“Horrida dementes
  Rapiet discordia gentes;
  Plurima tunc leges
  Mutabit, plurima reges
  Natio.”

  “Then o’er the world shall discord stretch her wings,
  Kings change their laws, and kingdoms change their kings.”

Here the author takes a general survey of the state of the world, and the changes that were to happen, about the time of the discovery of this monument, in many nations.  As it is not likely that he intended to touch upon the affairs of other countries, any farther than the advantage of his own made it necessary, we may reasonably conjecture, that he had a full and distinct view of all the negotiations, treaties, confederacies, of all the triple and quadruple alliances, and all the leagues offensive and defensive, in which we were to be engaged, either as principals, accessaries, or guarantees, whether by policy, or hope, or fear, or our concern for preserving the balance of power, or our tenderness for the liberties of Europe.  He knew that our negotiators would interest us in the affairs of the whole earth, and that no state could either rise or decline in power, either extend or lose its dominions, without affecting politicks, and influencing our councils.

This passage will bear an easy and natural application to the present time, in which so many revolutions have happened, so many nations have changed their masters, and so many disputes and commotions are embroiling, almost in every part of the world.

That almost every state in Europe and Asia, that is, almost every country, then known, is comprehended in this prediction, may be easily conceived, but whether it extends to regions at that time undiscovered, and portends any alteration of government in Carolina and Georgia, let more able or more daring expositors determine: 

                      “Conversa
  In rabiem tunc contremet ursa
  Cynthia.”

“The bear, enrag’d, th’ affrighted moon shall dread.”

The terrour created to the moon by the anger of the bear, is a strange expression, but may, perhaps, relate to the apprehensions raised in the Turkish empire, of which a crescent, or new moon, is the imperial standard, by the increasing power of the emperess of Russia, whose dominions lie under the northern constellation, called the Bear.

             “Tunc latis
  Florebunt lilia pratis.”

“The lilies o’er the vales triumphant spread.”

The lilies borne by the kings of France are an apt representation of that country; and their flourishing over wide-extended valleys, seems to regard the new increase of the French power, wealth, and dominions by the advancement of their trade, and the accession of Lorrain.  This is, at first view, an obvious, but, perhaps, for that very reason not the true sense of the inscription.  How can we reconcile it with the following passage: 

  “Nec fremere audebit
  Leo, sed violare timebit,
  Omnia consuetus
  Populari pascua laetus.”