190 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



life and the affairs of men was a very real thing indeed, and 

 those who claimed the power of reading the celestial signs 

 had abundant opportunities of having their skill tested. 

 Lilly was perhaps one of the best known of these, and in 

 his book — our copy, we see, bears the date 1659 — gives us 

 great cause for wonderment at the credulity of the age in 

 which he lived. Winstanly's Book of Knowledge is also a 

 book to refer to for those interested in such matters. It 

 ran through many editions; our copy is that of 1685. 

 One can scarcely imagine that a man having lost his dog 

 would desire the starry heavens to be searched for its 

 recovery, yet this was one of the tasks that Lilly was set 

 to perform, and he tells us, as follows, how he fared : 



" The Quere unto me was, what part of the City they 

 should search ; next, if he should ever recover him. The 

 sign of Gemini is west and by south, the quarter of heaven 

 is west ; Mercury, the significator of the Dog, is in Libra, 

 a western] sign, but southern quarter of heaven, tending to 

 the west. The moon is in Virgo, a south-west sign, and 

 verging to the western angle ; the strength of the 

 testimonies examined I found the plurality to signifie the 

 west, and therefore I judged that the Dog ought to be 

 westward from the place where the Owner lived, which was 

 at Temple Barre ; wherefore I iudged that the Dog was 

 about Long Acre or upper part of Drury Lane. In regard 

 that Mercury, significator of the beast, was in a sign of the 

 same triplicity that Gemini his ascendant is, which signifies 



other stars. Even as in the days of the week we yet preserve the memories 

 of the gods of our Sa.\on forefathers, so in the colloquialism of to-day we 

 retain a far-off echo of those old astrological beliefs, people being yet 

 dubbed jovial, mercurial, or saturnine, while some unfortunately are lunatic, 

 for they have come beneath the evil sway of the moon. 



