y Sphere,
May'st follow still thy Calling there.
To thee the Bull will lend his hide,
By Phoebus newly tann'd and dry'd.
For thee they Argo's Hulk will tax,
And scrape her pitchy Sides for Wax.
Then Ariadne kindly lends
Her braided Hair to make thee Ends.
The Point of Sagittarius' Dart
Turns to an awl, by heav'nly Art;
And Vulcan, wheedled by his Wife,
Will forge for thee a Paring-Knife.
For want of Room, by Virgo's Side,
She'll strain a Point, and sit astride***,
To take thee kindly in between,
And then the Signs will be Thirteen.

*Partridge was a Cobler.

** See his Almanack

***Tibi brachia contrahet ingens Scorpius, etc.

*****

An Epitaph on Partridge.

Here, five Foot deep, lies on his Back,
A Cobler, Starmonger, and Quack;
Who to the Stars in pure Good-will,
Does to his best look upward still.
Weep all you Customers that use
His Pills, his Almanacks, or Shoes;
And you that did your Fortunes seek,
Step to his Grave but once a Week:
This Earth which bears his Body's Print,
You'll find has so much Vertue in't,
That I durst pawn my Ears 'twill tell
Whate'er concerns you full as well,
In Physick, Stolen Goods, or Love,
As he himself could, when above.

*****

Partridge's reply

'Squire Bickerstaff detected; or, the astrological impostor convicted;

by John Partridge, student in physick and astrology.

It is hard, my dear countrymen of these united nations, it is very
hard that a Briton born, a Protestant astrologer, a man of revolution
principles, an assertor of the liberty and property of the people,
should cry out, in vain, for justice against a Frenchman, a Papist, an
illiterate pretender to science; that would blast my reputation,
most inhumanly bury me alive, and defraud my native country of those
services, that, in my double capacity, I daily offer to the publick.

What great provocations I have receiv'd, let the impartial reader judge,
and how unwillingly, even in my own defence, I now enter the lists
against falsehood, ignorance and envy: But I am exasperated, at length,
to drag out this cacus from the den of obscurity where he lurks, detect
him by the light of those st