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him with the word of God, and prayers. She prayed earnestly with him, at which times she saw him kneel; and she brought him, by degrees, from the vain idea that the writing he sought could afford him comfort. The first three nights that he came to the upper room, her parents heard a noise at the window, and a pane sprung out just before he appeared. On the seventh night he came and thanked her for having led him to his Redeemer; telling her that the hour of his release approached. He knelt by her bedside, and prayed with her for the last time; and his form was now much brighter and more pleasing. Suddenly seven children appeared, white, bright, and joyful; they were his children, and they formed a circle round him, and sang melodiously; the spirit sang with them, as did also Mrs. H-, who hereupon fell asleep, continuing still to sing. Presently she awoke again, and conversed further with the spectre. He wished to make a mark on her hand, but she would not give it him; and he did not leave her till her protecting spirit, her grandmother, slipt in between him and her; then he took two of his children by the hand, and all disappeared. She long remembered this spectre with a mingled feeling of joy and melancholy.-Seeress of Prevorst.

ACCOUNT OF THE EARTHQUAKE AT NAPLES, NOVEMBER 25TH, 1343, GIVEN BY PETRARCH IN A LETTER WRITTEN TO A FRIEND ON THE ENSUING DAY.

monk, who was the bishop of a neighbouring island, and held in great esteem for his sanctity and his skill in astrology, had foretold that Naples was to be destroyed by an earthquake on the 25th of November. The prophecy spread such a terror through the city, that the inhabitants abandoned their affairs to prepare themselves for death. Some hardy spirits, indeed, ridiculed those who betrayed marks of fear on the approach of a thunder storm; and as soon as the storm was over, jestingly cried out, "See, the prophecy has failed."

As to myself, I was in a state between fear and hope; but I must confess that fear sometimes got the ascendant. Accustomed to a colder climate, and in which a thunder storm in winter was a rare phenomenon, I considered what I now saw as a threatening from Heaven.

On the eve of the night in which the prophecy was to be ful. filled, a number of females, more attentive to the impending evil than to the decorum of their sex, ran half naked through the streets, pressing their children to their bosoms. They hastened to prostrate themselves in the churches, which they deluged with their tears, crying out with all their might, "Have mercy, O Lord. Have mercy upon us."

Moved, distressed with the general consternation, I retired, early, to the Convent of St. Lawrence. The monks went to rest at the usual hour. It was the seventh day of the moon, and as I was anxious to observe in what manner she would set, I stood looking at my window till she was hidden from my sight by a neighbouring mountain. This was a little before midnight. The moon was gloomy and overcast; nevertheless, I felt myself tolerably composed, and went to bed. But scarce had I closed my eyes, when I was awakened by the loud rattling of my chamber windows. I felt the walls of the convent violently shaken from their fonndations. The lamp, which I always kept lighted through the night was extinguished. The fear of death laid fast hold upon me.

The whole city was in commotion, and you heard nothing but lamentations and confused exhortations to make ready for the dreadful event. The monks, had risen to sing their matins, terrified by the movements of the earth, ran into my chamber, armed with crosses and relics, imploring the mercy of Heaven. A prior, whose name was David, and who was considered as a saint, was at their head. The sight of these inspired us with little courage. We proceeded to the church, which was already

crowded; there we remained during the rest of the night, expecting every moment the completion of the prophecy. It is impossible to describe the horrors of that night. The elements were let loose. The noise of the thunder, the winds, and the rain, the roarings of the enraged sea, the convulsions of the heaving earth, and the distracted cries of those who felt themselves staggering on the brink of death, were dreadful beyond imagination. Never was there such a night! As soon as we apprehended that the day was at hand, the altars were prepared, and the priests dressed themselves for mass. bling, we lifted up our eyes to Heaven, and then fell prostrate upon the earth.

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The day at length appeared. But what a day! Its horrors were more terrible than those of the night. No sooner were the higher parts of the city a little more calm, than we were struck by the outcries which we heard towards the sea. Anxious to discover what passed there, and still expecting nothing but death, we became desperate, and, instantly mounting our horses, rode down to the shore.

