Moore made his appearance with his celebrated "Vox Stellarum," which, though only an imitation of the best of the almanacs which had preceded, actually remained in repute until the abolition of the monopoly of publishing almanacs at length led to their reform. Moore, like his contemporaries of the same class, made a parade of astrological learning, and clothed predictions of matters of trifling importance in grand and mysterious language. The following examples are from his almanac for 1701

May. "Jove now beholds Venus with an angry square, which denotes sorrow, affliction, and much trouble, if not death, to an eminent lady."

July. "This month is usher'd in with a conjunction of the Sun and Mars, which will not pass over without some notable signification, perhaps a deserving martial man advanc'd by his prince; or something like it will be manifested; but the opposition of Jupiter and Mercury may cause some young clerk to be degraded, if not turn'd out of place (!)"

The almanac-makers had formerly boasted of being mathematicians; they had next proclaimed themselves astrologers and physicians; but they had now sunk into quack-doctors, who made their ephemerals an advertising medium for their medicines. Francis Moore describes himself as a "licens'd physician and student in astrology," two professions which were, in the seventeenth century, easily reconciled; and he was, in fact, a medical man practising chiefly, we believe, in Westminster. Many of the other almanac-makers of that age were of the same profession.

If the prognosticators, after the time of the Commonwealth, were cautious enough to avoid any serious mistakes of wrong predictions, they committed some great errors of omission, which ought to have convinced people of the imposture. For one example-William of Nassau left Holland to overthrow the throne of James II. at the beginning of November, 1688. We will not examine if any such event was foreseen in the almanacs for that year, but we will look at those for the year following; and we may remark, that this examination will prove that, if in the

days of the Commonwealth the date of the publication of the almanacs appears to have been irregular, they were now printed and sold in the autumn of the year preceding that for which they were designed, as at the present day. Although some of the almanacs for the year 1689 allude slightly to anticipations of rebellion, which everybody, at the time they were printed, must have felt, not one of them intimates the slightest foresight of a revolution; but all of them proclaim their loyalty in doggrel verses, such as these from Coley, who writes in the full spirit of passive obedience

"Kings are by God appointed for to sway The sword, and make rebellious men obey. Those who oppose them show themselves to be

Traytors to Heaven and to Majesty.” These lines are followed by a vow for "James our King." So Culpepper Revived, also a Cambridge almanac"A race of glorious monarchs here are shown, From whom great James derives his happy throne.

Equal to all their virtues he appears,
And may he all of them exceed in years.
Obedient loving subjects may he find,

As he to them is always just and kind." Yet within probably not much more than a month after these_extra-loyal verses were printed, "great James" was a wretched fugitive from his "happy throne." It may be said that, even had the prognosticators been able to announce the approaching revolution, it would have been dangerous to make their knowledge public; but let us go on to another event, where no such danger existed. Queen Anne died on the 1st of August, 1714, and her death was followed by the accession of the house of Hanover to the throne, contrary to the expectation of a large portion of the people of England. Not a single almanac for that year expresses the slightest anticipation of any change in the government, much less in the dynasty.

It may be added that similarly, in the prognostications of the almanacs for the year 1789, we meet with no intimation of the imminence of the great revolution in France.

Ridicule is likely to prevail sooner than reason against such pretensions to wisdom and knowledge as were put forward in the almanacs of the latter half of the seventeenth century, and these did not escape the attention of the scoffers and satirists of the reign of the merry monarch. Some of these, in 1662, assumed collectively the name of Poor Robin, and produced an almanac, the very title of which was a running parody and satire on those of the astrologers and "physicians." The first Poor Robin which appeared was for the year 1663. On the title of the one now before us, which is for the year 1667, it is called, "An Almanack after a new fashion," and professes to contain a "two-fold kalender, viz. the Julian, or "English, and the Roundheads, or Fa"naticks;" to be "written by Poor "Robin, knight of the Burnt Island, and "a well-willer to the Mathematicks; and to be "calculated for the Meridian "of Saffron Walden, where the may-pole " is elevated (with a plumm-cake on the top of it) 5 yards above the Market"Cross." Poor Robin's Almanac was a spirited jeu d'esprit, containing, with the more useful part of ordinary almanacs, a continuous burlesque on the useless and worse-than-useless matter with which they were usually filled. It commenced with a table of the beginnings and endings of the law-terms, to which, in that for 1667, the following lines are attached; they show the want of true gallantry towards the female sex which characterised the age of Charles II. :—

66

Lawyers and women, like to bells that jangle, Their tongues are always given to strife and wrangle;

But herein the comparison is scant,
The bells are hang'd, the others hanging
want."

