This is the twentieth Time of my addressing
thee in this Manner, and I have reason to flatter myself my Labours
have not been unacceptable to the Publick. I am particularly
pleas’d to understand that my Predictions of the Weather
give such general Satisfaction; and indeed, such Care is taken in
the Calculations, on which those Predictions are founded, that I
could almost venture to say, there’s not a single One of them,
promising Snow, Rain, Hail, Heat, Frost, Fogs, Wind,
or Thunder, but what comes to pass punctually and
precisely on the very Day, in some Place or other on this
little diminutive Globe of ours; (and when you consider the
vast Distance of the Stars from whence we take our Aim, you must
allow it no small Degree of Exactness to his any Part of it) I say
on this Globe; for tho’ in other Matters I confine the Usefulness
of my Ephemeris to the Northern Colonies, yet in that
important Matter of the Weather, which is of such general
Concern, I would have it more extensively useful, and
therefore take in both Hemispheres, and all Latitudes from Hudson’s
Bay to Cape Horn.
You will find this Almanack in my former
Method, only conformable to the New-Stile established by the
Act of Parliament, which I gave you in my last at length; the new
Act since made for Amendment of that first Act, not affecting us in
the least, being intended only to regulate some Corporation Matters
in England before unprovided for. I have only added a Column in the
second Page of each Month, containing the Days of the Old
Stile opposite to their corresponding Days in the New,
which may, in many Cases, be of Use; and so conclude (believing you
will excuse a short Preface, when it is to make Room for something
better) Thy Friend and Servant,
R. Saunders
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Ignorance leads Men into a Party, and Shame
keeps them from |
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Many have quarrel’d about Religion, that never practis’d
it. |
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Sudden Power is apt to be insolent, Sudden
Liberty saucy; that be- |
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He that best understands the World, least likes it. |
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Anger is never without a Reason, but seldom with a
good One. |
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He that is of Opinion Money will do every Thing, may well
be |
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An ill Wound, but not an ill Name, may be healed. |
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When out of Favour, none know thee; when in, thou dost
not |
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A lean Award is better than a fat Judgment. |
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God, Parents, and Instructors, can never be requited. |
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He that builds before he counts the Cost, acts foolishly;
and he |
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Patience in Market, is worth Pounds in a Year. |
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Danger is Sauce for Prayers. |
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If you have no Honey in your Pot, have some in your
Mouth. |
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A Pair of good Ears will drain dry an hundred Tongues. |
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Serving God is Doing Good to Man, but Praying is thought
an |
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Nothing humbler than Ambition, when it is about to
climb. |
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The discontented Man finds no easy Chair. |
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Virtue and a Trade, are a Child’s best Portion. |
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Gifts much expected, are paid, not
given. |
On Sunday, the 6th Day of May, in the Morning,
the Planet Mercury may be seen to make a black Spot in the Sun’s
Body, according to the following Calculation.
The astronomical Time when Mercury goes off the
Sun’s Disk, being reduced to common Time, is May the 6th, at 31
min. after Seven in the Morning. The Sun rises at 1 min. past Five,
and if you get up betimes, and put on your Spectacles, you will see
Mercury rise in the Sun, and will appear like a small black Patch
in a Lady’s Face.
Dr. Halley puts this Conjunction an Hour forwarder than by this
Calculation.
It had pleased God in his Goodness to Mankind,
at length to discover to them the Means of securing their
Habitations and other Buildings from Mischief by Thunder and
Lightning. The Method is this: Provide a small Iron Rod (it may be
made of the Rod-iron used by the Nailers) but of such a Length,
that one End being three or four Feet in the moist Ground, the
other may be six or eight Feet above the highest Part of the
Building. To the upper End of the Rod fasten about a Foot of Brass
Wire, the Size of a common Knitting-needle, sharpened to a fine
Point; the Rod may be secured to the House by a few small Staples.
If the House or Barn be long, there may be a Rod and Point at each
End, and a middling Wire along the Ridge from one to the other. A
House thus furnished will not be damaged by Lightning, it being
attracted by the Points, and passing thro the Metal into the Ground
without hurting any Thing. Vessels also, having a sharp pointed Rod
fix’d on the Top of their Masts, with a Wire from the Foot of the
Rod reaching down, round one of the Shrouds, to the Water, will not
be hurt by Lightning.