A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



as much to the king of France or Spain as to Charles 

 I., or to any king in the future, since no definite 

 time is stated. Furthermore, Lilly distinctly states, 

 "What King, Prince, Duke, or the like, I really affirm 

 I perfectly know not" -which last, at least, was a 

 most truthful statement. The same ingenuity that 

 made "Gen. Monk" the "dreadful dead man," could 

 easily make such a prediction apply to the execution 

 of Charles I. Such a definite statement that, on such 

 and such a day a certain number of years in the 

 future, the monarch of England would be beheaded 

 such an exact statement can scarcely be found in any 

 of the works on astrology. It should be borne in 

 mind, also, that Lilly was of the Cromwell party and 

 opposed to the king. 



After the death of Charles I., Lilly admitted that 

 the monarch had given him a thousand pounds to cast 

 his horoscope. "I advised him," says Lilly, "to pro- 

 ceed eastwards ; he went west, and all the world knows 

 the result." It is an unfortunate thing for the cause 

 of astrology that Lilly failed to mention this until 

 after the downfall of the monarch. In fact, the sudden 

 death, or decline in power, of any monarch, even to-day, 

 brings out the perennial post-mortem predictions of 

 astrologers. 



We see how Lilly, an opponent of the king, made his 

 so-called prophecy of the disaster of the king and his 

 army. At the same time another celebrated astrologer 

 and rival of Lilly, George Wharton, also made some 

 predictions about the outcome of the eventful march 

 from Oxford. Wharton, unlike Lilly, was a follower of 

 the king's party, but that, of course, should have had 



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