X.] PLANTS AND PLANETS. 157 



nor I neither/' " I would willingly teach astrologers, 

 and make them physicians (if I knew how), for they 

 are most fitting for the calling ; if you will not believe 

 me, ask Dr. Hippocrates and Dr. Galen, a couple of 

 gentlemen that our college of physicians keep to 

 vapour with, not to follow. In this our herb, I shall 

 give the pattern of a ruler, the sons of art rough cast, 

 yet as near the truth as the men of Benjamin could 

 throw a stone ; whereby my brethren the astrologers 

 may know by a penny how a shilling is coined : as 

 for the college of physicians they are too stately 

 to learn and too proud to continue. They say a 

 mouse is under the dominion of the Moon, and that 

 is the reason they feed in the night ; the house of 

 the Moon is Cancer ; rats are of the same nature 

 as mice, but they are a little bigger ; Mars receives 

 his fall in Cancer, ergo Wormwood being an herb of 

 Mars, is a present remedy for the biting of rats and 

 mice." 



" Wheals, pushes, black and blue spots, coming 

 either by bruises or beatings, Wormwood, an herb of 

 Mars, helps, because Mars (as bad as you love him, and 

 as you hate him) will not break your head, but he will 

 give you a plaister. If he do but teach you to know 

 yourself, his courtesy is greater than his discourtesy." 

 41 Suppose a man be bitten or stung by a martial 

 creature, imagine a wasp, a hornet, a scorpion, Worm- 

 wood, an herb of Mars, giveth you a present cure ; 

 then Mars, choleric as he is, hath learned that 

 patience, to pass by your evil speeches of him, and 

 tells you by my pen, That he gives you no affliction, 

 but he gives you a cure ; you need not run to Apollo, 



