Hebdomadal

Some old folks said this cottage had been the church-house where in ancient days the people who came to divine service stayed between morning prayer and evensong, ate their mid-day meal and gave out and received their hebdomadal quotient of gossip.

At the right ſide of any of the Baſes begin your account, from that to the oppoſitly noted Planet, thence to his oppoſite, and ſo ſhall you find a continued courſe in that Order (grounded perhaps among the Ancients vpon myſteries of number, and interchanged gouernment by thoſe ſuperior bodies ouer this habitable Orb) which ſome haue ſweated at, in inquiry of Proportions, Muſique diſtances, & refer’d it to Planetary howrs: wheras They (the very name of Houre for a XXIIII. part of a day, being vnuſuall till about the Peloponeſiaque warre) had their originall of later time, then this Hebdomadall account, whence the Hourely from the morning of euery day had his breeding, and not the other from this, as Pretending & Vulgar Aſtrologers receiue in ſuppoſition.

The wits and humourists, the distinguished worthies of the town or village, the apothecary, the attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain to partake of this hebdomadal festivity.

They quickly weary of this brief hebdomadal Sabbath here, yet they long for that eternal one; they dream of it, they talk about it, they think they think they are going to enjoy it—with all their simple hearts they think they think they are going to be happy in it!