Newton and Voltaire on Prophecy

Newton and Voltaire on Prophecy.

IT is a remarkable fact that Sir Isaac Newton, in his work on the prophecies of Daniel and Revalation, said that if they wore true it would be necessary that a new mode of traveling should be invented, He said that the knowledge of mankind would be so increased before a certain date, or time terminated —namely, 1,200 years—that they would be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour.

Voltaire got hold of this, and true to the spirit of skepticism of all ages, said :

"Now, look at the mighty mind of Newton, whodiscovered gravitation, when, he became an old man and got into his dotage began to study the book called the Bible, and it seems, in order to credit its fabulous nonsense, we must believe that the knowledge of mankind will be so increased that we shall be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. The poor dotard."

The self-complacency of the philosophic infidel made his friends laugh; but if he should get into a railway train, even a skeptic to-day would have to say: "Newton was a wise philosopher, Voltaire a poor old dotard,"—Christian Oracle.