study those books I had obtained, many times twelve, or fifteen, or
eighteen hours day and night; I was curious to discover, whether there
was any verity in the art or not. Astrology in this time, viz. in 1633,
was very rare in London, few professing it that understood any thing
thereof. Let it not repent you (O noble Esquire) if now I make a short
digression of such persons as then professed astrology, that posterity
may understand in what condition I found it, and in whose hands that
little that remained was lodged.

There lived then in Houndsditch one Alexander Hart, who had been a
soldier formerly, a comely old man, of good aspect; he professed
questionary astrology, and a little of physick; his greatest skill was
to elect young gentlemen fit times to play at dice, that they might win
or get money. I went unto him for resolutions for three questions at
several times, and he erred in every one. To speak soberly of him, he
was but a cheat, as appeared suddenly after; for a rustical fellow of
the city, desirous of knowledge, contracted with Hart to assist for a
conference with a spirit, and paid him twenty pounds of thirty pounds
the contract. At last, after many delays, and no spirit appearing, or
money returned, the young man indicts him for a cheat at the Old Bailey
in London; the Jury found the bill, and at the hearing of the cause this
jest happened: some of the bench enquired what Hart did? 'He sat like an
Alderman in his gown,' quoth the fellow; at which the court fell into a
great laughter, most of the court being Aldermen. He was to have been
set upon the pillory for this cheat; but John Taylour, the Water Poet,
being his great friend, got the Lord Chief Justice Richardson to bail
him, ere he stood upon the pillory, and so Hart fled presently into
Holland, where he ended his days. It was my fortune, upon the sale of
his books in 1634, to buy _Argoll's Primum Mobile_ for fourteen
shillings, which I only wanted.