quote · Legacy record
By nature peccable and frail are we, Easily beguiled; to vice, to error prone; But apt for virtue too. Humanity Is not a field where tares and thorns alone Are left to spring; good seed hath there been sown With no unsparing hand. Sometimes the shoot Is choked with weeds, or withers on a stone; But in a kindly soil it strikes its root, And flourisheth, and bringeth forth abundant fruit.
By nature peccable and frail are we, Easily beguiled; to vice, to error prone; But apt for virtue too. Humanity Is not a field where tares and thorns alone Are left to spring; good seed hath there been sown With no unsparing hand. Sometimes the shoot Is choked with weeds, or withers on a stone; But in a kindly soil it strikes its root, And flourisheth, and bringeth forth abundant fruit.
Approximate author period: c. 1808 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Robert Southey
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1808 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1774–1843)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 237 · printed citation: Southey · subject: FRAILTY
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.