Events in South Africa have shown ns that the claim
to prophetic powers exercises a formidable effect upon the ignorant and superstitions. It may be questioned, however, whether it was worth while to write a serious refutation of such claims, a purpose which governs Father Herbert Thurston's book upon The War and the Prophets (Burns and Oates, 2e. 6d. net). He discusses at considerable length the popular predictions which are current to-day, including the various arithmetical prophecies, and the no-called prophecy of St. Malachy, which attributes certain Latin mottoes to the successive Popes. The only forecast examined by Father Thurston which has not completely broken down is, as he tells us, one supposed to have been made in 1868 by a Carmelite nun. She is alleged to have foretold, not only the Franco-Prussian War, but subsequent "fearful wars con- vulsing every part of Europe" which were to occur during the papacy of the third successor to Pius IX. But, as
Father Thurston almost superfluously observes, even the realization of this prophecy cannot be regarded as more than " a rather exceptional coincidence."
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