The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-04-11
MARvELs or PROPHECY Full


About a year or so since The Messen-
ger awaited itself of an article in a
magazine that showed that many re-
cent inventions-later modern-were
based upon earlier plans. In other
words that they found in previous in
xentions the basis of these later dis
~soveries or inventions. In the April
issue Of that excellent Philadelphia
monthly. 1.-The Era" there is a most
Interesting paper headed "Anticipd-
rtions." 1t is by we suppose, a writer
with a fictitious name-Penn Steele.
He gets forth a~bundantly how many
prophets CT the past in their ingenious
forecasts anticipated modern inven-
utions. The article fills five pages and
scan not be used by US because 1t is
copyrighted. In fact unless We copied
al some length you could hardly APP
gDreciate the richness of his find We
have mentioned in The Messenger long
ago how Shakespeare in the Tempest
eliminated the possibilities of an electric
telegraph when he spoke of girdling the
earth. etc. In 1909 he foretoId the law
~ef Eravitation in Act ", Sc 2, of
"Tr0ilus and Cressida." Five years ear
aier n Romeo and Juliet" he had
written. "Turnback. dull earth, and
-1pG thy centre out" In 1909. ne wrote:
Bat the strong base and building OF
my love
Is as the very centre OF the earth.
Drawing all things to it."
Mr.. Steele says that Newton's famous
''Iaw Of gravitatfon" was not announc-
~ed until 16S5-eighty-seven years after
-the greatest of poets had discov-
.ared such a law. Shakespeare also an
aticiDated by two centuries the knOwl-
edge OF botanists as to the plants hav-
ing sex. See Winters Tale" Act "
Sc 3. Again. in 1928 Harvey discover
ed the circulation of the blood. In 1903
in Julius Caesar" Shakespeare said
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
that visit nv sad heart" But it is
-acertain hat the greatest of poets had
many provisions of coming things,
and discoveries among them.
We can only note what other pro-
phetic indications are given in 1.-THE
Era: NARROW. q great contemporary
of Shakespeare, anticipated the Suez
canal. See Tamburlane the Great, Act
". Sc 8. Ben Jonson, anOthe great
and most learned dramatic contem-
porary. intimates- the modern air.
cushion" in THE Alchemist." He also
an another play writes Of a submarine
boat and Enthusiastically. DeBergerac in
France wrote of an air ship in 1850 and
the monograph in his Voyage to the
Moon" He also had scientific fore
knowledge of bacilli and the germ
theory. In 1850 Della Roche described
photography. In 1890. seventy years
before. the illustrious Fenelon, OF
France. had anticipated the phOno-
graph. In 1889. DR.. Erasmus Darwin.
father Of the author of the evolution
aerial navigation. His lines we quote
as given by Mr.. Steele:
Soon shall thy arm. unconQuered
steam. afar
Drag the slow barge. or drive the rapid
car:
or on underwriting wings expanded
bear
The flying chariot through the field Of
air"
1.-The Loves of Plants" was publish
ed in 1889. In the year 1721 Thomas
Grey petitioned the English Parliament
with respect to a general system nf
railways for the United kingdom. and
also published a book on the subject.
A committee of the house Of
reported adversely to the petition and
7the reviewers made unmitigated fun Af
fthe book"
He gives proof as to astronomical
discoveries being anticipated by famous
writers. Swift and Voltaire. Swift in
'Gulliver' is indeed marvellous
-Sound-waves' theory was anticipated
=aIso by Babbage. De Maurier antic-
dpated Edison's kaleidoscope by eight
years. and prophesied that Edison
would nven it. 1t appeared in Punch
m 1879. One more anticipated inven
zion is all we give-that of Marconi.
- Jesuit in 1924. foreold it in g work
know as "Strada's Prolusiones."