and corrupt inwardly. Therefore, measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure, and defer not charities till death; for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man’s than of his own.
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 Pythonissa334 to Saul, “To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me.” Virgil hath these verses from Homer:—
A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. Seneca the tragedian hath these verses:—
A prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Polycrates335 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,