especially those compounds which from their tenderness and delicacy are most subject to the celestial influencies, such as the bodies of kings and princes. Eclipses, therefore, of the sun, occasioned by the interposition of the moon, and of the moon, occasioned by the interposition of the earth, are not so much the tokens of the deaths which are to follow, as they are the causes." He then proceeds to shew that comets are the tokens which are sent to these tender and delicate compounds, and concludes with a compliment to that tender and delicate compound Philip II. Of this sagacious distinction between eclipses and comets he is not a little proud.
This writer was a good historian, but a very strange philosopher. According to him, a storm at sea is the happiest thing that can happen to an expedition. When King Jayme of Aragon embarked for the conquest of Majorca the weather soon became tempestuous, and his
