John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
5061 William Wordsworth 1770-1850 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 5061 |
| AUTHOR: | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| QUOTATION: | Spires whose “silent finger points to heaven.” 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | The Excursion.Book vi. |
| WORKS: | William Wordsworth Collection. |
| Note 1. 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 stars.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Friend, No. 14. [back] |