"When painful truths invade the mind, / Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind, / And hates th' officious ray."

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)


Work Title
Date
May, 1758; 1793
Metaphor
"When painful truths invade the mind, / Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind, / And hates th' officious ray."
Metaphor in Context
Nor yet explore, with curious bent,
What, known, would but thy soul torment,
  And all its hopes betray:
When painful truths invade the mind,
Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind,
  And hates th' officious ray.

(p. 54; cf. p. 253 in London Magazine)
Provenance
Searching "mind" and 'invad" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO.
Citation
At least 2 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1758, 1793).

First published in The London Magazine. Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer. For May 1758. (London: Printed for R. Baldwin, 1758), 253. <Link to ECCO>>

Text from Poems by the Late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock; Together With an Essay on the Education of the Blind. to Which Is Prefixed a New Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. (Edinburgh: Printed by Alexander Chapman and Company; sold by W. Creech, Edinburgh, and T. Cadell, London, 1793). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
05/04/2005

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