River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-06-11
SUPERNATURAL WARNINGS.
Undue Importance Attached to Natural
Occurrences.

DO human beings, in these modern
days, ever receive supernatural hints
touching the future? IL is said that
coming events east their shadows be-
fore, but have we any positive proof OF
il? One rarely hears of presentiments
until the events claimed to have been
foreshadOwed have actually occurred.
This fact gives to most of the stories OF
preternatural warnings a somewhat
fishy flavor. Mere suspicious. if they
chance To be subsequently confirmed by
circumstances. are often construed into
premonitions, and unquestionably a
large proportion of the forebodings one
hears about are suggested by hope or
fear, or are the results of rational fore
cast
That nine-tenths of the stories OF
warnings from the unseen world are
something more than apocryphal is be
yond doubt; the only question is wheth-
er any of them are authentic. OF the
historical eases in point. cited as con
elusive by believers in the marvellous,
but few viii bear the test of analysis.
Luther's wife ''foresaw," when the
great reformer started on his last jour
ney, that he would never return; but
then he was at feud with the church of
Rome, and thousands of bigots would
have deemed il not only right but high
" meritorious to put him to death. Her
sO-called presentiment was the off
spring of anxiety and dread and it's
realization was merely an ordinary CO.
incidence
The wife of William the Silent, Mot
ley tells us, was singularly affected on
seeing, for the first time, Balthazar
Gerard, by whom the prince was soon
afterward assassinated. But when we
learn that Gerard's ''agitated face had a
villainOus expression, and that the
princes life had been five times attempt
ed within two years, we can readily I'M
derstand why she shivered and turned
pale on beholding, at her husbands
court, fellow who seemed to be cut
out for a murderer. Nothing could be
more natural and less supernatural
than Der guess at his bloody errand.
Mozart is said to have been fore
warned of his approaching death. He
insisted that he had been poisoned, and
that he ''smelt the grave" These fan
cies We're. no doubt, the effect produced
by overwork upon a sensitive brain and
nervous system. His physician com
peeled him to take a holiday, and there
upon his health improved; but return
ing to his labOrs too soon, he had a re-
lapse and died. in conformity with mis-
presentiment. His medical attendant
1
there was no hope for him. That he
must soon die was a foregone conclu-
sion. not based upon any revelation
from Heaven, but upon rational prem
ises.
WilberfOrce the famous abolitionist,
relates in his diary that, on one occa-
sion, while sitting on a camp-stool,
close to the bank of river he was
warned that he was in danger of
falling into the water. Thereupon he
moved away, and Immediately after
ward the stool broke under his weight.
He was a silly though a very good man.
and always subject to supernatural
impressions, which, in at least four
eases out of five, proved fallacious.
Persons who are prone to be PRESENT.
mental would do well to analyze their
premonitiOns closely, and try if they
can not trace them to natural antece-
dents. Should they find this impossi-
BILE. then. but not till then, they may
be justified in beginning to suspect that
there is more direct intercourse be-
tween Heaven and earth than is
dreamed Of in your philosophy. IN.
y. Ledger.