Ha! ha! ha! _Sardanapalus_ is himself again!

MAY is full of danger as of hawthorn. What _can_ the loyal MRS. POTTS
think of this?

"MARS hastens, _as it were_, to apply the torch to the train of evil
he has previously laid. _The highest power in the land is grievously
afflicted._ It is the earnest prayer of RAPHAEL, that the direful
influence of SATURN on the ascending degree and radical place of the
luminaries in our beloved Sovereign's horoscope may be averted."

But this is nothing. "The highest power" is continually threatened; a
prediction that, in the days of QUEEN BESS, would--we doubt not--have
helped RAPHAEL to the highest gibbet. Again RAPHAEL turns the penny upon
"our beloved Sovereign." In June, he says--

"I DARE NOT fully enter into ALL the important significations of
these positions and configurations. _I sincerely pray that the
health of our beloved Sovereign_ may be preserved, in which I am
assured her subjects will universally join."

(Do we not behold RAPHAEL on his bended knees, "sincerely praying," with
the half-crown in his mouth?) In July, however, our prophet makes
merchandize of the QUEEN'S children.

"Saturn transits the place of the Sun in the nativity of the
PRINCESS HELENA, producing a tendency _to disease in the chest_,
&c., at the end of June and beginning of July. The 7th and 8th _are
evil days_ for the PRINCE OF WALES, and the 19th for the PRINCE
ARTHUR. _Their attendants should carefully avoid accident._"

These would have made very "evil days" for our prophet; evil as pillory
and cart-whip could have shaped them. But we live in liberal times, and
the Astrologer may turn his half-crown upon the probable diseased chest
of the little PRINCESS HELENA, and the threatened dangers of PRINCES
ALBERT and ARTHUR!

MRS. POTTS reads in August that "the KING OF NAPLES should beware of
female intrigue, poison, or the assassin;" and--controlling her
emotion--turns over to September, where she learns among other not
impossible events that "great cruelty is displayed towards _some female_
about the 27th." MRS. POTTS thinks October a little slow. "Public
writers and scientific men are unsuccessful:" and what of that? "The
fine arts prosper!" Bother the fine arts: and straightway MRS. POTTS
passes to November, _when_

"Much excitement reigns throughout the land; the long talked of
invading army may, under these influences, make it