The William Blake Blog

Blake Bites: I Must Create a System
Hannah McAuliffe shows why Blake's "I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans" is less at odds with Enlightenment system building than is often thought.

In this video, Hannah McAuliffe from the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York, examines how Blake's famous epigram - "I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans" - is part of a much more complex relation with Enlightenment thinking and system building than is often appreciated.