Notes - Page 2

command to
dismiss the demons; which, when done, all was quiet again, and each
man returned unto his lodging late, about twelve o'clock at night. I
could never since be induced to join with any such like actions.

"The true miscarriage of the business was by reason of so many people
being present at the operation; for there was about thirty, some
laughing, others deriding us; so that, if we had not dismissed the
demons, I believe most part of the abbey church would have been blown
down. Secrecy and intelligent operators, with a strong confidence and
knowledge of what they are doing, are best for the work."--LILLY'S
_Life and Times_, p. 46.

David Ramsay had a son called William Ramsay, who appears to have
possessed all his father's credulity. He became an astrologer, and in
1651-2 published "_Vox Stellarum_, an Introduction to the Judgment of
Eclipses and the Annual Revolutions of the World." The edition of 1652
is inscribed, to his father. It would appear, as indeed it might be
argued from his mode of disposing of his goods, that the old horologer
had omitted to make hay while the sun shone; for his son, in his
dedication, has this exception to the paternal virtues, "It's true
your carelessness in laying up while the sun shone for the tempests of
a stormy day, hath given occasion to some inferior spirited people not
to value you according to what you are by nature and in yourself, for
such look not to a man longer than he is in prosperity, esteeming none
but for their wealth, not wisdom, power, nor virtue." From these
expressions, it is to be apprehended that while old David Ramsay, a
follower of the Stewarts, sunk under the Parliamentary government, his
son, William, had advanced from being a dupe to astrology to the
dignity of being himself a cheat.

Note II. p. 27.-GEORGE HERIOT

This excellent person was but little known by his actions when alive,
but we may well use, in this particular, the striking phrase of
Scripture, "that being dead he yet speaketh." We have already
mentioned, in the Introduction, the splendid charity of which he was
the founder; the few notices of his personal history are slight and
meagre.

George Heriot was born at Trabroun, in the parish of Gladsmuir; he was
the eldest son of a goldsmith in Edinburgh, descended from a family of
some consequence in East Lothian. His father enjoyed the confidence of
his fellow-citizens, and was their representative in Parliament. He
was, besides, one of the deputies sent by the inhabitants of the city
to propitiate the King, when he had left Edinburgh abruptly, after the
riot of 17th December, 1596.

George Heriot, the son, pursued his father's occupation of a
goldsmith,