day. And having a great work to do (meaning his preparation to eternity) faid, he would be stirring much earlier than he used. For fome hours his majefty flept very foundly: for my part, I was fo full of anguish and grief, that I took little reft. The king, fome hours before day, drew his bed-curtain to awaken me, and could by the light of a wax-lamp perceive me troubled in my fleep; the king rofe forthwith, and as I was making him ready, HERBERT (faid the king) I would know why you were disquieted in your fleep? I replied, may it please your majesty, I was in a dream. What was your dream, faid the king, I would hear it? May it please your majesty, faid I, I dreamed, that as you were making ready, one knock'd at the bed-chamber-door, which your majesty took no notice of, nor was I willing to acquaint you with it, apprehending it might be Colonel HACKER. But knocking the second time, your majesty ask'd me, if I heard it not? I said, I did; but did not use to go without his order. Why then go, know who it is, and his bufinefs. Whereupon I opened the door, and perceived that it was the lord archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. LAWD, in his pontifical habit, as worn at court; I knew him, having feen him often. The archbishop desired he might enter, having something to fay to the king. I acquainted your majefty with his defire; so you bad me let him in; being in, he made his obeyfance to your majefty in the middle of the room, doing the like also when he came near your perfon, and falling on his knees, your majefty gave him your hand to kifs, and took him afide to the window, where fome discourse pafs'd between your majefty and him, and I kept a becoming diftance, not hearing any thing that was faid, yet could perceive your majesty penfive by your looks, and that the archbishop gave a figh; who after a short stay, again kiffing your hand, returned, but with face all the way towards your majesty, and making his ufual reverences, the third being fo fubmifs, as he fell proftrate on his face on the ground, and I immediately stept stept to him to help him up, which I was then acting, when your majesty saw me troubled in my fleep. The impreffion was fo lively, that I look'd about, verily thinking it was no dream. The king faid, my dream was remarkable, but he is dead; yet had we conferred together during life, 'tis very likely (albeit I loved him well) I fhould have faid fomething to him, might have occafioned his figh. Soon after I had told my dream, Dr. JuxON, then Bishop of London, came to the king, as I relate in that narrative I fent Sir WILLIAM DUGDALE, which I have a tranfcript of here, nor know whether it refts with his grace the archbishop of Canterbury, or Sir WILLIAM, or be difpofed of in Sir JOHN COTTON's library neer Westminster-Hall; but wish you had the perufal of it, before you return into the North. And this being not communicated to any but your felf, you may fhew it to his grace and none elfe, as you promifed. IN In a letter to the STUDENT. Os homini fublime dedit; cœlumque tueri OVID. N my opinion there is no fcience more ufeful, and at the fame time more delightful than astronomy. It fills the foul with beautiful as well as magnificent ideas. It has a certain tendency to open and enlarge every avenue of know ledge; ledge; and puts our nobfer part upon exerting its highest powers. It has an admirable efficacy to fix the attention, and enable the mind to fuftain the fatigue of laborious ftudies. It likewife gives us the most exalted conceptions of that infinite power and wisdom, which are fo gloriously exhibited throughout the whole creation. It raises in us the highest, and consequently the worthieft, notions of the great author of nature. The foul of man is naturally delighted with what is grand and fublime. She hates restraint, and loves an enlarged fphere of action. Here then fhe is at full liberty to expatiate. Here the may elegantly employ her nobleft faculties. Unbounded space surrounds her, and a scene of infinite wisdom is difplayed before her. He can never want a companion who has cultivated an acquaintance with thofe glorious objects, which adorn the canopy of heaven. Neither can heftand in need of a book to fill up the vacant space of his leisure hours, when the magnificent volume of nature is always open to his view. Nor is he ever at a lofs for profitable, as well as pleafing, topics of conversation, who has furnished his mind with that rich variety of ideas, which this noble science affords. And as it inspires us with the most exalted fentiments of the