But I cou'd not at the fame Time carry thefe Things to the heighth that others did, knowing too, that natural Caufes are affign'd by the Aftronomers for fuch Things; and that their Motions, and even their Revolutions are calculated, or pretended to be calculated; fo that they cannot be fo perfectly call'd the Fore-runners, or Fore-tellers, much less the Procurers of fuch Events, as Pestilence, War, Fire, and the like. But let my Thoughts, and the Thoughts of the Philofophers be, or have been what they will, thefe Things had a more than ordinary Influence upon the Minds of the common People, and they had almost univerfal melancholly Apprehenfions of fome dreadful Calamity and Judgment coming upon the City; and this principally from the Sight of this Comet, and the little Alarm that was given in December, by two People dying at St. Giles's, as above. The Appehenfions of the People, were likewife ftrangely increas'd by the Error of the Times; in which, I think, the People, from what Principle I cannot imagine, were more addicted to Prophefies, and Aftrological Conjurations, Dreams, and old Wives Tales, than ever they were before or fince: Whether this unhappy Temper was originally raised by the Follies of fome People who got Money by it; that is to fay, by printing Predictions and Prognoftications, I know not; but certain it is, Books frighted them terribly; fuch as Lilly's Almanack, Gadbury's Alogical Predictions; Poor Robin's Almanack and the like; alfo feveral pretended religious Books; one entitled, Come out of her my People, leaft you be partaker of her Plagues; another call'd, Fair Warning; another, Britain's Remembrancer, and many fuch; all, or most Part of which, foretold directly or covertly the Ruin of the City: Nay, fome were were so Enthusiastically bold, as to run about the Streets, with their Oral Predictions, pretending they were sent to preach to the City; and One in particular, who like Jonah to Nineveh, cry'd in the Streets, yet forty Days, and LONDON fhall be destroy'd. I will not be pofitive, whether he faid yet forty Days, or yet a few Days. Another ran about Naked, except a pair of Drawers about his Wafte, crying Day and Night; like a Man that Jofephus mentions, who cry'd, Woe to Jerufalem! a little before the Deftruction of that City: So this poor naked Creature cry'd, O! the Great, and the Dreadful God! and faid no more, but repeated thofe Words continually, with a Voice and Countenance full of Horror, a swift Pace, and no Body cou'd ever find him to ftop, or rest, or take any Suftenance, at least, that ever I cou'd hear of. I met this poor Creature feveral Times in the Streets, and would have spoke to him, but he would not enter into Speech with me, or any one elfe; but held on his difmal Cries continually. Thefe Things terrified the People to the last Degree; and especially when two or three Times, as I have mentioned already, they found one or two in the Bills, dead of the Plague at St. Giles's. Next to these publick Things, were the Dreams of old Women: Or, I should say, the Interpretation of old Women upon other Peoples Dreams: and these put abundance of People even out of their Wits: Some heard Voices warning them to be gone, for that there would be such a Plague in London, fo that the Living would not be able to bury the Dead: Others faw Apparitions in the Air; and I must be allow'd to say of both, I hope without breach of Charity, that they heard Voices that never spake, and faw Sights that never appear'd; but the Imagination of the People was was really turn'd wayward and poffefs'd: And no Wonder, if they, who were poreing continually at the Clouds, faw Shapes and Figures, Representations and Appearances, which had nothing in them, but Air and Vapour. Here they told us, they faw a Flaming-Sword held in a Hand, coming out of a Cloud, with a Point hanging directly over the City. There they faw Herfes, and Coffins in the Air, carrying to be buried. And there again, Heaps of dead Bodies lying unburied, and the like; juft as the Imagination of the poor terrify'd People furnish'd them with Matter to work upon. So Hypocondriac Fancies reprefent Ships, Armies, Battles, in the Firmament; I could fill this Account with the ftrange Relations, fuch People gave every Day, of what they had feen; and every