Past and Present is a book by Thomas Carlyle. It was published in April 1843 in England and the following month in the United States. It combines medieval history with criticism of 19th-century British society. Carlyle wrote it in seven weeks as a respite from the harassing labor of writing Cromwell. He was inspired by the recently published Chronicles of the Abbey of Saint Edmund's Bury, which had been written by Jocelin of Brakelond at the close of the 12th century. This account of a medieval monastery had taken Carlyle's fancy, and he drew upon it in order to contrast the monks' reverence for work and heroism with the sham leadership of his own day.
“Genius is 'the inspired gift of God.”
It is the clearer presence of God Most High in a man. Dim, potential in all men; in this man it has become clear, actual.
1840s, Past and Present (1843)
Past and Present.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
