_enlighten_ them and _improve their morals_. What sublime nonsense! what egregious folly! And what a deplorable and sorrowful mistake has been thus committed by the blinded disciples of the Christian faith! CHAPTER XIX.--BIBLE PROPHECIES NOT FULFILLED. Having devoted a chapter to this subject in "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors," we shall treat the subject but briefly in this work. The Old Testament has been thoroughly searched for prophecies, and more than a hundred texts selected, by various Christian writers, and assumed to be prophetic of some future event. But a critical and impartial investigation of the subject will show that not one of them is, strictly speaking, a prophecy; but most of them refer to events either in the past, or events _naturally_ suggested by the circumstances under which the writer was placed. And in many cases the text has no reference whatever to the event which Bible commentators assume they refer to. In treating the subject briefly, we will show,-- 1. That if one-fourth of the texts from Genesis to Revelation were prophecies, and it could be shown that every one of them has been fulfilled to the letter, it would not prove that there was any divine inspiration or divine aid in the matter; because many facts show that prophecy, or the power to discover future events, is a _natural_ and not a supernatural, gift. 2. Many cases are reported in history of the prediction of future events by pagan or heathen seers, and also by persons not claiming to be inspired nor even religious. I will cite a few cases: Josephine, wife of Napoleon, relates that she had all the important events of her future life pointed out to her by an ignorant, illiterate fortune-teller, long before they occurred; such as her marriage, her unhappy life, and the death of her husband,--all of which was fulfilled to the letter. An astrologer predicted the great fire in London. Rousseau foretold the French Revolution. Cicero made a remarkable prophecy, which was realized in the discovery of America and the history of George Washington by consulting the Sibylline oracles. These, and many other cases that might be cited, furnish satisfactory evidence that the capacity for foretelling the occurrence of future events is a natural and inherent power of the human mind, and hence can do nothing toward proving the divine origin of any religion, or the divine illumination of any prophet. Therefore any further argument in the case would be superfluous. We will only briefly review a few of the Jewish prophecies (or texts assumed to be prophecies) to show that the Jewish nation occupied a lower moral plane, and possessed less of the gift of prophecy than some of the contemporary heathen nations. Hence Christian writers are wrong in assuming that the Jews alone possessed this power, while they possessed it in a less degree than some of the Oriental prophets. Prophecies (assumed to be) relating to Babylon, relating to Damascus,