THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 50. | SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1841. | Volume I. |
THE IRISH PROPHECY MAN.
BY WILLIAM CARLETON.
The individual to whom the heading of this article is uniformlyapplied, stands, among the lower classes of his countrymenin a different light and position from any of those previouscharacters that we have already described to our readers.The intercourse which they maintain with the people is onethat simply involves the means of procuring subsistence forthemselves by the exercise of their professional skill, and theirpowers of contributing to the lighter enjoyments and moreharmless amusements of their fellow-countrymen. All thecollateral influences they possess, as arising from the holdwhich the peculiar nature of this intercourse gives them, generallyaffect individuals only on those minor points of feelingthat act upon the lighter phases of domestic life. They bringlittle to society beyond the mere accessories that are appendedto the general modes of life and manners, and consequentlyreceive themselves as strong an impress from thosewith whom they mingle, as they communicate to them in return.
Now, the Prophecy Man presents a character far differentfrom all this. With the ordinary habits of life he has littlesympathy. The amusements of the people are to him littleelse than vanity, if not something worse. He despises thatclass of men who live and think only for the present, withoutever once performing their duties to posterity, by looking intothose great events that lie in the womb of futurity. Domesticjoys or distresses do not in the least affect him, becausethe man has not to do with feelings or emotions, but withprinciples. The speculations in which he indulges, and bywhich his whole life and conduct are regulated, place him farabove the usual impulses of humanity. He cares not muchwho has been married or who has died, for his mind is, inpoint of time, communing with unborn generations upon affairsof high and solemn import. The past, indeed, is to himsomething, the future every thing; but the present, unlesswhen marked by the prophetic symbols, little or nothing. Thetopics of his conversation are vast and mighty, being nothingless than the fate of kingdoms, the revolution of empires, theruin or establishment of creeds, the fall of monarchs, or therise and prostration of principalities and powers. How cana mind thus engaged descend to those petty subjects of ordinarylife which engage the common attention? How coulda man hard at work in evolving out of prophecy the subjugationof some hostile state, care a farthing whether LoghlinRoe’s daughter was married to Gusty Given’s son, or not?The thing is impossible. Like fame, the head of the ProphecyMan is always in the clouds, but so much higher up asto be utterly above the reach of any intelligence that doesnot affect the fate of nations. There is an old anecdote toldof a very high and a very low man meeting. “What newsdown there?” said the tall fellow. “Very little,” replied theother: “what kind of weather have you above?” Well indeedmight the Prophecy Man ask what news there is below[Pg 394]for his mind seldom leaves those aërial heights from which itwatches the fate of Europe and the shadowing forth of futurechanges.
The Prophecy Man—that is, he who solely devotes