In Order to this I have Erected a Scheme and when you would consider any Question to know it first view well this Scheme Erected and Calculated for the Resolving all Lawful Questions Mark how the Signs and Planets are Posited in their Government of the Coelestial Houses and then the Figures in the Square To understand this the better take in the Number of the Day of the month and Mark what Planet Rules that Day you state your Question to be Resolved and these are their Characters as to the Governing the Days of the Week as you find in the Angles or Houses of the Scheme Erected on Sunday ☉ Governs on monday ☽ on Tuesday ♂ on Wednesday ☿ on Thursday ♃ on Friday ♀ on Saturday ♄ this being Noted pitch upon any Number that exceeds not 30 add to it the Number of the Day of the month and the Letter that begins your Name if it be a Figure if it be not it stands but for 1. then gather the Number thought on and the Number of the Day of the month with that of your Name Letter into one Sum and divide it by 30 and then if you find what Remains in the upper part of the Square in the Figures placed there assure your self of Good Luck but if it fall out in the under part it promises but an Indifferency of Fortune As for Example you would be certified whether you shall have the Party you are in Love withal and desire to marry take the Number of the first Letter of your Name and the Number of the Planet that Governs the Day you enquire reckoning from Sunday as to the Days of the Week till Saturday in order and then divide them by 30 and if it appears in the upper part it promises you Success in what you desire to know but if in the under part of the Table you will be Crossed in your Expectation If there Remains neither under nor over it Remains in the Blank Houses of the Scheme where neither Good nor Bad Fortune is signifyed then being put off with a Blank you must think again and proceed in the same order till it comes up to a Figure or Sum over or under that is as you find it above or below in the Table and upon this Rule depend all Questions that can reasonably be thought on to be Demanded As Success in Love Affairs Portions great or small Law suits Absence of Friends whether Dead or Alive or when Return if ever whether you shall gain the Preferment you desire whether you shall escape Sickness or not also in Wagers Combates Children Child-birth overcoming Troubles good or bad Debts true Friendship News or storys true or false if a thing stolen be Recoverable or not and indeed what ever your Occasion requires as to Worldly Matters which for Brevitys sake I here forbear to Innumerate as being too many and too tedious to set down in all their particulars What Diseases in the Bodys of Men Women and Children are more Immediately caused by the Influence of the seven Planets with Astrological Remarks as to their Cure SAturn ♄ Reigning causes Cold Diseases as the Gout Leprofy Palsey Quartan Agues Dropsys Catarrhs Coughs Rheumatisms c. Jupiter ♃ causes Cramps Numbness Inflamations of the Liver Head Aches Pains in the shoulders Windyness in the Body Sanguin Feavours and all Diseases caused of Putrefaction the Appoplexy Caxidiac Passions Squincyes c. Mars ♂ causes Acute Feavours and Tertian Agues continual Intermiting Feavours Impostumes Erisipelas Carbuncles Fistulas Bloody Flux and such like hot and dry Diseases Sol ☉ causes Rheums in the Eyes Coldness in the stomach and Liver swooning Chollar Catarrhs Pustles in the matrix and the like in the Lower Parts Venus ♀ causes scabs and Venerial Diseases Lientery suffocations in the Womb sickness in the stomach from Cold and Moist Causes Infirmitys of the Liver and Lungs c. Mercury ☿ causes Hoarsness and Distempers in the Senses Impediments in speech and its passions Falling sickness Goughs Jaundice Vomiting Catarrhs c. The moon ☽ causes Palsey Chollick the Whites Dropsey phlegmatick Impostumes Dissenteries and all Diseases coming from Obstructions in the Veins Now having given you a sight of what Diseases the Influence bring upon the Bodys of Men and Women it is their Business to consider under what particular Planet each Individual was Born which may be known several ways treated on in this Book and therefore I need not here give further Instructions as to that particular but come to more general Terms to know how the Bodys ought to be ordered to prevent these Diseases and herein as one main Expedient I recommend Temperance moderate Bleeding and purging in seasonable times when a Friendly Planet Opposit to the Malignancy of the planet you was Born under has Dominion which will much abate the Effect of their Influence and give Nature a Power to Oppose the Malevolency which if well heeded may be a main prevention of Dangerous sickness Observe also to gather all your Physical Herbs in the Hour of the Friendly planet that temperizes with that you are Born under and in so doing they will have more Strength Power and Virtue to Opporate in the Medicines but