TRUTH & LIES

Yale Center for British Art

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

To Blake a lie is not a minor thing. Since mental things alone are real, to believe a lie or to promulgate a lie, is to distort reality. If the soul is awake man sees not with his natural vision but with his spiritual vision which discerns truth.

It would be impossible to engage in deceit of others and maintain the ability to recognize truth in its eternal sense. The windows of perception must be kept clean in order for the infinite to appear. But Blake tells us that if we attempt to 'Defend a Lie' we 'may be snared & caught & taken.' Deceit is not permanent because it 'forges fetters for the mind' which will be 'Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it.'

To cast off all that is false and to receive all that is true is the nature and purpose of life.

Milton, Plate 8, (E 102)
"But Palamabron called down a Great Solemn Assembly,
That he who will not defend Truth, may be compelled to
Defend a Lie, that he may be snared & caught & taken"

Songs and Ballads, Auguries of Innocence, (E 492)
"Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born 
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye 
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light"

Everlasting Gospel, (E 520)
"When the Soul fell into Sleep
And Archangels round it weep
Shooting out against the Light
Fibres of a deadly night        
Reasoning upon its own Dark Fiction
In Doubt which is Self Contradiction
Humility is only Doubt
And does the Sun & Moon blot out
Rooting over with thorns & stems     
The buried Soul & all its Gems
This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with not thro the Eye   
That was born in a night to perish in a night
When the Soul slept in the beams of Light.

Annotations to Bacon, (E 621)
"What Bacon calls Lies is Truth itself"

Songs and Ballads, Auguries of Innocence, (E 491)
"A truth thats told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent"
             
Songs and Ballads, (E 472)
"Love to faults is always blind
Always is to joy inclind                             
Lawless wingd & unconfind                       
And breaks all chains from every mind

Deceit to secresy confind                
Lawful cautious & refind                        
To every thing but interest blind               
And forges fetters for the mind"      

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 565)
 The Last Judgment is an Overwhelming of Bad Art & Science. 
Mental Things are alone Real what is Calld Corporeal Nobody Knows
of its Dwelling Place   it is in Fallacy & its Existence an
Imposture  Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought Where is
it but in the Mind of a Fool.  Some People flatter themselves
that there will be No Last Judgment & that Bad Art will be
adopted & mixed with Good Art That Error or Experiment will make
a Part of Truth & they Boast that it is its Foundation   these
People flatter themselves   I will not Flatter them Error is
Created   Truth is Eternal   Error or Creation will be Burned Up &
then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear   It is Burnt up
the Moment Men cease to behold it"  

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 562)
"All Life consists of these Two Throwing off Error 
continually & recieving Truth  Continually."