The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-03-30
dwelling the Future.

w
lips are dumb" We know that after
very little while, no matter what have
been our hopes and fears, our failures
and successes, our sutferings and happi-
ness, we shall each and all lie down to
rest Why then should we vex our souls
in striving to grapple in advance with the
events we are destined to meet along the
pathway which leads to the inevitable
doom? Why not wait calmly and patient
ly for our allotted experience, endure it
rs we may, and leave the reason and
result in the hands of Heaven?
Yet from the earliest ages Of the world
we find among mankind, civilized and
barbarous, an irresistible desire to draw
aside the mysterious curtain, and peer
into the shadows and sunshine OF the in
finite To Come. The disciples of Plato
and Socrates consulted the Delphic oracle
the descendants of Romulus watched the
flight of birds and studied the Sybilline
books and the entrails of victims slain on
the sacriiicial altar; the people Of India
and China, like those who dwelt on the
banks of the sacred Nile, sought this vain
knowledge Of their priests; the Bible is
full OF spiritual sights, consultations, and
visions the children of Abraham resort
oSosS-A
''second sight" is famous and its cXtraor-
dinary provisions are in many cases well
authenticated. The African negroes and
the American Indians have their medicine
men, and the inhabitants of ChriStcndom
prove their intelligence by requenting
the haunts OF fortune -tellcrs and clairvoy-
ants. SO it always has been, and SO it
| always will be, down to the last syllable
of recorded time.
What wonder that the public will al
ways seek to fathom the mysterious
powers of spirit mediums, when such
men rs Bulwer and Il dozen of the
| English Lords who sign their names to
the announcement, testify to having seen
Hume lifted and carried horizontally,
feet first from the midst Of them, right
| through an open window. thirty or forty
feet above the London pavements, and
| brought back, through another window,
feet first, and safely deposited on his feet ?
Why should not people desire to see, when
British EarIs, and authors like Bulwer
and William Hewitt, testify to having
seen and handled hands having no con
nection with any mortal body-hands
having live vigor in them, too and greet
| ing the witnesses by a hearty and brother
| " hsnd-oholsinG.
One of the most remarkable of these
modern revelators is Madame Cor Made
moiselle-Which is itD Le Normand Of
Paris She has told astounding things to
the first Napoleon, and to other crowned
heads in the past. She is u very old
woman now-very nearly, OF quite, 99 !.
She announced. in the year Of Napoleon's
disastrous campaign in Russia, nearly
sixty years ago, that she would live to
the astounding age of 10S-and she seems
TO be destined to carry out the prediction.
| From Il late account Of this singular
woman we quote
There was living i'll Paris as late rs
November, 1869, Il deaf, toothless, nearly
blind old woman. who had reached the
age OF ninety-eight years. In spite OF de-
crepitude and many intirmities, she still
practised her profession with almost the
same success that had made her famous
more than half century before. re-
cent visitor says:
"She is sorceress as still. Carriages wait a
her door. Ladies ofrank frequent her boudoir
The remarkable predictions she makes are more
remarkably verified | dare not write what she
told Madame Vernon was to be the future o.
the Emperor TW shonld be fue-,chich nou
seems imp0ssible-the parallel Jetareen tn,
nepheee and the uncle arould be complete"
When it is borne in mind that the lines
we have italicised were penned yeal
ago, and when we remember what ha
since transpred, no comments are neces-
sary.
At Alcnson, in Normandy, some time
in the year l772, Adelaide Lenormant
was born. Nothing is known of her earl
life, except that ner parents being poor
she was educated at tbs expense of the
government in the Eenedictine convent o
her native place An intimate friend o
Md'lIe Lenormand in 1Sl1-13, says: "Sht
remembers having singular powers of OBJ
servation and imagination since she was
, seven years old, and an expression sh,
often uses in reference to this period o
her lite. is Il was waking somnambu
list ~
. AT seventeen we find our sybil in Paris
engaged in lortune-tclling, and studying
, with great assiduity astronomy ant
algebra, which she held contained tn,
, fundamental principles of her profession
AT the beginning and throughout her sub
sequcnt career, she always insisted tha
+ the art she practiced was neither guess
$ work nor necromancy, but Il pure science
the most important portions of which hat
been derived from sources revealed t,
none save herself. Her reputation speed
lily became very great, and when tn
:, revolution broke out she was already en-
ioying the full tide OF popularity an,
making the most of it bv rapid accumul
lation Of fortune. By some means neve
satisfactorily explained, Lenormand, wh,
! was u devoted royalist, involved hersel
in u plot having for its object the libera
| ton Of Marie Antionctte from the prison
Of the Temple. The plot failed, and she
: with u number of fellow conspirators
y y was arrested and sent first to the dun
n geons of La Petite Force, and afterward
:, to the Luxembourg. The reign of tcrro
e was then at its height; the heads of noble
], and plebeians were falling every day int
e the basket Of the guillotine, and the street
8 of Paris, drenched with blood, was a vas
slaughter-house but the young gil
evinced no fears for her safety, ''be caus
the stars had told her the imprison
ment could be only of short duration
e and that she would live to becom
G q centenarian." Within the gloom
# walls of Luxembourg she met Creol
:, lady, the widow of Il French gentleman
q whom Robespierre had lately sent to tn
IL scaffold. Attracted by the beauty an
t grace of her companion in misfortune
r Lenormand offered to unlock the futur
b and what consolation lay therein for tn
homeless, friendless woman. A fair whit
hand was presented, its lines examined
the cards and the heavens consulted, ant
u the wonderful story told. The youn
widow was startled to find that It cor
r responded in every particular with tn
G horoscope drawn years before by a
J, Obipythoness at Martinique, in the Yves
G Indies. She lived to see that dua
# horoscope verified-for her name wa
y Josephine Beauharnais.
v 1t is said that after her second marriae
II0SGnhlnn nnntlHpd fhnSa 4