It is well there were no more
mistakes of that kind; if there had, I presume he would have told
me of them with as little ceremony.
There is one objection against Mr. Partridge's death, which I
have sometimes met with, though indeed very slightly offered,
That he still continues to write almanacks. But this is no more
than what is common to all that profession; Gadbury, Poor Robin,
Dove, Wing, and several others, do yearly publish their
almanacks, though several of them have been dead since before the
Revolution. Now the natural reason of this I take to be, that
whereas it is the privilege of other authors to live after their
deaths; almanack-makers are alone excluded, because their
dissertations treating only upon the minutes as they pass, become
useless as those go off. In consideration of which, Time, whose
registers they are, gives them a lease in reversion, to continue
their works after their death.
I should not have given the publick or myself the trouble of this
vindication, if my name had not been made use of by several
persons, to whom I never lent it; one of which, a few days ago,
was pleased to father on me a new sett of predictions. But I
think those are things too serious to be trifled with. It grieved
me to the heart, when I saw my labours, which had cost me so much
thought and watching, bawl'd about by common hawkers, which I
only intended for the weighty consideration of the gravest
persons.
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