Joseph Blanco White

Joseph Blanco White (né José María Blanco y Crespo; 11 July 1775 – 20 May 1841) was an Anglo-Spanish political thinker, theologian, and poet.

If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?

No common soul dwelt within that lifeless form ~ James Martineau

Quotes

• Mysterious night, when the first man but knew
  Thee by report, unseen, and heard they name,
  Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
  This glorious canopy of light and blue?
  Yet ’neath a curtain of translucent dew
  Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
  Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came,
  And lo! creation widened on his view!
  Who could have thought what darkness lay concealed
  Within thy beams, oh Sun? Or who could find,
  Whil’st fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed,
  That to such endless orbs thou mad’st us blind?
  Weak man! Why to shun death, this anxious strife?
  If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?
  • Petrarchan sonnet. "Night and Death", The Bijou (1828), p. 16
  • Variants: the first man but knew] our first parent knew · by report, unseen] from report divine · on his view] in man’s view
  • William Sharp, Sonnets of this Century (1886), p. 322, substitutes ‘flow’r’ for ‘fly’ in line 11.

• I wish to record the continuance, or rather the increase, of my delight in the Unitarian Service. For a long time did I avoid going to Church, except to the Lord's Supper, because the service had grown intolerable to me. I now rejoice at the approach of Sunday. This very morning while at Chapel, I had the strongest and deepest conviction that I had never witnessed anything so really sublime as the whole worship in which I was joining. I can also attest the admirable behaviour of the Congregation. There is a marked attention on all sides. In a word, the whole service is a reality. I heartily thank God for having been made acquainted with the Unitarian Worship. I have seen nothing superior, nor even equal to it.
  • Journal entry (11 April 1835), reproduced in J. H. Thom, ed., The Life of the Rev. Joseph Blanco White, written by Himself, II (1845), p. 121

Quotes about White

• No common soul dwelt within that lifeless form: a vast knowledge, a rare wisdom, a rich experience, a devout trust, are plunged into the unfathomable night, and hidden from our eyes.
  • Funeral sermon delivered by James Martineau at Renshaw Street Chapel, reproduced in J. H. Thom, ed., Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy (1877), p. xl