Tuesday, May 10. 1720.

Upon the Perusal of my Motto, I believe my Readers will be puzzled to comprehend what it is I aim at:  It seems to be a perfect Riddle, and if you read it backward like a Witches Prayer, it will be as easily understood.  Yet let no Man condemn it for that trifling Objection, that he does not understand it:  for, I can assure the World, that it is an old Prophecy, which comprehends many Secrets of Destiny, Stars, and Fate.  Tho’ the Vulgar, whose Eyes are shut against these Mysteries, may endeavour to explode all Divination; yet when the Prophecy comes to be fulfilled, they will confess their own Ignorance, and give an implicit Belief to such Revelations, as are delivered to the Publick by those wise Men, who by their Art pry into the Cabinet of Futurity, and make to themselves Spectacles of the Planets, by which they are enabled to read the darkest Page in the Book of Doomesday.

Having, in my last, given some Account of my intended Summer Library, it cannot appear strange, if I should already have anticipated a Part of my Pleasure, and dipped into some of the promising Authors I mentioned.  The witty Quevedo, in one of his visionary Prospects of Hell, fancies, he sees an Astrologer creeping upon all Four; with a pair of Compasses betwixt his Teeth; his Spheres, and Globes about him; his Jacob’s Staff before him; and his Eyes fixed upon the Stars, as if he were taking a Height, or making an Observation.  The Student, after gazing awhile, started up of a sudden, and wringing his Hands, Good Lord! says he, what an unlucky Dog was I!  If I had come into the World but one Half Quarter of an Hour sooner, I had beene saved:  for just then Saturn shifted, and Mars was lodged in the House of Life.  Another Proficient in the same Art, who was very loth to go to Hell before his Time, had his Tormentors be sure he was dead:  for, says he, I am a little doubtful of it my self; in Regard that I had Jupiter for my Ascendant, and Venus in the House of Life, and no malevolent Aspect to cross me.  So that by the Rules of Astrology, I was to live, precisely, a Hundred and one Years, two Months, six Days, four Hours, and three Minutes.

It is plain from such Instances, and many more of equal Demonstration, had I Leisure to collect them, that the Stars dispose of us as they please, and have an Influence on every Action of our Lives.  They are particularly busy in the Affairs of Women, and She that, by a too great Love of Society, has been kind to others besides her own Husband, might have been an Example of Discretion and Modesty, had she been born a Minute sooner, or later, and had a more continent Planet for her Ascendent.  I hope, this will be sufficient to vindicate the Science from all Suspicions of Imposture.  I can assure