astrologers, had excited considerable sensation on the continent.
Blending philosophy with enthusiasm, and uniting to a knowledge of every
chemical process a profound acquaintance with astronomy, their influence
over the superstitious feelings of the people was prodigious; and in
many instances the infatuation was attended with fatal consequences. We
shall relate the following, as nearer home than many now before us.

THE HOROSCOPE, A TALE OF THE STARS.

On the summit of St. Vincent's rocks, in the neighbourhood of Clifton,
looking on the Avon, as it rolls its lazy courses towards the Bristol
Channel, stands an edifice, known by the name of "Cooke's Folly." It
consists of a single round tower, and appears at a distance rather as
the remnant of some extensive building, than a complete and perfect
edifice, as it now exists. It was built more than two centuries ago, by
a man named Maurice Cooke; not, indeed, as a strong hold from the arms
of a mortal enemy, but as a refuge from the evils of destiny. He was the
proprietor of extensive estates in the neighbourhood; and while his lady
was pregnant with her first child, as she was one evening walking in
their domains, she encountered a strange looking gipsey, who, pestering
her for alms, received but a small sum. The man turned over the coin in
his hand, and implored a larger gift. "That," said the lady, "will buy
you food for the present."

"Lady," said the gipsey, "it is not food for the wretched body that I
require; the herbs of the field, and the waters of the ditch, are good
enough for that. I asked your alms for higher purposes. Do not distrust
me, if my bearing be prouder than my garments; do not doubt the strength
of my sunken eye, when I tell you that I can read the skies as they
relate to the fate of men. Not more familiar is his hornbook to the
scholar, than are the heavens to my knowledge."

"What, thou art an astrologer?"--"Aye, lady! my fathers were so before
me, even in the times when our people had a home amidst the pyramids of
the mighty--in the times when you are told the mightier prophets of the
Israelites put the soothsayers of Egypt to confusion; idle tales! but if
true, all reckless now. Judah's scattered sons are now desolate as
ourselves; but they bend and bow to the laws and ways of other land--we
remain in the stern stedfastness of our own."

"If then," returned the lady, "I give thee more money, how will it be
applied?"

"That is not a cour