_Design XIV._--The creation and the immense joy of it. There is the creation of the whole cosmos, when the morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. Never was such joy again till the beginning of the New Creation, when the Son of God was born in Bethlehem, as Luke, artist and saint, narrates with such artless simplicity and beauty. The Scriptures assure us of a time when that joy shall be eternal. Meanwhile it is the artists who in true creation have a foretaste of the joy. It is Blake who has presented it in its most spiritual and universal aspect.
_Design XV._--A grotesque. I presume that Blake, like Leonardo da Vinci, discovered something grotesque as he explored the universe.
_Design XVI._--The universe once more. It is the consummation of the judgment. Satan and his shadowy companions who dwell in man have taken definite form and substance. The man who has walked the way of excess has brought all his latent evil out, and has given it substance, so that he can arise in his strength and cast it out for ever.
_Design XVII._--Job's beatific vision. He is blessed and his house, now only his wife, but through her and God's blessing he may be fruitful and multiply, and build his house in the divine order. His sun has risen and will no more set.
_Design XVIII._--Job stands before an altar of burnt-offering. Like Jacob he has prevailed, and God accepts him and his prayers for his friends.
_Design XIX._--Job and his wife once more under the fig-tree, whose fruit has ripened. He is the recipient of friendly gifts and offerings from his neighbours.
_Design XX._--Job, with memories engraven on the chambers of his imagery, stretching forth his hands over his new family of beautiful daughters.
_Design XXI._--A return to the first scene. But the sun is rising, and Job and his family, taking their instruments of art, are worshipping God in the beauty of holiness.
Blake completed his engravings for Job in March 1825, and they were published March 1826.
They might well have been the crowning work of his life, and followed by his _Nunc dimittis_, but there was boundless mental energy in the old man, though his body was failing.
It was in 1825 that Blake met Crabb Robinson at the house of Mr Aders, where Mrs Aders, daughter of Raphael Smith, was in the habit of entertaining many interesting people.