<< YCBA Home Yale Center for British Art Yale Center for British Art << YCBA Home

YCBA Collections Search

 
IIIF Actions
Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:
"When those who disregard all Mortal Things..." (Plate 55)
Part Of:

Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Copy E

Date:
1804 to 1820
Materials & Techniques:
Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor and pen and black ink on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 3/8 x 5 7/8 inches (21.2 x 14.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Lettered inside image: "When those who disregard all Mortal Things, saw a Mighty-One | Among the Flowers of Beulah still retain his awful strength, | They wonder'd, checking their wild flames, & Many gathering | Together into an Assembly, they said, let us go down | And see these changes; Others said, If you do so, prepare | For being driven from our fields: what have we to do with the Dead? | To be their inferiors or superiors we equally abhor : | Superior, none we know: inferior, none: all equal share | Divine Benevolence & Joy, for the Eternal Man | Walketh among us, calling us his Brothers & his Friends: | Forbidding us that Veil which Satan puts between Eve & Adam, | By which the Princes of the Dead enslave their Votaries, | Teaching them to form the Serpent of precious stones & gold, | To sieze the Sons of Jerusalem & plant them in One Man's Loins: | is To make One Family of Contraries: that Joseph may be sold | Into Egypt; for Negation: a Veil the Saviour born & dying rends. | But others said: Let us to him who only Is, & who | Walketh among us, give decision: bring forth all your fires! | So saying, an eternal deed was done: in fiery flames | The Universal Concave raged, such thunderous sounds as never | Were sounded from a mortal cloud, nor on Mount Sinai old, | Nor in Havilah where the Cherub roll'd his redounding flame. | Loud! loud! the Mountains lifted up their voices, loud the Forests, | Rivers thunder'd against their banks, loud Winds furious fought: | Cities & Nations contended in fires & clouds & tempests, | The Seas rais'd up their voices & lifted their hands on high, | The Stars in their courses fought, the Sun, Moon, Heaven, Earth, | Contending for Albion & for Jerusalem his Emanation, | And for Shiloh, the Emanation of France, & for lovely Vala. | Then far the greatest number were about to make a Separation, | And they Elected Seven, call'd the Seven Eyes of God, | Lucifer, Molech, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah, Jesus. | They nam'd the Eighth, he came not, he hid in Albion's Forests. | But first they said: (& their Words stood in Chariots in array, | Curbing their Tygers with golden bits & bridles of silver & ivory) | Let the Human Organs be kept in their perfect Integrity, | At will Contracting into Worms, or Expanding into Gods, | And then, behold! what are these Ulro Visions of Chastity? | Then as the moss upon the tree: or dust upon the plow: | Or as the sweat upon the labouring shoulder: or as the chaff | Of the wheat-floor or as the dregs of the sweet wine-press: | Such are these Ulro Visions, for tho' we sit down within | The plowed furrow, list'ning to the weeping clods, till we | Contract or Expand Space at will: or if we raise ourselves | Upon the chariots of the morning, Contracting or Expanding Time: | Every one knows, we are One Family: One Man blessed for ever. | Silence remain'd & every one resum'd his Human Majesty, | And many conversed on these things as they labour'd at the furrow, | Saying: It is better to prevent misery, than to release from misery: | It is better to prevent error, than to forgive the criminal: | Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones : | And those who are in misery cannot remain so long, | If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth. | They Plow'd in tears, the trumpets sounded before the golden Plow, | And the voices of the Living Creatures were heard in the clouds of heaven, | Crying: Compell the Reasoner to Demonstrate with unhewn Demonstrations, | Let the Indefinite be explored, and let every Man be Judged | By his own Works. Let all Indefinites be thrown into Demonstrations | To be pounded to dust & melted in the Furnaces of Affliction : | He who would do good to another, must do it in Minute Particulars, | General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite & flatterer: | For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars, | And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power. | The Infinite alone resides in Definite & Determinate Identity, | Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falshood continually, | On Circumcision: not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion! | So cried they at the Plow. Albion's Rock frowned above, | And the Great Voice of Eternity rolled above terrible in clouds, | Saying, Who will go forth for us: & Who shall we send before our face?"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.1(55)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
literary theme | religious and mythological subject | text | vines
Access:
Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3487
Export:
XML
IIIF Manifest:
JSON

William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]


If you have information about this object that may be of assistance please contact us.