D's Lat. 9'. The will be centrally eclipfed on the Meridian, at 6 13 P. M. in Long. 93° 15', and Lat. South 30° 30'. I defift from any Aftrological Predictions, as I think nothing very Material will be the Confequence of the First; and as to the Latter, it concerns not us at all. Moreover, as what might be faid will come in with the general Judgment upon the Year, I here decline it, Nil difficilius quam de futuris veritatem prædicere.'

Forthe Year 1788, with the Configuration of the Heavens, at the Time of the Vernal Ingrefs of Sol into Aries, which is this Year on March the 19th, at 3 min. paft 10 in the Evening; and although I cannot here help verfifying of my last Latin Motto, viz.

How modeft Mortals ought to be,
When treating of a future State,
And locking into Destiny

Of Things to come they dare relate.

Yet if there he Truth in Aftrology, as the learned in Ages past have manifefted their Affent to by their Writings; and many of the Learned in this enlightened Age, in which Afronomy juftly fhi es as Queen of the Sciences; and who are ab. folutely enamoured with the bright and extenfive Profpect the fets before them; by their Sience upon the Subject of Aftro. logy, feem to give a tacit Acknowledgment that it may be fo, that those who take the Pains to examine the Books of Ancient Hito y, and the Book of the Fates, as wrote in the Heavens, and have oblerved, that under such and fuch Configurations, uch and fuch Accidents have happened, that Man may have a fhrewd Guefs And he certainly was not far off the Mark who wrote the following Diflich, whatever you think of his Poetry:

Heaven is a Book; the Stars are letters fair;

God is the Writer; Men the Readers are.'

If thefe Things be fo, we may with Boldness venture, ac cording to our wonted Cuftom, at a short but modest Attempt, at fome few Prognoftical Hints, at what may probably happen in the Year of which we are Writing; withing, at the fame Time, that this Performance may be locked upon rather as an Aftronomical Ephemeris, than an Aftrological Almanack, confidering with the ingenious Rowe:

• The

The Wife and A&ive conquer Difficulties

By daring to attempt them: Sloth and Folly
Shiver and fhrink at Sight of Toil and Hazard,
And make th'Impoffibility they fear.

Wisdom will never shrink at the Forefight of any dire Event, though clad in ever fo difmal Array, but rather arm against it, or prepare to avoid it; for as the Poet Oldham justly obferves, • Wisdom's an evennefs of Soul,

A fteady Temper which no Cares controul, 'No Paffions ruffle, no Defires in flame;

Still conftant to itfelf, and ftill the fame.'

Purfuant to this, we fhall, according to Cuftom, give a Scheme of the Heavens (as they will appear to thofe who' ftudy thefe Things in an Aftrological Light; and from Geometrical Configurations, affifted by the Obfervations of the Ancients, gather future Predictions) on the ingrefs of the Sun. into Aries; which is as follows:

Before we give Judgment of the above, it will perhaps be thought expedient by fome, that an Obfervation or Two be drawn from the Scheme of the Heavens at the Commencement of the foregoing Quarter, in order to begin the Year with

Propriety.

WING. Propriety. I hall juft give fufficient Data with a small Hint or Two, and then leave the Sons of Urania to judge for themfelves. At the commencement of the Winter Quarter 8 deg. of 8 culminate, and 22° fere of ascend; 0, ĕ, f, h, are fub terra, as the Aftrologers term it, and 1⁄4 in ¤, and

in, are retrograde; has juft departed from an Oppofition to 24, and is haftening to another with 9. Whatever may be the Effect of Conjunctions, Oppofitions and retrogade Motions are looked upon by Aftrologers as evil Omens, fignifying Contentions and much Difcord among thofe Cities and States, of which the refpe&tive Planets are Significators; to this bear Witness, Ptolomy, Proclus, Pifo, Ranzovius, Pucer, Trapezuotius, Haly Rodan, cum multis aliis.' From the Pofition the.. of the Heavens, and the Teftimony of the Ancients, we may prefume to fuppofe, that the Year will be ufhered in with fome difagreeable Circumstances; but we are not from thence to draw too hafty Conclufions. Man is at the best but a fhort-fighted Being; and the Ways of Provi. dence are myfterious and paft finding out.

Proceeding further in the Year we find, by the annexed Scheme, 12° 50' of Scorpio afcending, and 29° of Leo colmi nates; Saturn, a dull, cold Planet, is now dipt into a cold and watery Sign; for the Pofitions of the Planets, they who un derstand thefe Things will fee by the Scheme, and judge ac cordingly; while to them who are not verfed in what the World calls the Jargon and Pothooks of Aftrologers; all these, excepting the ipfe dixit of the Prognofticator, are entirely thrown away. Evident it is, that in this Quarter there are fome malignant Squares, in two of which our Patron Mars is concerned; but it England comes in for its Share of Bufi. nefs in the Buftle of the wide World, it is no new Thing. In a commercial Country, as this is, whofe Sails are displayed in every Quarter of the Globe, and whofe commercial Connections extend to almoft every Country in the known World, it is impoffible but that it must be affected in fome Measure by every Thing that ftabs at the general Good and Order of Things. But we will, in the present fhort Limits allotted for this Work, proceed ftill further in the Year, where, in the Scheme for the Summer Quarter, we may find Sol applying to a Conjunction with Jupiter, two royal and benign Planets, and according to their Pofition at this Time, which is in the

Judgment

1.

