My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 't is to crow:
Don't never prophesy--onless ye know.

My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 't is to crow:
Don't never prophesy--onless ye know.

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
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Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!

There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased,
The which read more

There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life, which in their seeds
And weak beginnings lie intreasured.

No mighty trance, or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

No mighty trance, or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

Ancestral voices prophesying war.

Ancestral voices prophesying war.

From hence, no question, has sprung an observation
. . . confirmed now into a settled opinion, that some read more

From hence, no question, has sprung an observation
. . . confirmed now into a settled opinion, that some long
experienced souls in the world, before their dislodging, arrive
to the height of prophetic spirit.

I shall always consider the best guesser the best prophet.
[Lat., Bene qui conjiciet, vatem hunc perhibebo optimum.]

I shall always consider the best guesser the best prophet.
[Lat., Bene qui conjiciet, vatem hunc perhibebo optimum.]

Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.

Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.

Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, at least the wisest
prophets make sure of the event first.

Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, at least the wisest
prophets make sure of the event first.