The Virginia Gazette

WILLIAMSBURG, August 15.

A PROPHECY from the EAST.

Nunc cuicunque datum est habere Naum. :

Now every Man has the Gift of Prophesying

CHAP. I.

And it shall come to pass, after the People of A that he who is over their Treasury, even the V-n Shall prevail against their Stamp Masters,

T—r of the great Assembly hall be gathered un- to his Fathers;

2.

And he shall die an old Man, in a good old Age, and full of Days:-And there shall be great Confusion in the Land.

3.

Party shall menace Party, and Dunce Shall en- flame Dunce; and the Gazettes of Purdie and of Rind shall contain Wonders.

4,

And it shall come to pass that the Principles of Judging shall be perverted; Mens Understanding shall be darkened: For this shall be the Era of Delusion.

5.

And then Men, who cannot write for them- selves, shall write for the Public: The Great Men, even the Men of Fortune, shall write Controversies.

6. And they shall call themselves Lovers of Truth and Lovers of Justice; and much Paper shall be wasted, and Words shall lose their Meaning.

7. And they shall say, Surely we have heard that the Greeks were Men of Learning ; and they shall give themselves Greek Names, and they shall think they write learnedly.

8.And they shall say, we are great Scholars, we are able to write about any Thing ; but yet we will not write about the Dead; for our Friend is dead, and the Dead ought not to be evil spoken of.

9.

And they shall say, come and let us write about Benevolence.-And they shall write about it, and they shall call Peculation Benevolence, and they shall say that it is a very great Virtue, and of infinite Service to the Public.

10. And they shall say, let us also write about Pa- triotism-And they shall write about it, and they shall praise it, and they shall say, it is a very fine Thing, and that it will make a Man guilty of Malversation, and ruin his Country.

11.

And
II.
And behold it shall come to pass that Perplexity shall seize the Minds of the People ; and they shall say, the like to this has not happened in our Country.—But this shall be but the Beginning of Folly.
12.
For after this; there shall one arise who shall call himself Ben; and he shall say surely I am a great Scholar, for I have Fingers : And he shall write a long Piece, and he shall publish it.
13.
And he shall be in a very great Passion, and he shall own it, and he shall say his Passion will make him write dispassionately, and that he will reason the better for being out of his Senses.
14.
And he shall write about his Friend, and he shall swear that he was not his Friend's Man, and that he had no Connections with his Friend : But that he used to want Money, and his Friend used to lend it to him.
15.
And moreover also he shall tell us strange Stories, as that he is a Man of Integrity, and has been out of the Colony; and that he is sorry his Pig Iron does not sell for so much as it used to do.
16.
And behold it shall come to pass, that Dulness itself shall laugh, and the waggish ones shall say ; Surely this Man's Writings are like wooden Guns, the Noise of them are great, but they do no Mischief but to those who discharge them.