neither physick nor Bleed on the 3d. of January the 1st of July the 2d of October the last day of April the first of August and the last for Astrologers with whom Physitians joyn conclude Perillous by reason of the bad Influence then Reigning and if it change not the Distemper into another Worse it will Augment it and put the Party in great Danger of Death if he or she in this Case be not so Luckey to escape it The Urinall Doctor or Astrological and physical Observations on Casting Urine Relating to Health or sickness with Cautions to prevent threatened Evils CAsting of Urine is now become a great Trade and many People much Rely upon it to know the Constitution of their Bodys as to sickness or health and though there is something in it yet they many times go to Ignorant Pretenders who will take their Money and tell them a plausible story though they know nothing of the Matter therefore among these many useful things I shall give the Reader an Insight to know it himself and in this very one thing save him or her the mony this whole Book fraught with so many Rarities will Cost them First Then if the Urine be Red it signifies the Blood is Heated and you must either Bleed or Allay that Heat with Cooling things to prevent sickness 2d The Urine White shows Rawness and phlegmatick Indigestions in the stomach which must be Remedyed by Gentle purges to Cleanse it and Restore lost Appetite 3d. Thick and Muddy Urine betokens the Body surfeited by over Heating in Labour Walking or other Exercise or by excessive Drinking and then to prevent a Fevour take Cooling Cordials 4th A White and Red Setling Gravelly or sandy in the Urine betokens the stone beginning to putrify in the Reins
Refracted Sun Beams are weak in their Operation and this appears by a Curling or Curdling in the Clouds as they Rise and in appearance Expand themselves Signs of Snow and Drisly sleet c. CLouds like Woolly Fleeces appearing high and moving heavily the middle a darkish pale and the edges white carry Snow in them that in winter Frozen in Sheets by Cold East North East or North VVest Winds pressing hard on the Air no longer able to bear them up shiver in the Fall and break into Flakes resembling many Figures as Stars Leaves of Trees Flowers c. If the Clouds be pressed nearer the Earth the Vapours so Frozen is Grosser and the Flakes are Larger but more Remote thiner and so fall in a Sleet or little Flakes The Suns looking pale at Rising the much Lowing of Cattle in the field the Croaking of Ravens and Birds flaging their Wings fore-show it Drisle is a kind of a Ryme or Mists Ascending and Freezing and to be foreseen as the aforegoing Prognosticks of Forsty Weather by the Planets Elements Creatures c. THE Stars looking bright and twinkling much shows a Cold Air Engendering Erosts The Sky seeming fuller of stars than usual and the wind suddenly shifting to the East or North East after the Change of the Moon in the Winter denotes a setling Frost of long continuance The Owles Hooping often with a louder Note than usual denotes a Frost at hand The Suns setting Red in a Mist and a white Fogg creeping low in Marshy and Moorish Ground shows the Air is Condensing into Cold. The Seacole Fire Burning Blue that is a great part of the Flame and scorching more than usual foretells a frost at hand or if it be begun its continuance The Moon shineing bright with sharp Horns after the Change denotes the Air is Rarefying and Cold winds will soon set in to freeze the Earth A Hoarey Ryme sticking on Trees Bushes and Pales in the Morning foretells sharp bleak winds will soon set in and contract a bitter frost Little Clouds hovering low in the North when none any where else appear fore-runs Cold freezing Winds and Snow Signs of a Thaw in any great hard frost c. THE Suns looking waterish at its Rising is a sign the frost will break The wind having held long and extream sharp in one Point suddenly shifting brings a Relenting if not a thorow Thaw The Suns setting in Blueish Clouds and casting Refracted Beams into them bids the frost prepare to be gone The stars looking dull and the Moons Horns blunted foretells a Change in this Nature Of wonderful signs in the Heavens and on the Earth whence they Proceed and what they Prognosticate of strange Events I now come to treat of Meteors and strange sights and Impressions in the Air and on the Earth Prognosticating many Wonderful Amazing Things to ensue so far I conceive Proper to the Subject in Hand Comets or Blazing-stars with Astrological Observations what they are and Prognosticks on them A Comet or Blazing-star is formed of an Exhalation hot and dry being a great quantity of Unctious Vapours drawn up into the highest Region and there by their own Agitation and the Heat they meet with approaching the Region of fire are Kindled appearing when the Sun Beams are of it like a real star with a Blazing Tail though it be many Thousand Miles beneath the stary Region and sometimes it moves after