Heavens! what a sight! Vessels wrecked in the harbour, the strand covered with bodies, which had been dashed against the rocks by the fury of the waves. Here you saw the brains of some, and the entrails of others; there the palpitating struggles of yet remaining life. You might distinguish the groans of the men, and the shrieks of the women, even through the noise of the thunder, the roaring of the billows, amd the crash of falling houses. The sea regarded not either the restraints of men or the barriers of Nature. She no longer knew the bounds which had been set by the Almighty.

That immense mole which, stretching itself out on each hand, forms the port, was buried under the tumult of the waves; and the lower parts of the city were so much deluged, that you could not pass along the streets without danger of being drowned.

We found near the shore above a thousand Neapolitan cavaliers, who had assembled, as it were, to witness the funeral obsequies of their country. This splendid troop gave me a little courage. If I die, said I to myself, it will be at least in good company. Scarce had I made this reflection, when I heard a dreadful clamour everywhere around me. The sea had sapped the foundations of the place where we stood, and it was at this instant giving way. We fled, therefore, immediately to a more elevated ground. Hence we beheld a most tremendous sight. The sea between Naples and Capræa was covered with moving mountains; they were neither green, as in the ordinary state of the ocean, nor black, as in common storms, but white.

The young Queen rushed out of the palace bare-footed, her hair dishevelled, and her dress in the greatest disorder. She was followed by a train of females, whose dress was as loose and disorderly as her own. They went to throw themselves at the feet of the blessed Virgin Mary, crying aloud, "Mercy! mercy!"

Towards the close of the day the storm abated, the sea was calm, and the heavens serene. Those who were upon the land suffered only the pains of fear; but it was otherwise with those who were upon the water. Some Marseilles galleys, last from Cyprus, and now ready to weigh anchor, were sunk before our vessels from other nations met with the same fate in the midst eyes, nor could we give them the least assistance. Larger of the harbour. Not a soul was saved!

There was a very large vessel, which had on board four hun. dred criminals under sentence of death. The mode of their punishment had been changed, and they were reserved as a forlorn hope to be exposed in the first expedition against Sicily. This ship, which was stout and well-built, sustained the shocks of the waves till sunset, but now she began to loosen and to fill with water. The criminals, who were a hardy set of men, and less dismayed by Death, as they had lately seen him so near at hand, struggled with the storm, and, by a bold and vigorous defence, kept Death at bay till the approach of night. But their efforts were in vain. The ship began to sink. Deter mined, however, to put off as far as possible the moment of dissolution, they ran aloft, and hung upon the masts and rigging. At this moment the tempest was appeased, and these poor convicts were the only persons whose lives were saved in port of Naples.

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THE GREAT ALCHYMICAL AND ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES EXPLAINED.

PART I.

HOW TO PREPARE THE "PHILOSOPHER'S STONE!" FORMATION OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S SILVER! PREPARATION OF THE TINCTURE OF CORALS, ETC.

