Therefore in about four years from the time of the Fire the aphelion of Mars would enter the sign Virgo. Kepler’s Tables, which were current in Lilly’s time, show the date of entry to be 1654, and a mean of these shows the year 1662. Therefore, as the hieroglyphic was published some years before the events to which it refers, I think there can be no doubt that Lilly has given us a true explanation of his reasons for the prediction. Kepler, the great Astronomer, not only affirmed his belief in the principles of Astrology, but gave illustration of them by his prediction of the rise and fall of Wallenstein. Of Jerome Cardan, the astrologer and mathematician, who compiled the Centiloquia of Ptolemy, and made important contributions to the study of Algebra, there is a remarkable story on record concerning his prescience of his own death and the manner of it. It appears that from a study of his own horoscope he came to the conclusion that at a certain time he would be in danger of death by human violence. He therefore took precautions, and, having stored his larder with sufficient material to see him through the evil period, he securely bolted and barred all the doors and windows of the house, and thus thought himself to be in great security. But it happened that a band of robbers passing that way saw the house closed up, and, finding it to be very securely protected, they fancied that some great treasure might lay hidden away in it. They were not long in breaking into the place, and, meeting Jerome at the foot of the stairway, brutally murdered him. John Dryden, the poet, studied Astrology very carefully, and the excellence of his faculty may be judged from the precision with which he predicted the career of his own son Charles. Congreve gives us the account very circumstantially. It is said that when his lady was about to give birth to this child, Dryden left his watch upon the table, instructing the attendants to be very careful in noting the time of the child’s birth. The event having been carefully timed, Dryden computed the horoscope and made the usual calculations. He was thus able shortly to inform his lady that at eight years of age the boy would be in danger of death by a fall. If he survived this he would be again in danger from a similar accident at twenty-three years of age, but that should he yet survive then at thirty-three or thirty-four he would certainly succumb to the malefic influences which then had indication in the horoscope.