732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Then, also, by day and night, a careful watch is kept for the signs of 

 land. But it sometimes happens that, despite all such precautions, a 

 ship is lost ; for there are conditions of weather which, occurring when 

 a ship is nearing shore, render the most careful lookout futile. These 

 conditions may be regarded as included among ordinary sea-risks, by 

 which term are understood all such dangers as would leave a captain 

 blameless if shipwreck occui'red. It would be well if no ships were 

 ever lost save from ordinary sea-risks ; but, unfortunately, ships are 

 sometimes cast ashore for want of care ; either in maintaining due 

 watch as the shore is approached, or taking advantage of oppor- 

 tunities, which may be few and far between, for observing sun, or 

 moon, or stars, as the voyage proceeds. It may safely be said that 

 the greater number of avoidable shipwrecks have been occasioned by 

 the neglect of due care in finding the way at sea. 







SECULAR PROPHECY. 



ALTHOUGH prophecy is usually supposed to be the special gift 

 of inspiration, nothing comes more glibly from secular pens. 

 Half of the leading articles in the daily newspapers are more or less 

 disguised predictions. The prophecies of the Times are more numer- 

 ous, more confident, and more explicit, than those of Jeremiah or Isaiah. 

 " Secular Prophecy fulfilled" would be a good title for a book written 

 after the model of those old and half-educated divines who zealously 

 looked through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the Apocalypse, for 

 shadowy hints that Hildebrand would enforce celibacy on the clergy 

 of the Latin Church ; that Luther would cut up the Christianity of the 

 "West into two sections ; that Cromwell would sign the death-warrant 

 of Charles I. ; and that the Stuarts would become wanderers over the 

 face of the earth. There are still, we believe, devout, mystical, and 

 studious sectaries, who find such events as the disestablishment of 

 the Irish Church and the meeting of the Vatican Council plainly fore- 

 told in the book of Revelation. They also find Mr. Gladstone's name 

 written in letters of fire by inspired pens that left their record while 

 the captivity of Babylon was a recent memory, or while Nero was the 

 scourge of the Church. Nay, Dr. Cumming, who is as different from 

 those mystical interpreters as a smart Yankee trader is from Parson 

 Adams, sees that the Prophet Daniel and St. John had a still more 

 minute acquaintance with the home and Continental politics of these 

 latter days. But " Secular Prophecy fulfilled " would show a much 

 more wonderful series of glimpses into the future than we find in the 

 interpretations of Dr. Cumming, and it would certainly bring together 

 a strange set of soothsayers. 