the motion of the Air which is Circular but it never goeth down out of the Compass of sight and so continue till the matter that feeds them is Consumed and then Expire the time of their Generation is oftenest in Harvest or Autumn for in the spring there is too much Moisture and too little Heat to Generate them In summer there is too much Heat that will Disperse and consume the matter that it cannot be Joyned together and in winter the Cold and Moisture contrary to the Nature of a Comet opposes it These fore-run many Calamitys and the Reason is this 1st Great Droughts ensue because the Comet cannot be Generated without great Heat and much Moisture is Consumed in the Burning of it 2d Barrenness of the Earth because the fatness of the Earth is drawn up where of the Comet chiefly consists so that the Earth wanting that Oyly substance grows sterile and produces not as other times 3d. Pestilence for as much as this kind of Exhalation in long Burning Expiriug or going out Diffuseth it self and Corrupteth the Air with a Poysonous Infection and that drawn in by us as our common Breath Infecteth the Bodys of Men with Plagues Violent Feavours or other Excessive Hot Diseases and the like Effects they consequently have on the bodys of Beasts that suck in the same Airs working on them by Murrens swellings Breakin gs out of Boiles Blaiues and the like proceeding from Poysonous Infection The Learned have Noted that after the appearing of Comets other great Calamitys befall as Wars Seditions Changes in state the Death of Princes Noble Men And thus Virgil As in moist Night a Blazing Comet streams With Bloody Omens Red and Syrius beams Brings to sad Mortals Sicknesses and Thirst And Heaven in Mourning hangs with Influence Curst For say they at what time the Comets do shine there be many Hot and Dry Exhalations in the Air which Influence the Natural Temper of the Hot Dry and Cholerick Persons whereby they are quickly stirred to Anger to Raise Wars Tumults or Contentions Also those Nice Bodys Living at Ease are of a soft delicious Temper so the Infection seizes them sooner than Labourious hard-fareing Bodys for in Plagues it has been Observed that the most delicate Fed and Tender Bodys are soonest Infected and swept away I mighs enlarge on this but my proposed Brevity constrains me to Desist and proceed to other Matters Many Suns appearing in the Heavens at once the Cause and what they Predict OFten to the Appearance of Men two or many times three Suns have appeared in the Firmament at once though in reality but one real Sun the other being the Images or Impressions of it indensed Air or watery Clouds for they are nothing but the Idols or Image of the real Sun that daily enlightens the World Represented by its Beams Impressing in an equally thick and smooth gross Air or Cloud placed on the side of the sun and sometimes on both sides into which the sun-beams being Received as into a Glass expresseth the likeness fashion of Light which is in the sun so appearing to us who are a vast distance beneath it as if there were many suns This thick and watery Air or Cloud is not directly under the sun for when it is it makes the Circle about it called the Crowns or Garlands or if it were opposite to the sun it would form the Rainbow of which I shall speak hereafter but on the sides where the Images may be best Reflected and Represented These are oftnest seen in the Morning and Evening
about the Rising and Going down of the sun though sometimes at other Hours and sometimes there Appear many little suns like unto stars which are caused by many little divided Clouds as the Reflection of a Man's Face appears in all parts of a broken Glass or as a Multiplying Glass makes one thing seem many The appearing of these Phenomenas naturally betoken Tempests and much Rain to ensue because they cannot appear but in a Watery disposition of the Air. Also if they appear on the south side of the sun they signify more Violent showers than on the North and the reason is the hot southern Vapour is sooner resolved into Water than the colder Northern ones As for a Supernatural signification they have been Noted to have portended the Contention of Princes for Kingdoms as not long before the Contention of Galba Otho and Vitellus for the Empire Rome three Suns appeared also a little before the Slaughter of Lewis King of Hungary in a Battel against the Turks were seen three Suns denoting the three Princes that afterward Contended for the Kingdom viz. Ferdinand King of Bohemia John Vayvode of Transilvania and Solyman Emperor of the Turks The appearing of many Moons in the Night and what they Prognostick of Good or Bad. AS for the cause of many Moons appearing or seeming to do so at once I need not repeat it again but only tell you the cause is the same as that of the Suns Plyne calls these Night suns because they joyn with the Light of the Moon and Augment its Light in wonderful measure whilst they continue They foretell great Rains