examined before Cooncilly where he affirmed that Mrs. Collier[1] had often told him that she did not
- ↑ "A popish midwife, who had a great share of wit, and was abandoned to lewdness."—Burnet, ii. 234.
and John Gadbury. This man calculated my nativity, according to the strict rules of astrology, and gave me it into my hand. I received it, not with a confidence that what he wrote were true. If you go upon certainty, says I, only foretel to me two or three events, which, if they should happen, would infallibly render me a proselyte of yours: but, if otherwise, I shall expect you to desert so vain and empty a pursuit. After consulting each other, Deering and Gadbury came to me, and told me, that they themselves would give no credit to their profession if these three circumstances they were going to relate did not actually come to pass.
"1st. That Charles II., after the burial of Queen Katherine, would have a son of another wife, who should be born after his death.
"That Louis XIV. would dye in 1682.
"That the Earl of Shaftesbury, who at that time favoured the rebellion, would be beheaded.
"So much for astrology, since the greatest champions for it never could judge with certainty concerning future contingencies, and I always esteemed astrology among those curious arts whose advocates, after they were converted from it by the Apostles, came and burnt their books in the presence of the multitude ; and it is evident from the Epiphany that this study was prohibited by the Apostles : therefore, returning to college, I could not be easy till I had thrown the account of my nativity in the fire. Deering foretold happy times to me from 36 until 48 years of my age, when he said I should have a bastard. In this interval I spent my time unhappy and inglorious. With regard to my having a bastard, the 48 years passed by me when I had never lain with any other woman but my own wife."
