The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-10-30
SECULAR PROPHETS.

Arthur Young Lord Chesterfield, an
William Cobbett, are not exactly the
kind Of ,nen whom we should expect to
find among the prophets Arthur Young
was 8 snrewd traveller, with = keen eye
Or leading facts, and a remarkable pow
Or Of describing what he saw, ia plain
h ,nnHly words. Chesterfield was litara-
~ and philosophical dandy, who, richly
fuEni~hed with the small coin Of wisdom.
and fearing nothing SO much as indeco-
rum would have been great teacher if
the earth had been a draw ng room
C,bosst was coarse, rough English
farmer, with an extraordinary power of
Yeasnniag at the dictate of his prejudice
aud with such faculty of wiring racy
rigorous English as eXcites the admira
!ou aud he despair of scholars. /
seems almost luiicrous to speak Of sucn
men as prophets. And yet Arthur
Yaung 'orttuld the coming of the French
Revolution a. the time when the fore
;no$t men Of France did not dream that
81, greatest at political commissions was
'oon 10 ay Tow the proudest. of monarch
'ce Ard the dandifrd morality of Lord
Chests aid did not revent him from
making a similar prediction. Coohett
made guess which was still more nota-
h'e; for ~ the beginning of present cen
tary, hn Furetold the secession of the
) uthern S;a,es But the most remark
able OF all the secular phophets who
have spoken TO our time isis Helne. He
might seem indeed 10 have been living
'rny on lie very name of prophet, for
be read backward all the sanctities Of re-
'hglon aud all the commands of the moral
Lr& E, pntially humorist, to whom
life seemeed now the saddest of myste :
rios. and now The most Iaughahle of jokes,
ii. male sp,rt Of everything that he
touched. His most fervid English devs.
tee, Mr Mathe Arnold, is torced to
admit that he was profoundly disrespec-
cab e He qusrrelIed with his best
friends for frivolous petty reasons, and
repaid their kindness by writing lam !
poems which are masterpieces at once Of
l''erary skill and of mallgnity. Neither
Tottaire mr. Pope scattered calumnies
with such lack of scrupIe, and Byron
himself was not more persistent or
nore systematic voluptuary. Yet Heine
was so true g prophet that his predic
uous might have been accounted the
work of inspiration if he had been as
famed for pIety or purity as he was
notorious for irrelIgiOn and profigacy.
lie predicted that Germany and France
would be utterly put down. He
predicted that tue line of fOrtifca
t,uns which M. Theirs was then build
80 round Paris would draw TO the
capital great hostile army, and that they
would crush the city as if they were q con-
tractlng iron shroud, He pred Icted that the
C,mmunists would some day get the upper
II nd n Paris, that they would strike in
brit Of feDGish rage at the statues, the beau
.,tul buildings, and all the other tangible
marks of the. civilization which they sought
e." destroy that they would throw down tho
EcnGome Column IN their hate of the man
40 had made France the foe Of every other
,copie and that they would further show
taelr cxecration for his memory by taking
MS ashes from the InvalideS and fingng
.l.m into the seiue. ALI these pred ctions,
We The last, have been fulfilled TO the let
f..l and it would need boldGr prophet than
ven II cine himself to say hat the last will
not te verified also. Popular Science Monthly
for October