and a wet season to follow producing Land Floods and doing much Harm to Corn and Grass if grown up also the Overflowing of Rivers and the Breaking in of the sea and in general a moist wet Year or part of a Year as they fall Earlier or Later to ensue to the End which will occasion scarcity of Corn and other Fruits of the Earth Of the Rainbow how caused and what it Prognosticates HAving promised to say something more particularly of the Rainbow which gives a great insight to the weather immediately to follow I shall Treat of it here as it most Probably follows in Order The Rainbow is the Apparition of certain Colours in a Cloud Opposit against the sun in a half Circle as Virgil seems to Hint when he makes Iris or the Rainbow Messengers to Juno viz. From Heaven then Dew-rose wing'd Iris flew She ' gainst the Sun a Thousand Colours drew Plac'd on her Head c. The sun Reflecting on a Cloud at a distance from it side-ways and Refracting its Beams there lively by its Light shews the various Colours the Clouds is Composed of Posidonius Terms the Rainbow the Suns Looking-glass wherein its Image is Represented and that the blue Colour is the proper Colour of the Air or Cloud and the red of the sun that the other are mixed Colours or Colours of Comixtion and indeed the Colours more admirably lively than can be Represented any where else but since Rainbows are so often Visible I think I may spare the Labour of a particular Description of them therefore I proceed to what they Prognosticate in Relation to Weather viz. From that part the Rainbow first begins to break or vanish winds will arise and bring great showers If the Rainbow vanishes as it were altogether fair weather will ensue If it be broken in many parts Tempestuous winds are gathering in the Air. If after it appears the Colours wax grosser and darken Rain is gathering if lighter and the Colours fairer the contrary and guess of other Asspects in the Rainbow Of the Ignis Fatuus or Fires that lead People astray in the Night time called the Will with the Wisp THese in Popish and superstitious times were held to be Souls that had escaped out of Purgatory to desire the prayers of the living upon the earth for their admission to Paradice because they were often seen in Church yards where Unctious vapours arise from the steem of dead bodies since they are called Will with the Wisp or as the Latins call them Ignis Fatuus foolish fire because they are rather a fire in shew than a real one in truth It is a Fire or a resemblance of it that seemeth to go before men or follow them in the Night lead them out of their way into waters or other dangerous places it is a weak exhalation kindled by reason of a violent motion in a cold night in the lowest Region of the Air for in the hot season they appear not It is imbodied by the cold and shut in as it were in a bladder and its motion is from that of the Air for that being as it were of a piece tho' in innumerable particles is agitated with violent motions and as the body of a Man moves in breaking it the whole sensibly suffers which makes this Nocturnal Light move swiftly and press towards the Party moving it dancing and playing about him So that the afright and the many times by that means in a dark Night makes him wonder and being once out he knows not how to get into the right way again and often Mischief ensues by his tumbling into one bad place or another When these Exhalations rise much which they mostly do in moorish or foggy Grounds In Autumn and the beginning of Winter they fore-run a cold sharp winter but a fruitful summer to ensue because it shews the cold Vapours will not rise high but remain nearer the Earth and oppress it with still Frosts more than blustering Winds and again in so doing the Earth in Winter will spend little of its heat or Evaporate its Unctious quality to any great degree which working with its nitrous part is the cause of Fertility and causes encrease of all kind of Vegetives to a very great degree more than ordinary Of the Flame that appears on the Hair and Beards of Men and upon that of Beasts THis by some has been taken to be wonderfully strange and of such Terror that some hath been extreamly frighted by it supposing it was the Devil come to involve them in sulpherous flames when the cause is really natural for these Fires are sometimes clamy Exhalations scattered abroad in the Air in small parts which in the night by the resistance of the cold agitating in a violent motion are kindled and rushing on where they find opposition by reason of their clamy nature stick and appear a blue fire very affrighting to those at a distance when the persons on whom they fasten perhaps perceive them not or at least not presently When they are much abroad they fore-tell high Winds and a blustering stormy Winter a wet Spring and a dry Summer very sickly but fruitful Strange Apparitions of Armies and other wonderful sights in the Air how caused Apparitions in the Air are only Exhalations in the lowest or highest Regions of it not really Fires but seem so by the Sun
