degree from the University of Leyden; and this may have been the case: we remember a naïve account given by the late respectable Dr. John Aikin of his graduation by that ancient university, which would make even Partridge's doctorship by no means incredible. Partridge, in fact, had to the last a wonderfully high continental reputation: Grainger notices that the obituary of the 'Acta Lipsiensia' for 1715 records, among the deaths of other philosophers, that of John Partridge, the most famous English astronomer and astrologer"-Astronomus et Astrologus in Anglia famigeratissimus. Nevertheless, it is certain that the man could barely spell. His ignorance and stupidity made him the happiest possible subject for Swift's joke. Bickerstaff's prediction when it first came out appears seriously to have alarmed him, and it is evident that he lived in terror till the day announced for his death was fairly past. He said not a word till then; but the strain in which he began to crow as soon as he found himself safe affords ludicrous proof of how much he had been frightened. "Old friend," he wrote to an Irish acquaintance, three days after, " I don't doubt but you are imposed upon in Ireland also, by a pack of rogues, about my being dead;" and then he goes on to abuse the suspected author of the prediction :-" There is no such man as Bickerstaff; it is a sham name, but his true name is Pettie; he is always in a garret, a cellar, or a gaol; and therefore you may, by that, judge what kind of reputation this fellow hath to be credited in the world." Still the impression clings to him that he has made a lucky escape; he is surprised that, if not actually dead, he should not at least have been in some danger:-"I thank God," he exclaims, "I am very well in health, and at the time he had doomed me to death I was not in the least out of order. The truth is, it was a high flight at a venture, hit or miss. He knows nothing of astrology." Poor Partridge! so might one of thy feathered namesakes congratulate itself after the fire of some young shot which has not touched one of the covey. "The truth is, it was a high flight at a venture, hit or miss. He knows nothing of partridge-shooting!" Pray, Sir, excuse this trouble," concludes the exulting almanac-maker, "for no man can better tell you I am well than myself; and this is to undeceive your credulous friends that may yet believe the death of your real humble servant, John Partridge." As if the very demon of jocular mischief had inspired this proceeding, the person to whom Partridge addressed himself, Isaac Manley, the Irish postmaster, was Swift's particular friend ! Forthwith came out The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions, being an Account of the Death of Mr. Partridge, the Almanac-maker, upon the 29th instant, in a Letter to a Person of Honour,' professing to have been written on the 30th of March. Partridge now saw the necessity of taking the most decided measures, as people say in such circumstances, to vindicate his vitality; and so, not satisfied with earnestly assuring his countrymen in his almanac for the ensuing year that Squire Bickerstaff was a sham name, assumed by a lying, impudent fellow, and that, "blessed be God, John Partridge was still living and in health, and all were knaves who reported otherwise," he applied to his neighbour, the Rev. Dr. Yalden, preacher at Bridewell, to draw up for him a full statement of his injuries and sufferings, to be laid, as a conclusive appeal, before the public. Yalden, a wit and poet, whose life is among Dr. Johnson's biographies, readily undertook the task; and if Partridge, as is said, actually published the pamphlet

which the Doctor drew up in his name, entitled Squire Bickerstaff Detected; or, the Astrological Impostor Convicted,' he may be written down an ass such as there has seldom been known the like of. He must have brayed like a whole legion of asses in his fury and despair when he found that, after all, his unrelenting tormenters still persisted in their original assertion, and even undertook to make it good out of his own expressions in contradicting it. A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., against what is objected to him by Mr. Partridge, in his Almanac for the present Year, 1709; by the said Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.,' now came forth, in which, besides various other grave reasons proving that Mr. Partridge was not alive, the writer alleged the following:-" Fourthly, I will plainly prove him to be dead, out of his own almanac for this year, and from the very passage which he produces to make us think him alive. He there says, he is not only now alive, but was also alive upon that very 29th of March which I foretold he should die on: by this he declares his opinion that a man may be alive now who was not alive a twelvemonth ago. And, indeed, there lies the sophistry of his argument. He dares not assert that he was alive ever since the 29th of March, but that he is now alive, and was so on that day: I grant the latter; for he did not die till night, as appears by the printed account of his death, in a letter to a lord; and whether he be since revived I leave the world to judge. This, indeed, is perfect cavilling, and I am ashamed to dwell any longer upon it." It would have been wise after this in Partridge to have let the matter dropto have rested satisfied, like other people, with being alive, without any further attempts to prove the fact. Driven wild, however, by some more persecution in the Tatler,' he was foolish enough, in announcing his almanac for 1710, to reiterate his passionate contradiction of the story of his death: "Whereas," he said, "it has been industriously given out by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., and others, to prevent the sale of this year's almanac, that John Partridge is dead, this may inform all his loving countrymen that he is still living in health, and they are knaves that reported it otherwise.-J. P." This the Tatler' noticed immediately as an advertisement, with several scurrilous terms in it, that do by no means become a dead man to give ;" and the next week appeared the humorous letter from the Master and Company of Upholders, exclaiming against the “intolerable toleration" by which so many dead people were allowed to "go putrefying up and down the streets," pointing out the danger of infection to Her Majesty's subjects "from the horrible stench of so many corses," so long as it was left to every dead man's discretion not to be buried until he sees his time"-and concluding with the following postscript:-" Whereas a commission of interment has been awarded against Dr. John Partridge, Philomath, Professor of Physic and Astrology; and whereas the said Partridge hath not surrendered himself, nor shown cause to the contrary; these are to certify that the Company of Upholders will proceed to bury him from Cordwainers' Hall, on Tuesday the 29th instant, where any of his surviving friends, who still believe him to be alive, are desired to come prepared to hold up the pall.-Note. We shall light away at six in the evening, there being to be a sermon." To be dead was bad enough, but to be buried was still worse, and Partridge probably objected with increased vehemence; but we have not inquired further into his proceedings. A letter of his dated from the banks of Styx is given in a subsequent number of