deity, fo at the fame time it fuggests to us the most becoming notions of ourselves. For as it most clearly discovers the perfection of the creator, fo it as evidently demonstrates the imperfection of the creature; I mean in point of intrific worth, and real excellency, when compared with the first, greatest and best of beings. And therefore it has a natural tendency to mortify pride, and extinguish every fpark of arrogance and felf-conceit. For tho' the aftronomer's knowledge is vaftly more extenfive than another's, yet he is, upon that very account, more fenfible of his ignorance and imperfection. The contemplation also of these sublime and heavenly objects lifts up the foul above every thing that is human. Erigimur, fays TULLY, altiores fieri videmur; humana defpicimus; cogitantefque fupera atque cæleftia, hæc noftra, ut exigna & Numb. IX. minuta, 1 minuta, contemnimus. Whilft fhe is employed in these sublime exercifes, fhe looks with an eye of contempt upon all fublunary things. All earthly objects feem beneath her notice. Their vanity and emptiness are confpicuously display'd: nay, they almost vanish and disappear upon the comparison. She pities the turbulent princes of this earth, whose restless and ambitious fouls are continually waging war for an inconfiderable part of this little ball, when the whole bears no proportion to the objects of her meditation. It must be a noble entertainment, indeed, and fomething wonderfully engaging to the human mind, to contemplate the glorious theatre of nature; where the divine geometer, as PLATO calls him, has obferved the exacteft rules of fymmetry and proportion. The regular viciffitudes of the seasons, and the constant and invariable returns of day and night; the revolutions of the planetary orbs, and the various phænomena of the heavens must be beautiful fpectacles indeed; but to know the causes of thefe appearances is fomething inexpreffibly agreeable to the mind of man; as it, in some measure, satisfies that restless defire of knowledge, which is inherent in human nature. The advantages which arife from this noble fcience are too many to be here enumerated. Every one knows that navigation and geography are indebted to aftronomy for all the valuable improvements that have been lately made in those useful sciences. What an high opinion the ancients had of aftronomy may be learnt from PLATO, STRABO, CICERO, PLUTARCH, and others. CICERO himfelf had no fmall skill in this divine fcience; as we may learn from all his philofophical works, but more particularly from his fecond book of the nature of the gods. HOMER had fome acquaintance with it: and VIRGIL, if I am not mistaken, a much greater. It is with inimitable beauty and propriety, he introduces the aftronomer JOPAS, at that elegant entertainment prepared by DIDO for NEAS, making known the principles of his art. Citherâ Citharâ crinitus Jopas Perfonat aurata, docuit quæ maximus Atlas. Hic canit errantem lunam, folifque labores: Unde hominum genus, & pecudes: unde imber, & ignes: Æn. 1. It is generally, I think, agreed that the Egyptians and Babylonians, by their conftant observations, laid the first foundations of astronomy; and that the Greeks improved them into a fcience, by the application of geometry. This was, indeed, the infancy of aftronomy. Then it just began to dawn: but now it is arrived at its meridian glory, by the exquifite fagacity, and unwearied diligence of NEWTON, FLAMSTEEAD, HALLEY, BRADLEY, and other exalted geniuses, who have done honour to the British nation: men, who will enjoy a kind of immortality upon earth, and be reading lectures to future generations! I could with our country 'fquires, and other rural gentlemen, would employ a little of their time in adorning their minds with ftudies of this kind. Rural converfation would then be a little diverfified; five-bar gates, deep ditches, and high walls would be no longer its constant topics. But the principal design of this essay is to recommend aftronomical ftudies to the younger part of my fellowftudents of the univerfities. In my opinion, it is no small additional ornament to the other branches of polite literature. And, I believe, there is none amongst them all more entertaining. I fancy they will find it no inelegant tranfition from a chapter in SMIGLETIUS to a lecture in KEIL. What I have advanced here is by way of exhortation only. I may poffibly, in a future number, infert fomething in the aftronomical way, in order to excite in my fellow-students a fpirit of emulation. I affure you, I should be infinitely better U u 2 |