Minds are "like smooth paper never writ upon, / When folded up, by some impression / Marks will remain it never had before, / And ne're return to former smoothness more."

— Howard, Sir Robert (1626-1698)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
printed for Henry Herringham
Date
1665
Metaphor
Minds are "like smooth paper never writ upon, / When folded up, by some impression / Marks will remain it never had before, / And ne're return to former smoothness more."
Metaphor in Context
VER.
Does heaven on all mankinde such good bestow?
My Fortune's excellent, or they are so:
I grow strangely concern'd, some unknown cause
A secret warmth into my bosom draws;
I blush I know ot why; my confus'd sense
Whispers, that shame can live with innocence;
Minds like smooth paper never writ upon,
When folded up, by some impression
Marks will remain it never had before,
And ne're return to former smoothness more.
Provenance
Reading Maclean's John Locke and English Literature, (1962), p. 33
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
03/27/2005

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.