* * * * *
AUCTIONS.
Elihu Yale was remarkable for his auctions. The first of these was
about the year 1700. He had brought such quantities of goods from
India, that, finding no one house large enough to stow them in, he had
a public sale of the over-plus; and that was the first auction of the
kind in England.
* * * * *
LILLY, THE ASTROLOGER.
While this impudent cheat is ridiculed for his absurdities, let him
have credit for as lucky a guess as ever blessed the pages even of
"Francis Moore, physician." In his "Astrologicall Predictions for
1648," there occurs the following passage, in which we must needs
allow that he attained to "something like prophetic strain," when we
call to mind that the great Plague of London occurred in 1665, and the
great Fire in the year following:
"In the year 1656 the aphelium of Mars, who is the generall
significator of England, will be in Virgo, which is assuredly the
ascendant of the English Monarchy, but Aries of the kingdom.
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