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an exact account of his property, and determined how much he must spend per diem, so as to have run through his property at the hour of his decease. But the calculation was altogether erroneous, as he lived many years beyond the predicted time, and, being reduced to want, had to beg his bread from door to door, continually exclaiming " Pity a poor man who has made an error in his calculations." Vide the Table Talk of Lassenius. Philippus Camerarius, in his Oper. Subcis. Cent. Prim. chap. 41, mentions that there was a rich man in Lyons, who, in consequence of his being misled as to the time of his death by consulting the supposed ruling star of his birth, gave away all his goods to the poor, and had, in consequence, to beg to the day of his death, he attaining an extreme old age. Pope John the XXII., whom some call the XX., and others the XXI., (formerly Petrus Hispanus,) was well versed in astronomy. He cast his horoscope, and persuaded himself that he would live to a good old age, and long rule the papacy, of which he made no disguise to his relations. Nevertheless, four months after he had done this, he was killed by the fall of a dome or chamber, which he had built, on the spur of the moment, in a new palace that he was erecting at Viterbo. He was not, however,

killed on the spot, but jammed between the stones and the rafters and died on the seventh day after the accident. This happened in the year 1277. See Nigrinus on the Papal Inquisition, page 488. The Landgrave William of Hesse, was deeply read in this folly and took a fall (Sortes Virgiliana) in the book of John Garcæus de Judicüs Geniturarum, whence he drew his horoscope, and calculated his life to extend to 46 years 9 months 1 day 22 hours and 40 minutes. In the margin he wrote his name and the following quotation out of Psalm xxxi. 16, "My times are in thy hands," which period agreed with his decease better than the other, inasmuch as he died 15 years afterwards, and in the 60th year of his age.-See Augustine Pfeiffer in Antimelûncholio, book 1, chap. 29, page 551.

But Gabriel Block, in his remarks upon Astrological predictions and soothsaying, writes as follows: "No man can show me, amongst these predictions, one that has come to pass, for one hundred that have failed. If one happens to be accomplished in the predicted manner, it is commonly the soothsayer himself, or an accomplice, who has carried out the application, according to a preconcerted plan of their own, generally by vague and obscure phraseology and

double entendres, of which they have made a large collection before people come to consult them; added to which they have a shameless and brazen countenance, and do not blush when detected in an untruth. Moreover they have a hundred subterfuges at hand, and also a dozen of ill-assorted interpretations of the right meaning of the prophecy, and the cause of its failure, by which people are deceived." The author of this interpretation writes: "I do not hereby condemn all astrology, (astronomy, qu.?) but would rather aver that it is a noble and excellent art from which much can be learned. But I deny that these people can attain to those things which are controlled by God, under the influence of man's free will, and other accidental circumstances"; in which opinion agree all the learned astronomers of those times, Henelius, Cassini, Huigens, Bilberg, Krock, and many others, who affirm that this so-called astrology is sheer knavery and foolishness.

CHAPTER XIII.

"It may well be called Jove's tree, when
It drops such fruit."

AS YOU LIKE IT.

Act. iii., Scene 2.

OF THE WISHING OR DIVINING ROD.

There are various descriptions of divining rods of which the mountaineers avail themselves in order to discover whether this or that metal lies concealed in the mountain: before, however, we (that is Dr. Bräuner) disclose our own views of the subject we will first declare what Theophilus Albinus writes in his tract,

entitled The Idolatry of the Divining Rod unmasked. First, then, as to the name of the wishing rod, and for what reason so denominated; second, what was the origin and invention of it; third, of what materials it is usually made; fourth, what must be observed as to the time of using it; fifth, what circumstances must be attended to in cutting and using it; sixth, what is required as to the appearance of the rod, and mode of carrying it; and seventh, in whose hands it can be profitably employed. All these points will be laid down on the authority of Simon Heinrich Reuter's Kingdom of the Devil, and the 1st part of Maurer's Great Wonders of the World.

First then, as to its name; it is termed in Latin virga aurifera, metalloscopia, and commonly, virgula divina, seu divinatrix: it is also called mercurialis, on the authority of Matth. Wille, from the 486th page et seq. of Ezlerus, either from the planet of this name, as it partakes of its nature, and oscillates, or else from Mercury, who was a man versed in several sciences, which he imparted to mankind, and was, in consequence, ranked by them amongst the gods he was also employed as a messenger between the gods and men. He was, moreover, a learned physician, who, by means of his