A Prognostication Concerning the FROST: BY Monsieur CASSINI, THE French King's ASTROLOGER. Translated from the French Copy.  
THAT the World, myself, and the Stars may be no longer abused by Counterfeit Predictions of the Weather; that my Name may be no more profaned by being set to shame Prophecies, and that every one may know that I am not placed upon a Hill, like the Devil upon Bowsteeple, only to show the variation of the Wind: I am resolved, for my own and Urania's Honour, to undertake this present Frost, to determine its Force and Continuance, that the Poor providing themselves in time with Fuel and Flannel, should not be forced to burn their Wooden Shoes( as they have often done) to warm themselves and their Pottage. If you inquire into my Lineage you must confess me best qualified for this Undertaking of any Pretending Astrologer in France. For, not to mention my other Qualifications, I am Descended in a Right Line by my Fathers side from Merlin and Erra P●ater, and by my Phiz I hope there's no body will question but that Mother Shipton was my Great Grannum by my Mothers.  
But that we may proceed according to the rules of Art, I am First to Calculate the Nativity of this Present Frost, which happened at Paris exactly upon November 16, Stilo Vetere, at Four in the Morning, that could Sign scorpion ascending three Planets in the Horoscope; opposing the Moon in an Earthly Sign, in evil Aspect of that enemy to all Warmth: Saturn the Lord of the Ascendant in an Earthly sign also. And because fixed Signs ocu 〈…〉 the Angles, it shows the Duration as well as the Severity of 〈◇〉 could. So that, according to Natural Astral Causes,( and I believe no other) it cannot last less than 103 days, 7 hours, 25 minutes, 17 seconds; till then it shall without the least remission frieze, so that no man shall venture to Urine in the Streets of Paris; and in the Northern parts of France many shall be Frozen to Death in Carnal Copulation. And truly considering how little Heat I have( except in my Head) or can myself make, my Wife and I have every terrible Apprehensions of that ourselves. Nay it shall be as common a thing to buy a pair of Scates to slide from Calice to Dover, as it is to take a skull from Greenwich to Tower stairs. And I very much fear that the Crust which has so long been over the Suns Body, will now be doughty coated with Ice, so that the little remaining Light will be so intercepted, that we shall not have so much benefit of it as to see truly the Hour of the Day But no sooner shall the Thaw come, but 
The Sibyl in Virgil.  Nova progenies Caelo demittitur also.( as an old Witch, a Relation of mine has it) and the Earth become more Beautiful and Productive than ever. Then shall Peascods be cried about the Streets by whitsuntide, and Cherries by Midsummer-day: Then shall cleans grow in the Isle of Dogs, and Toadstools in Greenwich-Park. Then shall the little Annual Petti-fogging Astrologers confess my Skill and worship towards the Mount where I inhabit. I will have them know that when I set myself to prophesy, Nature her Self shall Obey, and the Fates shall sooner change than I lie; I mean when I Prognosticate. For tho the Quadrate of Mars and Mercury from Angles in my Nativity, and both in Evil Aspect to my Horoscope, have beat out my Teeth, and bent my Legs so that I can neither Kick nor Bite, yet every one knows that to be a Position which accomplishes me the better for Railing, and Scolding, and throwing of Dirt: and this is so Notorious, that when ever I land at Billingsgate, the boldest Fish-whore of them all dare as well eat her Oystershells as encounter me. I know well enough that the Vulgar Astrology will tell you, that he who hath that Position is very apt to be a liar, and to be believed in nothing that he says; and a Deceiver, to be trusted in nothing that he does; and 'tis true enough, provided you understand it only in a mans ordinary Dealings and common conversation, but,( as a Reverend Brother 
Butlers Christolog.  Astrologue has  told us in the Calculation of Christs Nativity,) in other matters it gives the more prodigious Wit, and qualifies a man the better for Predictions. What tho it cannot be proved that ever I spoken well of any Man, not excepting my Royal Founder( whose Bounty for so many years maintained me) or that very Church whose Livery I wear? What tho I never Published any thing for the instruction of Mankind beyond a Tide-Table, for the use of my Neighbouring Watermen? What is this to my prophetic Spirit? I am not the first of my Order that has been Proud, Peevish and Unsociable. How many Nights have I sat across Legged, tooting upon the Stars to foresee the downfall of Kings and the Destruction of my own Enemies? How many years have I Dieted myself that I might commence Prophet? For they are not Poets only that diet themselves to become Proficients only in the Art they Profess. Do I not every Morning break my Fast upon the Spleen of a Viper, fried in the gull of a Toad, and served up with Pickled Spiders, and then wash it down with a draft of the Juice of Wormwood, to Sweeten my Nature? Do I not Supconstantly upon a Dish of Poach'd Stars, with Sippits in hippomenes to render myself the more accomplished wizard, and fitter for the conversation of Silphs and Gobblins. Why then should the World be surprised that I, who have always declaimed and railed against Astrology, repent sic Propheta nunc prodirem: but do they not know that I have always been a man of Mystery and lived in the Clouds? Why may not I be supposed to understand Astrology, which I never publicly owned, as well as be a Novice in Algebra, of which I would be feign thought a Master? In a word, hath not the World been mistaken in every Particular of me, excepting only my Morals, and my good Nature? And now I have for the good of my Country pulled off my Mask as to my Conjuring too, all mankind will be satisfied that I am intus& in cute, Devil.  
Paris, Novembe● 25. Stilo Vei  
FINIS.   

London: Printed, and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall, 1697.