66

the Tatler,' followed by an intimation from Bickerstaff that, having lately seen some of his predictions, which were "written in a true Protestant spirit of prophecy, and a particular zeal against the French king," he had some thoughts of sending for him from the other world," and reinstating him in his own house, at the sign of the Globe, in Salisbury Street." By the bye, in a former paper he had been designated as "late of Cecil Street in the Strand." The last mention of him that occurs is in an advertisement in August, 1710, which has the appearance of having been provoked by some new proclamation he had been making of his continued existence in the body:-"Whereas an ignorant upstart in astrology has publicly endeavoured to persuade the world that he is the late John Partridge, who died the 29th of March, 1708; these are to certify all whom it may concern that the true John Partridge was not only dead at that time, but continues so to this present day.-Beware of counterfeits, for such are abroad." For the remainder of his life (if life it could be called) John appears to have been left in quiet by the nest of hornets his braying had kept so long about him, and whose persistency we fear must have made the poor astrologer look upon what the world called wit as something equally atrocious with downright murder. But even his real departure from the earth did not interrupt the publication of his almanac; the Merlinus Liberatus, by John Partridge,' continued to appear as regularly every winter as ever-with only a sly (not to call it profane) intimation, or word to the wise, in the addition, after the pretended author's name, of the scriptural expression as it stands in the Vulgate, "Etiam mortuus loquitur," that is, "He, being dead, yet speaketh." The book seems to have for a time been got up by Mrs. Partridge, the tailor's remnant: the publication for 1723 concludes with an advertisement informing the world that "Dr. Partridge's night drops, night pills, &c., and other medicines of his own preparing, continue to be sold as before by his widow, at the Blue Ball in Salisbury Street, near the Strand." The other contents of the almanac are merely the usual farrago.

'Parker's Ephemeris for the year of our Lord 1723,' is described as "the thirty-fourth impression," which would carry back the commencement of the publication to the year 1689. It continued, as well as Partridge, to be published down to our own day. Of the author, George Parker, we know nothing, except that he carried on for some time, while he was actually in the flesh, an abusive controversy with his brother nativity-monger Partridge, to which the world is indebted for the knowledge of some recondite particulars in the history of the latter. Parker's Ephemeris for 1723' carries an effigies in its front, a head copiously bewigged and otherwise somewhat clerically adorned, which is probably intended for that of the astrologer. Yet an advertisement at the end announces Printing of all sorts of books, bills, bonds, indentures, cases of parliament, funeral tickets, and tradesmen's bills, &c., performed by this author." On the whole, Parker's Ephemeris' contains more useful information, and less. nonsense, than any of the other astrological almanacs of the day that we have examined. The author's astrological faith was evidently of the weakest. Of à very different spirit is Salem Pearse, whose Celestial Diary' for 1723, in two parts, overflows both with fervent verse and with ample details in prose of all the human and planetary influences. It seems indeed to be

drawn up mainly for the meridian of the kitchen; as Poor Robin,' also in two parts, which follows it in our collection, may be said to be wholly. The latter, which was of ancient standing in Swift's time, continued to be published, we believe, till within the last few years, with all its old rich and singular mélange of the horrible and the jocular, the puritanical and the prurient. Pearse we cannot trace back farther than to the year 1719, but he also survived to the end of the last or the beginning of the present century. A Richard Saunder, or Saunders, published a work upon physiognomy, chiromancy, &c., in 1653, and an Apollo Anglicanus' at least as early as 1667; but the author of the almanac published with that title in 1723 was probably the son of this original Richard. It is stated to be "the eight-and-thirtieth impression of the same author," which would carry back its commencement to the year 1685. Nevertheless Mr. Richard Saunder still walked the earth, and in a long advertisement at the end of his Union Almanac' he informs his readers that he was now removed to Brook near Oakham in the county of Rutland, where he professed the following mathematical arts: Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Trigonometry, Navigation, Dialling, Surveying; "or," it is added, "if any gentleman, or other person, would have his land surveyed, or any building or edifice measured, either for bricklayers, carpenters, masons, plasterers, &c., he will perform the same either for master or workmen. Weather-glasses are also prepared, and carefully adjusted, by him, for any that have a desire to have them."

