Now of Thales it is recorded that he foresaw by his reading of the symbols that there would be a great dearth of olives in a certain year, and he accordingly bought up all the stock of olives that was on the market and chartered all the stalls, so that when the dearth occurred he was able to sell at his own price, and thereby made a great sum of money. This was at Alexandria. He then went to Athens and found the plague raging there. He at once took the matter in hand and was speedily successful in purging the city, so that the people erected a statue in his honour to commemorate the event. Seeing his end approaching and knowing that it would be due to the fall of some heavy body, if indeed he himself did not receive a fall, he thought to circumvent the evil by taking necessary precautions. To this end he retired to a field where he established himself. Being thus far removed from any buildings and himself in no danger of falling from a height, he thought himself to be secure, and looked forward to the time when the evil indications should have passed by. But it happened that an eagle, having secured a particularly fine tortoise as prey, carried it aloft and sought for somewhat whereon to break its shell. Seeing the bald head of the philosopher and mistaking it for a stone, the eagle promptly let the tortoise fall. Exit Thales! The general truth of the Hebrew records has been abundantly established by archaeologists both in regard to the Babylonian and Egyptian captivities and the sojourn in the wilderness. Their prophets were men skilled in the reading of the universal symbolism, and they described events centuries before they happened. Daniel so correctly portrays the career of Alexander that the early opponents of the Bible sought to prove, but without success, that the prophet was describing what was past instead of predicting what was in the future. However this may be, we cannot get away from the fact that the ruin and desolation of many cities which were in a high state of prosperity in Daniel’s time and for some centuries after, such as Moab, Edom, Amalek, Tyre and Sidon, and Ammon, were undoubtedly predicted. These cities were to be blotted out. They were in existence in the first centuries of our era, but now they no longer exist. The subjugation of Egypt was clearly foretold and has accordingly happened. Nineveh and Babylon were condemned to desolation and utter ruin when in the height of their prosperity. They were to be places of eternal solitude, the haunt of wild beasts, and the palaces a hiding-place for jackals. Daniel’s famous prophecy of the coming of the Messiah after Seventy Weeks, _i. e._ 490 years from the time of the going forth of the order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. The prophet clearly indicates the source whence he was able to obtain initial light upon the basis of prophecy, for he informs us that in the first year of the reign of Darius (521 B.C.) he “understood by books the numbers of the years,” etc.