For what does foreshowing avail, if a thing shall certainly come to pass, and if there could be no averting of it either by human devices or by divine providence?

Next (like Aurora) Spenser rose, 7 Whose purple blush the day foreshows; The other three with his own fires Phoebus, the poet's god, inspires; By Shakespeare's, Jonson's, Fletcher's lines, Our stage's lustre Rome's outshines: These poets near our princes sleep, And in one grave their mansion keep.

The comet that, they say, portends a dearth, Was but a vapour drawn from play-house earth: Pent there since our last fire, and, Lilly says, Foreshows our change of state, and thin third-days. 'Tis not our want of wit that keeps us poor; For then the printer's press would suffer more.

"Sometimes the second-sight consists of a picture clearly foreshowing some coming event; more frequently, perhaps, the glimpse of the future is given in some symbolical appearance.