or Moon reflecting Light on them The Light in this case is instead of white and the dark shadow sets off the Figures such Apparitions seem terribly to represent and diversly mixed accordingly to the divers dispositions of the Exhalation they cause variety of colours according to the thickness or thinness of the Exhalation presenting to the imagination of fond fanciful Mortals Armies in Battel Seas and Navys engaging on them spacious Fields Houses Castles and the like though indeed but Airy Phantoms However they fore-run Storms and are accompanied with flashes of Lightning very often and in the hotter weather with prodigious claps of Thunder if the Clouds are gross and full of water looking a greenish dark in the middle tho' about the edges the Light may as in the thinner parts paint various Colours being composed of hot and moist Exhalations and though these are looked on as supernatural causes they are no more than the effect of Nature The Kinds of Earth-Quakes their cause and signs fore-running them and what they pontend IN this Treatise I cannot but make some Observation on the Causes of Earth-Quakes considering of late Years we have been so much alarumed with their prodigious Effects and so few people know what natural Effect produces them for wonderful Things are related by Historians concerning them but the best Opinions given of their Causes and the most probable is That extraordinary quantities of heat and cold shut up in the vast Caverns of the Earth contending for mastery and pressing violently to get out but find Opposition by the too much dryness or moisture of the Porus parts of the Earth seek a way to vent themselves by force and break their way through all Opposition The Signs of an Earth-Quake being at hand is the much tosing of the Sea or other great Waters when no visible cause is seen to occasion it for then the Vapours labouring to force their way to open Air first finding a more easy passage there than on the firm Land first make their way and boyl up the Waters as it were to force through them Also a cold Calmness of the Air is another Sign for then the Exhalation that should be abroad is forcibly pent up in the Earth and struggling to get out with violence Others Observe that when the Sky is as it were Clear some long strakes of Clouds are however seen but the most certain is a rumbling murmuring Noise in the Earth and a kind of whistleing Wind whisking about the Air being troubled for then the fore-runner or thinest part of the Vapour is spining out to make way for the greater Shock and more violent gross shock of it yet however the Cause is the same notwithstanding the manner of shaking the Earth is different as I shall briefly Note The First is when the Earth is shaken Laterally or to one side which is when the whole force of the enclosed Vapour driveth to one side or place and there is no contrary Motion to Let it if the Vapour be weak it only makes a Rocking or Trembling but if violent breaks out overthrowing the mightiest Buildings from their Foundations and by such an Earth-Quake in the Reign of Tyberius the Roman Emperor twelve great Cities in Asia were levelled in one and most of their Inhabitants buried in their Ruins and sad have those been of late at Naples in Italy also in the Island of Scicily at Lima and Jamaica in the West-Indies I will not mention what happened in England lately which was rather a Trepidation than an Earth-Quake Yet it caused much Consternation and the excessive quantity of Vapours that then effused in all probability have occasioned the Climate to be the Colder to this day A second kind of Earth-Quake lifts up the Earth so that falling on a sudden and lets it fall again this happens when the Wind in a great Mass struggles on a sudden to Evaporate but the Opposition is too strong and forces it down again The Third is that which breaks its way violently through causing openings and gaupings of the Earth so that Towers Cities Mountains and huge standing Waters have been swallowed up and lost All these are very Terrible and are in the hot season accompanied with prodigious Thunders and Lightnings the Vapours pressing too much infection upon the Air before it can be refined and purged it Infects the Bodies of Men and Beasts causing mortal Diseases and the Earth having spent so much that it cannot in a plentiful manner assist to produce fertility a scarcity ensues not only for the present but for some Years after till the Recruit comes to make the Ground more fertil c. Signs fore-running Thunder Lightning c. MEteors shooting in the Night in summer time denotes the Air Inflamed with much Heat and that Thunder and Lightning will ensue Many Clops and Clefts in the Ground signify that the fiery Vapours are Ascended from the Earth and have so Dryed and Parched it in their passage so that the fire being mounted so soon as thick Clouds