"All these people in the street make me think of exhausted gorillas, every one of them tired of imitating man!" - Emil Cioran Piece by William Blake - "The Ghost of a Flea" (c. 1819-1820) ![[IMG_1651.jpeg]] John Varley, who was an artist and a close friend to Blake, reported in his 'Treatise on Zodiacal [[The Foundation Of Physiognomy|Physiognomy]]' that Blake was once visited by the ghost of a flea - and that ‘This spirit visited his [[imagination]] in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect.’ While drawing the spirit it told the artist that all fleas were inhabited by the [[Spirit And Soul|souls]] of men who were ‘by nature bloodthirsty to excess’.