Vid Salmatium ad Solinum p. he is call'd Mamilius Pliny doth not say one word of his skill in Astronomy he only 4 Vid Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 10. cap. 2. affirms That he was the first of all the Romans who wrote concerning the Phoenix that never any Man saw it feed that in Arabia it is Sacred to the Sun that it lives 660 Years and that with the Life of this Bird is consummated the Conversion of the Great Year in which the Stars return again to their first points and give significations of the same Seasons as at the beginning And all this any one may write who is in an entire Ignorance of the Courses and Influence of the Stars But when Mr. Tristan farther observes that Pliny insinuates besides a particular respect a kind of Intimacy and Acquaintance between this Manilius and himself he gives us a very convincing Argument against his own conjecture for there is good reason to believe this Manilius the Poet dy'd before Augustus and therefore could not be intimate with Pliny To set this whole matter in its due light I shall as the learned and ingenious Sr. Edward Shirburn hath already done in his Preface to the Sphere of Manilius take a view of those who have been by the name of Manilius deliver'd down to Posterity as Men of Letters and then consider which of all those or whether any one of them was this Manilius the Poet. Of that Manilius whom Pliny mentions in the second Chapter of his tenth Book I have already said enough and about that Manilius whom Varro 5 De Ling. Lat. lib. 4. et 6. cites I shall not be concern'd there being no ground to think he was the Author of this Poem 6 Sir Edward Shirburn's pref Pliny lib. 35. cap. 17. tells us of one Manilius surnam'd Antiochus who with Publius Syrus and Staberius Eros were brought to Rome all three of Servile Condition but persons of good Literature His words are these Pedes Venalium trans mare advectorum Creta denotare instituerunt Majores Talemque Publium Syrum mimicae Scenae conditorem et Astrologiae consobrinum ejus Manilium Antiochum item Grammaticae Staberium Erotem eadem navi advectos videre Proavi Our Ancestors us'd to mark with Chalk the Feet of those Slaves who were brought over from beyond Sea to be sold And such an one was Publius Syrus the Founder of the Mimick Scene and his Cousin German Manilius Antiochus of Astrology and Staberius Eros of Grammar whom our great Grandfathers saw in that manner brought over in one and the same Ship This Manilius Laurentius Bonincontrius who near two ages agoe commented on our Author conceives the same with Manilius who wrote this Astronomical Poem to confirm which opinion he produces the evidence of a Silver Medal in his possession whereon was the figure of a Man in an Exotick Habit with a Sphere plac'd near his Head and this Inscription MANILI The same is affirm'd says Lilius Gyraldus by Stephanus Dulcinus and the said Gyraldus farther assures us that a familiar Friend of his one Nicolaus Trapolinus had another Medal of the like Stamp and Inscription But against this opinion of Bonincontrius and Gyraldus Scaliger opposes a double Argument one drawn from the seeming inveracity of that suppos'd Evidence no such Medal being at this day to be found in the Cabinets of any no not the most curious Antiquaries the other from the reason of Time for Manilius Antiochus being brought to Rome in the beginning of Sylla's days for he was brought in the same Ship with Staberius Eros who open'd his Grammar School in Rome whilst Sylla was alive must needs if he were the Author of this Poem have been 120 Years old when he began to write this piece being written in the latter years of Augustus Besides the Author in the Proem of this work wishes for long life to compleat his intended Poem and therefore certainly he was not of that Age it being ridiculous for a Man to wish for long life when he is at the Extream already The same Pliny lib. 36. cap. 10. speaks of one Manilius a Mathematician who when the Obelisk which Augustus erected in the Campus Martius for finding out the Hours of the day by the Shadow of the Sun with the Increase or Decrease of the Days and Nights plac'd a guilded Ball Cujus Vertice Umbra colligeretur in semetipsam alia atque alia incrementa jaculantem Apice ratione ut ferunt à capite hominis intellecta says Pliny who commends the design To this Person Scaliger conceives this work may with fairer probability be ascrib'd than to the former which Opinion is by divers other judicious Men embrac'd The excellently learn'd Isaac Vossius conceives yet that the Manilius Antiochus and the Manilius Mathematicus before mention'd are not two distinct Persons but one and the same under different Titles and Appellations and the very Author of the Poem we now publish whose particular Sentiments upon this Subject and Arguments confirming the same he was pleas'd not long since to impart to me by his most obliging Letter in answer to some Queries by me propounded