ignorance is bliss. Yet ah! why should they know their fate? Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; where ignorance is bliss, Tis folly to be wise. English poet Thomas Gray wrote the above in his Ode on a Dis- tant Prospect of Eton College (1742), and unintentionally added a proverb to the language. It has been observed that Gray didn’t mean it is better to be ignorant than wise at all times, the popu- lar usage given to his words, for he makes an important qualifi- cation by using the word where. But a reading of the whole poem shows that he did mean it is better for man to be blissfully ignorant of his fate. |