acquaintances; and look out again a little afterwards, and you will
see others doing the very same thing for them.
40. In short, men are but poor transitory things. To-day they are
busy and harassed with the affairs of human life; and to-morrow
life itself is taken from them, and they are returned to their
original dust and ashes.
PART III
Containing prophetic observations relating to the affairs of Europe
and of Great Britain, more particularly from 1720 to 1729.
1. In the latter end of 1720, an eminent old lady shall bring
forth five sons at a birth; the youngest shall live and grow up to
maturity, but the four eldest shall either die in the nursery, or
be all carried off by one sudden and unexpected accident.
2. About this time a man with a double head shall arrive in
Britain from the south. One of these heads shall deliver messages
of great importance to the governing party, and the other to the
party that is opposite to them. The first shall believe the
monster, but the last shall discover the impostor, and so happily
disengage themselves from a snare that was laid to destroy them and
their posterity. After this the two heads shall unite, and the
monster shall appear in his proper shape.
3. In the year 1721, a philosopher from Lower Germany shall come,
first to Amsterdam in Holland, and afterwards to London. He will
bring with him a world of curiosities, and among them a pretended
secret for the transmutation of metals. Under the umbrage of this
mighty secret he shall pass upon the world for some time; but at
length he shall be detected, and proved to be nothing but an
empiric and a cheat, and so forced to sneak off, and leave the
people he has deluded, either to bemoan their loss, or laugh at
their own folly. N.B.- This will be the last of his sect that will
ever venture in this part of the world upon the same errand.
4. In this year great endeavours will be used for procuring a
general peace, which shall be so near a conclusion that public
rejoicings shall be made at the courts of several great potentates
upon that account; but just in the critical juncture, a certain
neighbouring prince shall come to a violent death, which shall
occasion new war and commotion all over Europe; but these shall
continue but for a short time, and at last terminate in the utter
destruction of the first aggressors.
5. Towards the close of this year of mysteries, a person that was
born blind shall have his sight restored, and shall see ravens
perch upon the heads of traitors, among which the head of a
notorious prelate shall stand upon the highest pole.
6. In the year 1722, there shall be a grand congress, and new
overtures of peace offered by most of the principal parties
concerned in the war, which shall have so good effect that a
cessation of arms shall be agreed upon for six months, which shall
be kept inviolable till a certain general, either through treachery
or inadvertency, shall begin hostilities before the expiration of
the term; upon which the injured prince shall draw his sword, and
throw the scabbard into the sea, vowing never to return it till he
shall obtain satisfaction for himself, and done justice to all that
were oppressed.
7. At the close of this year, a famous bridge shall be broken
down, and the water that runs under it shall be tinctured with the
blood of two notorious malefactors, whose unexpected death shall
make mighty alterations in the present state of affairs, and put a
stop to the ruin of a nation, which must otherwise have been
unavoidable.
8. 1723 begins with plots, conspiracies, and intestine commotions
in several countries; nor shall Great Britain itself be free from
the calamity. These shall continue till a certain young prince
shall take the reins of government into his own hands; and after
that, a marriage shall be proposed, and an alliance concluded
between two great potentates, who shall join their forces, and
endeavour, in good earnest, to set all matters upon a right