as been
formulated in the essay in Ward's _Poets_. A critic, in the sense of one
possessed of a natural gift of analysis, Rossetti assuredly! was not. No
man's instinct for what is good in poetry was ever swifter or surer than
that of Rossetti. You might always distrust your judgment if you
found it at variance with his where abstract power and beauty were in
question. Sooner or later you would inevitably find yourself gravitating
to his view. But here Rossetti's function as a critic ended. His was
at best only the criticism of the creator. Of the gift of ultimate
classification he had none, and never claimed to have any, although now
and again (as where he says that Chatterton was the day-spring of
modern romantic poetry), he seems to give sign of a power of critical
synthesis.

Rossetti's interest in Blake, both as poet and painter, dates back to
an early period of his life. I have heard him say that at sixteen or
seventeen years of age he was already one of Blake's warmest admirers,
and at the time in question, 1845, the author of the _Songs of
Innocence_ had not many readers to uphold him. About four years later,
Rossetti made an exceptionally lucky discovery, for he then found in
the possession of Mr. Palmer, an attendant at the British Museum, an
original manuscript scrap-book of Blake's, containing a great body of
unpublished poetry and many interesting designs, as well as three or
four remarkably effective profile sketches of the author himself. The
Mr. Palmer who held the little book was a relative of the landscape
painter of the same name, who was Blake's friend, and hence the
authenticity of the manuscript was ascertainable on other grounds than
the indisputable ones of its internal evidences. The book was offered to
Rossetti for ten shillings, but the young enthusiast was at the time a
student of art, and not much in the way of getting or spending even
so inconsiderable a sum. He told me, however, that at this period his
brother William, who was, unlike himself, engaged in some reasonably
profitable occupation, was at all times nothing loath to advance small
sums for the purchase of such literary or other treasures as he used
to hunt up out of obscure corners: by his help the Blake manuscript was
bought, and proved for years a source of infinite pleasure and profit,
resulting, as it did, in many very important additions to Blake
literature when Gilchrist's _Life and Works_ of that author came to be
publishe