- Title:
- 'Teaching, we learn; and giving, we retain' (Page 35)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1797
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching, engraving, and letterpress on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 16 3/8 × 12 3/4 inches (41.6 × 32.4 cm), Binding: 16 3/8 inches (41.6 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered inside image: "35 | Had thought been all, sweet speech had been denied; | Speech, thought's canal! speech, thought's citerion too! | Thought in the mine may come forth gold or dross; | When coin'd in words, we know its real worth: | If sterling, store it for thy future use; | 'Twill buy thee benefit, perhaps renown: | Thought too, deliver'd, is the more possess'd; | *Teaching, we learn; and giving, we retain | The births of intellect; when dumb, forgot. | Speech ventilates our intellectual fire; | Speech burnishes our mental magazine; | Brightens for ornament, and whets for use. | What numbers, sheath'd in erudition, lie | Plunged to the hilts in venerable tomes, | And rusted; who might have borne an edge, | And play'd a sprightly beam, if born to speech! | If born blest heirs to half their mother's tongue! | 'Tis thought's exchange, which, like th' alternate push | Of waves conflicting, breaks the learned scum, | And defecates the student's standing pool. | In contemplation is his proud resource? | 'Tis poor as proud: by converse unsustain'd | Rude thought runs wild in contemplation's field: | Converse, the menage, breaks it to the bit | Of due restraint; and emulation's spur | Gives graceful energy, by rivals awed: | 'Tis converse qualifies for solitude, | As exercise for salutary rest: | By that untutor'd, contemplation raves; | And nature's fool, by wisdom's is outdone."; lower left: "inv. s | WB"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1978.43.1357
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Access:
- Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:2280
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]