in one of mine to him upon occasion of my intended publication of this piece which for the Readers satisfaction I shall here make publick tho' not in his own words yet as near as may be in his own Sense And first in answer to Scaliger's Argument drawn from Reason to Time against Manilius Antiochus upon the supposition of Staberius Eros one of the Three before mention'd set open his Grammar School in the time of Sylla ninety five years before the death of Augustus and that therefore Manilius could not probably be according to Scaliger's Computation less than 120 Years old at the time when this Poem was written he urges by way of reply that Suetonius from whom Scaliger takes the ground of his Argument doth not say that Staberius Eros open'd his School in Sylla's time but that he taught gratis the Children of those who in Sylla's time were proscrib'd The Words of Suetonius are these Sunt qui tradunt tanta eum Staberium honestate praeditum ut temporibus Syllanis Proscriptorum liberos gratis et sine mercede ulla in Disciplina receperit How long that was after the times of Proscription will be needless here to declare and that Manilius was not so old as Scaliger conceives when this piece was written may be made out from this that he was the Cousin German of Publius Syrus who that he was brought a young Boy to his Patron Macrobius affirms from whom likewise and from the Verses of Laberius it may be collected that he was but a Youth when he came upon the Stage against Laberius which was but a little before the death of Julius Caesar and Laberius also to whom he succeeded on the Mimick Stage in the second year of 184 Olympiad that is in the Year of Rome 711 as Eusebius testifies And therefore seeing
Write Some Astrologers Opinion concerning the Years Months and Days of Signs for who can hope to see Opinions join or find the World agree That from the Horoscope our Art defines The Days the Hours the Years and Months of Signs From that alone let the Account begin And all the rest will orderly fall in And whilst the others as before 't was shown Three Heads of reckoning ask the Moon the Sun And Horoscope these still demand but One Yet still as great their difference must appear Month disagrees with Month and Year with Year And Hours and Days For with uneven pace Tho' starting all together they run the Race And never make Returns in equal space Twice to the Signs each 24 Hour the Days restore Twice every Month brings round the Days and more Once every Year the Months to Signs are born And when Twelve Years are run the Years return 'T is hard to think Refuted and Nature's Laws reject One single Time so differing in effect That when one Sign for Years and Months appears Bad Fate should clog the Months Good Crown the Years Or that the Sign which thro' the Months conveys Bright Fortune should with Black infest the Days Or that the Star which with afflicting Power The Day oppresseth should exalt the Hour Vain therefore their attempt who fondly hope The Times to reckon from the Horoscope And think because with an unequal Date They come to Signs that these Returns create Their different odd varieties of Fate Absurd Opinion which with fruitless pain They strive to prop with mighty Names in vain It sinks and falls with its own stupid weight again This sung 12. How many Years belong to each Sign and Station and Times to Signs apply'd the Muse Would beg release and further Task refuse But lo the Subject grows The next must show What length of Times the several Signs bestow This must be known when in your search for Fate You measure Life and fix the gloomy Date Ten Years and One but one third part withdrawn The 25 Ram extends the wretched Life of Man Poorly he gives as frugal of his Store Whilst Taurus adds two Years to these the Twins two more Full sixteen Years Eight Months from Cancer flow But two Years more the Lion's rays bestow From Virgo twenty Years eight Months convey'd Enlarge the Birth The Scales give equal to the Maid Scorpio's as much as Leo's Rays dispense The Centaur equals Cancer's influence Of Years twice seven eight Months the Goat conveys Though young Aquarius shines with feebler rays Four Years he trebles and doubles six score Days To the same space with which the Ram began The Fish plac't next extend the Age of Man But farther yet 't is not enough to know The length of time which single signs bestow For you may Err when in your search for Fate You measure Life and fix the gloomy Date Because the Heavenly Stations claim their share As Planets intermix their Force declare In this Contrivance and make Life their Care To single stations now what Years belong With Planets join'd they claim 26 another Song In well wrought Numbers let the Muse impart And teach the simplest Elements of Art This done these things prepar'd and sitly join'd With greater Ease she 'll raise the Work design'd If when the Moon is in the Hinge at East The Birth breaks forward from its native rest Full