ms a true statement of
facts. But Lilly informs us, that in his various conferences with
_angels_, their voices resembled that of the _Irish_!

The work contains anecdotes of the times. The amours of Lilly with his
mistress are characteristic. He was a very artful man, and admirably
managed matters which required deception and invention.

Astrology greatly flourished in the time of the civil wars. The
royalists and the rebels had their _astrologers_, as well as their
_soldiers!_ and the predictions of the former had a great influence over
the latter.

On this subject, it may gratify curiosity to notice three or four works,
which hear an excessive price. The price cannot entirely be occasioned
by their rarity, and I am induced to suppose that we have still adepts,
whose faith must be strong, or whose scepticism but weak.

The Chaldean sages were nearly put to the rout by a quarto park of
artillery, fired on them by Mr. John Chamber, in 1601. Apollo did not
use Marsyas more inhumanly than his scourging pen this mystical race,
and his personalities made them feel more sore. 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 Judiciall Astrologye, in
answer to a treatise lately published by Mr. John Chamber. By Sir
Christopher Heydon, Knight; printed at Cambridge, 1603." This is a
handsome quarto of about 500 pages. Sir Christopher is a learned writer,
and a knight worthy to defend a better cause. But his Dulcinea had
wrought most wonderfully on his imagination. This defence of this
fanciful science, if science it may be called, demonstrates nothing,
while it defends everything. It confutes, according to the knight's own
ideas: it alleges a few scattered facts in favour of astrological
predictions, which may be picked up in that immensity of fabling which
disgraces history. He strenuously denies, or ridicules, what the
greatest writers have said against this fanciful art, while he lays
great stress on some passages from authors of no authority. The most
pleasant part is at the close, where he defends the art from the
objections of Mr. Chamber by recrimination. Chamber had enriched himself
by medical practice; and when he charges the astrologers with merely
aiming to gain a few beggarly pence, Sir Christopher catches fire, and
shows by his quotations, that if we are to despise a