673 
ASTROLOGY. 
It lias been reported of several famous for tliclr astrologic skill, 
that they have suffered a voluntary death, merely to verify their own 
predictions ; this has been said of Cardan, and of Burton the author 
of the Anatomy of Melancholy. 
It is curious to observe the shifts to which astrologers are put 
when their predictions are not verified. Great winds were predicted 
by a famous adept, about the year 1586. No unusual storms, how- 
ever, happened. Bodin, to save the reputation of the art, applied it as 
a figure to some revolutions in the state ; and of which there were 
instances enough at that moment. Among their lucky and unlucky 
days, astrologers pretend to give those of various illustrious persons 
and of families. One is very striking. — Thursday was the unlucky 
day of our Henry the Eighth. He, his son Edward the Sixth, queen 
Mary, and queen Elizabeth, all died on a Thursday. 
The life of Lilly the astrologer, written by himself, is a curious 
work. He is the Sidrbphel of Butler in his Hudibras. 
Astrology greatly flourished in the time of the civil wars. The 
royalists and the rebels had their astrologers, as well as their soldiers, 
and the predictions of the former had a great influence over the 
latter. 
In 1670 the passion for horoscopes, and expounding the stars, pre- 
vailed in France among the first rank. The new-born child was 
usjially presented naked to the astrologer, who read in its forehead, 
and the transverse lines in its hand, and thence wrote down its future 
destiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry the Fourth, then a 
child, to old Nostradamus, whom antiquaries esteem more for his 
Chronicle of Provence, than his vaticinating powers. The sight of 
the reverend seer, with a beard which ‘‘streamed like a meteor in the 
air,” is said to have terrified the future hero. — Will it be credited, that 
one of these magicians having assured Charles the Ninth that he would 
live as many days as he could turn about upon his heels in an hour 
standing upon one leg, that his majesty every morning performed 
that solemn exercise for an hour? the principal officers of the court, 
the judges, the chancellors, and generals likewise, in compliment, 
standing on one leg, and turning round ! 
WlTCHCRATT. 
This was a supernatural power, which persons were formally sup- 
posed to obtain the possession of, by entering into compact with the 
devil. They gave themselves up to him, body and soul ; and he 
engaged that they should w'ant for nothing, and that he would avenge 
them upon all their enemies. Ap soon as the bargain was concluded, 
the devil delivered to the witch an imp, or familiar spirit, to be 
ready at a call, and to do whatever it was directed. By the assistance 
of this imp of the devil, the witch, who was almost always an old 
woman, was enabled to transport herself in the air on a broomstick 
or a spit to distant places, to attend the meeting of the witches, at 
which the devil always presided. They were enabled also to trans- 
form themselves into various shapes, particularly to assume the form 
of cats and hares, in which they most delighted ; to inflict diseases 
