Parliament, poring in Partridge's Almanack to find out the events
of the year at home and abroad, not daring to propose a hunting-
match till Gadbury or he have fixed the weather.

I will allow either of the two I have mentioned, or any other of
the fraternity, to he not only astrologers, but conjurers too, if I
do not produce a hundred instances in all their almanacks to
convince any reasonable man that they do not so much as understand
common grammar and syntax; that they are not able to spell any word
out of the usual road, nor even in their prefaces write common
sense or intelligible English. Then for their observations and
predictions, they are such as will equally suit any age or country
in the world. "This month a certain great person. will be
threatened with death or sickness." This the newspapers will tell
them; for there we find at the end of the year that no month passes
without the death of some person of note; and it would be hard if
it should be otherwise, when there are at least two thousand
persons of note in this kingdom, many of them old, and the
almanack-maker has the liberty of choosing the sickliest season of
the year where lie may fix his prediction. Again, "This month an
eminent clergyman will be preferred;" of which there may be some
hundreds, half of them with one foot in the grave. Then "such a
planet in such a house shows great machinations, plots, and
conspiracies, that may in time be brought to light:" after which,
if we hear of any discovery, the astrologer gets the honour; if
not, his prediction still stands good. And at last, "God preserve
King William from all his open and secret enemies, Amen." When if
the King should happen to have died, the astrologer plainly
foretold it; otherwise it passes but for the pious ejaculation of a
loyal subject; though it unluckily happened in some of their