my Country and the Royal Family, and to ſee their Labours to make us happy, luckily overturn'd by ſome fortunate Calamities, which might deſtroy their Intereſt with the People. By ſome ſuch deſirable Accident, I flatter'd my ſelf, that by God's Bleſſing on our honeſt Endeavours, in bringing it about and improving it, we might all mend our Circumſtances, and that poſſibly for my part, I might thus recover my Eſtate, from the Rogue who bought it, by turning Papiſt in ſome glorious Revolution in the Chevalier's Favour.
To indulge my Spleen and Melancholy the more, I gave my ſelf up Night and Day to reading for ſeveral Years: And becauſe I deſpis'd the little narrow beaten Paths of common Scholars, I ſtudied all hidden Sciences, from Magick to the Jewiſh Cabala and the Philoſopher's Stone, and particularly turn'd my ſelf to Aſtrology with vaſt Application, in hopes to find ſome propitious Influence from the Heavens, to favour theſe reaſonable Expectations, ſince I ſaw with Sorrow there was little to be hop'd for from the Earth.
I made a great Progreſs, eſpecially in this laſt noble Science, and flatter'd my ſelf,that
