by Nikolaus Pevsner
5—Blake and the Flaming Line
At first sight the qualities of William Blake seem to be the contraries of English qualities defined so far in these lectures: he is not rational, not factual, not detached. Dr. Pevsner suggests, however, that Blake's drawing has remarkable affinities with the Decorated style of English architecture, and equally with Hogarth's theory of beauty. Unlike, say, the Italians, the English have no confidence in the body. The English speciality, in Dr. Pevsner's view, is 1 scintillating line.' ,