19 JUNE 1926, Page 19

The Oxford University Press send us two imposing and wholly

delightful volumes of the Prophetic Writings of William Blake, 42. These Writings have always been a puzzle to commentators, owing to the irresponsibility of Blake's genius and particularly to the fact that the wings of his fancy soar -to heights where " our numbed conceiving " does not easily follow. These volumes give us the full text of the Writings for the first time. The grandeur of their phrasing and philo- sophy—illumining the hinterlands of consciousness like summer lightning over massed thunder clouds—are a definite addition to the English language.

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