so unpleasantly refused
to fulfil themselves. We were infested at one time with a set of
ominous-looking seers, who shook their heads and muttered obscurely
about some mighty preparations that were making to substitute the rule
of the minority for that of the majority. Organizations were darkly
hinted at; some thought our armories would be seized; and there are not
wanting ancient women in the neighboring University town who consider
that the country was saved by the intrepid band of students who stood
guard, night after night, over the G. R. cannon and the pile of balls in
the Cambridge Arsenal.

As a general rule, it is safe to say that the best prophecies are those
which the sages remember after the event prophesied of has come to pass,
and remind us that they have made long ago. Those who, are rash enough
to predict publicly beforehand commonly give us what they hope, or what
they fear, or some conclusion from an abstraction of their own, or some
guess founded on private information not half so good as what everybody
gets who reads the papers,--never by any possibility a word that we can
depend on, simply because there are cobwebs of contingency between every
to-day and to-morrow that no field-glass can penetrate when fifty of
them lie woven one over another. Prophesy as much as you like, but
always hedge. Say that you think the rebels are weaker than is commonly
supposed, but, on the other hand, that they may prove to be even
stronger than is anticipated. Say what you like,--only don't be too
peremptory and dogmatic; we know that wiser men than you have been
notoriously deceived in their predictions in this very matter.

Ibis et redibis nunquam in bello peribis.

Let that be your model; and remember, on peril of your reputation as a
prophet, not to put a stop before or after the nunquam.

There are two or three facts connected with time, besides that already
referred to, which strike us very forcibly in their relation to the
great events passing around us. We spoke of the long period seeming to
have elapsed since this war began. The buds were then swelling which
held the leaves that are still green. It seems as old as Time himself.
We cannot fail to observe how the mind brings together the scenes of
to-day and those of the old Revolution. We shut up eighty years into
each other like the joints of a pocket-telescope. When the young men
from Middlesex dropped in Baltimore the other day, it seemed to bring
Le