J 2 On Popular Illufions. 



fidered by them with refped; allrologers and 

 prophets fwarmed at that time, and the credit 

 given to them will ceafe to furprize, when we 

 recoiled that the predidions of Rice Evans, 

 who lived then, have found defenders in War- 

 burton and Jortin*. To thefe we may add the 

 names of Cudworth and MorhofF; the former 

 defended prophecies in general, the latter the 

 quatrains of Noftradamusf. It was in 1707, 

 when this nation was advancing rapidly in the 

 career of fcience, as well as of arms, -that the 

 French prophets appeared among us. They 

 fpoke Latin and Greek without underftanding 

 either, as they pretended (e). It muft be con- 

 feffed that thefe infpired paffages are extremely 

 barbarous, but they made noife enough to at- 

 tra6b the notice of government, and the prophets 

 finillied their miffion in Bridewell. A fad de- 

 ferving more attention, is that at this time, when 

 the extenfion of knowledge and reafon is fo 

 proudly boafted, and in this ifland of philofo- 

 phers, as fome delight to term it, the pofleffion 

 of a prophetic faculty is believed in fome of the 

 northern parts of the kingdom ; and that fup- 

 ported by evidence fo llrong, as nearly to con- 

 vince one of the moft acute philofophers of the 

 a^e, in his viP.t to thofe regions. This fpecics 



* See the Appendix to the firft vol. of Jortin's Ecclef. Hill, 

 t Polyhift. lib. I. cap. X. torn. I. 



of 



