- There Is No Natural Religion
- William Blake
- Exported from Wikisource on 12/19/19
- There is No Natural Religion [a]
- Frontispiece (page 1). Copy G, c1
- The Argument
- Man has no notion of moral
- fitness but from Education.
- Naturally he is only a natu-
- ral organ subject to Sense.
- I
- Man cannot naturally Per-
- ceive, but through his natural
- or bodily organs
- II
- Man by his reason-
- ing power. can only
- compare & judge of
- what he has already
- perceiv'd.
- III
- From a perception of
- only 3 senses or 3 ele
- -ments none could de-
- -duce a fourth or fifth
- IV
- None could have other
- than natural or organic
- thoughts if he had none
- but organic perceptions
- V
- Mans desires are
- limited by his percepti
- ons. none can de-
- -sire what he has not
- prceiv'd
- VI
- The desires & percepti-
- -ons of man untaught by
- any thing but organs of
- sense, must be limited
- to objects of sense.
- There is No Natural Religion [b]
- I
- Man's percepti-
- -ons are not bound
- -ed by organs of
- perception. he per-
- -ceives more than
- sense (tho' ever
- so acute) can
- discover
- II
- Reason or the ra-
- -tio of all we have
- already known is
- not the same that
- it shall be when
- we know more
- IV
- The bounded is
- loathed by its pos-
- -sessor.The same
- dull round even
- of the univer[s]e, would
- soon become a
- mill with complica-
- -ted wheels.
- V
- If the many bec-
- -ome the same as
- the few, when pos-
- -sess'd, More! More!
- is the cry of a mista-
- -ken soul, less than
- All cannot satisfy
- Man
- VI
- If any could de-
- -sire what he is in-
- -capable of posses-
- sing, despair must
- be his eternal
- lot
- VII
- The desire of
- Man being Infi-
- -nite the possession
- is Infinite & him-
- -self Infinite
- Application
- He who sees the In-
- -finite in all things
- sees God. He who
- sees the Ratio only
- sees himself only
- Conclusion
- If it were not for the
- Poetic or Prophetic
- character, the Philo-
- -sophic& Experimen-
- -tal would soon be
- at the ratio of all
- things, & stand still,
- unable to do other
- than repeat the same
- dull round over a-
- -gain
- Therefore
- God becomes as
- we are, that we
- may be as he
- is
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