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Essay XXXV: Of Prophecies
Essay XXXV: Of Prophecies
I mean not to speak of divine prophecies; nor of heathen oracles; nor of
natural predictions; but only of prophecies that have been of certain memory,
and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa ^1 to Saul, To-morrow thou and thy
son shall be with me. Homer hath these verses:
[Footnote 1: Witch of Endor.]
At domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris, Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab
illis.
[But the house of Aeneas shall reign in all lands, and his children`s
children, and their generations.] A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman
empire. Seneca the tragedian hath these verses:
-----Venuent annis
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat Tellus, Tiphysque novos
Detegat orbes; nec sit terris
Ultima Thule
[There shall come a time when the bands of ocean shall be loosened, and the
vast earth shall be laid open; another Tiphys shall disclose new worlds, and
lands shall be seen beyond Thule]: a prophecy of the discovery of America. The
daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father, and Apollo
anointed him; and it came to pass that he was crucified in an open place,
where the sun made his body run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of
Macedon dreamed he sealed up his wife`s belly; whereby he did expound it, that
his wife should be barren; but Aristander the soothsayer told him his wife was
with child, because men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A phantasm
that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, said to him, Philippis iterum me
videbis [Thou shall see me again at Philippi]. Tiberius said to Galba, Tu
quoque, Galba, degustabis imperium [Thou likewise, Galba, shall taste of
empire]. In Vespasian`s time, there went a prophecy in the East, that those
that should come forth of Judea should reign over the world: which though it
may be was meant of our Savior; yet Tacitus expounds it of Vespasian. Domitian
dreamed, the night before he was slain, that a golden head was growing out of
the nape of his neck: and indeed the succession that followed him for many
years, made golden times. Henry the Sixth of England said of Henry the
Seventh, when he was a lad, and gave him water, This is the lad that shall
enjoy the crown for which we strive. When I was in France, I heard from one
Dr. Pena, that the Queen Mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the
King her husband`s nativity to be calculated, under a false name; and the
astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel; at which the
Queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels: but he
was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery
going in at his beaver. ^2 The trivial ^3 prophecy, which I heard when I was a
child, and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years, was,
[Footnote 2: The movable face part of a helmet.]
[Footnote 3: Common.]
When hempe is spun
England`s done:
whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princes had reigned which
had the principal letters of that word hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary,
Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion; which, thanks
be to God, is verified only in the change of the name; for that the King`s
style ^4 is now no more of England, but of Britain. There was also another
prophecy, before the year of `88, which I do not well understand.
[Footnote 4: Title.]
There shall be seen upon a day,
Between the Baugh and the May,
The black fleet of Norway.
When that that is come and gone,
England build houses of lime and stone,
For after wars shall you have none.
It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in
`88: for that the king of Spain`s surname, as they say, is Norway. The
prediction of Regiomontanus,
Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus
[The eighty-eighth, a year of wonders], was thought likewise accomplished in
the sending of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in
number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. As for Cleon`s dream, I think it
was a jest. It was, that he was devoured of a long dragon; and it was
expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled him exceedingly. There are
numbers of the like kind; especially if you include dreams, and predictions of
astrology. But I have set down these few only of certain credit, for example.
My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised; and ought to serve but for
winter talk by the fireside. Though when I say despised, I mean it as for
belief; for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be
despised. For they have done much mischief; and I see many severe laws made to
suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth in
three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they
miss; as they do generally also of dreams. The second is, that probable
conjectures, or obscure traditions, many times turn themselves into
prophecies; while the nature of man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no
peril to foretell that which indeed they do but collect. ^5 As that of
Seneca`s verse. For so much was then subject to demonstration, that the globe
of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, which mought be probably
conceived not to be all sea: and adding thereto the tradition in Plato`s
Timaeus, and his Atlanticus, it mought encourage one to turn it to a
prediction. The third and last (which is the great one) is, that almost all of
them, being infinite in number, have been impostures, and by idle and crafty
brains merely contrived and feigned after the event past.
[Footnote 5: Infer.]
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