trivial details of
childhood, which he describes minutely, we find him as a boy at
Ashby-de-la-Zouche, where he is the pupil of one Mr. John Brinsley. Here
he learned Latin and Greek, and began to study Hebrew. In the sixteenth
year of his age he was greatly troubled with dreams concerning his
damnation or salvation; and at the age of eighteen he returned to his
father's house, and there kept a school in great penury. He then appears
to have come up to London, leaving his father in a debtor's prison, and
proceeded in pursuit of fortune with a new suit of clothes and seven
shillings and sixpence in his pocket. In London he entered the service
of one Gilbert Wright, an independent citizen of small means and smaller
education. To him Lilly was both man-servant and secretary. The second
Mrs. Wright seems to have had a taste for astrology, and consulted some
of the quacks who then preyed on the silly women of the city. She was
very fond of young Lilly, who attended her in her last illness, and, in
return for his care and attention, she bequeathed to him several
"sigils" or talismanic seals. Probably it was the foolishness of this
poor woman that first suggested to Lilly the advantages to be gained
from the profession of astrology. Mr. Wright married a third wife, and
soon afterwards died, leaving his widow comfortably off. She fell in
love with Lilly, who married her in 1627, and for five years, until her
death, they lived happily together. Lilly was now a man of means, and
was enabled to study that science which he afterwards practised with so
much success. There were a good many professors of the black art at
this date, and Lilly studied under one Evans, a scoundrelly ex-parson
from Wales, until, according to Lilly's own account, he discovered Evans
to be the cheat he undoubtedly was. Lilly, when he set up for himself,
wrote many astrological works, which seem to have been very successful.
He was known and visited by all the great men of the day, and probably
had brains enough only to prophesy when he knew. His description of his
political creed is beautifully characteristic of the man: "I was more
Cavalier than Round-head, and so taken notice of; but afterwards I
engaged body and soul in the cause of the Parliament, but still with
much affection to his Majesty's person and unto Monarchy, which I ever
loved and approved beyond any government whatsoever." Lilly was, in a
word, a self-seeking but successful knave. People who