Over-cast the Sky the grosser part of the fire Descending and strugling with the watery Clouds to get a passage through is that which is called the Lightning If no Clouds appear in sultry Weather and the Sun sets Red and Fiery great Flashes will appear in the North North West which is called Fulgetrum and is Lightning but not meeting with Opposition it carrys no Thunder with it though springing from the same Cause but wanting Opposition the Noise is not heard Of sudden Whirl-winds and surprizing Tempests VVHirl-winds are Vapours suddenly Rising out of the Earth and gathering in the Air imbodyed in Clouds and stretching them break forth Violently so forcing their way to the Earth with much Fury in a Narrow Compass as it were inclosed they Circle Round and Hurry things about Violently often Over-turning Houses Barns Sheep Cots and Lifting People and Cattle into the Air letting them Fall again many times to their Destruction though in these Countrys they are not so Violent as others nearer the Line where Vapours are carryed up more violently by the Heat The sings that fore-run them is a troubled Sky the Whisking and Circling Light Things about when as yet there appears little or no Wind a Murmering heard in the Air the Air beating down right as it were upon the Water and making it Wrinkle Trees Whisking in one place and not in another Approved Rules for Manageing Husbandry or Rural Affairs during the Twelve Months of the Year for ever In JANUARY LAY Warm Dung to the Roots of your Young Choice Trees and Plants Lop and take off Superfluous Branches in the New Moon if the weather be Open set Beans sow Pease Parsnip Seeds dig and trench your Ground especially in Gardens give your Cattle gentle Drenches and to the more Sickly and Weak warm Mashes of Bran and Mault sodden in Water keep them warm Housed if the weather be extream Cold and Cover your Choice Plants and Flowers In
25th of this Month to the 24th of June the Signs Arises Taurus and Gemini Govern and Produce Moist and Hot Diseases as Agues Fevours Dropseys Dissenterys Fluxes and the like In this Month therefore to keep your Body in good Condition throughout the Quarter bleed freely if you are of a Sanguin Complexion and the Veins full of Blood having moderately purged 3 or 4 Days before to stir the Humours that the more Gross and Noxious may the better be carryed off and for a Week after take a Drink about a Quarter of a Pint in a Morning Warm made of Figgs Rasins Liquorish and a little Cardus Boiled in Ale and strained well so you will prevent Agues and Fevours and other Diseases incident to this Month. In APRIL This is the most proper Month to bleed and purge in but do it when the Air is Dry and Serene so shall Head-Aches pains in the Eyes sore Throats and Diziness with their Concomitants be prevented Eat Wholsome Warm broths but not too much of Raw Herbs lest you are Afficted with pains in the stomach and in bleeding purging and other weighty Matters observe to avoid the Bad Days that are Perillous to Health and Business as I before have set down In MAY. In this Month Walk abroad Eatly in the Fields for your Health sake but not Fasting nor upon too full a Stomach bleed as you see Occasion if you have not been Blooded in the fore-going Month Eat wholsome Warm Meats pretty freely and if the Weather be Seasonably Warm Bath in Clear Water but if your Health permit not then you may do it in Warm Water at Home in which Mallows Chamomil and Groundsil have been Boiled and it will much refresh and strengthen the Body purge with Senna Rhuburb or such like Harmless Refreshing purgations to Clense the stomach Liver Lungs and so prevent Distempers in the Hotter Season Eat not Raw Trash for fear of a Fiux or pains in the bowels keep to a wholsome Dyet and take such Cordials Fasting as may strengthen the Heart and keep out pestilential Infectious Aires c. In JUNE In this Month be sparing of Blood Letting unless it be upon urgent Necessity now Drink purging Waters Morning and Evening to Cleanse the stomach and bowels and keep the body Cool and Temperate but Drink not Hot Liquors upon it lest the two struggling Opposits throw you into a Fevour or surfeit or cause breakings Out with troublesome sores be Temperate in Meats and Drinks In JULY Refrain this Month from any Violent Exercise because the Humours are much stired and the Blood is apt to be put into a Ferment Bleed not but upon great Necessity Bath often and Rise Early in the Morning to take the Fresh Air but be not much Abroad in the Heat of the Day Eat Cooling Things but not over much In AUGUST Bleed not this Month because of the Canicular or Dog-days unless Necessity Urge it and then but a little forbear Eating-much Green Herbs or Fruits Drink Cooling Purging Waters Ales or such Liquors in the Morning and Sleep not over much and forbear Purging till the next Month. In SEPTEMBER I should have told you according to my Method that from the 24th of June to the 26th of this Month