one was fo pofitive of their having feen, what they pretended to fee, that there was no contradicting them, without Breach of Friendship, or being accounted rude and unmannerly on the one Hand, and prophane and impenetrable on the other. One time before the Plague was begun, (otherwise than as I have faid in St. Giles's,) I think it was in March, feeing a Croud of People in the Street, I join'd with them to fatisfy my Curiofity, and found them all staring up into the Air, to see what a Woman told them appeared plain to her, which was an Angel cloth'd in white, with a fiery Sword in his Hand, waving it, or brandishing it over his Head. She defcribed every Part of the Figure to the Life; fhew'd them the Motion, and the Form; and the poor People came into it fo eagerly, and with so much Readiness; YES, I fee it all plainly, fays one. There's the Sword as plain as can be. Another faw the Angel. One faw his very Face, and cry'd out, What a glorious Creature he was! One faw one thing, and one another. I look'd as earnestly as the reft, but, perhaps, not with fo much Willingness to be impos'd upon; and I faid indeed, that I could fee nothing, but a white Cloud, bright on one Side, by the fhining of the Sun upon the other Part. The Woman endeavour'd to fhew it me, but could not make me confefs, that I faw it, which, indeed, if I had, I must have lied: But the Woman turning upon me, look'd in my Face, and fancied I laugh'd; in which her Imagination deceiv'd her too; for I really did not laugh, but was very seriously reflecting how the poor People were terrify'd, by the Force of their own Imagination. However, fhe turned from me, call'd me prophane Fellow, and a Scoffer; told me, that it was a time of God's Anger, and dreadful Judgments were approaching; and that Defpifers, fuch as I, fhould wander and perish. The People about her feem'd disgusted as well as fhe; and I found there was no perfwading them, that I did not laugh at them; and that I should be rather mobb'd by them, than be able to undeceive them. So I left them; and this Appearance pafs'd for as real, as the BlazingStar itself. Another Encounter I had in the open Day alfo : And this was in going thro' a narrow Paffage from Petty-France into Bishopfgate Church-yard, by a Row of Alms-houses; there are two Church-yards to Bishopfgate Church, or Parish; one we go over to pass from the Place call'd Petty- France into BiShopfgate-street, coming out juft by the Churchdoor, the other is on the fide of the narrow Paffage, where the Alms-houfes are on the left; and a Dwarf Dwarf-wall with a Pallifadoe on it, on the right Hand; and the City-wall on the other Side, more to the right. In this narrow Paffage ftands a Man looking thro' between the Palifadoe's into the Burying Place; and as many People as the Narrowness of the Paffage would admit to ftop, without hindring the Paffage of others; and he was talking mighty eagerly to them, and pointing now to one Place, then to another, and affirming, that he faw a Ghoft walking upon fuch a Grave-Stone there; he defcrib'd the Shape, the Pofture, and the Movement of it fo exactly, that it was the greatest Matter of Amazement to him in the World, that every Body did not fee it as well as he. On a fudden he would cry, There it is: Now it comes this Way: Then, 'Tis turn'd back; till at length he perfuaded the People into fo firm a Belief of it, that one fanfied he faw it, and another fanfied he faw it; and thus he came every Day making a strange Hubbub, confidering it was in fo narrow a Paffage, till Bishopfgate Clock ftruck eleven; and then the Ghoft would feem to ftart; and as if he were call'd away, difappear'd on a fudden. I look'd earnestly every way, and at the very Moment, that this Man directed, but could not fee the leaft Appearance of any thing; but fo pofitive was this poor Man, that he gave the People the Vapours in abundance, and fent them away trembling, and frighted; till at length, few People, that knew of it, car'd to go thro' that Paffage; and hardly any Body by Night, on any Account whatever. This Ghoft, as the poor Man affirm'd, made Signs to the Houses, and to the Ground, and to the People, plainly intimating, or else they fo understanding it, that Abundance of the People, fhould come to be buried in that Church-yard; as |