T affords us much gratification to be enabled to lay before our readers a series of literary curiosities which have been hitherto concealed from the public at large. Our purpose is to divest the extraordinary subjects about to be treated on of all the jargon with which they have been clouded and obscured by pseudo-science, and to arrange them in as compact and popular a form as possible. At the same time, we are delighted to assure our readers that the statements about to be made upon so abstruse a study as alchymy, and in reference to such a marvellous association as that of the disciples of the Rosy Cross, are based upon the authority of a man who, during his life-time acquired the name of a most profound philosopher, though latterly the rage for materialism has caused him rather to be regarded as a charlatan; we allude to the celebrated Dr. DEE. In consequence of those glorious researches, which are confined exclusively to the occult and mystical, having fallen into disuetude, a species of obloquy has been attempted to be cast upon this renowned personage, which, with many, has associated his very name with deception and quackery, thus rendering an object of scorn one of the most learned sages upon many subjects of which this country can boast. Among other matters, we may be permitted to mention that he takes a very high rank among the herbalists of England, and these we regard as the most legitimate followers of Esculapius. A perusal of this remarkable man's writings will corroborate our assertions as to his acquirements, and serve to disabuse the mind of those erroneous opinions of his character which have been inculcated by succeeding authors. Many of Dr. Dee's notions are undoubtedly liable to condemnation, from the palpable fallacies and their shallow eccentricities; but his failure in these instances may, we conceive, be more properly attributed to the confined scope of natural philosophy during his career. Since that period a Leibnintz, a Newton, a Descartes, a Liebig, a Davy, a Linnæus, a Buffon, a Whewell, a Cuvier, a Murchinson, and many other renowned men, have illustrated the various but immutable laws incident to matter, by the lustre of their genius and the ardour of their investigations. These considerations will form some excuse for the casual blunders of so able a mathematician as Dee. It is from a valuable manuscript work of this astrologer that we have compiled the following fragments. The book is emblazoned at the head with this title, "The Rosie Crucian Secrets-their excellent method of Making Medicines from Mettals: also their Lawes and Mysteries," and along the margin is scrawled that most appropriate motto, "Que vult secreta scire, debet secreta secreti custodire." Listen, then, reader, to the voice of the dead seer-listen with awe and reverence, as he lifts the magic curtain that screens the threshold of the alchymist's laboratory, and discloses the operations of that heretofore dubious craft. Here you may glean an accurate knowledge of the system adopted by the transfusers of the precious metals and seekers after gold Here you will discover the actual ingredients of the grand elixir; aere, like the helot in antique history, you will overhear the secret conclaves of "The Rosicrucians!" The wand is raised; hearken to the words of the buried sage!

"sa.-The Philosophic Stone.

"Our stone is made out of its own proper essence, for it transmuteth other metals into real and true gold, which gold must be prepared and become a better stone. And though nothing of another nature must be used in the preparation of

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our stone which might obstruct its majestic excellence, yet the preparation of it in the beginning cannot be made without means, but observe that, as you will hear afterwards, all corrosives must be washed away again from it, and again separated, so that our stone may be severed from all poison, and be prepared to be the greatest medicine. Now I will show the work itself. Take, of the very best gold you have, one part; of good Hungarian antimony, six parts; melt this together upon a fire, and pour it into such a pot as the goldsmiths use; when you have poured it out, it becometh a regulus (this expression signifies the purest metalline part of any metal, separated). or the purest part of any mineral, the faces being that the antimony may be separated from it. This same regulus must be melted again, Having accomplished so much, add to it mercury, and melt it again, and cleanse it again. Repeat this the third time, and the gold is purged and purified enough for the beginning of the work. Then beat the gold very thin, as goldsmiths do when they gild, and make an amalgama with common quicksilver, which must away, little by little, upon a gentle fire, that nothing of it may be squeezed through a leather; let the quicksilver fume remain with the gold, and stir it about continually with a small iron, until the gold has become subtile, so that its water may the better work upon it and open it.

[Here the alchymist interrupteth himself to describe the preparation of the water thus:-"Take one part of saltpetre, well purified, and grind with it the like quantity of sal-ammoniac, and half as much of pebbles, very well cleansed and washed. Mingle all these ingredients together, and put them into an earthen retort, that the spirits may not come through, and put the same into a distilling furnace; the retort must have a pipe behind, and attach as large a receiver as you can obtain to the retort. The receiver must lie in a vessel full of cold water, and a wet cloth must be wrapped round it, which you must continually touch with another wet cloth; then again evaporate so much matter into your retort until all is gone into it, and then the water is prepared."] Take then, of the prepared calx of gold, one part; put it into a glass body, and pour three parts of the above made water upon it, after which place it in the warm ashes, and the gold will dissolve in it; if, however, it should not altogether be dissolved, pour more fresh water upon it, and it will be entirely dissolved. Having accomplished so much, pour it into another glass, and let it stand until it become cold,when it will deposit some faces, which must be separated by pouring the water from them into another glass receptacle; get this glass in Balneum Mariæ, and put a head upon it; let it stand night and day in heat, and more fæces will settle, which must be separated as before. After you have put on the head close to your glass very well, lute another glass to the head, and let it stand for fourteen days in a gentle heat, so that the body may be well opened. This being completeted, increase the fire, and distil the phlegm to such a thick. ness that it remains at the bottom, like an aqua vitæ. What hath been already distilled pour again into the body, having previously warmed it, and lute the head again thereto, and let once more by distillation, and pour it upon it again when it stand to digest a night and a day; then draw off the water warm. Repeat this until the gold is become a low body with a flat bottom. Put this spiritualised solution of gold into a glass, and pour on it a considerable quantity of rain-water, putting thereto three parts of live mercury to one of gold. You must, however, first squeeze the mercury through a leather. Stir it very well together, and you will perceive many wonderful colours, and if you repeat this, stirring several times, an amalgama will fall to the bottom, and the water will become clear. So much being performed, decant the water and gently dry the amalgama, which having edulcorated with much nicety, place it upon a broad, shallow, earthen platter, under a cover. Stir it about continually with an iron wire, until all the quicksilver be fumed away, and there will remain upon the earthen vessel a fine powder of a purple colour. [Here, again, the alchymist pauseth to describe how the spirit of wine is prepared with philosophical tartar, in the following manner :- First you must be informed that the philo sophical tartar, whereby the lock is unlocked, does not resemble common tartar, as many imagine: it is another salt, though it