that the Signs Cancer Leo and Virgo are Predominant which are Hot and Dry and suitable Diseases attend them as the Small Pox Fevours Squincys Spotted Fevours and some times the Plague Therefore it is proper to be very Cautious as I have Hinted in temperate Dyet bleeding Physicking and the like however you may Eat this Month Cooling Fruits yet with Moderation now purge and bleed that the body Evacuated so of bad Humours may be the better Enabled to hold out against Winter Diseases as Dropsy Palsy Falling Evil and sometimes Phransy and other Defects in the Head and brain Sweat Moderately and Walk much when the Weather is Fair. The Signs that Rule from the 25th of This Month the rest of the Year not already mentioned are Libra Scorpio and Sagitarius and they are Cold Moist and Dry their Attendant Distempers are Dropsys Rheumatisms Colds Catarrhs Coughs Defects in the Lungs and Affliction of the brain also of the Nerves and Sinews Pains in the Joynts c. In OCTOBER Drink Cordials Fasting in the Morning or good Wine Eat Temperately forbear bleeding unless some Uneasiness in your Body obliege you to it and then do it on the Luckey Days when the Sign is well Posited that is neither in the Head Neck Shoulder nor Arms Eat wholsome Dyet and be not Late Abroad in Foggy Unhealthy Aires In NOVEMBER Go not Abroad if you can help it in Wet Drisling Days or Nights bleed not but for Necessity and then but a little for the blood and Humours are necessary to Fortify the Body against the ensuing Colds Eat Seasonably and Temporately and avoid being Abroad in Foggy Mornings above all things Hurtful to the Lungs In DECEMBER to the 25th of the Month. Take care to keep good Fires and wholsome Dyet bleed not at all take Caudles strengthening broaths and Cheer your Heart with a Glass of Wine Humming Ale Beer or Cyder or any good Warm Refreshing Liquor as you can come by it Forbear much going Abroad unless in a Clear Day when the Foggs and Damps are sucked up or dispersed by the Sun especially if you be not of a very Healthful Constitution and thus you may in a great measure keep your self free from all Griefs and Sickness and preserve a Healthful Constitution to extream Old Age as in the following Lines are Discribed by the Poet Nature is Kind if we her Rules Obey And stubbornly don 't throw our Health away 'T is Lifes Chief Jewel yet we many find When they Possess it do it little mind But when 't is gone O what they then would give That Temporately they had been Wise to Live Of BEES A Treatise of Bees how to Order Preserve Swarm Gather their Honey and all other Matters Relating to them THE Bee though a Creature Numbered among Insects is exceeding useful to Man their Wax and Honey being Commodities Trafficable in all Nations yet are they a Nice Choice Creature and without much Dilligence and Care cannot be brought to any extraordinary Perfection to the Profit and Advantage of the Owners which being proper to this Undertaking for the general good I shall for the Instruction of those that are Ignorant in it lay down Choice Rules and Directions how they should be Ordered to Preserve and Encrease their Stocks that so in a little time they may turn to the great Profit of the Owners First In the Choice of your Stock see they be Little Lively and Smooth for those that are Rough and Unsightly will never prove well above all if you can see the Master Bee or King consider if he be Long and Shining bedashed with Golden Spots and Cheerful for on him mainly depends the Welfare of the whole Stock for if he be Rough Drooping and
by it they are on all hands concluded to be creatures of much hardiness but not long Lived they much delight to Earth themselves in a Loamy Ground mixed with Sand so that it is very well binding and no Springs in it to hinder their working or earthing themselves for wet is a great enemy to them and moist Burrows with their Dampness or Mustiness cause the Rot amongst them which soon thins the Warren by sweeping them away in great Numbers though in a Clay mixed with a little Gravel Exempted from such Wet or Dampness they thrive best and are the Largest and Fullest fine short sweet Hay in Winter layed near the mouths of their Holes is a great comfort to them both to preserve them from Diseases by drying up the over much moisture they contract and making them feed the better so Exempted from Sickness The cause of Madness is caused by wind and wet which getting in great quantity into the porous parts of the Body arises by Vapours to the Brain and causes a Frenzy or Madness in the Creature which is known by its tumbling and rowling about when out of the Burrow and particularly tumbling over its Head and bouncing about in an unusual posture and this Kills many of them therefore when this Sign appears apply the following Remedy and the Distemper will cease A Cure for Madness in Coneys TAke Sweet Hay cut it a little but not too short let it be as dry as possibly you can get it mix with it Hare-Thistle