For all the Stars that in the Heavens shine
Fulfill some deep and wonderfull design.

JULY.

The furious winds with one another Scold

And Sulph'ry Vapours meet with Chilling Cold. The Clouds do Roar and from their breaches throw Such Thund'ring Tumults as torment below,

And Heavens Artil'ry horrid Noises make

Wherewith dull Earth and Wand'ring Rivers shake.

AUGUST.

The Heavenly Globes in Liquid Aether Runs

With Rapid Motion round the Stedfast Sun;
The smallest Stars that quite Surpass our Sight.

To other Systems may be Globes of Light

Systems Distinct in Order do imbrace

The Whole Abyss of Extra mundane Space.

A Fair Face but a foul Bargain.

SEPTEMBER.

When Tender Lambs with Wolves delight to play
Or from the West shall spring the Break of Day:
When Rocks forget their ponderous weight and fly,
Like waving Atoms in the Empty Skie:
Then shall vain Notions by Traditions bred,
Among the Vulgar be abolished.

OCTOBER.

Are Comets with their dreadfull firey Blaze
Made only Objects whereon Men might Gaze?
No, they from World to World are always Sent
To Warn them of some Sad and dire Event.
One met the Earth and Drown'd that Generation
The same may cause the Gen'ral Conflagration.
Hate not the man, but his vices.

NOVEMBER.

Old Winter's coming void of all delight

With tremb'ling steps his Head is bald and White
His Hair with Robes of Icicles are hung.
His Chatt'ring Teeth Confound his Useless Tongue
He makes the Rich to Spend, and poor to Cry
For Want of that which would their Wants Supply.

DECEMBER.

Sol through his Twelve Coelestial Inns has Run
And Now unto Cold Capricorn is come:
Where in that Solstice he so Pale is grown,
As if asham'd his Weakness should be known:
But in Six Months to us he will return

With such a Heat his Rays will almost burn.

Concerning the Eclipses this year, the Author would observe, that according to Authors the Eclipse of the Moon (Jan. 22) which happens in Leo the 2nd Sign of the fiery Triplicity, threatens more Grudgings, Repinings, discord and hatred, murmuring, complaints of the Common People, motions of Armies, Wars, burning of Houses, sharp Fevers, Pestilential Diseases, etc. And as for the Eclipse of the Sun on the 3rd of July, Mars casts his Malign Rays to both the Luminaries, which portends much Mischief to those Places and Countries, that are subject to the Sign Eclipsed.

Note. In the last preceding Years, the Superiour Planets have been within benevolent Rays, but in the three succeeding Years they will be malevolently Affected and near the Equinox, which perhaps may affect the bigger part of the Earth, with War and Tumults.

KIND READER.

It may not be amiss to fill this Vacant Page with the following Lines written by an Accurate hand to Mr. H. Coley, on his Clavis Astrologiae Elimata.

When the Divine Idaea's first unfurl'd,

Themselves to raise this glorious Frame the World,

Almighty Wisdom by a Mistique Tye,

Spread through the whole a secret Sympathy;

Impregnating Superiours to dispense,

On lower Bodies daily Influence;

Which Train, if Causes that in order fall

The Wiser Nature, others Fortune call:

And whilst Man did in Innocence remain,

He knew ('tis like) each Link of that great chain;

But when Sin Blurr'd his Soul, that Light was Damp't

Affected Knowledge made him Ignorant;

Heaven's Language then no longer he could spell,
But rudely guess at what he could not tell:

Yet though Eclips'd, his Mind, (not quite bereft)
Had still some scatter'd Glimmering Notions left.
As Rallying Troops (after an Overthrow)

By Stratagems seem to Attaque their Foe;

So humane kind hopes to Retrieve by Art,
That Skill from which they did so fondly part:
On plains of Shinar where enlarged Skie
Gluts with vast Prospect the admiring Eye.
The long liv'd Patriarchs as their Flocks they Fed,
Observ'd the wandering Glories Over-head.
Trac'd all their Laws of motion and from thence
By sage Experience learn'd their Influence:
URANIA then was chast, and known to be,

A hand-maid fit for bles'd Theology;

Until a Barbarous Crew had Seiz'd upon her

Whose savage Rapes deflower'd her blooming Honour!
Chaldaeau Figments then debauch'd her Race,
And with vile paint Sulli'd her lovely Face:
Ignorance called her Witch, Malice a Cheat,
And every Gypsey did usurp her Seat.

But still with generous scorn she took these wrongs,
And left just Fate to scourge their Sawcy Tongues.

Notes on 1730.-This year the opening verse on title page savors greatly of a bias toward Astrology, although "glittering spears," "armour bright," and "dead and wounded" did not largely disturb the peace of Europe this season.

The poetical offerings over each month have been elaborated from couplets to six-line verses, mostly dedicated to the extolment of the starry firmament and its glories, and with mythologic imagery of the planets, their courses and influences. A notable exception however is the March selection which is an attempt at an humorous Indian dialect soliloquy. The circumstance covered by the verse may be freely rendered into English, thus: (The aborigine having saluted Netop (Englishman) with an inquire of surprise, continues: What news you speak to me? mighty good news; what? don't you understand me? By-and-by Alewives (a sort of fish) will come, as much as I could wish. I think next week then I shall have them sure. Where is the place, you ask me? I answer, I think some folks call its name Namasket (river.)

February evinces some familiarity with Shakspeare. Under August appears a mild, yet pointed allusion to the social evil, and in September he

shoots a bolt at flying folly. Under October crops out the direful Astrological idea of the baneful influence of the Comet's presence, and even the probable destruction of the world by similar influence is foretold, as also is the Deluge attributed to the collision of this terrestial ball, with one of those erratic heavenly letters of marque.

Altogether the monthly verses are quite interesting as well as pleasing, and amply make amends for the humorous items which are not very plentiful this year in the weather column.

In his chapter on the Eclipses he again quotes the Astrological authors, and "what they say," and concludes his Almanack with a poem dedicated to Mr. Henry Coley, the pupil and successor to Mr. William Lilly, the great Astrologer of the period of Charles I, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration. This poem is quite entertaining, as the writer laments the decline of the Astrologic art from its once high position as the handmaid of Theology.

William Lilly, the most successful of these charlatans deserves more than a passing notice. He flourished between the years 1602-1681; born I May, 1602; died 9 June, 1681, and was proficient in all the unscrupulous cunning, adroitness, and plausibility, which go to make up the successful quack and impostor. When Charles I. was imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle, Lilly was consulted for the honr which would favor his escape. He was satirized by Butler in Hudibras, as Sidrophel.

"Do not our great reformers use
This Sidrophel to forebode news?
To write of victories next year,
And castles taken yet i' th' air?

Of battles fought at sea, and ships

Sunk two years hence? the last eclipse?
A total o'er throw given the King
In Cornwall, horse and foot, next spring?
And has he not point-blank foretold
Whats'e'er the close committee would?
Made Mars and Saturn for the cause,
The Moon for fundamental laws?
The Ram, the Bull, the Goat declare
Against the Book of Common Prayer?
The Scorpion take the protestation,
And Bear engage for reformation?
Made all the royal stars recant,
Compound and take the covenant?"

Lilly was the author of almanacks entitled Merlini Anglici Ephemeris, and Merlinus Anglicus Junior, and continued their publication from 1644 until his decease, when he was succeeded by his student, Henry Coley, to whom the poem quoted by Dr. Ames was dedicated.