Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1861-03-27

!
ernment in any way formidable to him. Then,
was the prediction guess? if not, in what
way can it be accounted for? or was it in
strumcntal itself in bringing about the result
foretcld init? 1t does not seem probable that
man OF sense designing to palm off a gross
imposition on the world, would hazard his pro-
phetical reputation on thing so exceedingly
improbable; yet the prediction was literally
fulfilled. But it IS universally conceded that
Mohammed was an imposter; then, how is
it?
Shakespeare in one of his tragedies, tells US
that Macbeth was hailed by three witches in
succession, as Thane of Glamis, Thane of
Cawdor, and as one that would be king. Ac-
cording to the story, he held the first office at
that tme-was soon after invested with the
secondhand obsained the third by the COM
mission of foul murder. All this is obvi-
ously fiction, but perhaps it is founded on
fact 1t is matter of historical record that
Macbeth, by the assassination of his aged re-
latlve, Duncan, possessed himself of the throne
of Scotland. 1t is not at all improbable that
he was instigated to this by some prediction.
His colleague, Banquo, conyersing with him
on the subject after the salutation of the
witches, gives US n capital idea:
but tits strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths
Win US with honest trifes, to betray us
In deepest consequence
When Josephine was little girl, playing
about the rivulets and upon the mountain
slopes of Martinique, she saw a fortune-te teller,
who, it seems saw something wonderful in
her appearance, that she was to be Queen of
France prediction altogether too good to
occupy even the thoughts of a young vivid
and hopeful mind. And even after her for
tune was united to that Of the Man of Desti-
ny, for long time, when the prediction of
the old dame would recur to her mind. she
looked upon it as a mere conjecture But as
she saw the star of Napoleon rising and shi-
ming brighter and brighter, as if pointing out
the way to the Imperial Diadem, she tells us
she began to think more and more of the for
tune she SO little credited at first It is need
less to mention that she became an Empress
and enjoyed all the dignity and prerogatives
of a queen.
After the execution of Emmet, the Irish
Ia II, t. a man, who, with his family, had been
i'll treated by one of the mnions of the Eng
lish crown, disgui.'ng himself met his OPP
pI essor on the roati and, IN death-llke tone,
told him he was 70 die on certain day
perhaps twelve months from that day. In
the mean time, he managed to repeat the SOL
emn warning at intervals of month in the
ears of the guilty tyrant. The tormented,
frightened wretch fed from place to place to
escape the presence of his unwelcome visitor,
but to no purpose. Precisely at the lapse Of
month fIom preceding warning, the same
grim yisage was seen and the same omnouS
voice, announcing the approach of death, was
heard by him. A few days before the day
appointed for the unhappy man to take his
!, demise he visited, as well as We recollect a
,, friend IN Italy, andrelated to him the strange
circumstance. The friend endeavored to con-
vince him that be was laboring under some
mental hallucination, and consequently tried
to remove his uneasiness by employing his
attention with other subjects. A short while
, before the arrival of the dreaded hour, both
of them walked out for diversion upon the
: bank of canal, but had not proceeded far
when the same ghosty parsonage made mis-
!. appearance on the opposite side, to repeat for
e the last time, the fatal prediction. The man
returned to the house of his friend went tc
d bed, and died as he had been told This was
S most clearly case of death from imagination
or, in other words it was a result brought
about through the fundamentally of the pre-
" diction.
It is not unfrequently the case that predic
e tions of various kinds are the prime causes o
|" their own accomplishment. Oftentimes wher
man is reminded of his ability to do something
or that it is his destiny to become something
% of which he never thought before, he begin
'e to devise schemes to effect the very resul
g foretold. This seems to have been the cas-
d with Macbeth. This is further illustrated il
l. the case Of Hazael. When he was told by tn
prophet Elijah that he was to become king Q
Syria, and commit great many cruelties, h
at first scorned the idea of such thing bu
we find him very soon afterwards taking tn
u precaution to remove the only serious obsta
u Gle between him and the Syrian throne |
er seems that an actual truth was foretold t,
7e Hazael, and that the prediction stimulate
er him to work for its accomplishment
of The following prophecy, concerning tn
ed Mohammedan power, is said to have been Vi
n tered IN the middle of the fifteenth century
which, if true is certainly mysterious:
C. In twice two hundred years
re The bear, the crescent will assail
in And if the cock and bull unite
b The bear will not prevail.
ie In twice ten years again,
all Let Islam know and fear,
The cross shall stand, the creeccnt wane,
Dissolve and disappear.
an Four centuries ago there was no cause e,
he isting which could give rise to such predi
lis ton. The Turkish arms were then every
10 where victorious. The Greek Empre viii
lis it's capital was overrun with their conquerin
ge legions, and the monarchs of the West wei
ce. trembling at the approach of the fierce inv;
Ire ders The first half of the prophecy, as v
m all know, was fulfilled about ten years az
he by an attack of Russia on Turkey, and an a
IN lance of France and England to save the W
us ming Crescent and keep down the rising Cros
W.. But the latter half is to be accomplished We
eat by which, should it prove as true as the forr
lis or, the sublime Porte is to suffer tot
lus eclipse from the increasing splendor of h
'us ambitious neighbor. According to the pr,
ny, dicton, this event may be looked for in abo
art ten years. or little more; and judging fro
'al- the present state of affairs, it is highly pro
= able it will prove true. It is obviously ma
his ifest that the power SO Formidable to the wor
ced for the last twelve centuries is soon to
ST. numbered with the things that were
her FYORIIS
to Davidson College, n. c.
liie -...-
lui' DO as I told You, and let Liquor alon