The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-02-11
CAREERS FORETOLD.
SOME REMARKABLE PREDICTIONS
THAT WERE FULFILLED.
Men Who Achieved Fame just rs 1t Was
Prophesied They would-But We Must
Not Forget That Many Are Called, but
Few Are Chosen.


For one prediction that comes true
many hundreds fail, Of which we never
hear Many a fond mother predicts pro-
fessorship or judgeship or bishopric for a
favorite son, who nevertheless sinks
through the world among the crowd of
unknown people. For all that sundry re-
markable predictions have at various times
been uttered which have come true, and
yet nothing miraculous has been attributed
TO them.
Sulla said of Caesar, when he pardoned
him at the earnest entreaty of his friends:
You wish his pardon-I consent, but
know that this young man whose life you
so eagerly plead for will prove the most
deadly enemy of the party which you and
have defended. There is in Caesar more
than a Marius." The prediction was real
lied.
Thomas Aquinas was so unusually sim
pie and reserved in conversation that his
fellow students regarded him as very
mediocre person and jocularly called him
"the dumb OK of Sicily" His master. AL
bert, not knowing himself what to think,
took occasion one day, before a large as
semblage, to interrogate him on several
very profound questions to which the dis
that Albert turned toward the youths who
surrounded his chair, and said, "You call
brother Thomas dumb OK but be assured
that one day the noise of his doctrines will
be heard all over the world"
Sully's father predicted of him, when
only 12 years old, that he would one day
be great by reason of his courage and his
virtues. Had not the prophecy come true
we had never heard of it. But Sully was
early put In the way of promotion, and
once in the road the rest is comparatively
easy.
Cardinal Morton, archbishop Of Canter-
bury, early predicted the future of Sir
Thomas More. Pointing to the boy one
day, he said to those about him, THAT
youth will one day be the ornament Of
England"
Cardinal Wolsey, though butchers son,
had an early prosentiment of his future
emiDence. He used to say that II he could
but once set foot at court he would soon
introduce himself there. And scarcely had
he obtained admission at court, the pos
SCISSOR of humble benefice, than he did
not hesitate to say that "henceforth there
was no favor to which he dared not aspire.
At IS, Gondi, afterward Cardinal de
Retz, composed certain "reminiscences Of
early studies, on reading which Richelieu
exclaimed, "Here's a dangerous fellow"
Milton In his early writings foreshad-
owed his great poem then not matured In
his mind He declared his intention many
years before he commenced his task of
writing some great poem for posterity,
(which the world would not willingly let
die"
Mazarin early predicted the brilliant
career Of Louis XIV. He said of him. He
has in him stuff for four kings" And at
another time, "He may take the road
little later than others, but he will go
much farther"
One day a mason named Barbe said to
Nine. de Maintenon, who was at that time
the wife of Scarron, AFTER much trouble
great king will love you, you will rcign;
but, although at the summit of favor, it
will be of no benefit to you" He added
some remarkable details, which appeared
to cause her some emotion. Her friends
rallied her about tho prediction, when the
conjurer said to them with the air of
man confident of the truth of what he
| said, "You will be glad to kiss the hem of
her garment then, instead of amusing
yourself at her expense"
On the other hand, Louis XIV one day
observed to Rochefoucauld and the Duo de
Crequi: "Astrology is altogether false. l
had my horoscope drawn in Italy, and
they told me that after having lived long
time 1 would fall in love with an old
woman, and love her to the end of my
days. Is there the least likelihood of that?"
And, SO saying, he burst out laughing.
But this did not nevertheless hinder him
from marrying Nine. de Maintenon when
she was 90 years old. So that both the
prediction of the mason and that of the
Italian conjurer came true at last.
When Voltaire was engaged in the study
of classical learning, the Father Lejay was
once very much irritated by the insolence
of his repartees, and taking him by the
| collar shook him roughly, saying: wretch
ed youth! You will some day be the stand
ard of deism in France" Father Palu,
Voltaire's confessor, did not less correctly
divine the future career of his young peni-
tent when he said of him, "This boy is de-
voured by thirst for celebrity"
Sterne has told an anecdote of what hap
pened to him at Halifax. The schoolmas-
ter had got the ceiling newly whitewashed,
and the mischievous boy, mounting the
steps almost before the job was completed,
daubed with o brush on the ceiling the
words, in capital letters, "Lau. Sterne."
For tnlS Vne usner cruelty DedU nlIu, ~
hearing Of which the master expressed his
displeasure and said, before Sterne, that
he would not have the name effaced, seeing
that Sterne was a boy of genius and GER
tain to make reputation In the world.
Let us conclude by adopting the thought
of Goethe: "Our desires are the PRESENT.
ments of the faculties which lie within us
the precursors of those things which we
are capable of performing. That which we
would be and that which we desire pre-
sent themselves to our imagination, about
us and in the future; we prove our aspi-
ration to an object which we already Sc
cretly possess. 1t is thus that an intense
anticipation transforms real possibility
into an imaginary reality. When such
tendency is decided In us, ut each stage of
our development a portion of our primitive
desire accomplishes itself, under favorable
circumstances, by direct means and in un-
favorable circumstances by some more cir
cuitous route, from which, however, we
never fail to reach the straight road
again. st. Louis Globe Democrat.