Eighty Years if you two Years abate This Station gives and long defers its Fate But if in Heav'ns midst point this large Decree She shortens giving fewer Years by three With Eighty Courses in the Zodiack Round Substracting Four the Western Hinge is Crown'd The lowest Hinge on all its Births derives Years sixty two Vid. Fig. 9. and then concludes their Lives The ninth which makes upon the Right the Trine Gives sixty Years and bates but One of Nine The Fifth o' th' Left as frugal of its store Gives sixty three and can enlarge no more Th' Eleventh station that which rises high Almost an equal of the Middle Skie Yields six score Springs and lest that Gift should be Too scanty lengthens that vast Summ by Three The Third which lies at equal space below The Eastern point doth fifty Years bestow Mean is the station and its Gift is so The second Forty Courses of the Sun And two bestows and when that term is done The Man goes off e're half his race be run The Twelfth gives twenty three then hasty Death Comes on and in his Bloom the Youth resigns his Breath The Eighth next o're the Western Hinge can bring But fourteen Years nor adds another Spring The sixth but Twelve bestows then Death destroys The Parents Hopes and crops the growing Boys Diseases following from their Birth create A feeble Frame and sit the Prey for Fate Now nicely view the Tropick Signs that lie Oppos'd in the four Quarters of the Skie 13. The Tropick Signs Call'd Tropick Signs because when these appear The World then Turns the Seasons of the Year Thus Spring in Cancer in Autumnal Scales The Summer turns in Caper Autumn sails Thence shivering Winter creeps congeal'd with Frost Yet melts again and in the Ram is lost These loose the Seasons to their full Career And make the Course of the Revolving Year And these being Hingers of the World create New Powers in Stars and fix new Rules for Fate In Heavens high Arch Cancer and on the utmost Line Of Summers progross Cancer seats his Sign There stretches out the greatest length of Day And then declines and makes it soon decay But all the time which as he bears the Light He takes from Day He still conveys to Night Then Corn grows yellow on the fruitful Soil And lusty Reapers bare their Limbs for toil Then Seas grow warm the Floods forbear to roar And Billows languish on the quiet Shore Then Mars goes forth nor is the Scythian Coast From Roman Arms defended by her Frost And whilst their Pools and Marshy Grounds are dry Fearing our Force the conquer'd Germans fly Then Nile o'reflows and Egypt's fruitful Plain Rich Harvests yields nor needs the aid of Rain Thus lies the World when with exalted Ray I' th' Summer Solstice Phoebus bears the Day Thro' Cancer's Sign and drives the highest Way Oppos'd the Goat in narrowest rounds of Light Wheels Winter on Capricorn but long extends the Night Yet soon Ascending He contracts the Shade To Day returning all the waste he made The Fields unwrought then lie unplough'd the Seas And Mars in Quarters lies consign'd to Ease Rocks cleave with Frost and by the Cold opprest All Nature's Powers are stiffned into Rest The next in Power are those two Signs that rise With equal Revolutions of the Skies Which times of Day and Night adjust Aries and bring The Autumn on or else advance the Spring The Sun returning in his Yearly Race To Cancer's Sign meets Aries midst the Space Seated between the Point from whence he bends
the same Doth disagree and spread unequal Flame And Signs whose Sovereign influence Births do find In One Degree are in the next unkind Those things these parts o're-rule no Joys shall know Or little Pleasure over-mixt with Woe These parts The difficulty of putting this Doctrin into Verse if such can be to Verse confin'd My Muse must Sing and ease my troubled Mind For though 't is various yet the Subject's bound To words but few and all of equal sound So that it must be mean it must refuse The turn of Verse though fashion'd by a Muse And that though labor'd Line must bald appear That brings ungrateful Musick to the Ear. But since I must the Laws of Fate rehearse The settled Matter must direct my verse No Room for Fiction I must things declare Not as they may be feign'd but as they are It is enough the God is barely shewn Rich in himself he shines and great alone Nor should the World be so to Words betray'd As to be thought ennobled by their Aid This spurs me on and I forget my Ease The World must be oblig'd and I must please I must if plainly I these parts comprise Then learn the noxious portions of the Skies The Fourth The hurtful Degrees in Aries and the Sixth Portions of the Ram Are hurtful parts and spread unlucky flame Nor doth the Seventeenth or the next display A kinder face or shed a milder Ray The Twenty First Fifth Seventh spread noxious Beams The Twelfth and Fourteenth leaning to Extreams The Bull 's Ninth portion In Taurus did the Sign depend On me should never shine upon a Friend Add Three to Ten or double Ten and