The child appears to be something more than a personification of an era in its infancy, its parents likewise are neither celestial. nor apocalyptic, but a Roman father with virtus to bequeath to his son, and a Roman matron. The identification of the child of destiny is a task that has exercised the ingenuity--and revealed the credulity or ignorance--of scholars and visionaries for two thousand years; it has been aggravated by a hazard to which prophetic literature by its very nature is peculiarly liable, that of subsequent manipulation when exact fulfilment has been frustrated or postponed.A string of Messianic candidates with spurious credentials or none at all may summarily be dismissed.
運命の子供についての人物研究という課題は二千年間、学者や夢想家の探究能力を鍛え、又、彼等の信じ込みやすさ、無知を暴いてきた。 その課題は、或る障害に悩まされてきた。それは予言的な文学が、その性質ゆえに特別に責任を負うべき障害、さらに、それに続いて、思ったとおりの成果が得られないか、先延ばしにする時に行なう情報の改ざんによる障害だった。人物についての証明が不確実、或いは全くない一連の救世主候補達は、即座に切り捨てられるようである。