One Tyrant is better than a Hundred Befides thefe Orators enflame the People, whofe anger is really but a fhort fit of Madness.

Ira furor brevis eft Hor.

AFTER which, Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch fmall Flies, but let Wafps and Hornets break through. But in Oratory the greatest Art is to hide Art.

Artis eft celare Artem..

BUT this muft be the work of Time, we muft lay hold on all Opportunities, and let flip no Occafion, elfe we fhall be forced to Weave Penelope's Web, unravel in the Night what we did in the Day. And therefore I have obferved that Time is Painted with a Lock before, and Bald behind, fignifying thereby that we muft take Time (as we fay) by the Forelock, for when 'tis once past there is no recalling it,

THE Mind of Man is at first (if you will pardon the Expreffion) like a Tabula rafa, or like Wax, which while it is Soft is capable of any Impreffion, 'till time has hardened it. And at length Death that Grim Tyrant stops us in the midft of our Career. The greatest Conquerors have at laft been Conquered by Death, which fpares none from the Scepter to the Spade.

Mors Omnibus Communis.

A

ALL Rivers go to the Sea, but none return from it. Xerxes, Wept when he beheld his Army, to confider that in less than a Hundred Years they would be all Dead. Anacreon was Choakt with a Grape- ftone, and violent Joy Kills as well as violent Grief. There is nothing in this World conftant but Inconftancy yet Plato thought that if Virtue would appear to the World in her own native Dress, all Men would be Enamoured with her. But now fince Intereft governs the World, and Men neglect the Golden

Golden Mean, Jupiter himself, if he came on the Earth would be Despised, unless it were as he did to Danae in a Golden Shower. For Men now adays Worship the Rifing Sun, and hot the Setting.

Donec eris fælix multos numerabis amicos,

THUS have I in obedience to your Commands, ventured to expose my self to Cenfure in this Critical Age. Whether I have done right to my Subject, must be left to the Judgment of the Learned Reader: However I cannot but hope that my attempting of it may be an Encouragement for fome able Pen to perform it with more Succefs.

PREDICTIONS

FOR THE

YEAR 1708.

Wherein the Month and Day of the Month are fet down, the Perfons named, and the great Actions and Events of next Year particularly

related, as they will come to pass.

Written to prevent the People of England from being farther impos'd on by vulgar Almanack-makers.

By ISAAC BICKERSTAFF Esq;

I

HAVING long confidered the grofs Abuse of Aftrology in this Kingdom, and upon debating the Matter with my felf, I could not poffibly lay the Fault upon the Art, S 3

but