n art, by its
professors attempting to subsist on it, or for the objections which may
be raised against its vital principles, we ought by this argument most
heartily to despise the medical science and medical men! He gives here
all he can collect against physic and physicians; and from the
confessions of Hippocrates and Galen, Avicenna and Agrippa, medicine
appears to be a vainer science than even astrology! Sir Christopher is a
shrewd and ingenious adversary; but when he says he means only to give
Mr. Chamber oil for his vinegar, he has totally mistaken its quality.

The defence was answered by Thomas Vicars, in his "Madnesse of
Astrologers."

But the great work is by Lilly; and entirely devoted to the adepts. He
defends nothing; for this oracle delivers his dictum, and details every
event as matters not questionable. He sits on the tripod; and every page
is embellished by a horoscope, which he explains with the utmost
facility. This voluminous monument of the folly of the age is a quarto
valued at some guineas! It is entitled, "Christian Astrology, modestly
treated of in three books, by William Lilly, student in Astrology, 2nd
edition, 1659." The most curious part of this work is "a Catalogue of
most astrological authors." There is also a portrait of this arch rogue,
and astrologer: an admirable illustration for Lavater![79]

Lilly's opinions, and his pretended science, were such favourites with
the age, that the learned Gataker wrote professedly against this popular
delusion. Lilly, at the head of his star-expounding friends, not only
formally replied to, but persecuted Gataker annually in his predictions,
and even struck at his ghost, when beyond the grave. Gataker died in
July, 1654; and Lilly having written in his almanac of that year for the
month of August this barbarous Latin verse:--

_Hoc in tumbo jacet presbyter et nebulo!_
Here in this tomb lies a presbyter and a knave!

he had the impudence to assert that he had predicted Gataker's death!
But the truth is, it was an epitaph like lodgings to let; it stood empty
ready for the first passenger to inhabit. Had any other of that party of
any eminence died in that month, it would have been as appositely
applied to him. But Lilly was an exquisite rogue, and never at fault.
Having prophesied in his almanac for 1650, that the parliament stood
upon a tottering foundation, when taken up by a messenger, during the
night he was confined, he contrived to can