Wing is a famous name in the history of English astrology, having been first raised to distinction by Vincent Wing, who is said to have been born in 1619 and to have died in 1668, and who was a mathematician and astrologer of considerable eminence, as well as a proficient in more mystical lore. John Gadbury, who edited the works of Sir George Wharton, wrote A Relation of the Life and Death of Vincent Wing,' which was published in quarto in 1669. There is a letter from him to Lilly printed among the Letters written by Eminent Persons' published by Dr. Bliss along with Aubrey's' Lives,' partly about a little astronomical work in the press, entitled 'Harmonicon Cœleste;' but the literary matter is preceded by an equally grave and earnest passage on another sort of subject, which curiously illustrates the character not only of the two correspondents, but of the time." Honoured Mr. Lilly," the epistle commences, "a worthy gentlewoman of this town hath requested me to write a line unto you, concerning a great number of fine linnings [linens] that was stolen in the night time, the last week, out of a private garden close under her house. And, because she much fancies astrology, I would desire you to give her your advice therein, and to write a line or two back, whether you think they be recoverable or not. I set one figure for the first question, but I forbore to give judgment, and the rather because she hath, not undeservedly, so good a confidence of you and your writings, for which, I must say, we are all obliged to you. Good sir, at her request be pleased to honour her with a line, and she protesteth to make you pl. [enty?] of satisfaction, if ever it be in her power. Her husband is a member of this parliament, and one, I suppose, well known to you, and is a man that highly esteems of your singular parts." The recovery of stolen goods was one of the most lucrative professions of these old astrologers; Isaac Bickerstaff alludes to it as a wellknown branch of Partridge's practice:-"Thirdly, Mr. Partridge pretends to tell

fortunes, and recover stolen goods; which all the parish says he must do by conversing with the devil and other evil spirits; and no wise man will ever allow he could converse personally with either till after he was dead."* Partridge and his brethren, in fact, were in this way a sort of predecessors of Jonathan Wild. As for Vincent Wing, he was succeeded by John Wing (perhaps his son), whose almanac, entitled sometimes Olympia Dogmata,' sometimes 'Olympia Domata,' and printed sometimes at London, sometimes at Cambridge, we trace back to 1689; and John was succeeded by Tycho, whose name first appears on the 'Olympia Dogmata,' or Domata, for 1738, although we find him publishing another almanac, which he called Merlinius Anglicus,' so early as 1730. Both the Olympia Domata," and the prognostication entitled 'Wing,' for the year 1723, by John Wing, who dates from Pickworth in the county of Rutland, are sufficiently stored with planetary and lunar learning of all kinds even to satisfy the manes of the worthy Vincent, whose astronomical studies ranged from the harmony of the spheres down to the setting of a figure for the recovery of a stolen washing of linen.

There was evidently a considerable amount of astrological faith remaining in the popular mind so long as all these almanacs continued to be printed and bought; but the religion of the stars had ceased, we apprehend, to have a generally believing priesthood in this country even before the middle of the seventeenth century, and by the beginning of the next, probably, we had not a single professing astrologer who was the dupe of his own pretensions. Lilly, who was born in 1602, and who commenced practice, as we have seen, in 1644, certainly was not so, and it may be questioned if among his immediate predecessors and contemporaries, of whom he has given us accounts in his characteristic and amusing autobiography, there were more than two or three who were not much more rogues and impostors than self-deceived enthusiasts. Dr. Simon Forman, for instances though, we are told, "he travelled into Holland for a month, in 1580, purposely to be instructed in astrology, and other more occult sciences, as also in physic, taking his degree of doctor beyond seas," and afterwards "lived in Lambeth, with a very good report of the neighbourhood, especially of the poor, unto whom he was very charitable," we must take leave to hold to have been a thorough scoundrel. Lilly says, "he was a person that in horary questions (especially thefts) was very judicious and fortunate; as also in sicknesses, which indeed was his masterpiece." If this means that he was a master in the art of secretly destroying health and life, a subtle practitioner in poisons, the infamous story of Lord and Lady Essex, and the tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury, will sufficiently bear out the statement. 66 In resolving questions about marriage," Lilly adds, "he had good success; in other questions very moderate." As for a remarkable memorandum which it seems the doctor left behind him-" This I made the Devil write with his own hand in Lambeth Fields, 1596, in June or July, as I now remember "—we must be excused for withholding our belief from what is therein affirmed, till some unexceptionable witness is brought forward who will swear to his infernal majesty's handwriting.

There was a contemporary of Forman's, however, also mentioned by Lilly-the

* Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., &c.