“I was one day reading Young’s Night Thoughts, and when I came to that passage which asks ‘who can paint an angel,’ I closed the book and cried, ‘Aye! who can paint an angel?’ A voice in the room answered, ‘Michael Angelo could.’ ‘And how do you know,’ I said, looking round me, but I saw nothing save a greater light than usual. ‘I know,’ said the voice, ‘for I sat to him; I am the arch-angel Gabriel.’ ‘Oho!’ I answered, ‘you are, are you; I must have better assurance than that of a wandering voice; you may be an evil spirit—there are such in the land.’ ‘You shall have good assurance,’ said the voice, ‘can an evil spirit do this?’ I looked whence the voice came, and was then aware of a shining shape, with bright wings, who diffused much light. As I looked, the shape dilated more and more: he waved his hands; the roof of my study opened; he ascended into heaven; he stood in the sun, and beckoning to me, moved the universe. An angel of evil could not have done that—It was the arch-angel Gabriel.”

—William Blake, as quoted in Major’s Cabinet Gallery of Pictures: with Historical and Critical Descriptions and Dissertations, by Allan Cunningham, 1833. From William Blake: The Critical Heritage, edited by G.E. Bentley, Jr, 1975.