I ingenuously confess unto you (Arts' great Mecaenas, noble Esquire Ashmole,) no mortal man had any share in the composition or ordering of the first part thereof, but my only self. You are a person of great reading, yet I well know you never found the least trace thereof in any author yet extant. In composing, contriving, ordering, and framing thereof (viz. the first part) a great part of that year was spent. I again perused all, or most, authors I had, sometimes adding, at other times diminishing, until at last I thought it worthy of the press. When I came to frame the second part thereof, having formerly collected out of many manuscripts, and exchanged rules with the most able professors I had acquaintance with, in transcribing those papers for impression, I found, upon a strict inquisition, those rules were, for the most part, defective; so that once more I had now a difficult labour to correct their deficiency, to new rectify them according to art; and lastly, considering the multiplicity of daily questions propounded unto me, it was as hard a labour as might be to transcribe the papers themselves with my own hand. The desire I had to benefit posterity and my country, at last overcame all difficulties; so that what I could not do in one year, I perfected early the next year, 1647; and then in that year, viz. 1647, I finished the third book of[14] nativities,[15] during the composing whereof, for seven whole weeks, I was shut up of the plague, burying in that time two maid-servants thereof; yet towards November that year, the Introduction, called by the name of _Christian Astrology_, was made publick. There being, in those times, some smart difference between the army and the Parliament, the head-quarters of the army were at Windsor, whither I was carried with a coach and four horses, and John Booker with me. We were welcome thither, and feasted in a garden where General Fairfax lodged. We were brought to the General, who bid us kindly welcome to Windsor; and, in effect, said thus much: [Footnote 14: The name of the person whose nativity is directed and judged, is Mr. Thompson, whose father had been some time an inn-keeper at the White-Hart in Newark.] [Footnote 15: I devised the forms and fashions of the several schemes. E.A.] 'That God had blessed the army with many signal victories, and yet their work was not finished. He hoped God would go along with them until his work was done. They sought not themselves, but the welfare and tranquillity of the good people, and whole nation; and, for that end, were resolved to sacrifice both their lives and their own fortunes. As for the art we studied, he hoped it was lawful and agreeable to God's word: he understood it not; but doubted not but we both feared God; and therefore had a good opinion of us both.' Unto his speech I presently made this reply: 'My Lord, I am glad to see you here at this time.