ASTROLOGY, 
675 
A single anecdote will amply illustrate Lilly’s character. In his 
Almanack for 1653, he asserted that the parliament stood on a tisklish 
foundation, and that the commonality and soldiery would join toge- 
ther against it. For this he was called upon by the House. Before 
his appearance, however, he contrived to have six copies of the Alma- 
nack printed, in which the offensive passages were omitted. These 
he produced from his pocket at the bar ; contending that they only 
were genuine, and that the others were surreptitiously circulated under 
his name by some enemy who sought to ruin him. 
Lilly has furnished us with the portrait of some of his contemporary 
fellow students. Forman, Bredan, Bubb, Hart, and Pool. The first 
is notorious for his connexion with the detestable countess of Essex. 
The second, who was a clergyman, was distinguished for his love of 
tobacco and strong drink ; insomuch, that “ when he had no tobacco, 
he would cut up the bell-ropes and smoke them. The third was 
pilloried for certain knavish practices in the “ conynge” art. The 
fourth escaped the same punishment by running away; and the fifth 
avoided the elevation of the gallows for theft, by absconding in time. 
Yet these w'ere the sort of men at whose annual festival the learned 
Ashmole condescended to officiate as steward. A few years before his 
death, Lilly adopted Henry Coley, a tailor, as his successor; this 
worthy had been his amanuensis, and traded in prophecy with suc- 
cess almost equal to that of his master. 
At the revolution, astrology declined, and notwithstanding the 
labours of the immortal Partridge then, and those of Ebenezer Sibley, 
which in our owm days fill two quarto volumes, the art may now be con- 
sidered as exploded. The gradual march of knowledge and civiliza- 
tion has every where, unless in the East, tended to extinguish this 
among other superstitions, by which the blind anxiety of men sought 
to penetrate futurity. There are few believers left among us, even in 
the more admissible solar and lunar influences ; and as for the con- 
nexion of destiny with the stars, most even of the purchasers of 
Moore’s almanacks would, if pressed hard, be ready to admit the 
justice of Cardinal Mazarine’s dying remark. When that minister 
lay on his death-bed, a comet happened to appear ; and there were 
not wanting flatterers to insinuate that it was in reference to his 
approaching end. He, answered with a manly pleasantry, Messieurs ^ 
la comete me fait trap d' honour.'’ 
A belief in judicial astrology can now only exist in the people who 
may be said to have no belief at all ; for mere traditional sentiments 
can hardly be said to amount to a belief. But a faith in this ridicu- 
lous system in our own cojintry is of late existence ; it was a favourite 
superstition with the learned, and whenever an idea germinates in a 
learned head, it shoots with additional luxuriance. 
When Charles the First was confined, Lilly the astrologer was 
consulted for the hour which would favour his escape. 
The most respectable characters of the age, Sir William Dugdale, 
Elias Ashmole, Dr. Grew, and others, were members of an astrologi- 
cal club. Congreve’s character of Foresight, in Love for Love, was 
then no uncommon person, though the humour now is scarcely 
intelligible. Dryden cast the nativities of his sons. 
