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Title
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There is No Natural Religion (1971)
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Original Date:
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1788-1794, 1820
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Facsimile Date:
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1971
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Publisher:
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Trianon Press
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Physical Description:
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2 volumes ; 32 cm.
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Background Information:
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This work is one of Blake's earliest experiments with illuminated printing. It also presents early versions of some of his figures and ideas, such as the notion of scientific or rational thought as an enclosing, limiting force. Blake gathered this material into what is now considered two distinct series, A and B, begun in 1788 and amended in 1795. He also later (circa 1820) made minor changes to way this work was printed. The Trianon Press facsimile includes plates from both series held in various collections, including copy C (for series A) and copy L (for series B). Union College holds two copies of this work. The first, labeled 1971, was purchased by the Friends of the Library. The second, labeled 1971a, was donated by Hans Rozendaal and is a special edition demonstrating the methodology used by the Trianon Press in creating its facsimiles. It includes collotype states of all the plates with a hand-stencil plate inside the back cover.
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Student Commentary:
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Overview: In the first version of There is No Natural Religion (series A), Blake examines a rational point of view, stating that human perceptions are limited by the physical attributes of humans themselves. Because humans only have five senses, they can only perceive and deduce things that they have gathered from these senses. In other words, if information is not obtained through first-hand human interaction with a stimulus, then it is impossible for a human to perceive it. This argument has particular importance for the subject of religion. If humans can only perceive what they can gather from their senses, then likely there would be no natural religion because religion is not something one can perceive directly.
Series B of There is No Natural Religion begins with Blake stating that, in fact, human perception is not limited by human senses. He argues that it is possible for growth of knowledge to be infinite, and that the ratio between what we know and what we do not know is ever-shrinking with the pursuit of knowledge. Blake associates the pursuit of infinite knowledge with the divine, in contrast to the narcissism of remaining satisfied with one’s current base of knowledge. – Jessica Rosenthal ‘18
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Commentary by Drue Spallholz '04 from a Student Exhibit, 2003