These are followed by tables of the kings' reigns, of interest at six per cent. (it had fallen since 1640), and of chronology, the latter in rhymes and in burlesque. Each month occupies, as was now common with all the almanacs, two pages, on one of which the observations are in verse, on the other in prose; and, while on the first page the usual column contains the names of saints commemo

rated on each day, the other has a column of what are called in some years "sinners," and are given as the saints of the Roundheads. These consist of such names as Cesar Borgia, Scoggin, Moll Cutpurse, Phæbon, Harry Martin, Knave of Clubs, Robin Hood, Mother Bunch, George à Green, Jack Cade, and Friar Bacon. Directions for diet, &c., and prognostications are given equally in burlesque with the "observations." The prognostications, especially, are introduced with a mock solemnity which forms an admirable parody on the cautious and equivocal, though arrogant, language of the veritable astrologer. Thus, for the year 1667, we are told,—

1684. December. "Saturn and Mercury are in conjunction with Venus, and meet every night at a club to invent mischief; therefore it is ten to one if some shops be not broke open before they part."

1684. Summer. "Now the weather being hot, shall cause men to drink more than they eat, a great many people being of the same humour with a man at Beardon, in Essex, who was of four trades, whereof one trade would easily find him with victuals, but the other three would hardly do it in drink."

1701. "There is likely to be very strong ale and beer brew'd this year, if scarcity of malt and superfluity of water do not spoil it."

The subjects of seasonable diet and medicine are treated similarly :

1667. March. ""Tis very dangerous for poor people to feed altogether upon partridge, pheasant, and quail, for fear of getting a surfeit; bread and cheese, or a red herring, will be more proper for the season."

1669. October. "Mercury being in a square angle with Venus, it will be very seasonable to par eyour nails, if they be too long."

Nor do the weather predictions escape, of which the following may be quoted as examples :

1669. February. "This month we are likely to have either fair or foul weather, or both."

1675. January. "Cold weather now in Greenland." March. "High winds among the oysterwives at Billingsgate.'

CHAPTER XX.

A PILOT IN A TROUBLED SEA.

PRUDENCE, or no prudence, Vincenzo wrote what was a hymn of thanks to Miss Rose, in which he awarded her the palm over Arachne-an expression which greatly puzzled the girl, who had never been taught mythology, and her father, who had forgotten it, and had to look in his cyclopædia for an elucidation. Of himself and his prospects Vincenzo said as little as he decently could that he was well and happy, as happy as he could be separated from his kind benefactor and young mistress, and that he hoped to give them both some satisfaction before long. This letter he discreetly inclosed in one to the Signor Avvocato, as he had done on the occasion of his enlisting for the war. In that to his godfather, among other topics, he touched for the first time upon the subject of his wardrobe. This was of the simplest consisting, in fact, of the black suit made at Ibella, and which, whether as to cut or material, was not much to boast of; of three shirts, and a couple or so of white handkerchiefs, hitherto only used when he went to pay his yearly visit to the palace for St. Urban's fête, and which, for the reasons we know, had remained there. Now, the arrival of the beautiful linen shirts had made him feel the desirableness of some articles of outward apparel more in unison with Miss Rose's gift; in other words, the fine shirts had been the occasion of developing for the first time in our young hero that wish so natural to his age, of looking his best. Moved, then, by this desire, Vincenzo submitted for his godfather's approval a very modest list of the clothes he should like to have, putting forward in favour of his

request that one of the benefits resulting from the possession of these other garments would be to spare the black suit, and thus keep it in good condition for the examination.