Three Take Two from Thirty all these parts agree Twice Twelve and twice Eleven count and joyn The Seventeenth part as noxious in this Sign Nor is the Thirtieth better than the Rest The Twins First part doth hurtful Rays dispense In Gemini Nor doth their Childhood prove their Innocence They 're froward pettish and unus'd to smile Their Third and Seventh Degrees agree in Ill The Fifteenth equals these and Twenty sees Close on each side immoderate Degrees To Twenty reckon Seven or Five or Nine And all are hurtful portions of this Sign Should Cancer boast a kind and gentle Reign In Cancer The First and Third and Sixth would plead in vain The Eleventh Fifteenth and the Eighth Degrees The Twentieth too could hope no more success The Twenty Fifth Seventh Ninth severely sway The Seventeenth too with a malignant Ray Rules o're the Birth and stamps the easie Clay The flaming Lion in the First we fear In Leo. Nor doth the Fourth a milder Image bear The Twenty Second the Fifteenth Tenth presage With th' Eight and Twentieth an unhappy Age. With hurtful Powers the Twenty Fifth is Curst The Thirtieth too as noxious as the First The First In Virgo and the Eleventh of the Maid The Sixth the Fourteenth Eighteenth parts are bad The Twenty First and Fourth this Sign disgrace Nor can the Thirtieth shew a better Face Next view the Scales In Libra the Seventh and Fifth degree Is bad add Eight to Ten or Ten to Three To Ten twice told add Seven or Four or Nine All like the Thirtieth hurtful in this Sign I' th' First In Scorpio Third Sixth and Tenth black Scorpio 's Claws And in the Fifteenth make Malignant Laws The Twenty Second Eighth Fifth and Ninth betray His poys'nous Rage in an unhappy Ray Would Fate allow thee choice In Sagittarius forbear to choose The Centaur's Fourth Degree the Eighth refuse The Twelfth the Sixteenth Twentieth parts portend A wretched Life and an untimely End The Twenty Fourth Sixth Eighth Degrees molest Nor is the Thirtieth better than the Rest The Thirteenth of the Goats contracted Star In Capricorn Nor Seventh nor Ninth shall be my earnest Prayer Nor that which Twenty doth of One deprive Or Three or adding gives it Six or Five To Ten add One In Aquarius or Five or Nine or Three And you are sure to find a bad Degree Add One Five Nine to Twenty hurtful Streams Flow from the Vrn and spread unlucky Beams The Fishes close the Signs In Pisces their parts confest As noxious and as guilty as the Rest For Three Five Seven or Ten when joyn'd with Seven Or One mark hurtful Portions of the Heaven Five multiply'd by Five is hardly clear'd And Seven to Twenty added 's to be fear'd All these are noxious Portions of the Sky Too Hot or Cold or else too Moist or Dry. This known XXV How the Signs Act when they rise the Work is not compleatly done The Labours still increase as you go on The Time makes difference as they Rise new force They gain and after lose it in their Course Thus when the Ram ascends Aries and proudly turns His bending backward Neck before his Horns To Mortal Eyes the wretched Births are Curst With Ravenous Tempers and inflam'd with Lust All Modesty shall be to Gold betray'd Nor Parents Care secure the easie Maid These Tempers are his own as Fancy leads He roves and wantons o're the flowry Meads Forward to push and as the Grass renews His wasted Strength he Courts the willing Ews To Travel he inclines through Lands unknown He Ploughs new Seas and makes the World his own This he prefigur'd when his Back convey'd Young Phryxus safe and lost the falling Maid The Bulls bright part that first appears Taurus creates Vile Pathicks scandals to the other Fates The Cause if it be fit to search for one When Nature works may easily be shewn His Back-part first appears in that he bears The narrow Cloudy Train of Female Stars And thus the Posture and the Sex combine To shew the Influence of the rising Sign He bends to Plow and o're the Fruitful Plains The Labouring Ox grows Fat upon his Pains But when their Feet the rising Twins do shew Gemini And half appear above half lye below The Births are happy all their Parts refind And Arts enrich the Treasures of their Mind Ready their Wit persuasive is their Tongue In Musick skill'd and excellent in Song These are the Powers their rising Rays dispense They Wit bestow and fix that Wit with Sense When rouling Cancer riseth vaild in Clouds Cancer I' th' Skies as deeply hid as in the Floods The Moon resembling when depriv'd of Light The Births are Blind and wish in vain for sight By Fates a Verse condemn'd to double Death Dead whilst Alive and Buryed whilst they breath But when the Lion shews his ravenous Jaws Prepar'd for Rapine Leo. and unsheaths his Paws A Spendthrift's born who minds himself alone He wrongs his Father and he cheats his Son His Race in vain with expectation wait For in himself he buries his Estate So vast his Gluttony his Lust so wild That he devours himself yet is not fill'd And whilst his Appetite proceeds to crave He