century-wide

Updated: June 15, 2025

These century-wide contrasts and concussions, jar so terribly sometimes, that we are half-inclined to ask with M. de Tocqueville, whether we do not seem to be on the eve of a new Byzantine era, in which 'little men shall discuss and ape the deeds which great men did in their forefathers' days. The refrain in this nineteenth century is, 'still the showman, still the spectator, until we become almost tired of the song.

Henry Blackburn - Normandy Picturesque