Comte de Gabalis: Commentary Continued: YY. Merlin's Prophecy of the Conquest of the Air and of Aerial and Submarine Warfare

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MERLIN'S PROPHECY OF THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR AND OF AERIAL AND SUBMARINE WARFARE.

THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR. "Nitentur, posteri transvolare superna." Posterity shall endeavour to fly above the highest places.

AERIAL WARFARE.

In tempore illo loquentur lapides & mare quo ad Galliam navigatur, infra breve spacium contrahetur. In utraque ripa audietur homo ab homme, & solidum insulæ dilatabitur. Revelabuntur occulta submarinorum & Gallia præ timore tremebit.

Post hac ex Colaterio nemore procedet ardea, quæ insulam per biennium circumvolabit. Nocturno clamore convocabit volatilia & omne genus volucrum associabit sibi. In culturas mortalium irruent, & omnia grana messium devocabunt (devocabunt) * Sequetur fames populum, atque dira mortalitas famen.

TRANSLATION.

At that. time stones shall speak, and th, sea where crossing is made to go to Gaul shall be abridged to a short distance. A man upon one shore shall be heard by a man upon the other, and the territory of the island shall be enlarged. Hidden things under the sea shall be discovered, and Gaul shall tremble for fear. After this a heron shall come forth from the Colaterian Grove which shall fly about the island for two years. With noturnal clamour she shall assemble the winged nations and shall ally with herself all manner of flying things. They shall attack agriculture and charm away (devour) all the grain of the harvests. Famine shall result among the people and dire mortality from the famine.

SUBMARINE WARFARE.

Favillæ rogi mutabuntur in cygnos, qui in sicco, quasi in flumine natabunt. Devorabunt pisces in piscibus & homines in hominibus deglutient. Superveniente vero senetute efficientur submarinæ luces atque submarinas insidias machinabuntur. Submergent navalia & argentum non minimum congregabunt.

The sparks of destruction shall be changed into swans which shall sail upon dry ground as upon a river. They shall devour fishes among the fishes and shall swallow up men among men. Indeed when the age grows old § submarine lights shall be skilfully contrived

Footnotes

301:* Usual reading.

302:§ †And since the inventions described have been made in the present period when the Sun behind the Sun * is coming into conjunction with the Sun of our Solar system and regenerating its Force, Senectute appears to be an allusion to the skin of the World Serpent--Solar Force--which presses upon it (Superveniente) as the age grows old, and prior to the advent of that new epoch in evolution on this planet which the closer approach of the Parent Sun ever initiates. LATIN TEXTS TAKEN FROM MERLIN AMBROSII BRITTANI, ETC. FRANCOFURTI TYPIS JOACHIMI BRATHERINGIJ, MDCIII.

302:* Sun behind the Sun, pages 88, 42, 142.

302:† Smith, Latin-English Dictionary, page 1014.