an Herb so called and scatter a little fine dry Bran amongst it and lay it near their Burrows if it be in Winter Snowey weather sweep the Ground clean where you lay it or put it into the mouth of the Burrows lightly so as not to stop them up that they may come to it without coming abroad to Expose themselves to the Cold Air and this will restore them from this Distemper A Cure for the Rot in Coneys THe other Disease Incident to these Creatures is the Rot the more dangerous of the two because it sweeps more fatally This comes when it is very Moist and Rainey in the Spring or Autumn for then much water hanging on the Grass in their feeding they suck it in which softening their Flesh with a kind of a Dropsical Watery Humour which also gets between the Skin and the Flesh putrefying the Liver c. and so causes them to dye of the Rot to Remedy this give them Parsley dryed Hay and Hare-Thistle lay warm Litter near their Holes with Boughs over it to shelter themselves in at pleasure against the wet and fogs or moist winds c. and renew it as often as it grows wet or musty and when the Snow lyes on the ground Shovel and sweep it from their Burrows that they may come at the Grass And thus have I briefly shewed you how to manage these profitable Creatures to keep them in good case cause them to Breed well and to be free from the sickness incident to them which cannot but prove profitable to one or other of my Readers though not to all To keep and order Hares in Warrens or Tame them in all respects as the Coney AS for Hares if kept Tame or in Warrens they may be ordered in all respects as the Coney they being much of the same nature and their Diseases the same but seeing many are desirous to find them wild in the Fields for their Sport and advantage of getting them and are Ignorant of their haunts and there forms whereby they lose much labour in a fruitless fearch and are often disappointed I thought in convenient to say something as to this particular a thing desired of me by so many When you goe about to find a Hare that you may not lose your Labour but be more certain in the Event If you attempt to do it go not into the thickest of the Cover but to be more certain beat the Bushey close or Shruby Ground Adjacent For if you should find a Hare in a close Woody Cover you will hardly bring her out to shew you Sport and consequently lose her but if you find her in the Shrubs she will when Started or Chased immediately take to the Champion ground because a Hare naturally delights not in Cover till she is tired and therefore the Champion grounds are the most likely places to find them and Run them down and in such grounds resort to the Goss Brakes low Brambles or Broom and if they afford no such shelter repair to the Stubble at the beginning of Hunting time and about Christmas to the Fallows and in March to the Green Corn and in these places the best Hares haunt and are usually to be found and many times you may find a Form when the Hare is absent or gone abroad a feeding and if you would know whether she haunts it or has left it take these Directions To know the New or Old Form whether Retained by a Hare or left her Shifts c. THis is a main point to be Discovered therefore mark in your search very narrowly the following Directions to know if it be New or Old observe if the form or seat be plain and smooth the Pad before it flat and worn and the Pricks of her feet so New and Plain to be discovered that the Earth appears black or so Newly broken that the Hare cannot be long gone then the Form is new she is not far from it nor will delay long returning unless frighted away by some Accident but the contrary appearing it is old and if you expect any advantage by it you will in all likelyhood lose your labour and another thing is worthy of Remark and that is the Hare has divers Slights and Shifts to avoid pursuit as her Windings and Doublings you must also when she is pursued observe her Leaps and Skips before she Squats and beat the places most likely to give her shelter for being reduced to these hard shifts she is tired come to her last cast and can hold out but a little longer for she never uses them till she finds her strength so failing her that she grows heartless and has but this way to hope avoiding the pursuers To know whether a Coney or Rabit be Old or Young or New or Stale Killed c. THis is a Nice point and many have been deceived in it and therefore having treated of these Creatures in other matters this as very useful will be convenient enough to set down in the close of it If a Coney be old her Claws are very long and rough and long greyish hairs will stand out amongst the wool but young and a right Coney or Rabit it will have a small gristly knot on the out side of the Foot a little above the Joynt the Claws middleing and smooth and no grey hairs appearing pinch the inside of the Belly and it will break tender but if it be old in pinching it will be tough ruckle up If stale