_Presages of Death_.--The Note by Mr. C. FORBES (Vol. ii., p. 84.) on
"High Spirits considered a Presage of impending Calamity or Death,"
reminded me of a collection of authorities I once made, for academical
purposes, of a somewhat analogous bearing,--I mean the ancient belief in
the existence of a power of prophecy at that period which immediately
precedes dissolution.
The most ancient, as well as the most striking instance, is recorded in
the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis:--
"And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together
_that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last
days_.... And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,
he gathered up his feet into his bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people."
Homer affords two instances of a similar kind: thus, Patroclus
prophesies the death of Hector (Il. [Greek: p] 852.)[1]:--
[Greek: "Ou thaen oud autos daeron beae alla toi aedae
Agchi parestaeke Thanatos kai Moira krataiae,
Chersi dament Achilaeos amnmonos Aiakidao."][2]
Again, Hector in his turn prophesies the death of Achilles by the hand
of Paris (Il. [Greek: ch.] 358.):--
[Greek: "Phrazeo nun, mae toi ti theon maenima genomai
Aemati to ote ken se Pharis kai phoibus Apollon,
Esthlon eont, olesosin eni Skaiaesi pulaesin."][3]
This was not merely a poetical fancy, or a superstitious faith of the
ignorant, for we find it laid down as a great physical truth by the
greatest of the Greek philosophers, the divine Socrates:--
[Greek: "To de dae meta touto epithumo humin chraesmodaesai, o
katapsaephisamenoi mou kai gar eimi aedae entautha en o malist
anthropoi chraesmodousin hotan mellosin apothaneisthai."][4]
In Xenophon, also, the same idea is expressed, and, if possible, in
language still more definite and precise:--{117}
[Greek: "Hae de tou anthropou psuchae tote daepou theiotatae
kataphainetai, kai tote ti ton mellonton proora."][5]
Diodorus Siculus, again, has produced great authorities on this
subject:--
[Greek: "Puthagoras ho Samios, kai tines heteroi ton palaion
phusikon, apephaenanto tas psuchas ton anthropon uparchein
athanatous, akolouthos de to dogmati touto kai progignoskein
autas ta mellonta, kath hon an kairon en tae teleutae ton apo
tou somatos chorismon poiontai."][6]
From the ancient writers I yet wish to add one more authority; and I do
so especially, because the doctrine of the Stagirite is therein
recorded. Sextus Empiricus writes,--
[Greek: "Hae psuchae, phaesin Aristotelaes, promanteuetai kai
proagoreuei ta mellonta--en to kata thanaton chorizesthai ton
somaton."][7]
Without encroaching further upon the space of this periodical by
multiplying evidence corroborative of the same fact, I will content
myself by drawing the attention of the reader to our own great poet and
philosopher, Shakspeare, whose subtle genius and intuitive knowledge of
human nature render his opinions on all such subjects of peculiar value.
Thus in _Richard II_., Act ii. sc. 1., the dying Gaunt, alluding to his
nephew, the young and self-willed king, exclaims,--
"Methinks I am a prophet new inspired;
And thus, expiring, do foretel of him."
Again, in _Henry IV., Part I._, Act v. sc. 4., the brave Percy, when in
the agonies of death, conveys the same idea in the following words:--
"O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue."
Reckoning, therefore, from the time of Jacob, this belief, whether with
or without foundation, has been maintained upwards of 3500 years. It was
grounded on the assumed fact, that the soul became divine in the same
ratio as its connection with the body was loosened or destroyed. In
sleep, the unity is weakened but not ended: hence, in sleep, the
material being dead, the immaterial, or divine principle, wanders
unguided, like a gentle breeze over the unconscious strings of an Æolian
harp; and according to the health or disease of the body are pleasing
visions or horrid phantoms (_ægri somnia_, as Horace) present to the
mind of the sleeper. Before death, the soul, or immaterial principle,
is, as it were, on the confines of two worlds, and may possess at the
same moment a power which is both prospective and retrospective. At that
time its connection with the body being merely nominal, it partakes of
that perfectly pure, ethereal, and exalted nature (_quod multo magis
faciet post mortem quum omnino corpore excesserit_) which is designed
for it hereafter.
As the question is an interesting one, I conclude by asking, through the
medium of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," if a belief in this power of prophesy
before death be known to exist at the present day?