A PROPHETIC SPEECH

The editor of the MAGAZINE is in in receipt of an interesting communication from Mr. Edward J. Brown '74. Mr. Brown encloses a copy of a composition which he submitted as a declamation in Professor Sanborn's English Literature class in his junior year, forty-two years ago. This paper, which is entitled "Prussian Influence in Europe," summarizes the position of Germany in 1873, and concludes with the following paragraph, which in the light of the events of the past year may be looked upon as having shown greater insight into the future than is common to undergraduate speeches:

"We might wish many great and noble things for Germany, now that her unification has been accomplished, but when we consider the hereditary policy of personal aggrandizement and unbridled ambition of the royal family and the ministry in connection with her foreign relations in the past, we are led to fear that her future will be only a repetition of her past history, perhaps grander and more terrible."