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springeth from one root; and this is the only key to open and dissolve metals, and is thus prepared :-take ashes of a vine that has borne grapes that have yielded good wine; mixing them with warm water, make as strong a lee as can possibly be made. When you have a considerable quantity of this lee, boil it away and coagulate it to dryness, and there remaineth a reddish matter. Put this matter into a reverberating furnace and reverberate it for three days, or thereabouts, in an open fire, so that the flames may play around it with freedom, and stir it continually till the matter is become white. Afterwards, dissolve this verberated matter in fountain water, and let it settle. Next, pour off the clear and filter it, that all the fæces may be separated and coagulate in a glass body, when you will have a pure white salt of tartar, from which a true spirit is drawn. Take, now, highly rectified spirit of wine, fully freed from phlegm; put this into a glass phial with as long a neck as is to be obtained. But, first of all, put into it your salt of tartar, &c., then the spirit, to the supereminency of three figures; lute a head to the phial and, putting thereto another glass, let it stand in a gentle heat. Then carefully distil away the phlegm, and the spirit of tartar is opened by the spirit of wine; and, by reason of their reciprocal wonderful love, it comes over with the spirit of wine and is united imately and indissolubly. Whatever fæces or phlegm remain behind are to be thrown away. This is, now, the right spirit of wine wherewith you may open that which the lover of art desireth to know, for it becometh penetrant by preparation.]

"Take now the powder of gold of a purple colour, and, having turned it into another phial, pour on it your spirit of wine. Put it, very close luted, in a gentle heat, and, within twenty-four hours, it will extract the sulphur of gold, of a high red colour, like blood. When it doth not yield any more tincture, pour off the extraction very clear into a little glass body. The remainder is a white calx; pour upon this calx the aforesaid spirit of wine, and let it stand in putrefaction, having the glass well stopped, for fourteen days and nights; by which time the spirit of wine will become of a white colour like milk. This must be poured off clear, and, adding to it fresh spirits of wine, let it stand a day and a night longer, and it will be coloured again, but not much. Add this to the first, and what remaizeth do not dry, but leave it in the glass. Put the white extraction into a little body and distil the phlegm from it till it be reduced to a small quantity. After this, place the glass in a cellar, and there will shoot from it fair and transparent crystals, which having taken out, put the remainder again in a cellar, and you will have more crystals. Turn these into a body of glass, for it is the salt of the philosophers, and pour half the extraction of the sulphur of gold upon them and they, will immediately melt away like butter in hot water. Distil this out of a glass body in hot ashes, and it will collect together in the form of a red oil, which falls to the bottom, and the spirit of wine which swimmeth upon the top must be separated therefrom. This is the true potable gold, not reducible to a body-my Phalaia. The other half of the extraction must now be gently distilled in Balneo Mariæ to a dryness, whence the spirit of wine may be separated. Pour on it this oil of gold or potable gold, and it taketh the powder in a moment, and becomes of a much higher colour than it was before. This will dissolve in common spirit of wine and other wine, as red as a ruby. Take, then, that other part of mercury which you have kept, and pour all this, being its own oil, upon it; and distil by an alembic, though not too strongly. Upon this there will appear some phlegm, and the oil will precipitate its own mercury and become white again, the greenness being lost and gone. This work being done, likewise, get a philosophical egg (which the philosophers call their heaven) and you will find two parts of the oil in weight to one part of the precipitated mercury. Put, then, the mercury into a glass and add the oil of gold to it, so that one part of the receptacle may be filled and three parts remain empty. Seal it well, as Hermes teacheth, and put it into the threefold furnace, so that it standeth not hotter than an egg which is under a hen to be hatched. The matter will begin to putrify within a month, becoming exceedingly black, upon which appearance it is certain that the matter is opened by the putrefaction, and you may be glad of that happy commencement. Increase now the fire to

