"Often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events, And in to-day already walks to-morrow."

The Death of Wallenstein. Act v. Sc. 1.

"Our myriad-minded Shakespeare."

Biog. Lit. Chap. xv.

"A dwarf sees farther than the giant when he has the giant's shoulder to mount on."

The Friend. Sec. i. Essay 8.

"An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries, with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and star."

Ibid., No. 14.

"Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics."

Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, p. 36. Delivered 1811-1812.

"Schiller has the material sublime."

Table Talk.

"I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose,--words in their best order; poetry,--the best words in their best order."

Table Talk.

"That passage is what I call the sublime dashed to pieces by cutting too close with the fiery four-in-hand round the corner of nonsense."

Table Talk.

"Iago's soliloquy, the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity--how awful it is!"

Notes on some other Plays of Shakespeare.

"If this bill [for the admission of Orleans Territory as a State] passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union; that it will free the States from their moral obligation; and, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation,--amicably if they can, violently if they must."

Abridged Cong. Debates, Jan. 14, 1811. Vol. iv. p. 327.

""You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,-- Now tell me the reason I pray.""

The Old Man's Comforts, and how he gained them.

"The march of intellect."

Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. Vol. ii. p. 360. The Doctor, Chap. Extraordinary.

"The laws are with us, and God on our side."

On the Rise and Progress of Popular Disaffection (1817), Essay viii. Vol. ii. p. 107.

"Agreed to differ."

Life of Wesley.

"My days among the dead are passed; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day."

Occasional Pieces. xxiii.

"How does the water Come down at Lodore?"

The Cataract of Lodore.

"So I told them in rhyme, For of rhymes I had store."

The Cataract of Lodore.

"Through moss and through brake."

The Cataract of Lodore.

"A sight to delight in."

The Cataract of Lodore.

"And so never ending, but always descending."

The Cataract of Lodore.

"And this way the water comes down at Lodore."

The Cataract of Lodore.

"From his brimstone bed, at break of day, A-walking the Devil is gone, To look at his little snug farm of the World, And see how his stock went on."

The Devil's Walk. Stanza 1.

"He passed a cottage with a double coach-house,-- A cottage of gentility; And he owned with a grin, That his favourite sin Is pride that apes humility."

The Devil's Walk. Stanza 8.

"Where Washington hath left His awful memory A light for after times!"

Ode written during the War with America, 1814.

"How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures; nor cloud, or speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven: In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths; Beneath her steady ray The desert circle spreads Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. How beautiful is night!"

Thalaba. Book i. Stanza 1.

""But what good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin. "Why, that I cannot tell," said he; "But 't was a famous victory.""

The Battle of Blenheim.

"Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue."

Madoc in Wales. Part i. 5.

"What will not woman, gentle woman dare, When strong affection stirs her spirit up?"

Madoc in Wales. Part ii. 2.

"And last of all an Admiral came, A terrible man with a terrible name,-- A name which you all know by sight very well, But which no one can speak, and no one can spell."

The March to Moscow. Stanza 8.

"They sin who tell us love can die; With life all other passions fly, All others are but vanity. . . . . . Love is indestructible, Its holy flame forever burneth; From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. . . . . . It soweth here with toil and care, But the harvest-time of love is there."

The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 10.

"Oh, when a mother meets on high The babe she lost in infancy, Hath she not then for pains and fears, The day of woe, the watchful night, For all her sorrow, all her tears, An over-payment of delight?"

The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 11.

"Thou hast been called, O sleep! the friend of woe; But 't is the happy that have called thee so."

The Curse of Kehama. Canto xv. Stanza 11.

"The Satanic School."

Vision of Judgment. Original Preface.

"The red-letter days now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days."

Oxford in the Vacation.

"For with G. D., to be absent from the body is sometimes (not to speak profanely) to be present with the Lord."

Oxford in the Vacation.

"A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game."

Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist.

"Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune."

A Chapter on Ears.

"Not if I know myself at all."

The Old and New Schoolmaster.

"It is good to love the unknown."

Valentine's Day.

"The pilasters reaching down were adorned with a glistering substance (I know not what) under glass (as it seemed), resembling--a homely fancy, but I judged it to be sugar-candy; yet to my raised imagination, divested of its homelier qualities, it appeared a glorified candy."

My First Play.

"Presents, I often say, endear absents."

A Dissertation upon Roast Pig.

"It argues an insensibility."

A Dissertation upon Roast Pig.

"Books which are no books."

Detached Thoughts on Books.

"Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it."

Amicus Redivivus.

"Gone before To that unknown and silent shore."

Hester. Stanza 7.

"I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days. All, all are gone, the old familiar faces."

Old Familiar Faces.

"For thy sake, tobacco, I Would do anything but die."

A Farewell to Tobacco.

"And half had staggered that stout Stagirite."

Written at Cambridge.

"Who first invented work, and bound the free And holiday-rejoicing spirit down . . . . . . . . . To that dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood? . . . . . . . . . Sabbathless Satan!"

Work.

"I like you and your book, ingenious Hone! In whose capacious all-embracing leaves The very marrow of tradition 's shown; And all that history, much that fiction weaves."

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.