90 BACON'S ESSAYS 



XXXV 

 OF PROPHECIES 



I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies ; nor of heathen 

 oracles ; nor of natural predictions ; but only of prophecies 

 that have been of certain memory, and from hidden causes. 

 Saith the Pythonissa to Saul, 'To-morrow thou and thy 

 son shall be with me/ Homer hath these verses : 



At domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris, 

 Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis. 



A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. Seneca 

 the tragedian hath these verses : 



Venient annis 



Saecula sens, quibus Oceanus 

 Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens 

 Pateat Tellus, Tiphysque novos 

 Detegat orbes ; nee sit ferns 

 Ultima Thule: 



a prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter 

 of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father, and 

 Apollo anointed him; and it came to pass that he was 

 crucified in an open place, where the sun made his body 

 run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of Macedon 

 dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly; whereby he did 

 expound it, that his wife should be barren ; but Aristander 

 the soothsayer told him his wife was with child, because 

 men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A phan- 

 tasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, said to him, 

 Philippis iterum me videbis. Tiberius said to Galba, fu quo- 

 que, Galba, degustabis imperium. In Vespasian's time, there 

 went a prophecy in the East, that those that should come 

 forth of Judea should reign over the world : which though 

 it may be was meant of our Saviour, yet Tacitus expounds 

 it of Vespasian. Domitian dreamed, the night before he 

 was slain, that a golden head was growing out of the nape 

 of his neck : and indeed the succession that followed him, 



