e Medicis brought Henry IV., then a child, to old
Nostradamus, whom antiquaries esteem more for his chronicle of Provence
than his vaticinating powers. The sight of the reverend seer, with a
beard which "streamed like a meteor in the air," terrified the future
hero, who dreaded a whipping from so grave a personage. One of these
magicians having assured Charles IX. that he would live as many days as
he should turn about on his heels in an hour, standing on one leg, his
majesty every morning performed that solemn gyration; the principal
officers of the court, the judges, the chancellors, and generals,
likewise, in compliment, standing on one leg and turning round!

It has been reported of several famous for their astrologic skill, that
they have suffered a voluntary death merely to verify their own
predictions; this has been reported of _Cardan_, and _Burton_, the
author of the Anatomy of Melancholy.

It is curious to observe the shifts to which astrologers are put when
their predictions are not verified. Great _winds_ were predicted, by a
famous adept, about the year 1586. No unusual storms, however, happened.
Bodin, to save the reputation of the art, applied it as _figure_ to some
_revolutions_ in the _state_, and of which there were instances enough
at that moment. Among their lucky and unlucky days, they pretend to give
those of various illustrious persons and of families. One is very
striking.--Thursday was the unlucky day of our Henry VIII. He, his son
Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, all died on a Thursday!
This fact had, no doubt, great weight in this controversy of the
astrologers with their adversaries.[78]

Lilly, the astrologer, is the Sidrophel of Butler. His Life, written by
himself, contains so much artless narrative, and so much palpable
imposture, that it is difficult to know when he is speaking what he
really believes to be the truth. In a sketch of the state of astrology
in his day, those adepts, whose characters he has drawn, were the lowest
miscreants of the town. They all speak of each other as rogues and
impostors. Such were Booker, Backhouse, Gadbury; men who gained a
livelihood by practising on the credulity of even men of learning so
late as in 1650, nor were they much out of date in the eighteenth
century. In Ashmole's Life an account of these artful impostors may be
found. Most of them had taken the air in the pillory, and others had
conjured themselves up to the gallows. This see