Obfervation of * Candlemas-Day, fuch is Childermas-Day, fuch Valentine's-Day, and fome others.

How St. Paul's Day came to have this particular Knack of foretelling the good or evil Fortune of the following Year, is no eafy Matter to find out. The Monks who were undoubtedly the firft who made this wonderful Obfervation, have taken Care it should be handed down to Pofterity, but why and for what Reafon this Obfervation was to ftand good, they have taken Care to conceal. In Church Affairs indeed they make free with handing down Traditions from Generation to Generation, which being approved by an infallible Judgment, are to be taken for granted; but as far as I hear, they never pretended to an infallible Spirit, in the Study of the Planets. One may therefore, without the Sufpicion of Herefy, or fear of the Inquifition, make a little Inquiry into this Affair, and fee whether it be true or falfe, whether it is built upon any Reafon or no Reafon, whether ftill to be obferved, or only laugh'd at as a Monkish Dream.

Now as it is the Day of that Saint, the great Apoftle St. Paul, I cannot fee there is any Thing to be built upon. He did indeed labour

* Si fol fplendefcat Maria purificante,

Major erit glacies poft feftum quam fuit ante.

more abundantly than all the Apoftles; but never, that I heard, in the Science of Astrology. And why his Day fhould therefore be a ftanding Almanack to the World, rather than the Day of any other Saint, will be pretty hard to find out. I am fure there is a good Number of them,

have as much Right to Rain or fair Weather as St. Paul, and if St. Andrew, St. Thomas, &c. have not as much Right to Wind or Snow, let the Reader judge.

As it is the Twenty fifth Day of January, one would think that could be no Reafon. For what is that Day more than another? Indeed they do give fome Shew of Reafon, why Rain fhould happen about the Time of St. Swithin, which is this. About the Time of his Feast, which is on the Fourteenth of July, there are two rainy Conftellations, which are called Præcepe and Afellus, which arise cofmically, and generally produce Rain. And to be fure in the Courfe of the Sign Aquarius, there may be both Rain and Wind and fair Weather, but how these can foretell the Deftiny of the Year, is the Question.

As then there is nothing in the Saint, or his Day to prognofticate any fuch Thing, I mean, as it is the Day of St. Paul, or the Twenty fifth of January, fo I must confefs I cannot find out what may be the Ground of

this particular Obfervation. But however thus much is very obvious, that this Obfervation is an exact Copy of that fuperftitious Custom among the Heathens, of observing one Day as good, and another as bad. For among them were lucky and unlucky Days; fome were dies atri, and fome dies albi; the atri were pointed out in their Calendar, with a black Character, the albi with a white; the former to denote it a Day of bad Succefs, the latter a Day of good. Thus have the Monks in the dark and unlearned Ages of Popery copy'd after the Heathens, and dream'd themfelves into the like Superftitions, esteeming one Day more fuccefsful than another; and fo according to them, it is very unlucky to begin any Work upon Childermass-Day; and what Day foever that falls on, whether on a Munday, Tuesday, or any other, nothing muft be begun on that Day through the Year; St. Paul's Day is the Year's Fortune-Teller, St. Mark's Day is the Prognofticator of your Life and Death, &c. and so instead of persuading the People to lay afide the Whims and Fancies of the Heathen World, they brought them fo effectually in, that they are ftill reigning in many Places to this Day.

But of all the Days of the Year, they could not have chofen one fo little to the Purpose. For the very Saint, whofe Day is so observed,

has himself cautioned them against any such Obfervation: For in the Fourth Chapter of his Epistle to the Galations, he tells them, how dangerous it was to observe Days, and Months, and Times, and Years; which is not, as fome would perfuade us, to Caution us against the Observation of any Day but the Lord's-Day; but only that we should not obferve the abolished Feafts of the Jews, nor the abominable Feafts of the Gentiles, nor their fuperftitious Obfervation of fortunate and unfortunate Days. St. Auftin, upon this Place, hath thefe Words, * Let us not obferve Years, and Months, and Times, leaft we hear the Apostle telling us, I am afraid of you, leaft I have fhewn on you labour in Vain. For the Perfons he blames, are those who fay, I will not fet forward on my Journey, because it is the next Day after fuch a Time, or because the Moon is fo; or I'll fet forward that I may have Luck, because fuch is just now the Pofition of the Stars. I will not Traffick this Month, because fuch a Star prefides, or I will, because it does. I shall plant no Vines this Year, because it is Leap-Year, &c. The learned Mr. Bingham, has among fe

* Non itaque dies obfervemus, & annos & menfes, & tempora, ne audiamus ab apoftolo, timeo vos, ne forte fine caufa laboraverim in vobis. Eos enim culpat, qui dicunt, non profifiscar, quia pofterus eft, aut quia luna fic fertur, vel profifiscar, ut profpera cedant, quia ita fe habet pofitio fiderum, &c. Beda ex Auguftin. in loc.

veral

veral others, a Quotation * from the fame St. Auftin on thefe fuperftitious Obfervations, with which I fhall conclude this Chapter. "To "this kind, fays he, belong all Ligatures "and Remedies, which the Schools of Phyfi"cians reject and condemn; whether in Inchantments, or in certain Marks, which they "call Characters, or in fome other Things "which are to be hanged and bound about "the Body, and kept in a dancing Pofture; "not for any Temperament of the Body, but "for certain Significations, either Ocult, or "Manifeft: Which by a gentler Name, they "call Phyfical, that they may not feem to affright Men with the Appearance of Superftition, but do good in a natural Way: "Such are Ear-rings hanged upon the Tip of "each Ear, and Rings made of an Ostriches "Bones for the Finger; or when you are told "in a Fit of Convulfions, or Shortnefs of Breath, to hold your left Thumb with your right Hand. To which may be added a thousand vain Obfervations, as, if any "of our Members beat; if when two Friends are talking together, a Stone, or a Dog, or a Child, happens to come between them, they tread the Stone to Pieces, as the Divi"der of their Friendship, and this is toller

*Bingham, 16 L. C. 5. Antiq. Eccl. P. 300. Auft. de Doit. Chrift. L. 2. C. 10.