Guy Mannering, Vol. I or, The Astrologer

hist'ries

iraculou

rns in the wo

astrologers,

learned g

at have wri

ibr

e a lass that was in that way; she did not live far from hereabouts-ye needna shake your head and groan, Dominie; I am sure the kirk dues were a' weel paid, and what can man do mair?-it was laid till her ere she had a sark ower her head; and the man that she since wadded does not think her a pin the waur for the misfortune. They live, Mr. Mannering, by the shoreside at Annan, and a mair decent, orderly couple, with six as fine bairns as ye would wish to see plash in a saltwater dub; and little curlie Godfrey-that's the eldest, the come o' will, as I may say-he's on board an excise yacht. I hae a cousin at the

e stairs from the kitchen story, and singing at full pitch of voice. The high notes were too shrill for a man,

ment, lu

ady ligh

d, or be

oss and sai

in the huge splay foot which his former posture had extended, placed it perpendicularly, and stretched the other limb over it in

which Mannering had heard him speak; and as he had been watching with some curiosity when this eating, drinking, moving, and smoking automaton would perform th

ipment, except her petticoats, seemed rather masculine than feminine. Her dark elf-locks shot out like the snakes of the gorgon between an old-fashioned bonnet called a bongrace, heigh

ch, no kenning, nor dreaming a word about it? Wha was to hae keepit awa the worriecows, I trow? Ay, and the elves and gyre-carlings frae t

vain, John's

witches

is them, th

Saint An

ide and

lme and

hael and

use frae re

three capers with such strength and agility as almost to touch the roof of

there at the door and tell us what news y

the like o' you; for there was a whin bonnie lasses t

mony gipsies were se

the Red Rotten and John Young aff his grunds-black be his cast! he's nae gentleman, nor drap's bluid o' gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puir bodies the shelter o' a waste house, and the thristles by the

h! hush! that's

said Mannering to Sa

answered the l

s she, in the n

ch, and gipsy,' ans

ouse down in the howm. But the like o' you, Laird, that's a real gentleman for sae mony hundred years, and never hunds puir fowk aff your grund as if they were mad tykes, nane o' our fowk wad stir you

here's a student from Oxford that kens much better tha

vity according to the rule of the "triplicities," as recommended by Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diocles, and Avi

ble subject of wit in the unsuspecting Dominie. It is true, he never laughed, or joined in the laugh which his own simplicity afforded-nay, it is said, he never laughed but once in his life, and on that memorable occasion his landlady miscarried, partly through surprise at the event itself, and partly from te

stare upon the youthful astrologer, and seemed to doubt

ho, their dim eyes being unable to penetrate the starry spheres, and to discern therein the decrees

er of his Majesty's mint, that the (pretended) science of astrology is altogeth

and, as I may say, the vernacular name of Isaac Newton in opposition to the grave and sonorous authorities of Dariot, Bonatus, Ptolemy, Haly, Eztler, Dieterick, Naibob, Harfurt, Zael

a general mistake,'

ie Sa

Englishman; 'it is a gener

cheaters, knaves, and c

abuse of anything doth not ab

the other, and began, from the gravity with which Mannering plied his adversary, and the learning which he displayed in the controversy, to give hi

art which a tenacious memory supplied, and which, from circumstanc

nd minutes; almuten, almochoden, anabibazon, catabibazon; a thousand terms of equal sound and significance, poured thick and

the lady's apartment, Meg Merrilies descended to the kitchen to secure her share of the groaning malt and the 'ken-no,' [Footnote: See Note i.] and Mannering, after looking at his watch, and no

platform on which the ruins of the ancient castle were situated. The wind had arisen, and swept before it the clouds which had formerly obscured the sky. The moon was high, and at the

ind it descended to the sea by a small swelling green bank, divided into levels by natural terraces, on which grew some old trees, and terminating upon the white sand. The other side of the bay, opposite to the old castle, was a sloping and varied promontory, covered chiefly with copsewood, which on that favoured coast grows almost within water-mark. A fisherman's cottage peeped fro

d murmuring ripple against the silvery beach. To the left the woods advanced far into the ocean, waving in the moonlight along ground of an undulating and varied form, and presenting those varieties of light and shade, and that interesting combination of glade and thicket, upon which the eye delights to rest, charmed with what it sees, yet curious to pierce still deeper into the intricacies of the woodland scenery. Above rolled the planets, each, by

's world, his hom

ls he 'mong fays

and delight

, being hi

ble forms of

anities of o

e beauty, and

aunts in dale, o

slow stream, o

'ry depths-all th

onger in the f

eart doth need

stinct bring ba

rry world they

, that used to

h their friend,

ove, from yon

e down; and ev

who brings wha

brings everyth

on the destiny of the new-born infant, as if the courses or emanations of the stars superseded, or at least were co-ordinate with, Divine Providence. Well, rest be with him! he instilled into me enough of knowledge for erecting a scheme of nativity, and therefore will I presently go about it.' So saying, and having noted the position of the principal pla