The combn. of the warmest praise with imputations
which from another wd. assume the most serious character
& the liberty he took to interpret as he pleased, rendered it
as difficult to be offended as to reason with him. Hie elo-
quent descriptions of Nature in W.'s poems were con-
clusive proof of atheism, for whoever believes in Nature
said B. disbelieves in God. For Nature is the work of the
Devil. On my obtaining from him the declaration that the
Bible was the work of God, I referred to the commencement
of Genesis " In the beginning God created the Heaven &
the Earth." But I gained nothing by this, for I was triumph-
antly told that this God was not Jehovah, but the Elohim,
& the doctrine of the Gnostics repeated with sufficient
consistency to silence one so unlearned as myself.^ ..
^ [See ante^ pp. 15-16.]



REMINISCENCES OF BLAKE

I lent him the 8vo. ed of 2 vols, of W.'s poems wh. he
had in his possession at the time of his death. They were
sent me then. I did not recognise the pencil notes he made
in them to be his for some time, & was on the point of
rubbing them out, under that impression when I made the
discovery. The following are found in the 5th Vol.: —
In the fly-leaf under the words Poems referring to the
Period of Childhood. 29.2.52.
