Part 6: Right-side Additions

Leaving the top-right corner of the plate in a state not yet complete, but close to being so, we turn to the area to the right of the elder son's body and plinth. Blake must have engraved his phrase "Science is the / Tree of Death" shortly after "Art is the / Tree / of Life". The word "Death" slopes upwards (or rather to the right) at the end to avoid running into the word "Useless". Therefore "Science is the / Tree of Death<" must have been added to the engraving after "For every / Pleasure / Money / Is Useless".

It is unclear whether the line beneath the words "Is Useless" is meant to serve as emphasis or to divide this inscription from that beneath it and editors have made different choices. Erdman treats the line as emphatic, but the words are left without emphasis by Bentley, Essick and Viscomi, Johnson and Grant, Keynes, and Sloss and Wallis. Given that the line beneath the words falls between two inscriptions, it is likely that those who have left the words without emphasis are correct.^[note]

Blake may have added the twirling, vine-line mark between "Lib. VI. v 848" and "For every" shortly afterwards, again filling up an awkward space, but doing so in a more interesting way than the rough horizontal scratchings. (See figure 6a.)

Placed beneath "For every / Pleasure / Money / Is Useless" are the lines which read "There are States / in which all / Visionary Men / are accounted / Mad Men / such are / Greece & Rome / Such is / Empire / or Tax / See Luke Ch. 2, v, 1". The position of the first seven lines ("There are States" to "Greece & Rome") appears to dictate the position of the inscription "What we call Antique Gems [. . .]", so was probably produced before that inscription. The final four lines, however, appear to have been added after "& Heroism a Miser" and "All is not Sin that Satan calls so" (left), and "What we call Antique Gems" (right), between which they fit. This line also serves to break "& Heroism a Miser" from "All is not Sin that Satan calls so", which otherwise would read as a continued thought. (See figure 6b.)

The two lines of the inscription beginning "What we call Antique Gems" appear to have ended originally with the wod "Aaron": "What we call Antique Gems / are the Gems of Aaron". The lettering of the "s" of "Aaorons" and "Breast Plate" is slightly larger and slopes a little, perhaps because they were added after the organic-looking wavy lines after "What we call Antique Gems".

The wavy lines appear to be another example of Blake's space-filling: the gap between "What we call Antique Gems" and "Christianity is Art" may have seemed awkward to Blake after he had filled other small spaces with words, rough lines and vine-like twirls.

The inscription "Christianity is Art / & not Money / Money is its Curse" is unevenly aligned. The "y"s in both "Money"s are also distinct from those in "Christianity". Taken together, these facts indicate that "& not Money / Money is its Curse" was a later addition. It may have been because of the placement of the line "are the Gems of Aarons Breast Plate" that Blake positioned "Money is its Curse" where he did: "Christianity is Art / & not Money" is centre-aligned, whereas the inscription "Money is its Curse" has been started higher up the plate, as if part of this line's purpose was to fill another odd gap.

It may have been at this point that Blake added the inscription "Such is / Empire / or Tax / See Luke Ch. 2, v, 1", since those words would have filled a rather awkward space created by the addition of "What we call Antique Gems".

The words "Is not every Vice possible to Man / described in the Bible openly" which complete the blocking in this area. They align thematically and compositionally with "All is not Sin that Satan calls so / all the Loves & Graces of Eternity", so may have been added with those lines or have been introduced after "See Luke Ch. 2, v, 1" to fill a gap.