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the second degree' and the discolouration or blackness will vanish away in time, and change into many admirable hues. These colours being gone likewise, increase the fire to the third degree,' and your glass will look like silver while the rays will become ponderous. Then, increasing the fire to the 'fourth degree,' the fumes will cease by little and little and your glass will shine as it were beset with cloth of gold. Continue this fire and the rays will disappear likewise, and no longer be seen to arise, but you will perceive your matter lie beneath like a brown oil, which, at length becoming dry, will appear like unto granite, which is both fixed and liquid like wax, penetrant like oil, and mighty ponderous. He that obtaineth this may render thanks to God, his creator, for poverty hath forsaken him disease will fly from him, and wisdom hath taken possession of him.

"This substance (i. e. The Philosopher's Stone') being first fermented with other pure gold, will likewise tinge many thousand parts of all other metals into very good gold; making it such a penetrant matter that one part will transmute a thousand parts of other metals, and much more beyond belief, into perfect gold."

Once more the curtain drops before the mystic chamber; the wand has fallen from the grasp of the Astrologer; his lips, for a time, are motionless.

THE HUMAN MIND.-The gradual unfolding of the human mind, while in a state of childhood, is similar to that of a plant expanding into maturity. The plant is liable to make too rapid a progress under the influence of an unclouded sun, or to be nipt in its growth by the inclemency of a rigid season. So that mind which is fostered by an over-acted tenderness expands itself too fast for the judgment to strengthen its excursions, or, if too much checked by disappointment and adversity, is cramped in its progress to maturity and perfection. NATURE AND ART.-Nothing in art can continue to dazzle but so long as we are unaccustomed to the contemplation of it. Let a person dwell for some months, nay, a few weeks, in one of the mansions that has the most struck his fancy, and he will find that by degrees his vision becomes so used to the objects which first enchanted him, that he soon ceases to be sensible of their presence, or to feel aught more than that general complacency excited in the mind by being surrounded by agreeable objects. It is otherwise with the beauties of nature. The more the eye becomes accustomed to behold them, the more pleasure do they convey; each point of view gains a new interest by being contrasted with others; the different periods of the day or season change the appearance, and throw a fresh light over the scene, that prevents its ever becoming monotonous.

CURIOUS ANTIPATHIES.-A lady, a native of France, would faint on seeing boiled lobsters.-I have read of a gentleman, who would fall into convulsions at the sight of a carp.Erasmus, though a native of Rotterdam, had such an aversion to fish, that the smell of it gave him a fever.-Ambrose Paré mentions a gentleman who never could see an eel without fainting.-Joseph Scaliger and Peter Abono never could drink milk-Cardan was particularly disgusted at the sight of eggs. Uladislaus, King of Poland, could not bea rto see apples.-If an apple was shewn to Chesne, secretary to Francis L., a prodigious quantity of blood would issue from his nose.-Henry III. of France could never sit in a room with a cat.-The Duke of Schomberg had the same kind of antipathy.-A gentleman in the court of the Emperor Ferdinand would bleed at the nose on hearing the mewing of a cat, however great the distance might be from him.-M. de Lancre, in his Tableau de l'Inconstance de toutes choses," gives an account of a very sensible man, who was so terrified at seeing an hedgehog, that for two years he imagined his bowels were gnawed by such an animal. -In the same book we find an account of a very brave officer, who never dared to look at a mouse; it would so terrify him, unless he had his sword in his hand. M. de Lancre says he knew him perfectly well.-Mr. Nangheim, a great huntsman, in Hanover, would faint, or if he had sufficient strength, would run away, at the sight of a roast pig.-The philosopher Chrysippus had such an aversion to be reverenced, that if any one saluted him he would fall down.

