of Sweden,* and talked with pride of the deference that had been shown him on various occasions by the great ones of the earth, as well as of the general confidence in his knowledge of the celestial sciences, his use of the Mosaical rods, and his supernatural gifts of vaticination. The

* Estimated to be worth above 507. and presented to him in the year 1659, on account of his having mentioned that monarch with great respect in his almanacks of 1657 and 1658. Lilly might well vaunt the homage with which he had been honoured in that credulous and superstitious age. Besides amassing a fortune by the sale of his prophetical powers, he tells us that he was twice consulted by Mrs. Whorwood, on the part of King Charles the First, when that monarch was meditating his escape from Hampton Court, in the first instance, and subsequently from Carisbrook Castle. In 1647 he and Booker were both sent for to the headquarters of Fairfax, the Parliament General, who addressed them in an obscure speech, of which, however, the object seems to have been to bespeak their interest and good offices for the cause in which he was embarked. To secure this point, Lilly received next year a present of 501. in cash, and an order from the Council of State for a pension of 100%. per annum. During the siege. of Colchester, Lilly and Booker were summoned thither to encourage the soldiers, by predicting the capture of the place, in which they were luckily justified by the

Burgomaster, who had always understood that his friend's house was the resort of philosophers, and men of enlightened intellect, was surprised to hear this Archimago talk of the magical circle, recite Cornelius Agrippa's form of prayer for invoking the angel Salmonæus, and boast of his intimacy with the guardian angels of England, to whom he assigned the names of Salmael and Malchidael.

"If I had the honour of an acquaintance with those spirits," said the Burgomaster," I would use my influence with them to procure a peace for the country over which they preside: for it has gained but little by the war. Favour me with an introduction to your celestial friends, and I will try the effect of my own eloquence."

event. We have smiled, in our school exercises, at the Athenian general, who wrote home for some more cattle, and a fresh supply of soothsayers, for the use of his army; but we see that the custom was not extinct in the 17th century; and although the form of the superstition may be altered in our own times, the feeling and the credulity still exist.

"It is only by deep study and painful ordeals," replied Lilly," that a man can arrive at that exalted privilege; but if you desire it, I will teach you in six weeks to set up a figure, project a horoscope, and cast a nativity."

"What hey?” cried the Burgomaster, who had a violent antipathy to quacks and pretenders to superiority of any sort. "And so

name

make me a witch out of petticoats, the best with which I can dignify you gentlemen astrologers, who ought to be liable to the same fate as your broomstick-riding sisters. No, mijnheer Lilly, I am no pupil of your's, and no believer in your art. The future is a sealed book, only to be perused by reading the past, for the same causes in all ages will produce the same effects. Horace gave good advice, " quid sit futurum cras, fuge quærere." If we cannot avoid your pretended prophecies, we are better without knowing them: if we can, they are no predictions. As to the stars, they may help us to shape our course at

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sea but not ashore, for nothing but egregious vanity can have ever led us to believe that we are married from the day of our birth to one of those heavenly bodies. And yet we laugh at the Chinese lord of the celestial empire, for dubbing himself brother to the sun and moon. Hey, Slapperloot! we are truly a strange race!” "In all ages people have been believers in our noble art," exclaimed Lilly, tartly.-" And in all ages they have been equally deluded,” replied Beverning. Soothsayers and aruspices have seen as far into the millstone with the aid of beasts' entrails, and the flight of birds, as you have by serving a subpœna upon the stars, but no further. These errors were excuseable in the infancy of the world, for abuse precedes use. Superstition, alchemy, and astrology, have been the parents of religion, chymistry, and astronomy. The old folks have now become superannuated, and ought to be formally deposed. Away with the dotards!"

"For superstition we have nothing to say,"

resumed Lilly; "but the learned books that have been written upon alchemy and astrology sufficiently attest the reality of those sciences."

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Ay, as this Phoenix feather, which our worthy host has just shown me, proves the existence of the bird," said Beverning. "Dender ende Blixem! I want patience when I behold a man in rags pretend to the possession of the philosopher's stone, a blind buzzard, who cannot see his way out of his present difficulties, affect an insight into futurity, and a hen-pecked zany, who is governed by his wife, claiming mastery over the stars and angels." No personal allusion was intended by this last speech, but as it happened that the almanack-making empiric, with all his prescience, had married a termagant, whose star proved ascendant in his family horoscope; he took the observation in high dudgeon, seized the first opportunity of withdrawing with his friends, and in his next year's almanack fell foul of the whole Dutch nation