674 
ASTllOLOG Y. 
abbey in the dead of the night. On the western side the rods turned 
over each other with inconceivable rapidity ; yet, on digging, nothing 
but a coffin could be discovered. The man of art retired to the 
abbey, and then a storm arose which nearly destroyed the west end 
of the church, extinguished all the candles but one, and this burned 
dimly, and made the rods immoveable. Lilly succeeded at length in 
charming away the demon, but no persuasion tjould induce him to 
make another experiment in that species of divination. 
His first tutor, Evans, a debauched Welsh parson, had already 
initiated him in his astrology, and, after seven or eight weeks’ study, he 
had been able to set a figure perfectly. Of this he had give.n a public 
specimen, by intimating that the king had chosen an unlucky horo- 
scope' for his coronation in Scotland in 1633. The library of a second 
Evans, who far exceeded the first, having accidentally come into the 
possession of our astral tyro, determined his future leading study; and 
henceforth he became a professed astrologer. 
Few disciples of Sidrophel have done more than Lilly to establish 
the justice of the hard words which the learned knight and physician. 
Sir Christopher Heydon, who flourished nearly at the same time, has 
objected so much to, as used by his antagonist Mr. Chambers. Mr. 
Chambers says “ all astrologers are damned, that they are worse than 
witches, w'aggling wits, giddy pates, juggling jacks, coggling figure 
flingers, paltry ignorant wizards, stable-keepers of Augeas, fouldung- 
heaps, Babylonical jurablers, Balaam’s asses, sons of ditch-drabs, 
and confederates of the Devil.” He adds, with equal mildness, that “their 
mother was a Hittite, that the magistrate who refuses to expel them 
is worse than an infidel, and that those are happy who shall bruise 
their bones and limbs against the stones.” Lilly, it was clear, de- 
served as much of these reproaches as will fairly attach to one wdio 
has been well described as “ a man w'ho, by dint of plain, persevering, 
consistent, unblushing roguery, acquired a decent reputation, con- 
vinced himself that he was honest, put money into his pocket, and in 
due time was comfortably buried under a nice black marble stone, 
inscribed w ith a record of deceased virtue in English and Latin.” His 
roguery consisted in maintaining the triple character of impostor, 
thief, and pimp. His reputation arose from prophesying alternately 
on the side of the king and the parliament, as the scale of each 
inclined. His money was made by interested marriages; by pensions 
for furnishing the existing government with artful intelligence; by 
presents, and by pupils. His first wife left him 1,0001. for six years 
conjugal service. His second wife brought him 5001. but she was 
extravagant, and spent more than her portion. The parliament gave 
him occasional donations, and a pension of 1001. a year. The king 
of Sweden sent him a gold chain and medal worth fifty pounds, for 
the honourable mention which was made of his majesty in the Alma- 
nack for the year 1657, and 1658 ; and after having lectured pub- 
licly on astrology for a few years, we find him expending nearly 40001. 
in the purchase of estates. His funeral achievements were arranged 
by his sage admirer, Elias Ashmole, who procured a Latin and English 
elegy on his^death, from the afterwards well-known bishop of Smal- 
ridge, at that time a scholar of Westminster school. 
