- Title:
- 'We censure nature for a span too short' (Page 23)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1797
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching, line engraving, and letterpress, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Spine: 17 1/2 inches (44.5 cm), Sheet: 16 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches (41.9 x 32.7 cm), Plate: 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches (39.4 x 31.8 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered on facing page: "22 | The straw-like trifles on life's common stream: | From whom those blanks and trifles, but from thee? | No blank, no trifle nature made, or meant. | Virtue, or purposed virtue, still be thine; | This cancels thy complaint at once, this leaves | In act no trifle, and no blank in time; | This greatens, fills, immortalizes all; | This, the blest art of turning all to gold; | This, the good heart's prerogative to raise | A royal tribute from the poorest hours: | Immense revenue! every moment pays. | If nothing more than purpose in thy power; | Thy purpose firm, is equal to the deed: | Who does the best his circumstance allows, | Does well, acts nobly;--angels could no more. | Our outward act, indeed, admits restraint: | 'Tis not in things o'er thought to domineer; | Guard well thy thought; our thoughts are heard in heaven. | On all-important time, through every age, | Though much, and warm, the wise have urged; the man | Is yet unborn, who duly weighs an hour. | 'I've lost a day'--the prince who nobly cried, | Had been an emperor without his crown-- | Of Rome? say rather, lord of human race; | He spoke, as if deputed by mankind: | So should all speak; so reason speaks in all: | From the soft whispers of that God in man, | Why fly to folly, why to frenzy fly, | For rescue from the blessings we possess? | Time, the supreme!--Time is eternity;"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.10(13)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- angels | baby | bed | bed | children | drapes | family | father | literary theme | man | men | mother | nudes | religious and mythological subject | text | wings | woman | women
- Access:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3541
- Export:
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- IIIF Manifest:
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Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827, British, 'We censure nature for a span too short' (Page 23), 1797
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