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ing as juft as it is trite. Rumours, which infpire high notions, and 

 ferve to produce great public exertions, thus become the means of veri- 

 fying themfelves. On the other hand, reports, which anticipate difafters, 

 may contribute to produce the calamity, which they thus prematurely 

 announce, by deprefling the public mind, and infpiring a languid defpair, 

 a fatal torpor of confternation, which unnerves the arm of public exer- 

 tion. Thus, the prophecies or traditions, that one nation fliouid finally 

 be fubdued by another, have ufually been fulfilled : and why ? Becaufe 

 the very esiftence and circulation of the report or prediction tended 

 and contributed to its completion ; by infufing, on the one hand, enthu- 

 fiafm, hope, and confidence ; on the other, panic, terror, and defpair. 

 The traditions and oracles, whicli pronounced, that the Afmtics fliould 

 finally be conquered by the Greeks, were, at length, verified. — It is faid, 

 that there are prophecies in circulation, among the Turks, that they 

 fliall one day be conquered by the fons of yellownefs (which exprefilon 

 is fuppofed to portend the Rufiians), who, it is faid, fliall enter Con- 

 Jiantinople, at a particular gate. Such prophecies, by their operation to 

 difpirit the public mind, and paralyfe national flrength, might, in the 

 event of a future conteft between the nations, contribute to the down- 

 fal of the Turkijh (late. We read, that Mark Antony bad ufually witlj 

 him an Egyptian, fkilful in the calculation of nativities, who advifed him 

 to beware of Cafar ; might not the fentiments of fear, thus infufed, 

 make him think, that he found his Genius rebuked by that cf Cafar ; 

 and infpire the feeble and irrefolute conduft refulting from defpair, after 

 the fatal battle of Affiuni, which facilitated the triumph of his rival. 

 To difpofe us, to liften with caution and refei-ve, to rumours, and 

 to repeat them with diffidence and hefitation ; we may recolleft, that 

 even refpefting the mod celebrated and important fafts of hiflory, and 

 fuch too as pafs before the greateft number of witnefiTes, and make the 

 deeped impreffions on the minds of cotemporaries, as the circumftances 

 of the deaths of great and memorable perfonages, battles, fieges, and 

 revolutions, there is often a wide difagreement and even abfolutc contra- 



diftion 



