The history of the 'thorn tree and bush' from the earliest to the
present time: in which is clearly and plainly shown the descent of her
most gracious Majesty and her Anglo-Saxon people from the half tribe of
Ephraim, and possibly from the half tribe of Manasseh; and consequently
her right and title to possess, at the present moment, for herself and
for them, a share or shares of the desolate cities and places in the
land of their forefathers! By Theta, M.D.[279] (Private circulation.)
London, 1862, 8vo.
This is much about _Thorn_, and its connected words, Thor, Thoth, Theta,
etc. It is a very mysterious vagary. The author of it is the person whom I
have described elsewhere as having for his device the round man in the
three-cornered hole, the writer of the little heap of satirical anonymous
letters about the Beast and 666. By accident I discovered the writer: so
that if there be any more thorns to crackle under the pot, they need not be
anonymous.
Nor will they be anonymous. Since I wrote the above, I have received
_onymous_ letters, as _ominous_ as the rest. The writer, William Thorn,
M.D., is obliged to reveal {159} himself, since it is his object to prove
that he himself is one 666. By using W for double Vau (or 12) he cooks the
number out of his own name. But he says it is the number not of a beast but
of a man, and adds, "Thereby hangs a tale!" which sounds like
contradiction. He informs me that he will talk the matter over with me: but
I shall certainly have nothing to say to a gentleman of his number; it is
best to keep on the safe side.
In one letter I am informed that not a line should I have had, but for my
"sneer at 666," which, therefore, I am well pleased to have given. I am
also told that my name means the "'garden of death,' that place in which
the tree of knowledge was plucked, and so you are like your name 'dead' to
the fact that you are an Israelite, like those in Ezekiel 37 ch." Some
hints are given that I shall not fare well in the next world, which any one
who reads the chapter in Ezekiel will see is quite against his comparison.
The reader must not imagine that my prognosticator means _Morgan_ to be a
corruption of _Mortjardin_; he proves his point by Hebrew: but any
philologist would tell him the true derivation of the name, and how
_Glamorgan_ came to get it. It will be of much comfort to those young men
who have not got through to know that the tree of knowledge itself was once
in the same case. And so good bye to 666 for the present, and the
assumption that the enigma is to be solved by the united numeral forces of
the letters of a word.
It is worthy of note that, as soon as my Budget commenced, two guardian
spirits started up, fellow men as to the flesh, both totally unknown to me:
they have stuck to me from first to last. James Smith, Esq., finally
Nauticus, watches over my character in this world, and would fain preserve
me from ignorance, folly, and dishonesty, by inclosing me in a magic circle
of 3-1/8 diameters in circumference. The round man in the three-cornered
hole, finally William Thorn, M.D., takes charge of my future destiny, {160}
and tries to bring me to the truth by unfolding a score of meanings--all
right--of 666. He hints that I, and my wife, are servants of Satan: at
least he desires us both to remember that we cannot serve God and Satan;
and he can hardly mean that we are serving the first, and that he would
have us serve the second. As becomes an interpreter of the Apocalypse, he
uses seven different seals; but not more than one to one letter. If his
seals be all signet-rings, he must be what Aristophanes calls a
sphragidonychargocometical fellow. But--and many thanks to him for the
same--though an M.D., he has not sent me a single vial. And so much for my
tree of secular knowledge and my tree of spiritual life: I dismiss them
with thanks from myself and thanks from my reader. The dual of the
Pythagorean system was Isis and Diana; of the Jewish law, Moses and Aaron;
and of the City of London, Gog and Magog; of the Paradoxiad, James Smith,
Esq., and William Thorn, M.D.
_September, 1866._ Mr. James Biden[280] has favored me with some of his
publications. He is a rival of Dr. Thorn; a prophet by name-right and
crest-right. He is of royal descent through the De Biduns. He is the
_watchman_ of Ezekiel: God has told him so. He is the author of _The True
Church_, a phrase which seems to have a book-meaning and a mission-meaning.
He shall speak for himself:
"A crest of the Bidens has significance. It is a lion rampant between
wings--wings in Scripture denote the flight of time. Thus the beasts or
living creatures of the Revelations have each six wings, intimating a
condition of mankind up to and towards the close of six thousand years of
Bible teaching. The two wings of the crest would thus intimate power
towards the expiration of 2000 years, as time is marked in the history of
Great Britain.
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"In a recent publication, _The Pestilence, Why Inflicted_, are given many
reasons why the writer thinks himself to be the appointed watchman foretold
by Ezekiel, chapters iii. and xxxiii. Among the reasons are many prophecies
fulfilled in him. Of these it is now needful to note two as bearing
especially on the subject of the reign of Darius.
"1.--In Daniel it is said, 'Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about
threescore and two years old.'--Daniel v. 31.
"When 'Belshazzar' the king of the Chaldeans is found wanting, Darius takes
the kingdom. It is not given him by the popular voice; he asserts his
right, and this is not denied. He takes it when about sixty-two years of
age. The language of Daniel is prophetic, and Darius has in another an
antitype. The writer was born July 18th, 1803; and the claim was asserted
at the close of 1865, when he was about sixty-two years of age.
"The claims which have been asserted demand a settled faith, and which
could only be reached through a long course of divine teaching."
When I was a little boy at school, one of my school-fellows took it into
his head to set up a lottery of marbles: the thing took, and he made a
stony profit. Soon, one after another, every boy had his lottery, and it
was, "I won't put into yours unless you put into mine." This knocked up the
scheme. It will be the same with the prophets. Dr. Thorn, Mr. Biden, Mrs.
Cottle,[281] etc. will grow imitators, until we are all pointed out in the
Bible: but A will not admit B's claim unless B admits his. For myself, as
elsewhere shown, I am the first Beast in the Revelations.
Every contraband prophet gets a few followers: it is a great point to make
these sequacious people into Buridan's asses, which they will become when
prophets are so numerous that there is no choosing.
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