ictions came
exactly to pass, for the master and his boat's crew were lost before the
Investigator was joined by the Lady Nelson, from Port-Jackson; and when
the former ship was condemned, the people embarked with their commander
on board the Porpoise, which was wrecked on a coral reef, and nine of
the crew were lost.

[76] In 1670, the passion for horoscopes and expounding the stars,
prevailed in France among the first rank. The new-born child was usually
presented naked to the astrologer, who read the first lineaments in its
forehead, and the transverse lines in its hands, and thence wrote down
its future destiny. Catherine de Medicis carried Henry IV, when a child,
to old Nostradamus, who antiquaries esteem more for his Chronicle of
Provence than for his vaticinating powers. The sight of the revered
seer, with a heard which "streamed like a meteor in the air," terrified
the future hero, who dreaded a whipping from so grave a personage.

[77] The Chaldean Sages were nearly put to the route by a quarto pack of
artillery, fired on them by Mr. John Chamber, in 1691. Apollo did not
use Marsyas more inhumanly than his scourging pen this mystical race;
and his personalities made them sorely feel it. However, a Norwich
knight, the very Quixote of Astrology, arrayed in the enchanted armour
of his occult authors, encountered this pagan in a most stately
carousal. He came forth with "A Defence of Judicial Astrologye, in
answer to a treatise lately published by Mr. John Chamber. By
Christopher Knight. Printed at Cambridge, 1693."

[78] Vide Amulets passim.

[79] Lilly's work, a voluminous quarto monument of the folly of the age,
was sold originally for four guineas; it is entitled "Christian
Astrology," modestly treated, in three books, by William Lilly, student
in Astrology, 2nd. edition 1659. Every page is embellished with a
horoscope which, sitting on the pretending tripod, he explains with the
utmost facility. There is also a portrait of this arch rogue and
star-gazer, an admirable illustration for Lavater. As to Lilly's great
skill in prophecy, there goes a pleasant story related by a kinsman of
Dr. Case, his successor--namely--that a person wanting to consult him on
a certain point coming to his house one morning, Lilly himself going to
the door, saw a piece of filthy carrion which some one, who had more wit
than manners, had left there: and being much offended at its unsightly
appearance wished heartily he did but kno