I mean not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of heathen oracles,
nor of natural predictions; but only of prophecies that have been of
certain memory, and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa[386] to
Saul, “To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me.” Virgil hath these
verses from Homer:—
“Hic domus Æneæ cunctis dominabitur oris,
Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.”[387]
A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. Seneca the tragedian hath
these verses:—
“Venient annis
Sæcula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat Tellus, Tiphysque novos
Detegat orbes; nec sit terris
Ultima Thule.”[388]
A prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of
Polycrates[389] dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father, and Apollo
anointed him; and it came to pass that he was crucified in an open
place, where the sun made his body run with sweat, and the rain washed
it. Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed up his wife’s belly, whereby
he did expound it, that his wife should be barren; but Aristander the
soothsayer told him his wife was with child, because men do not use
to seal vessels that are empty.[390] A phantasm that appeared to M.
Brutus in his tent, said to him, “Philippis iterum me videbis.”[391]
Tiberius said to Galba, “Tu quoque, Galba, degustabis imperium.”[392]
In Vespasian’s time, there went a prophecy in the East, that those
that should come forth of Judea, should reign over the world; which,
though it may be was meant of our Saviour, yet Tacitus expounds it of
Vespasian.[393] Domitian dreamed, the night before he was slain, that a
golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck;[394] and, indeed,
the succession that followed him, for many years, made golden times.
Henry the Sixth of England said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a
lad, and gave him water, “This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown
for which we strive.” When I was in France, I heard from one Dr. Pena,
that the queen mother,[395] who was given to curious arts, caused the
king her husband’s nativity to be calculated under a false name; and
the astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel; at
which the queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges
and duels; but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the
staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver. The trivial prophecy which
I heard when I was a child, and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of
her years, was,
“When hempe is spunne,
England’s done;”
whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princes had reigned
which had the principal letters of that word hempe (which were Henry,
Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter
confusion; which, thanks be to God, is verified only in the change of
the name; for that the king’s style is now no more of England, but
of Britain.[396] There was also another prophecy before the year of
eighty-eight, which I do not well understand.
“There shall be seen upon a day,
Between the Baugh and the May,
The black fleet of Norway.
When that that is come and gone,
England build houses of lime and stone,
For after wars you shall have none.”
It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came
in eighty-eight; for that the king of Spain’s surname, as they say, is
Norway. The prediction of Regiomontanus,
“Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus,”[397]
was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet,
being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that
ever swam upon the sea. As for Cleon’s dream,[398] I think it was
a jest; it was, that he was devoured of a long dragon; and it was
expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled him exceedingly. There
are numbers of the like kind, especially if you include dreams,
and predictions of astrology; but I have set down these few only of
certain credit, for example. My judgment is, that they ought all to
be despised, and ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside;
though, when I say despised, I mean it as for belief; for otherwise,
the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised,
for they have done much mischief; and I see many severe laws made
to suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit,
consisteth in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and
never mark when they miss;[399] as they do, generally, also of dreams.
The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure traditions, many
times turn themselves into prophecies; while the nature of man, which
coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to foretell that which indeed
they do but collect, as that of Seneca’s verse; for so much was then
subject to demonstration, that the globe of the earth had great parts
beyond the Atlantic, which might be probably conceived not to be all
sea; and adding thereto the tradition in Plato’s Timæus, and his
Atlanticus,[400] it might encourage one to turn it to a prediction.
The third and last (which is the great one), is, that almost all of
them, being infinite in number, have been impostures, and, by idle and
crafty brains, merely contrived and feigned, after the event past.