if any be, is a likely commodity: pitch and tar, where store of firs and pines are, will not fail; so drugs and sweet woods, where they are, cannot but yield great profit; soap-ashes likewise, and other things that may be thought of; but moil not too much under ground, for the hope of mines is very uncertain, and useth to [17] make the planters lazy in other things. For government, let it be in the hands of one, assisted with some counsel; and let them have commission to exercise martial laws, with some limitation; and, above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness, as they have God always, and his service, before their eyes; let not the government of the plantation depend upon too many counsellors and undertakers in the country that planteth, but upon a temperate number; and let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen than merchants; for they look ever to the present gain: let there be freedom from custom till the plantation be of strength; and not only freedom from custom, but freedom to carry their commodities where they may make their best of them, except there be some special cause [18] for caution. Cram not in people, by sending too fast company after company; but rather hearken how they waste, and send supplies proportionably; but so as the number may live well in the plantation, and not [19] by surcharge be in penury. It hath been a great endangering to the health of some plantations, that they have built along the sea and rivers, in marshy and unwholesome grounds; therefore, though you begin there, to avoid carriage and other like discommodities, yet build still rather upwards from the streams, than along. [20] It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have good store of salt with them, that they may use it in their victuals when it shall be neces sary. If you plant where savages are, do not [21] only entertain them with trifles and gingles, but use them justly and graciously, with sufficient guard nevertheless; and do not win their favour by helping them to invade their enemies, but for their defence it is not amiss; and send oft of them over to the country that plants, that they may see a better condition than their own, and commend it when they return. When [22] the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as with men; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without. It is the sinfullest thing [23] in the world to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness; for, besides the dishonour, it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons. ESSAY XLII. PROPHECIES. [1] 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 [2] from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa to Saul, "To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me." Virgil hath these verses from Homer: "At domus Eneæ cunctis dominabitur oris, [3] a prophecy as it seems of the Roman empire. [4] Seneca the tragedian hath these verses: "Venient annis Sæcula seris, quibus Oceanus [5] 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 [6] 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 [7] seal vessels that are empty. A phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, said to him, “ Phi[8] lippis iterum me videbis." Tiberius said to Galba, "Tu quoque, 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, [9] that a golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck; and indeed the succession that followed him, for many years, made golden times. Henry the Sixth [10] of England, said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a lad, and gave him water, "This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive." When I [11] was in France, I heard from one Dr. Pena, that the queen-mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the king her husband's nativity to be calculated under a false name; and the astrologer gave a judgment that he should be killed in a duel; at which the queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges, and duels; but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver. The trivial prophecy which I heard when [12] I was a child, and queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years, was, "When hempe is spunne, whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princess had reigned which had the principal letters of that word hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion; which, thanks be to God, is verified only in the change of name; for the king's style is now no more of England, but of Britain. There was also [13] another prophecy before the year of eighty-eight, which I do not well understand : "There shall be seen upon a day, England build houses of lime and stone, [14] It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in eighty-eight; for that the king of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway. [15] The prediction of Regiomontanus, "Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus," was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. [16] As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a jest: it was, that he was devoured of a long dragon; and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled [17] him exceedingly. There are numbers of the like kind, especially if you include dreams, and predictions of astrology; but I have set down these few only of [18] certain credit, for example. My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised, and ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside; though when I say despised, I mean it as for belief; for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised, for they have done much mischief; and I see [19] many severe laws made to suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth [20] in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss; as they do, [21] generally, also of dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure traditions many times turn themselves into prophecies: while the nature of man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to foretell |