Nor was it to the first tailor that came in his way that Vincenzo, on receiving the Signor Avvocato's permission, gave his orders, but to one recommended by his fellow-boarder, the notary's clerk, whose black surtout, with velvet collar, had greatly captivated his fancy. And, when the happy moment at last arrived to put on this new town-made attire, it was not without a decided feeling of self-complacency that Vincenzo saw his renovated self in the looking-glass, and enjoyed in anticipation Miss Rose's surprise at the metamorphosis in his appearance. At any rate, this little and very excusable fit of vanity did not slacken his ardour for study, nor at all interfere with his habits of retirement. It was in Miss Rose's eyes alone that Vincenzo wished to appear to advantage; for what the rest of the world might think of his person, he did not care a straw. Lucky that it was so; for never had Vincenzo needed the free and entire disposal of all his energies and time so much as at this moment. The opening of the university had, in fact, doubled his task. Let us explain how. For the accommodation of those students who had volunteered for the war, and who had, in consequence, been debarred from preparing for their examinations-and there were a good many in this predicament a special provision of the Minister of Instruction not only prolonged to the end of the year the legal term for their going up for examination, but also empowered them to follow at the same time the lectures of the class above them, so that, if successful in passing, they should have lost no time by their patriotism. The benefit of

this privilege was now, thanks to Signor Onofrio, extended to Vincenzo, who thus had to read for his degree, and also to attend the lectures incumbent on students of the first year of law. Hard work as ever was; and it was only an inflexible will that could have carried him victoriously through it, especially if we take into account the heated and noisy medium amid which it had to be accomplished.

Political passions ran high every where at this epoch, and nowhere so high as among the young bachelors of the university. The party of action, secretly favoured by the king, was evidently in the ascendant; the cry for a "Gioberti Cabinet" grew louder and louder from the youths of the capital. The students, believing war to be imminent, were already organizing themselves militarily; and many and tempting were the solicitations to which Vincenzo had to turn a deaf ear, and great the force of resistance he had to exert. But Signor Onofrio's earnest counsels on the one side, and, on the other, the lad's own desire not to disappoint his godfather's expectations, or show himself unworthy of that godfather's kindness, kept him steady in the path traced out for him.

Vincenzo's examination was fixed for a day in the beginning of December, and he and Signor Onofrio, about four in the afternoon of the day previous, were sauntering arm in arm down the Via San Francesco di Paola, towards the Via Po, in which the university is situated; when, as they neared the Hotel Feder, where Gioberti had apartments, they descried a great multitude coming towards them, headed by men carrying tricolour flags, and shouting, "Long live Gioberti !"

"Here is a demonstration bent on destroying the prestige of one of the finest names that, Italy can boast," exclaimed Signor Onofrio, drawing up close to the wall to let the procession pass.

"How so, when they are precisely acclaiming that name?" asked Vincenzo. "The louder the acclamations of it

now," replied Onofrio, "the greater will be the disappointment when its owner is seen at work. Rarely do minds addicted to lofty philosophical speculations possess that practical insight into men and things which makes the efficient statesman."

Signor Onofrio was too entirely of the practical school himself not to underrate Gioberti, on account of his Utopia of an Italy renovated through and by the Pope.

A tall long-bearded young man, with one of the finest and most melancholy faces imaginable, led the advancing column, tossing high the banner in his hand, and shouting with all his might. Signor Onofrio, by dint of frantic gesticulations and loud calls, succeeded at length in attracting the flag-bearer's attention, who, on recognising Signor Onofrio, forced his way to him.

"Et tu quoque, Brute," said Signor Onofrio to him; "as if thou didst not know the man thou art shouting for!"

"I know him and shout for him," was the handsome stranger's reply. "We want a name, and he has one. Diplomacy has left us no choice between an act of madness or an act of cowardice, and I, for my part, prefer the first ;" and so saying he roared again, "Viva Gioberti!"

'There's truth in what he states," sighed Signor Onofrio. "England and France, the mediating powers between. us and Austria, with more of resemblance to the gods of Olympus than to Cato, side with the conquering cause, and abandon us to the tender mercies of our foes."

The street was now entirely blocked up by the demonstration, and the cries for Gioberti waxed louder and louder. Gioberti at last showed himself in the balcony of the hotel, and addressed the crowd. The thin thread of voice in which he did so was in striking contrast to the orator's tall large person and powerful blond head. His eloquence, fluent, classic in form, wanted strength and nerve.

"Verba, verba, prætereaque nihil,” was Signor Onofrio's definition of it.