion. The colour is rather neutral.

66. 1805. *Samson subdued. [Butts.]

Energetic and fine composition and actions. Of Samson the back only is seen; he lies wholly naked, and quite hairless now save towards the nape of the neck, slumbering upon the knees of Dalilah, herself semi-nude, and with an air of triumph. Three Philistine warriors, very carelessly drawn, look in timidly from behind a curtain. Pale in colour.

67. 1805.-Noah and the Rainbow. [Butts.]

Mentioned in the account printed at p. 278, Vol. II.

68. 1805. Thou art fairer than the children of men. . . . Gird Thee with Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou Most Mighty, according to Thy worship and renown.'-Psalm xlv. [Butts.] Water-colour over a strong ground of pencilling.

Pale, and with a slovenly aspect, through the method of execution, though fine upon inspection. The Son of God is represented seated in heaven, reading in a book; two Angels are beside Him, with grounded swords swathed in flame. These figures stand out upon a sky strong in rayed light.

69. 1805.-The Four-and-Twenty Elders casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne. [Butts.]

A determined effort on Blake's part is evident here to realize the several features of the transcendent vision; the Divine Being, 'like a jasper and a sardine stone' in hue, the creatures 'full of eyes before and behind,' and the like. A telling success in an almost impracticable attempt.

70. 1805.-The Wise and Foolish Virgins. [Butts.]

Mentioned in the account printed at p. 278, Vol. II.

71. 1805.-The King of Babylon. 'Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming.'-Isaiah xiv. 9. [Butts.] Mentioned in the account printed at p. 278, Vol. II.

72. 1805.-God judging Adam. [Butts.] Colour-printed. Mentioned in the account printed at p. 278, Vol. II.

73. 1805.-Christ appearing.' [Butts.] Colour-printed.

Mentioned in the account, p. 278, Vol. II. Perhaps connected with the Tempera (No. 164) of Christ appearing to the Apostles after the Resurrection.

74. 1805.-The Horse. Oil-picture (?) on copper.

See p. 224-5, Vol. I. A fine miniature-like painting of the admirable engraved subject, some four inches or less in height. Coloured in yellowish-grey half-tints.

75. 1805.-War. [Butts.]

Mentioned in the account, p. 278. Vol. II.

76. 1806.-*The Repose of the Holy Family; also named The Humility of our Saviour. Water-colour, only half-painted.

The fugitives are reposing under a palm-tree; their donkey drinks of the stream; an animal shaggy and bristly enough to illustrate the doctrine of correspondences,' as though he represented so much pabulum of thistles and stubble. The varied landscape background is the most pleasurable feature of this water-colour, a poor one in surface handling.

77. 1806.-Jaques and the wounded Stag, from 'As You Like It.' This water-colour appears in a volume of Shakespeare, now belonging to Mr. Macmillan. It is far from being a good design; the lavish display of blood upon the stag being the most remarkable thing about it.

78. 1806. Hamlet and the Ghost. In neutral tints.

Hamlet kneels, as the

In the same volume as the preceding.
Ghost casts a last unforgettable look at him before parting. One
of the finest specimens of Blake's art. Given in Vol. I. chap.
XXIV.

79. 1806 (?).—.

'A spirit vaulting from a cloud

To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus.'

In the same volume as the two preceding. The design looks unaccountable enough, but must be the same as that of the fresco, No. 36. There is a rearing horse, a man floating and holding a lasso, a woman above on a cloud with a book, and a rising sun.

8o. 1806.-Design for the Dedication to Blair's 'Grave.'

Executed with most special care and completeness in pale semi-neutral tints; a very beautiful work. The subject is the Deliverance of the Human Soul from Death, and the Ascension of the Just. Above are two angels, one sheathing the sword, another holding the unequally-poised balance and a sealed roll; a third descends with a key to unlock the fetters of the grave. A mother with her adolescent and infant family rises to the left; a man and children to the right, their chains riven, clasp their upraised hands in thankfulness for the great deliverance. Between the upper angels a space is left for the inscription. See p. 252, Vol. I.

81. 1806. From Blair's 'Grave.' 'Prone on the lonely grave she drops.'

"

82. 1806. By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept.' 83. 1806.-Satan watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve. [Butts.]

Essentially the same as No. 89d, but with differences of detail; the figure of Satan, for instance, being turned towards the left, instead of the right; the flesh here is almost colourless, and the feeling on the whole more softly sensuous. The serpent, with a comb of fire, 'in his own volumes intervolved,' shuffles away from the feet of the First Parents. Very beautifully drawn, rich in form, and charming in impression.

84. 1806.-The Last Judgment.

A very elaborate treatment of the subject, exceedingly fine. It used to belong to Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell.

85. 1807.-Twelve Designs from 'Paradise Lost.'

This fine series belongs to Mr. Aspland, of Liverpool. It is of smaller size than the similar series described under No. 89, but the number of subjects is larger-twelve instead of nine. Those subjects which correspond in the two series are essentially alike in design, yet with numerous and interesting variations of detail. Mr. Aspland's set does not include subject e, Satan, as a toad, haunting the dreams of Eve, but comprises the following four extra subjects :

(a) Satan calling up his Legions. Book I.

(b) Satan at the Gate of Hell, guarded by Sin and Death. Book II.

(c) Satan's Entry into Paradise-God sends Raphael to warn Adam. Book V.

(d) The Condemnation of Adam and Eve. Book X.

86. 1807.-The Vision of Queen Katharine-Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII.' [Butts.] Slight tint of water-colour.

Treated quite from the ideal, not the historic or dramatic point of view; and a leading example of Blake's accurate manner. Katharine, crowned and young-looking, with light hair, makes in her sleep signs of rejoicing, and holdeth up her hands to heaven,' or to the Angels, of whom a considerable number are floating about in all parts of the composition, with wreaths, harps, &c. Their small size gives them rather a fairy-like than a strictly angelic character. The attendants, Griffith and Patience, both dozing, are an ancient bearded man with a book, and a youthful woman. See the following number, for which this appears to be a preparation. It was exhibited in Manchester in 1857.

87. 1807.-The same.

This is the work painted for Sir Thomas Lawrence (see p. 401, Vol. I.), and is very elaborately executed, with a great glory of light shooting through ragged drifts of darkness. The purity of colour is somewhat affected by the strong effort to get relief and play of light. Katharine is finer here than in the preceding.

88. 1807.-The same.

In the Shakespeare volume.

See No. 77.

89. 1807-8.-The Last Judgment. Tempera. See pp. 260-2, &c. Vol. I.

A small picture highly finished in drawing, but slight in colour, the white predominating save on the side of the condemned. Some of the figures of the blessed are of extreme loveliness, and the grouping is admirable.