Being Predictions of the Chief Events from Week to Week. THE indications for the coming month are remarkable. At the lunation on the 3rd instant, we find the constellation Virgo posited on the eastern angle; Venus, lady of the 2nd and 9th, and Mercury, lord of the ascendant and 10th, rising. The Sun and Moon are conjoined in the 11th; Jupiter, lord of the 4th and 7th, with the Moon's south node in the 9th; Herschel retrograde in the house of DEATH; Saturn and Mars both retrograde iu Aquarius, and vibrating on the cusp of the 6th, together with other configurations, from which we judge the present month will behold strange and marvellous mutations. Royal progresses are likely to be attended with considerable danger, if not loss of life; and bankers, ship-owners, and merchants, will experience severe losses by fraud and fire. An eminent lawyer or artist will succumb to Fate, and convulsions of the earth in volcanic countries will create much alarm. The public health this month will, we are afraid, suffer; but let all born about this time be careful of excesses and dissipation, as delirium tremens will be very prevalent. The three essentials will be found comfort, cleanliness, and cheerfulness.

THE ASTROLOGER'S CALENDAR. A Diary of Auspicious and Inauspicious Days, with Weekly Indications of the Weather, deduced from Planetary Influences. TUESDAY, July 29th.-Fair. Good for surgeons, and those practised in the arts and sciences.

WEDNESDAY, July 30th.-Great heat, with strong electrical influences. Avoid public bodies.

Business of

THURSDAY, July 31st.-Fair and pleasant. every kind may this day be done to advantage. FRIDAY, August 1st.-Warm, and thunder-showers. Neither court nor marry. Females are unfortunate.

SATURDAY, August 2nd.-Thunder-storms in various parts. Money matters will not prosper.

SUNDAY, August 3rd-Cloudy, and electrical influences. Begin nothing. Keep watch and ward.

MONDAY, August 4th.-Cooler, with light showers. Quarrels will arise. Beware.

MAGIC RINGS.

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CERTAIN galvanic rings are just now very greatly favoured by the populace as preservatives from divers diseases of an epidemic and contagious character, and repeatedly, as one passes down the streets of the metropolis, may these metallic ornaments be observed on the fingers of the watermen, the hucksters, the ticket porters, and many of the most hard-working of the community-worn, no doubt, with a staunch though blind belief in the efficacy of the decoration. Though we neither wish to condemn or uphold these rings as pernicious or beneficial, we may be allowed to caution our readers against an over-hurry of credulity in the excellence of such preventives of ill health, for charlatans are as rife as ever now-a-days, and their pockets and purses have as great an affinity for gold and silver as in the times of the redoubtable Friar Bungey. Nevertheless, we cannot see that any actual calamity can result to the nervous or ganglionic system from so small a current of electricity as can be generated by these toys. It is because these things have been so recently attracting considerable attention that we conceive a brief catalogue of various rings which were recommended of old by the alchymists and occult philosophers might prove interesting to many.

