SOURCE: "An Elegy upon the Death of William Lilly the Astrologer," in The Last of the Astrologers, The Folklore Society, 1974, pp. 105-06.

Below is the epitaph written by Smalridge, then a scholar at Westminster, on the occasion of Lilly's death in 1681.

 Our Prophet's gone; no longer may our Ears
Be charm'd with Musick of th' harmonious Spheres.
Let Sun and Moon withdraw, leave gloomy Night
To shew their Nuncio's Fate, who gave more Light
To th' erring World, than all the feeble Rays
Of Sun or Moon; taught us to know those Days
Bright Titan makes, followed the hasty Sun
Through all his Circuits, knew th' unconstant Moon,
And more unconstant Ebbings of the Flood;
And what is most uncertain, th' factious Brood,
Flowing in civil Broils, by the Heavens could date
The Flux and Reflux of our dubious State.
He saw the Eclipse of Sun, and Change...