The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1879-03-21

bOiu snail be found and grown
In land that's not yet known.
Fire and water shall wonders do.
England at last shall admit Jew,
The world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one
| lSome months ago, to distract my min,
from other thoughts, took up the consider
alton of "Mother Shipton's prophecy" ant
at intervals have progressed so far in its dis
cussion as to the last two lines thereof. Tn,
article has been lying before me incomplete
and | have not time now to finish it bu
Mother Marsh does not, as you seem to think
Guido Mother Shipton.
Some day may discuss the last two line.
at length.
JOHN G.. FREEZE
This prophecy is said to have been written
in the year 1853. 1t has certainly been
known for as long time as that and is only
one of number, uttered by the same per.
sonage. Who mother Shipton was is a mat.
|
orally that the predictions are English.
All agesand countries have had their seers
prophets, wise men, magicians, augurs and
sibylle. We hear of enchanters, wise men
and magiciaus among the Egyptians in the
| time of Moses, men so skilled in their occult
arts and legerdemain as to almost rival the
| prophet of the Hebrews. "And Aaron cast
down his rod before Pharaoh and before his
servants and it became serpent. Then
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the
sorcerers Now the magicians of Egypt,
they also did in like manner with their en-.
! chsntments. For they cast down every man
his rod, and they became serpents: But
Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" And
so with several other of the signs and won
ders wrought by Moses, the magicians did
so with their entertainments. The reason
why this was allowed is susceptible of several
explanations, but we shall not trouble our
selves to explain or account for the fact
| stated contenting ourselves with giving it
as we find it. And further along in the his.
| tory of the Jewish people comes the curious
interesting and highly poetca episode of
Balaam. Nothing more gorgeously eastern
| in all its appointments and surroundings
can be found any where in history or poetry
splendid embassy of the first men of the
kingdom with the rewards of divination in
their hands, making journey to this heath
en- seer and magician living in the highlands
of the upper Euphrates, with promise of
high promotion and great honor and riches
what could be more tempting, what more
satisfying to mind like his than such re.
wards. And when he comes, the King
makes a journey to the utmost coast of Moab
to meet him, and conducts him in great
pomp and ceremony to Kirjath Huzoth.
And on the next day, conducting him to the
chief place of the worship of Baal, whence
the Israelites could be mostly seen, Balaam
| ordered the erection of seven alters, and the
preparation of seven oxen and seven rams
And this magical number was repeated at
every new sacrificial offer. But the Seer
was not permitted to curse Israel
house full of silver and gold, unlimited
honor, the power of keeping the Kings con-
science, and all the arts of divination were of
no avail. Surely" cried the bafled ma
gician. ....
"Surely there is no enchantment against
Jacob,
Neither is there any divination against
Israeli"
and he proceeded then by divine permission
to prophesy concerning the strange people,
in strain of eloquence and imagery unsur-
passed.
So,the augurs and soothsayers and sibylie
of the Greeks and Romans of whose sayings
and doings their history and poetry is full,
show that those hopes and desires to see into
the future, and the imaginings that by some
means, glimpses of coming events may be
had, descended TO all nations alike.
Germany is full of popular prophecies -
some of them so minute and specific in their
details of events and the places of their cu-
mination as to almost stagger the sturdiest
unbeliever. l shall not discuss them, nor
even more particularly refer to them mere
ly thus noting the fact as | 60 along.
The second sight among the Scottish high
landers, the subject of romance, poetry and
song; which power comes sometimes by
divination and sometimes in trance, is not
yet displaced either in its belief or its prac-
tice in the districts where for ages it has
been known and encouraged.
So too, mother Shipton does not stand
alone in her claim to look into futurity,
among the Englsh-we have also Friar Ba.
con and back of him the magician Merlin
and around them all and their utterances,
the glamor of distance, the glow of poetry,
aud the half belief in their sayings, How
can we, who read ofthe Egyptian magicians,
and Balaam the Seer, and the Hebrew
prophets, diyest our minds entirely of the
thought, not to say conviction, or even be-
lief that a glance into the future may not
have been, for some wise purpose, granted
to the lowly of earth So that, though we
saw and heard, yet should not understand.
Is not this belief in the supernatural and
mental and moral consciousness of the time
when the Creator, and other heavenly in
telligences appeared on the earth and talked
to men, and revealed personally that which
should be thereaiterH Could any such be-
lief be so universal among the untutored and
unlearned, except it was evolved from the
inner consciousness of the individual? 1t
is all very well to argue against it,and prove
by the andisruted rules Of logic that such
things cannot be but belief does not follow
demonstration, and rules of reasoning are
powerless against what seems to be innate.
The days of prophecy are passed, the iu-
exorable logic of events is now our only
guide to conclusions as to .what is to be
argue both the skeptical and the orthodox.
They forget that it is the improbable that
happens, and though the reason may be