Rings have been regarded, from the most ancient times, with a peculiar degree of reverence, when constructed after certain mysterious fashions. They were supposed to influence the mind of their wearers to such an extent as to render them amiable or morose, according as they had been manufactured. These notions probably were couched under the symbols of the Eastern tales, where the genii are evoked at will by the possessors of certain magic rings, some of these giant-spirits being of a benevolent and others of a villanous nature. Perhaps the most curious and correct mode of making a magic ring is that one mentioned by Sir Cornelius Agrippa, who thus lays down the mode of operation :-"When any star ascends fortunately, with the fortunate aspect, or conjunction of the moon, we must take a stone and herb that is under that star, and make a ring of the metal that is suitable to this star, and in it fasten the stone, putting the herb or root under it, not omitting the inscriptions of images, names, and characters, as also the proper suffumigations." Yet these students of the mystic sciences differed very greatly in their notions of these mysterious agents. Some, like Renodens and Platerus, maintained that "a ring made of the hoof of an ass's right fore foot " was very excellent to ward off misfortunes; and several doctrines of a similar nature might be collected from the writings of Porta, Mizaldus, Albertus, and many others. Plato has recorded that Gygus, a King of Lydia, possessed a ring of extraordinary properties, amongst which, if he twisted the seal upon it towards the palm of his hand, it rendered him invisible; and, through this circumstance, according to the same wise authority, he committed all kinds of atrocities with impunity, because unseen-killed the monarch who preceded him, murdered all his enemies, and finally, by these proceedings, attained the kingdom of Lydia for himself. In like manner Josephus declares that Moses, the lawgiver of the Israelites, being skilled in Egyptian magic, used to make rings of love and of oblivion; while it is on record that a philosopher called Eudamus manufactured rings against bewitchings, evil spirits, and the venom of snakes. We are also informed by Aristotle, the renowned tutor of Alexander of Macedon, that there was amongst the Cireneans a ring of Battus, which could procure both love and honour. From these circumstances, it will be seen how venerable is this estimation of metallic bands for the fingers to screen the owner from poisons and mishaps and contagious maladies; while the renown and glory of the great men whom we have cited as parties favourable to the belief of the utility of these amuletic circles deaden the sneers of the incredulous, and quell the derision of the sceptical.

KINDNESS. The kindnesses men receive from others are like traces drawn in the sand. The breath of every passion sweeps them away, and they are remembered no more. But injuries are like inscriptions on monuments of brass, which endure unimpaired the revolutions of time.

THE SELF-INSTRUCTOR IN ASTROLOGY. and receives an impression from the stars therein, which,

CHAPTER XI. EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF ASTROLOGICAL

D

PREDICTIONS.

taking rise from the ascendant, sun, moon, and principal significators, operate as the impressors stand, and point out, as with the finger of God, the causes whence the fate and fortune of the new-born infant proceed, and whether it come before, or at its full time, or in what part of the world soever it is born, it matters not; for as the nature of the significators are that ascend upon the horizon at the birth, such shall certainly be the fortune of the native. This is a truth well known to astrologers, and which will bear the most minute inquiry, being the ordination of an all-wise and indulgent Providence for the speculation and improvement of his creature, man.

