diligently that he soon had
knowledge to impart to others, and he 'taught Sir George Knight
astrology, that part which concerns sickness, wherein he so profited
that in two or three months he would give a very good discovery of any
disease only by his figures.'

With a new wife, which he got the next year (1634), Lilly had L500
portion; but 'she was of the nature of Mars,' which is surely not a good
nature in a wife. In that same year he, with some 'other gentlemen,'
engaged in an adventure for hidden treasure: they 'played the hazel rod
round about the cloyster,' and digged, in the place indicated, six feet
deep, till they came to a coffin; but they did not open it, for which
they were afterward regretful, thinking that _it_ probably contained the
treasure. Suddenly, while they were at this work, a great wind arose,
'so high, so blustering, and loud,' that all were frightened, 'and knew
not what to think or do;' all save Lilly, who gave 'directions and
commands to dismiss the daemons,' and then all became quiet again. These
doings Lilly did not approve, and says he 'could never again be induced
to join in such kind of work.' He engaged, however, in another
transaction of still worse character, which seems to have been even
more unpleasant to him; for he says: 'After that I became melancholy,
very much afflicted with the hypochondriac melancholy, growing lean and
spare, and every day worse; so that in the year 1635, my infirmity
continuing and my acquaintance increasing, I resolved to live in the
country, and in March and April, 1636, I removed my goods unto Hersham
(Horsham in Sussex, thirty-six miles from London), where I continued
until 1641, no notice being taken who or what I was:' and in this time
he burned some of his books, which treated of things he did not approve,
and which he disliked to practise; for this man really had a conscience
as good as the average, or even better: he was driven into solitude by
the reproaches of it--or, perhaps, by the scoldings of a wife who 'was
of the nature of Mars.'

Thus far we have followed Lilly's account of himself closely, using
often his own words, because they give a more correct idea of the man
than could be got from the words of another; but henceforth to the end,
we will skip much and be brief. This astrologer did not always rely on
his special art to discover things hidden, but used often quite ordinary
means; sometimes such as are common to officers of detective p