sed)
profundity in alchemical and astrological studies. In this
Diary we are carefully told that "Mr. Jonas Moore brought
and acquainted him with Mr. William Lilly, on a Friday
night, on the 20th of November," p. 302. Ashmole was then
only 26 years of age; and it will be readily conceived how,
at this susceptible period, he listened with rapture to his
master's exposition of the black art, and implicitly adopted
the recipes and maxims he heard delivered. Hence the pupil
generally styled himself _Mercuriophilus Anglicus_, at the
foot of most of his title-pages: and hence we find such
extraordinary entries, in the foresaid diary, as the
following: "This night (August 14, 1651) about one of the
clock, I fell ill of a surfeit, occasioned by drinking
_water after Venison_. I was greatly oppressed in my
stomach; and next day Mr. Saunders, _the astrologian_, sent
me a piece of briony-root to hold in my hand; and within a
quarter of an hour my stomach was freed from that great
oppression," p. 314. "Sep. 27, 1652, I came to Mr. John
Tompson's, who dwelt near Dove Bridge; he used a call, and
had responses in a soft voice," p. 317. At p. 318 is
narrated the commencement of his acquaintance with the
famous Arise Evans, a Welsh prophet: whose "_Echo from
Heaven_," &c., 2 parts, 1652, 12mo., is a work noticed by
Warburton, and coveted by bibliomaniacs. Yet one more
quack-medicine entry: "March 11, 1681. I took early in the
morning a good dose of Elixir, and hung three spiders about
my neck, and they drove my ague away--Deo gratias!" p. 359.
It seems that Ashmole always punctually kept "_The
Astrologer's Feast_;" and that he had such celebrity as a
curer of certain diseases, that Lord Finch the Chancellor
"sent for him to cure him of his rheumatism. He dined there,
but would not undertake the cure," p. 364. This was behaving
with a tolerable degree of prudence and good sense. But let
not the bibliomaniac imagine that it is my wish to degrade
honest old Elias Ashmole, by the foregoing delineation of
his weaknesses and follies. The ensuing entries, in the said
Diary, will more than counterbalance any unfavourable effect
produced by its precursors; and I give them with a full
conviction that they will be greedily devoured by those who
hav