As we were at supper a client came to speak with him, and so up into his closet he went with his client; I called him in before he set his figure, or resolved the question, and instantly acquainted him how he should discover the moles or marks of his client:  he set his figure, and presently discovers four moles the querent had; and was so overjoyed therewith, that he came tumbling down the stairs, crying, ’Four by G——­, four by G——­, I will not take one hundred pounds for this one rule.’  In six weeks time, and tarrying with him three days in a week, he became a most judicious person.

This Humphreys was a laborious person, vain-glorious, loquacious, fool-hardy, desirous of all secrets which he knew not, insomuch that he would have given me two hundred pounds to have instructed him in some curiosities he was persuaded I had knowledge of, but, Artis est celare artem, especially to those who live not in the fear of God, or can be masters of their own counsels:  he was in person and condition such another as that monster of ingratitude my quondam taylor, John Gadbury.  After my refusal of teaching him, what he was not capable of, we grew strange, though I afforded him many civilities whenever he required it; for after the siege of Colchester he wrote a book against me, called Anti Merlinus-Anglicus, married a second wife, his first living in Cambridgeshire, then practised physick by a contrary name, having intentions to practise in Ireland; he went to Bristol, but there understanding the parliament’s forces had reduced that kingdom, he came back to London, but durst not abide therein; but turning from his second wife, who also had another husband, he went to sea, with intention for Barbadoes, but died by the way in his voyage.  I had never seen John Booker at that time; and telling him one day I had a desire to see him, but first, ere I would speak with him, I would fit myself with my old rules, and rub up my astrology; for at that time (and this was 1640) I thought John Booker the greatest and most complete astrologer in the world.  My scholar Humphreys presently made answer, ’Tutor, you need not pump for any of your former knowledge, John Booker is no such pumper; we met,’ saith he, ’the other day, and I was too hard for him myself, upon judgment of three or four questions.’  If all the transactions happening unto that my scholar were in one volume, they would transcend either Guzman, Don Quixote, Lazarillo de Tormes, or any other of the like nature I ever did see.

Having now in part recovered my health, being weary of the country, and perceiving there was money to be got in London, and thinking myself to be as sufficiently enabled in astrology as any I could meet with, I made it my business to repair thither; and so in September 1641 I did; where, in the years 1642 and 1643, I had great leisure to better my former knowledge:  I then read over all my books of astrology, over and over; had very little or no practice at all: