66 66 66 66 Friendship. The Apostle forbids us to have Fellowship with Devils; and that, he says, respects not only Idols, and Things offered "to Idols, but all imaginary Signs pertaining "to the worship of Idols, and also all Remedies, and other Observations, which are "not appointed publickly by GOD to promote "the Love of God and our Neighbour, but proceed from the private fancies of Men, and "tend to delude the Hearts of poor deluded Mortals. For these Things have no natural Virtue in them, but owe all their Efficacy to "a presumptuous Confederacy with Devils: "And they are full of pestiferous Curiosity, tormenting Anxiety, and deadly Slavery. They were first taken up, not for any real Power to be discerned in them, but gained their Power by Mens observing them. And "therefore by the Devil's Art they happen differently to different Men, according to their own Apprehensions and Presumptions. For the great Deceiver knows, how to pro"cure Things agreeable to every Man's Temper, and ensnare him by his own Suspicions "and Consent." 66 66 66 66 OBSER OBSERVATIONS ON CHAP. XVIII. A GREAT deal upon this Subject may be found in Pliny's Natural History, tending to confirm what Mr. Bourne has told us, that it was a Custom of Gentilism, adopted under the Papal Superstition, and so transmitted to our Times. The subsequent poetical Description of the Months by Churchil, contains in it many Allusions to the popular Notions of Days, &c. Frose January, Leader of the Year, Minc'd Pies in Van, and Calves Heads in the Rear ;* Dull February in whose leaden Reign, My Mother bore a Bard without a Brain;† March, various, fierce and wild, with wind-crack'd cheeks, July, to whom, the Dog-star in her Train, August * Alluding to the Mince Pies in Use about Christmass or Newyear's Day, and to an inhuman Insult offered, or said to have been usually offered by a certain Party on the 31st of this Month (a DayNigro carbone notandus) to the Memory of the unhappy Charles. It is unnecessary to observe here, that it is equally mean and cowardly to pluck a dead Lion by the Beard! + Mr. Churchill discovers no small Vanity in distinguishing the Month of February by that very important Circumstance, his having been born in it. But Vanity is indeed the Vice of Poets, and the usual Concomitant of a fine and sprightly Imagination! St David's Day. § Vide All Fools Day in the Appendix.-See also the Spectator; "Beware the Month of May." Swithin, a holy Bishop of Winchester about the Year 860, and called August who banished from her Smithfield Stand,* There is nothing Superstitious in the Prognosti cations of Weather from Achs and Corns: Achs and Corns, says the great Philosopher Bacon, do engrieve, (i. e. afflict) either towards Rain or Frost : The one makes the Humours to abound more, and the other makes them Sharper. Loyd in his Diall of Daies, observes on St. Paul's, that of this Day, the Husbandment prog"nosticate called the weeping St. Swithin, for that about his Feast, Præsepe & Aselli, rainy Constellations arise cosmically, and commonly cause Rain. Blount in Verbo Alluding to the Interdiction of St. Bartholomew Fait. Goose intentos, as Blount tells us, is a Word used in Lancashire, where the Husbandinen claim it as a Due to have a Goose intentos on the 16th Sunday after Pentecost; which Custom took Origin from the last Word of this old Church Prayer of that Day, "Tua, nos quæsumus, Domine, gratia semper præveniat & sequa"tur; ac bonis operibus jugiter præstet esse intentos." The com mon People very humourously mistake it for a Goose with ten Toes. Perhaps it will be thought no uninteresting Article in this little Code of Vulgar Antiquities, to mention a well-known Interjection used by the Country People to their Horses, when yoked to a Cart, &c. Heit or Heck! I find this used in the Days of Chaucer: "nosticate the whole Year: If it be a fair Day, it "will be a pleasant Year;* if it be Windy, it will "be Wars; if it be Cloudy, it doth foreshew the Plague that Year." Mr. Gay notices it thus in his Trivia: All Superstition from thy Breast repel, Let cred❜lous Boys, and prattling Nurses tell Plenty from lib'ral Horn shall strow the Year: Thus also some rural Prognostications of the Weather are alluded to in his first Pastoral: We learn'd to read the Skies, To know when Hail will fall, or Winds arise; They saw a Cart that charged was with Hay, "The which a Carter drove forth on the Way: Depe was the Way, for which the Cart still stode; Fre. T. 275. The Name of Brok is still too in frequent Use amongst Farmers' Horses. * It is common in the North to plant the Herb House-leek upon the Tops of Cottage Houses. The learned Author of the Vulgar Errors informs us that it was an antient Superstition, and this Herb was planted on the Tops of Houses as a Defensative against Lightning and Thunder, Quincunx, 126. R He 1 He taught us erst the Heifer's Tail to view, I find an Observation on the 15th of December, in the antient Calendar of the Church of Rome, " That on this Day Prognostications of the Months were drawn for the whole Year.”+ On the Day of St. Barnabas, 5 and on that of St. Simon, and St. Jude, “ that a Tempest often rises." The Vigil of St. Paul's is called there “ Dies Egyp " tiacus.” Many superstitious Observations on Days may be found in a curious old Book called Practica Rusticorum. * Prognostications of the Weather, for the Use of those who live in Towns, are given us in the following Words from the abovementioned beautiful didactic Poem Trivia : But when the swinging Signs your Ears offend On Hosier's Poles depending Stockings tyd. E'er the Tiles rattle with the smoaking Show'r, &c. Prognostica Mensium per totum annum. ' 4 A High |