7. After horrible devastations, and murders, and burnings, caused by this war, peace and prosperity return. 8. Priests are massacred and become very rare; but 9. One religion unites all men. 10. All this takes place soon after the introduction of railways into Germany. 11. The present King of Prussia is the last. 12. The “powerful prince” from the South becomes Emperor of Germany. 13. France is, about this time, inwardly divided. 14. The Russians come as enemies to the Rhine, the French enter Germany as friends—without entering into further details. We see moreover, that, admitting the genuineness of the prophecies, partial fulfilment has in several cases taken place. Here it must be noted, that our curate has chiefly confined himself to the unfulfilled parts, and has avowedly omitted many fulfilled predictions. While we attach considerable importance to the general impression among the people of the truth of these prophecies, which in part depends on their partial fulfilment in past times, our chief object has been to put on record the more remarkable of the unfulfilled predictions, in order that they may be compared with future events. If we seek to form any idea of the origin of these prophecies, we find that there are three sources, from which the people may have derived the traditions. 1. They may possibly be, in some cases at least, derived from the reflections of sagacious men. Even Napoleon predicted dreadful wars, and that Europe must become either Cossack or Republican. But although some things may thus be explained, we do not see how the minute details, in other cases, can be thus accounted for. 2. Scriptural prophecies may have been applied to modern events, which, indeed, are no doubt foretold in them, in a general way. We cannot avoid observing the tolerably frequent occurrence of Scripture language in the predictions; but this also does not account for all the details. 3. The seers or prophets may have had genuine visions, or dreams, in which they saw what they describe; it has been seen that various prophets use language implying this. And, while the general resemblance of the different visions naturally leads us to suspect that the popular traditions have a common origin; we can at most conclude from this, that the original seer or seers lived long ago, which only increases the difficulty. They were probably, like Brother Herrmann, monks and ascetics, their imaginations exalted by religious fervour: in other words they were nervous and excitable, and predisposed to visions. Supposing their visions known to the people, the feeling of the marvellous, if excited along with religious sentiments, may have led to visions or second sight among the peasantry, and thus visions may have been multiplied and expanded in details.