Phillips.] '^•^'^ [Feb. 18, 



The second leaf is occupied by a piece of terrible poetry, most shock- 

 ingly printed, in which is depicted the difficulty 



"To please all Humors suit all sorts of men," 



and concluding with the lines, 



" To them that shall presume that Risque to run, 

 To let us know how were imposed on, 

 Detraction, envy, slander shall accure (qy accrue?) 

 From that ill natured, vaunting, lying Artless Crue." 



The last word is so badly printed as to be almost illegible. 



The page following contains an explanation of the Almanac, and the 

 characters and signs. 



The next page sets forth the eclipses for 1705. 



On the next page occurs " XI month Janua. OcBleris mensibus," below 

 which is the usual calendar with weather predictions. 



On the subsequent page is a table of the motions of the planets, beneath 

 a heading "The Eleventh Month 1705," and followed by remarks on the 

 Conjunction of Saturn and Mars set down for the month. 



On the next page is "The XII Month Febkuatio Bomanorum," and 

 beneath are the usual calculations and weather predictions. On the left 

 band pages the months continue, ending with December, Becimtis Mensis. 

 On almost every right hand page there is a piece of poetry relating to the 

 supposed influences of the starry bodies and their motions, as to the pas- 

 sage of the seasons. Under August, we find 



" But Leeds exerts a Thumping Wit 



Above all vulgar measure. 

 Moves Nature in a Jumping fit. 



According to his pleasure; 



Transcribing was the Art he us'd 



'Tvvas all the skill he had. 

 But being of the same Accus'd 



It almost made him M — D." 



On the last three pages the author falls foul of Daniel Leeds, a rival 

 Almanac maker, charging him with having stolen from Gadbury's Ephem- 

 eris and also from a little work by Jacob Taylor, entitled Eclipses of the 

 Sun and Moon for twenty years. The attack is characterized by all the 

 personalities and indecorum which were usual among our free spoken an- 

 cestors. 



The tirst printing office in Pennsylvania was established about 1686, by 

 William Bradford, and the earliest productions of this Press were Alma- 

 nacs for the years 1686 and 1687. (Thomas, History of Printing, Vol. i, p. 

 209.) 



The name of Jacob Taylor appears as that of a printer, who " was in 

 town" in 1713J but Thomas states that he never met with anything 

 that bore his imprint, and entertains doubts as to whether he was actually 

 a printer. He says, " There was a Jacob Taylor, who for about thirty 

 years annually calculated an Almanac, which was published in Philadel- 