HOSE who deny astrology have surely never contemplated the mysteries of their own existence, nor the common occurrences that are inseparable from it, many of which are inexplicable when abstractedly considered, and only cease to strike us with wonder, because they are obThe second great lord over human invention is Chance ; and vious and familiar to our senses. If these chances proceed from a great variety of rare and secret we recollect that the most trifling operations of Heaven, which throw in the way of men those incident in nature cannot come to strange and fortuitous turns of fortune that surpass all human pass without a cause, and that these foresight or conception. And yet there is really no such thing causes are incessantly giving birth as chance in nature, much less can there be anything that to a new fate, which at one time comes by chance in respect of God; but all those curious hits brings us coort, and at another that strike in between the cause and its effect we call chances, overwhelms us with misfortunes-that-day gives us the full as best suiting human ideas, because of the undescribable proenjoyment of our wishes, and to-morrow confounds every ima-perties they possess; for in shuffling a pack of cards, or in castgination of our hearts-it is strange we should deny that such ing the dice, it seems to us a mere chance what cast shall causes exist, when every hour's experience confirms the fact, happen uppermost, or what card will go to the bottom of the by the good or ill success that constantly attends all human pack; and yet it is evident, by experience, that there is a cerpursuits. tain luck in nature which presides over all these adventures, so Now, all mankind have each of them, more or less, a certain that a man shall either win or lose in a methodical course. It share of wisdom, power, or wealth, wherewith they occupy in also happens in the time of battle, and in every pursuit after this life, and carry forward all their undertakings. Thus we wealth and honour, that chances fall in upon us, and turn the see some men, by means of riches, courage, or contrivance, scales by a secret kind of fate beyond all that could reasonably grow mighty, and purpose as if nothing could impede the full have been expected; and thus Heaven breathes into all human accomplishment of their designs; and yet we find there are actions an infinity of these chances that overturn all the power two things which confound the wisest, the greatest, and the and greatness of man. These chances are uniformly managed proudest of them all, even in the very summit of their glory. by a certain kind of luck, either good or bad, which drives the These are Time and Chance-two mighty lords upon earth, nail, and this by some heavenly influence, that infuses a secret which bring to pass many strange and marvellous events. Time virtue or poison into our actions, as courage into their hearts is that motion of space which proceeded out of eternity when on our side, or dismay on the other, and skill into some men's the world began, and holdeth on unto eternity, which is to heads to pursue the right course to be rich, or folly into others, succeed to the world's end. Out of this one long time are en- whereby they run headlong into misery and want, or else forgendered infinite spaces of time of various sorts, and these are tunateth, or infortunateth, by mistake of words, signals, or either general or special, and each of them either fortunate or acts, that turn to the best or worst advantage by strange hits unfortunate. There is a time for every purpose under Heaven or miscarriages; and thus it happens that a slight mistake in a -a time of pleasure, and another time of pain and grief-a battle begets often an utter rout, after a victory made almost time to rise, and a time to fall-a time to be born, and a time complete, by the mere utterance of a wrong word, or steering to die. There is, moreover, a certain lucky time in man's life, an improper course. But which way soever it happens, the wherein (the stars favouring) if he go out to battle, though whole matter is wrought by a good or ill-luck, and the hand of with but few men, yet he carrieth the victory; and there is God is at the bottom of it, according to the regular order of also another time, wherein, though he go out with ever so complete an army, yet shall he gain nothing but disgrace. So also there is a time when overtures of marriage shall be successful, but a man's desires answer it not; and, again, there is a time when desires of marriage shall strongly urge, and all overtures prove ineffectual; but there is also a time when desires and overtures shall exactly correspond and suit together. In like manner, there is a time when prosperity and riches shall offer themselves, and be attained, whether a man sleep or awake; and by and bye, though he pursue them with wings, yet so unlucky a time occurs as renders all his endeavours fruitless. Some men come into the world in a lucky hour, so that, let them be wise or foolish, they shall be buoyed up on the wings of fate, in all matters of wealth or honour, and succeed in all that they attempt: while, perhaps, wiser and better men, smitten with an unlucky time of nativity, shall be as undeservedly disparaged, and all their undertakings shall prove unsuccessful and unhappy! Some, again, shall be lucky in the van of their enterprises, and as unfortunate in the rear, and others, again, the reverse. And thus time seems to mock and sport with the men of this life, and to advance or counteract all their skill and contrivances, even to a degree infinitely beyond whatever we could reasonably conceive or expect; and yet time itself is but a dead thing, and a mere instrument; but the wheels of the Heavens turning upon it, imprint riddles in its face, and carve and cut out the various shapes of prosperity and adversity upon the minutes and portion thereof. And wonderful it is to observe that a child, the moment it draws breath, becomes time-smitten by the face of Heaven,

nature.

Thus both Time and Chance are the servants of Nature, under whose commands they sway the world and its inhabitants, but by her laws are both of them disposed; and thus, by their united services, Nature performs all her great and secret operations, whether upon collective bodies, or places, or persons. It may be thought strange by some that Nature should bring forth men and women at a great distance of years, hours, and places, all destined to die at one time, and by the same manner of death, either by war, plague, pestilence, or shipwreck; and that Time and Chance should, as it were, pick them up, and draw them together, from a variety of different pursuits, to partake, at last, in one and the same destructive fate. Yet this is no more strange than true; for these things frequently happen, and that by the imperceptible influences of those heavenly aspects and stars, which the Inspired Volume tells us "in their courses fought against Siserah." And by the same rule as men, women, and children are, on the other hand, gathered together by a similar force and virtue, to enjoy great and good fortune.

Therefore, the science which we call astrology is nothing more than the study or investigation of nature, whereby we acquire a knowledge of the secret virtues of the heavens and the shining luminaries therein contained. It is a science which all may attain to by diligence and perseverance. It contains nothing either supernatural or diabolical; and the more we delight in it, the more readily do we foresee the motions of future events, and the curiosities of chance and natural accidents, and the courses of luck by which both are governed, and

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