SOURCE: An excerpt in William Blake: The Critical Heritage, edited by G. E. Bentley, Jr., Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, pp. 147-55.

The following excerpt appeared as the introduction to Malkin's book, A Father's Memoirs of his Child (1806) and is the earliest published essay on Blake. Malkin's enthusiastic discussion helped Blake's poetry gain acceptance among a wider contemporary audience.

Mr. Blake has long been known to the order of men among whom he ranks; and is highly esteemed by those, who can distinguish excellence under the disguise of singularity. Enthusiastic and high flown notions on the subject of religion have hitherto, as they usually do, prevented his general reception, as a son of taste and of the muses. The sceptic and the rational believer, uniting their forces against the visionary, pursue and scare a warm and brilliant imagination, with the hue and cry of madness. Not contented with bringing down...