CHAPTER VIII.
Lady Heater's system of astrology—Sympathies and antipathies—People's nijems or stars—Mesmerism explained—Lord Suffolk—Lady Hester's own star—Letter to the Queen—Letter to Mr. Speaker Abercrombie—Messieurs Beck and Moore—Letter to Colonel Campbell—The Ides of March—Lady Hester's reflections on the Queen's conduct to her—Letter to Sir Edward Sugden—What peers are— Junius's Letters—Spies employed by the first Lord Chatham—Mr. Pitt's opinion of the Duke of Wellington—Lady Hester's letter to his Grace, &c.
In order to render intelligible to the reader many passages which have occurred, and will occur again, in Lady Hester's conversations, respecting what she called people's nijems or stars, it may not be amiss to give an outline of her system of astrology, and of the supposed influence that the position of the stars in the heavens at our nativity has on our future fate and on our sympathies. I must preface what follows by observing that she had a remarkable talent for divining characters by the make of a person. This