Judgment of Aftrologers powerful, added to other agreeable Afpects, give promifing Hopes, notwithstanding they are oppofed by others of a malignant Kind, which, in all Probability may hinder, and perhaps take off, in fome Part, from their falutary, and much to be wished for Effects. In the remaining Part of the Circle of the prefent Year, I fee nothing that particularly affects us; notwithstanding there is fome great Thing going forward; but the Ways of Providence are paft finding out; and however plain the Thing may appear to fuperior Beings, to whom it is admitted to read and comment on the cœleftial Volume as it ftands difplayed in the Heavens, yet we, who at the best are but bad Spellers, had ፡ better be tacit than talk two much, patiently waiting till the grand Teacher Death fhall make us wifer. In the mean Time, let every One, who wishes well to his native country, fear God, honour the King, and be kindly affectioned to all around him, knowing this, Alius alio plura invenire poteft, Nemo omnia, and Non nobis folum nati fumus.'

(CONTINUED from LAST YEAR. )

The Second argues the Globe of the Moon to be full of Eminences and Depreffions, like our Hills and Valleys, eftimated to be fuch by the Conjectures of the Ancients (mentioned by Plutarch, 1. de Facie in Orbe Luna); but at prefent manifeft to the fight by Help of the Telescope; and ascertained to Reafon by thofe leffer Spots, called New Ones, varying their Situation and Magnitude, according to the divers Access and Recefs of the Sun, to which their Site is always oppoûte, thence evidencing them to be the Shadows of the more elevated Parts of the Moon's Globe, emulating our Alps, Hills, and Mountains; and here and there furpaffing them for Height.

The Third, Damely, the Heterogencity of its Parts, was long fince believed by the Ancients (as may appear by Plutarch 1. 2. De Placit. Philofoph. c. 25), but at this Day certainly demonftrated by the various reflections of its Light; whence we may conclude, the Brighter and more fplendid Parts of the Moon, to be those which are more denfe, folid, and opacous, like our Earth, because they reflect a greater Portion of Light: but the obfcurer Parts, commonly called the Ancient Spots, for as much as they reflect a lefs, and absorb a greater Quantity of Light, to be, therefore, pellucid and diaphanous,

diaphanous, and analogous to our Ocean, Seas, Lakes, and

Rivers.

From what has been already faid, we may probably infer, that the Moon is compofed of folid and liquid Parts, as this our Terraqueous Globe, which we inhabit; above which it is placed in fuch a fitting De ee of Neighbourhood, that thereby the Light and Influence of the celestial Bodies, efpecially of the Sun's fervent Rays, might, by the celerity of its Motion, be fo tempered; and, by the Afperity and Inequality of its Superficies fo received, and thence reflected, that they might be tranfmitted to us with lefs Incommodity than otherwife they world, if they were directly projected without that tenperating Medium.

We are not yet to imagine, though moft Aftronomers, as well Ancient as Modern, conceive the Moon to be, as it were, another Earth; that it is compofed of the fame Sand, Clay, Stones, as this Terreftrial Globe; or that the lunary Seas, Lakes, Pools, &c. are of the fame Water, with our Seas, Lakes, or Pools; but haply of a quite different Matter, and to us incomprehenfible. And, therefore, as to its Nature and Subftance, we fhall forbear with Anaximander to determine, that its Concave Orb is full of Fire, breathing out at one Part as out of a Tunnel; or with Xenophanes, that it is a conftipated Cloud, or with Pythagoras, that it is a ftony Body, or with the Stoicks, that it is compofed of Fire and Air, or as Plato will, of a terrene Compofition; or as Anaxagoras pretends, of a Mixture cold and earthly, Darkness being mixed with her fiery Nature, whence he is called a Star of falfe Light; or with Heraclitus, that it is another Earth inveloped within a mity dim Cloud; or with Pliny, and fome of the Moderns, that it is of a watery Subftance, or as Otto de Guerrick conjectures, that it is a Globe of Ice. But fhall leave thefe Opinions, as being dubious and uncertain, to the further Difquifition of the Learned. And feeing mention hath been made of the Maculæ, or Spots appearing in the Face or Body of the Moon; as well thofe obvious to the bare Eve, as the others difcernable by Help of the Telescope; hol it neceffry to make a more particular Defcription of them. They are diflinguifhed into the Ancient and the New. The Ancient Spots, are thofe greater and larger Spots at all Times difcernible, without the help of a Telescope, resembling large Seas, Lakes, and Bays; heretofore known and taken

we.

Notice