28 JANUARY 1911, Page 9

Blake. By G. K. Chesterton. (Duckworth and Co. 2s. net.)—

Mr. Chesterton believes that Blake was mad, not because ho imagined that he had spiritual visitations, but because these really did occur. Speaking of ordinary and sceptical critics of Blake, Mr. Chesterton says :—" Such critics say that his visions were false because he was mat. I say he was mad because his visions were true. It was exactly because he was unnaturally exposed to a hail of forces that were more than natural that some breaches were made in his mental continuity, some damage dono to his mind." This essay, for such the book is rather than a Life, is full of brilliant things expressed with all the writer's facility of whimsical illustration. There is a strong bond of sympathy evidently between Blake and Mr. Chesterton, arising from a common dislike of a material view of the universe.