_Prophecy respecting the Discovery of America_ (Vol. i., p. 107.).--Your
correspondent C. quotes the following passage from Seneca:
"Venient annis secula seris,
Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum
Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus,
Tethysque novos detegat orbes;
Nec sit terris ultima Thule."
_Medea_, Act II., ad finem, v. 375.
and he says that some commentator describes these lines as "a
vaticination of the Spanish discovery of America." I believe, however,
that Lord Bacon may claim the merit of having been the first to notice
this vaticination. In his essay "Of Prophecies" he says:
"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.'
"'A prophecy,' he adds, 'of the discovery of America.'"
I have quoted this from an edition of Bacon's _Essays_, printed at the
Chiswick Press, by C. Whittingham, for J. Carpenter, Old Bond Street,
London, 1812: and not the least curious circumstance is the curious
form which Bacon, evidently quoting from memory, has given to the
passage.