John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
5280 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 5280 |
| AUTHOR: | Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| QUOTATION: | Often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events, And in to-day already walks to-morrow. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | The Death of Wallenstein. Act v. Sc. 1. |
| Note 1. Sed ita a principio inchoatum esse mundum ut certis rebus certa signa præcurrerent (Thus in the beginning the world was so made that certain signs come before certain events).—Cicero: Divinatione, liber i. cap. 52. Coming events cast their shadows before.—Thomas Campbell: Lochiel’s Warning. Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present.—Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Defence of Poetry. [back] |