es _ Thoughts on Prophecy. 
who determined, in defiance of public 
prejudices, to ere€t themfelves into an 
order of PRopHETs. Why their glory 
fo foon departed, and they fell quietly 
back into the humbler ranks of life, it is 
not my bufinefs to enquire ; but I much 
regret that we are at prefent fo lament- 
ably deficient in the article of prophecies, 
as to be amazed and aftonifhed at every 
thing that happens. There isa maxim, 
which fays, that itis the part of a wife 
man never to be furprifed, bux to forefee 
every thing by his knowledge, and re- 
concile it by his philofophy; and yet 
fcarcely 2 day paffes without fome event 
occurring for which we had made no pro- 
vifion, which we cannot eecount for upon 
common principies, and to which we find 
at difficuit to be reconciled. How does 
all this agree with the fage apopthegm, 
that there is ‘‘ nothing new under the 
fun?” And does it not plead ftrongly 
for the art of prophecy to fupply that 
knowledge, for want of which we fuffer 
fo many embarrafiments ? 
_. I have been lately looking over achro- 
nological lift of events for fome years paft; 
as a knowledge cf what has happened 
very frequently leads to a knowledge of 
what may happen (and I am perfectly 
fatisfied that all things are now reduced 
to fo regular a fyfiem, as to render fore- 
telling a very eafy matter) andi am now 
about to give you a fpecimen of my kill 
with refpeé to the events that will occur 
in the courfe of the prefent year one thou- 
-fand feven hundred and ninety-feven. 
Should it be acceptable, you will fee great 
‘propriety in giving ita place in your Ma- 
gazine for Fanuary, that your readers 
may have recourfe to it in the whole pro- 
gre{s of the year ; and that I may not be 
accufed of prophelying things after they 
have taken place. 
But perhaps it may be neceffary to ob- 
¥iate an objection that ‘s often made to 
_prophecy: it 1s faid, that it is wicked to 
pretend to foretel future events. and that 
it is foolifh to be anxious about futurity. 
To the firft part of this~objeétion I cor- 
dially agree. I think it is not only wicked 
to pretend to foretel future events, but 
even to pretend to do any thing which a 
man is not capable of doing. Aman, 
therefore, whopresends either to bea pro- 
phet, a politician, a poet, or a fkilful me-. 
chanic, without the requifite qualifica- 
tions, fhall have no countenance from me. 
Burt as to. the fecond part of the objec- 
tion, “* that it is foolifh to be anxious 
about futurity,’” I cannot fo well agree 
to it, without giving up the free agency 
[ Jan. 
of man, a doétrine to which I have been 
cordially attached, ever fince my fchool- 
mafter told me, that I might efcape a 
whipping, by ceafing to deferve it. I will 
alfo venture, fir, to affert, that if we had — 
looked a little more into futurity than 
we have done, the prefent ftate of Eu- 
rope at large, and of this nation in par- 
ticular, would not have been fo awfully © 
critical as it is. What happy confe- 
quences would not have refulted, if we 
had forefeen, that opinion can be com- 
bated only with opinion ; that opprefiion 
muft eventually produce refiftance ; that 
nations gradually become wifer, thongh 
individual fools hecome more hardened; 
and that he who goes to war without 
counting the coft, will find that he has 
expended his refources before he has at- 
tained his objeét !—But thefe I throw out 
only as hints; I-cannot enlarge on them 
in this place, becaufe I wouid not mter- 
rupt the wz/ce//aneiiy of your Magazine, — 
by enquiries which appear to better pur- 
pofe in other places. 
Tt is enough, therefore, to make fuch 
an appeal to every cne’s memory, as fhall 
prove, that an anxiety about futurity is 
not the foclith thimg it has been repre- 
fented, and that the very faculty I have 
juf mentioned, memzory, lotes half its moft 
important ufes, if it does not enable us 
to look fromthe pat to the future, and 
Judge of the latter by the former. The 
phyfician would make forry werk in the 
fick'room, were he to be deprived of his 
prognoftics ; and 1 know not why, in other 
fituations, we fhould be deprived of the 
advantages of paft experience. Upon the 
whole of this objeétion, however, I niuft 
obferve, that although I cannot think it 
foolifh tebe anxious for futurity, there 
are abundance of inftances to fhow, that 
it is mighty foolifh to expeéi any advan- 
tages from recommending an attention 
to the paft; and hence, I take it, arifes 
the difrepute into which medern pro- 
phets are unhappily fallen. 
Now, Mr. Editor, to proceed—The 
bufinefs more immediately in hand is, to 
give a glance, according to the genuine 
principles of the prophetic art, mto the 
events of the year which ts juft begun. 
But you will demand, what are my prin- 
ciples,eand where is my commiilion ? 
How do you know that I am not one of 
the common impoftors of the day, writing, 
perhaps, from amad-houle, and wifhing 
to make an accomplice of the refpeétable 
Editor of the Monthly Magazine? To 
{atisfy you, then, at once, and remove 
all your fcruples, ] mui inform you, that 
1 proceed 
