New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-18
CHARLES SUMMERS BOOK.
prophetic VOICES CONCERNING AMER
ICAD

WHAT THY HAVE pREDICIED-h NAAi0'' -
WHICH CONTINENT is HoT TOO LARGE.
frsoM A REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF IHs +, 80 az /
BosroN. April lG.-"Hold the last 1aSl, says '"'
proyerb and there is no danger that tne county,
touched to universal mourning py tue LOSE '. y,
greatest statesman. Charles sumner WIZ ia' "
S,.t ord read reverently the book which Is inc oc-
ouest Of the dcad-the last gift he can ever Jay upon
that altar of his country before when he nas
- to,tbfnlly and 50 long. Mr. Sumner was unques-
.sari, tho most learned Of all our public men.
earning critics have even found fault with the
.e,nenca of that culture which overlooked per-
hans TOO often into his speeches, aud filled
chem with illustrations common as house
hold words 70 his thought but often cavilre TO the
,nlear Probably there not Six other men in Con-
,rsss of sufficiently extensive research TO have writ
ton the Prophetic Voices Concerning America"
which was Mr.. Summers last work, ana which Lee
a. Shepard have now nearly ready for publication.
1T is not much more than compilation said. yes
teTday. one of those Bostonians who would patronze
The stars in their courses True; but what compi-
Istion it isl VINO bat Charles Sumner was familiar
with so many and various sources Of Information
who else has cleaned in SO remote and widely sep
aated fields; for the FIRST quoted authority Is Sen
eca boru IN the second year of our Christian era;
and the last Voice is that of Lucas AamaD,
Mexican statesman and historian, who died in 1853
What had Seneca TO say about that North America
which not discovered by Christopher Co.
iumbus until more than 400 years after Seneca was
gathered to his fathers' If no said anything that
must have been indeed, a prophetic voice" Latin
scholars VIII all remember the passage i'll tho chorus
of his "Medea" commencing "venient annis," &c
OF these lines Bacon says. a prophecy of the dis
eoveIy Of American and Archbishop Whately, IN
his uOtes to the Essay Prophecies, translates
them thus; There shall come time, In later ages
when ocean shall relax his claims and vast conu-
neslt appear and pilot shall find new worlds, and
Thule shall be no more the earths bound"
Fox turning from st9tesmanship TO schc-
arship wrote to Wakefeld Tho pToph-
scy in Seneca's Medea' is very curious
indeed Irying-whO adopted the as motto
en- the titepage of he revised edition of his Ilfo
of Columbus said of the passage Wonderfully
opposite and shows at least how nearly the warm
imagination of q poet may approach TO prophecy
Tho predictions Of the ancient oracle were rarely SO
pnequvOcal" Before the voyage Of Columbus, two
Italian poets seem to have seen in vision, the nm
known world. The first was Petrarch when he pic
tuIed
The daylight hasteuing with winged steps
Perchance 10 gladden. the expectant eyes
OF far-oH nations IN a world remote.
The other was Pulci, TO whose Illuminated ewes
was revealed an undiscovered world beyond the
Piars OF Hercules. The historian, Prescott. thus
translates passage from Palci's Inorganic haggiore:
Know that tins theory is false his bark
The western wave, a smooth and level PLAIN,
Albeit the earth Is fashioned like wheel.
Man was In ancient days OF grosser mold,
And Hercules might blush TO learn how far
Beyond the limits he had vsinly set
The 0uilest seabOat soon shall wing her way.
Men shall descry another hemisphere,
binee 10 one common center all things tend
80 earth, by curious mystery divine
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres
At AntpOdes are cities, states
And throneed empires, ne'er OWNED OF yoIe'
But see, the sun speeds on his western path
To glad the nations with expected light
Pulci was born IN Florence l43l, and died there
1887 five years before Columbus sailed that he
was not aided by any rumOr of the discovery he so
distinctly predicts.
Passing onward from the time Of Columbus the
"Prophetic Voices Concerning America increase IN
number and direetness Mr.. Sumner gives them in
the order of time, prefacing each prediction with
sufficient account of the author TO explain its origin
and character. If familiar, Others are
little known; and taken in body. they must serve
TO give us as they gave him who 30 industriouslv
collected them confidence in the destinies of
the Republic. In such collection only what has
been said sincerely by those whose words were I'M
pOrtant deserved place. and on this principle
Of selection the collection made. In
the brief space of newspaper letter l
can only glance at few of the most important
The muse was not silent at the various reports Of
the newly discovered country. As early as 1885,
Chapman the translator of Homer, wrote poem
about Guiana standing tiptoe, and looking at fair
England. Drayton who 6Ourshed under James l.,
wrote of Virginia as Earths only paradise Dan
iel then poet laureate also sang of the brave, new
world, aud sodly George Herbert wrote,
Religion stands on tiptoe land,
Ready pass 70 the American straud-
lines which ought to have been prophecy, since GER
taluly they were not poetry From the Colonies
rame answering voices for IN whatever else Amer
Sea has been lacking, she has always had faith in
herself. Another English prophet, in our Colonial
days, fOretOld that his country should British
wealth power and glory repeated in the new world
In other lands another Britain see.
Aud what thou art America shall be-
These and many more were sort of poetical
chorus-early birds singing IN the Spring. From
them we pass to nOber voices Of 10 uncertain tone.
John Milton wrote in 1911
What numbers OF faithful aud freeoorn EngshInen
and good Christians have been fOrs2ke
their dearest home their friends and Kindred whom
nothing but the wide aud savage deserts of
America could hide and shelter from the fury of the
bishops! o. we could but see the shape of dear
mother England poets wont give personal
form to what they please, how would appear think
but IN mourning weed with ashes upon her head,
aud tears 6bnndantly flowing from her eyes 10 behold
30 many OF Her children exposed al and thrust
from things Of dearest necessity. because their
conscience could Things which the
bishops thought Indifferent Let the astrOloger be
disnsyed ri The portentOus blaze OF comets aud inn
pressons in the air fOTeteng troubles and
changes 10 states; snail believe there cannot be
illbodng sign to nation God turn the omen
BILE grievances home enforced heaps 10 fosdke
their native country,
In 1861 Abraham COwley-a poet of whom, when
he died Charles II. said, Mr. Cowley has not left
behind him better man in England wrote a Latin
poem. TO the New World In 1905 an English
translation was published, in which occurred these
remarkable words: