AN GAOḊAL.
567
GAEL GLAS on the PROPHECIES.
(Seventh Letter)
Feb. 8 1886
Editor of The Gael:
Dear Sir, —
In order not to occupy the valuable space of
the Gael with tedious introductory remarks, I will
begin my seventh letter on the prophecies by stat¬
ing that from the crucifixion of Christ to the end
of time six great plagues of God's wrath were to be
poured out upon the six chief religious systems of
the world or rather on the countries comprising
the ancient dominions of imperial Rome. These
plagues or vial of wrath were to be poured out for
the annihilation of some of those institutions and
the purification of others.
The first vial of wrath was poured out upon the
city of Jerusalem, the Jews and the Mosaic dis¬
pensation. The second was poured upon the ab¬
ominable, idolatrous religious system of pagan
Rome. The third in the form of the Arian heresy
was emptied out upon the unsteady Christianity
of Africa, Syria and the East in general. The
fourth vial was poured upon the schismatical Greek
Church in the form of persecuting Mahometan¬
ism. The fifth plague was voided upon the Catho¬
lic Church in the form of the Protestant Refor¬
mation. But the sixth vial is still full and will be¬
gin to be poured out upon Mahometanism, heresy
and schism in the year 1890, if not previously in
the form of the great Celto-Latin organization of
horsemen concerning which I have heretofore wri¬
tten.
By the aid of Celtic philology I have, I believe
discovered that the period of an hour, and a day
and a month, and a year, mentioned in the 9 chap.
of Revelation in connection with the horses, does
not comprehend a literal portion of time, but
involves an abstruse allegorical mystery pointing
to a date or conjuncture which signifies the year
1890, when the great equine army of crusaders
will be ready to move against Asiatic Infidelity
and so kill the third part of men. But I cannot,
in an article which is not intended to be prolix,
enter into a demonstration of the data by which I
have been enabled to reach this important con¬
clusion.
According to St. John, the sixth vial was to be
poured out upon the great Euphrates, which im¬
plies the dispersed river, as a symbol of the expan¬
sivenses of Eastern unbelief. And he says he saw
emanating from the mouth of the dragon, and
from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth
of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs
for they are the spirits of devils working signs and
which go forth to the kings of the whole earth to
gather them to battle, against the great day of
Almighty God. And he intimates that they were
to be gathered into a place which in Hebrew is
called Armageddon. Now, I understand the drag¬
on to represent the Western Empire of ancient
Rome, and the beast the Eastern or Grecian Em¬
pire, while the false prophet personifies the Otto¬
man Empire and Mahometanism. After the fall
of the Western Empire the imperial seat of Roman
power was transferred to France in the days of
Charlemagne, and afterward to Germany, many of
whose rulers assumed the style and title of Em¬
perors of Rome; and hence the dragon to day chief¬
ly represents the Teutonic. and perhaps the Latin
element: while the Graeco Russian church in a
religious sense is typified by the beast. The three
unclean spirits like frogs, which were seen to pro¬
ceed from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and
the false prophet are the countries or capital cities
of those three allegorical impersonations of modern
great military and civil powers, are nothing more
miraculous or wonderful than land or submarine
telegraphic wires and cables transmiting news to
the kings of the earth, inviting them to form
warlike coalitions or alliances.
The frog is an amphibious animal that can subsist
on land or in water, and affords a fit embodiment
of the idea figuratively involved in this kind of
communication; for electro-magnetism or galvan¬
ism was first discovered by the scientist Galvani
while dissecting a frog. The place into which the
allied, or contending forces are to be gathered is,
in Hebrew, called Armageddon, which Pastorini
interprets to signify, the hill of fruits; while the
annotator of the Catholic Testament defines it to
imply the hill of robbers. This proper noun is a
compound term composed of four Hebrew words
viz. — Arm, land, ha, the definite article : gedh, in¬
cisions, furrows, runes or letters, and don, a prince
lord, president or king; don, in Hebrew has the
same signification as, el, which signifies a ruler, or
a god; In Irish this term, el, is written al, i.e. an
inventor, (vide O'Rielly's Supplement), and hence
I conclude that Armageddon signifies the land of
the inventor or god of letters. According to the
Irish Language the inventor of letters was called
Gaodhal, i.e. Mercury, who in Greek is denomin¬
ated Hermes and in Latin Mercurius; and hence
the equivalent of the term Armageddon would be
written in Gaelic,
Tír-Ġaoḋail,
in Latin not Gallia, as in Ceasar's Commentaries,
but Gadelia, the country of the Gael. In my
opinion, therefore the contending forces alluded
to will be gathered in a Celtic country, which may
be Ireland or France. Gaodhal according to Pictet
the philologist, signifies a robber, and might in
this sense bear some analogy which may justify
the derivation or interpretation given to the term
Armageddon by the annotator of the New Testa¬
ment. But if the Hebrew word arm, imply hill, as
some interpreters aver, Armageddon may signify
the bill of the Gaodhail, literally Ard-Ghaodhail
or Argyle, and hence it may be inferred that the
contending armies alluded to may be gathered in,
to Scotland or, rather perhaps, into Great Britan
