Note 67 — Forecastings of Nostradamus.

1588 is the date of the destruction of Philip II.’s Invincible Armada by storms and by Drake in Cadiz Bay. From that time the maritime supremacy of England dates, and, according to Nostradamus, it is to last more than three centuries, but not four. It culminated with the death of Nelson at Trafalgar, and the tale of that event still stirs the soul to heroism, and to that still more sacred thing, a sense profound of duty. But all that has happened since seems like a slow toning down to gradual nothingness. In four years the bare three centuries will stand completed. An Englishman may ask, I think, with some emotion, how much the plus stands for.