By this, what cheats you are, we find, 1075
That in your own concerns are blind.[1]
Your lives are now at my dispose,
To be redeem'd by fine or blows:
But who his honour would defile,
To take, or sell, two lives so vile? 1080
I'll give you quarter; but your pillage,
The conqu'ring warrior's crop and tillage.
Which with his sword he reaps and plows,
That's mine, the law of arms allows.
This said in haste, in haste he fell 1085
To rummaging of Sidrophel.
First, he expounded both his pockets.
And found a watch with rings and lockets,
Which had been left with him t'erect
A figure for and so detect. 1090
A copper-plate with almanacks
Engrav'd upon't, with other knacks[2]
Of Booker's, Lilly's, Sarah Jimmers',[3]
And blank schemes to discover nimmers;[4]
A moon-dial, with Napier's bones,[5] 1095
And sev'ral constellation stones,
- ↑ "Astrologers," says Agrippa, "while they gaze on the stars for direction, fall into ditches, wells, and gaols," that is, while they foretell what is to happen to others, cannot tell what will happen to themselves. The crafty Tiberius, not content with a promise of empire, examined the astrologer concerning his own horoscope, intending to drown him on the least appearance of falsehood. But Thrasyllus was too cunning for him, and immediately answered "that he perceived himself at that instant to be in imminent danger;" and added, "that he was destined to die just ten years before the emperor himself." Tacit. Ann. vi. 21; Dio. lviii. 27.
- ↑ That is, marks or signs belonging to the astrologer's art. Knack also signifies a bauble.
- ↑ Three astrologers. John Booker was born at Manchester in 1601, and after being apprenticed to a haberdasher, became clerk first to a justice of the peace and afterwards to a London alderman. He is said to have had great skill in judging of thefts. Lilly has frequently been mentioned. Sarah Jimmers, called by Lilly, Sarah Skilhorn, was a great speculatrix, or medium, as she would now be called. She was celebrated for the power of her eyes in looking into a speculum, and Lilly tells a strange story of angels showing her a red waistcoat being taken out of a trunk at 12 miles distance and the day before the act.
- ↑ From the Anglo-Saxon niman, meaning thieves or pilferers.
- ↑ Lord Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of Logarithms, also invented
