anack maker, a Spanish friar,
predicted, in clear and precise words, the death of Henry the Fourth of
France; and Pierese, though he had no faith in star-gazing, yet, alarmed
at whatever menaced the life of a beloved sovereign, consulted with some
of the king's friends, and had the Spanish almanack laid before his
Majesty, who courteously thanked them for their solicitude, but utterly
slighted the prediction: the event occurred, and in the following year,
the Spanish _Lilly_ spread his own fame in an new almanack. This
prediction of the friar, was the result either of his being acquainted
with the plot, or from his being made an instrument for the purposes of
those who were.

Cornelius Agrippa rightly designates astrologers "a perverse and
preposterous generation of men, who profess to know future things, but
in the meantime are altogether ignorant of past and present; and
undertaking to tell all people most obscure and hidden secrets abroad,
at the same time, know not what happens in their own houses."

But this Agrippa, for profound
And solid lying, was renown'd:
The Anthroposophus, and Floud,
And Jacob Behmen, understood;
Knew many an amulet and charm
That would do neither good nor harm.
He understood the speech of birds
As well as they themselves do words;
Could tell what subtlest parrots mean
That speak and think contrary, clean;
What member 'tis of whom they talk,
Why they cry, rope and--walk, knave, walk.
He could foretell whatever was
By consequence to come to pass;
As death of great men, alterations,
Diseases, battles, inundations:
All this without th' eclipse o' th' sun,
Or dreadful comet, he hath done
By inward light, a way as good,
And easy to be understood:
But with more lucky hit than those
That use to make the stars depose
As if they were consenting to
All mischief in the world men do:
Or like the devil, did tempt and sway 'em
To rogueries, and then betray 'em.

We shall conclude our astrological strictures with the following
advertisement, which affords as fine a satirical specimen of quackery as
is to be met with. It is extracted from "poor Robin's" almanack for
1773; and may not be without its use, to many at the present day. We
will vouch for it being harmless, but as we are not in the secret of all
that it contains, our readers must endeavour to get the information that
may be wanted, on certain important points, from other quarters. I