William Lilly's History of His Life and Times Part 9

When geese and pullen are seduc'd, And sows of sucking pigs are chous'd: When cattle feel indisposition, And need th' opinion of physician; When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep, And chickens languish of the pip; When yeast and outward means do fail, And have no power to work on ale; When b.u.t.ter does refuse to come, And love proves cross and humoursome; To him with questions and with urine, They for discov'ry flock, or curing.

He had been long t'wards mathematics, Opticks, philosophy, and staticks, Magick, horoscopy, astrology, And was old dog at physiology: But, as a dog that turns the spit, Bestirs himself, and plies his feet To climb the wheel, but all in vain, His own weight brings him down again; And still he's in the self-same place, Where at his setting out he was: So, in the circle of the arts, Did he advance his nat'ral parts: Till falling back still, for retreat, He fell to juggle, cant, and cheat: For as those fowls that live in water Are never wet, he did but smatter: Whate'er he labour'd to appear, His understanding still was clear, Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted, Since old Hodge Bacon, and Bob Grosted,

Do not our great _Reformers_ use This SIDROPHEL to forebode news?

To write of victories next year, And castles taken yet i'th' air?

Of battles fought at sea, and s.h.i.+ps Sunk, two years hence, the last eclipse?

A total o'er throw giv'n the KING In Cornwall, horse and foot, next spring?

And has not he point-blank foretold Whatso'er the _Close Committee_ would?

Made Mars and Saturn for the _cause_, The Moon for _fundamental laws_; The Ram, the Bull, the Goat, declare Against the _Book of Common Prayer_; The Scorpion take the _Protestation_, And Bear engage for Reformation; Made all the _royal stars_ recant, Compound, and take the covenant."

THE END.