DANIEL DEFOE. A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR

people’s dwellings, was to be seen almost in every street, or else the

sign of Mother Shipton, or of Merlin’s head, and the like.

With what blind, absurd, and ridiculous stuff these oracles of the

devil pleased and satisfied the people I really know not, but certain it

is that innumerable attendants crowded about their doors every day.

And if but a grave fellow in a velvet jacket, a band, and a black coat,

which was the habit those quack-conjurers generally went in, was but

seen in the streets the people would follow them in crowds, and ask

them questions as they went along.

I need not mention what a horrid delusion this was, or what it

tended to; but there was no remedy for it till the plague itself put an

end to it all – and, I suppose, cleared the town of most of those

calculators themselves. One mischief was, that if the poor people

asked these mock astrologers whether there would be a plague or no,

they all agreed in general to answer ‘Yes’, for that kept up their trade.

And had the people not been kept in a fright about that, the wizards

would presently have been rendered useless, and their craft had been

at an end. But they always talked to them of such-and-such influences

of the stars, of the conjunctions of such-and-such planets, which must

necessarily bring sickness and distempers, and consequently the

plague. And some had the assurance to tell them the plague was

begun already, which was too true, though they that said so knew

nothing of the matter.

The ministers, to do them justice, and preachers of most sorts that

were serious and understanding persons, thundered against these and

other wicked practices, and exposed the folly as well as the

wickedness of them together, and the most sober and judicious people

despised and abhorred them. But it was impossible to make any

impression upon the middling people and the working labouring poor.

Their fears were predominant over all their passions, and they threw

away their money in a most distracted manner upon those whimsies.

Maid-servants especially, and men-servants, were the chief of their

customers, and their question generally was, after the first demand of

‘Will there be a plague?’ I say, the next question was, ‘Oh, sir I for the

Lord’s sake, what will become of me? Will my mistress keep me, or

will she turn me off? Will she stay here, or will she go into the

country? And if she goes into the country, will she take me with her,

or leave me here to be starved and undone?’ And the like of menservants.

The truth is, the case of poor servants was very dismal, as I shall

have occasion to mention again by-and-by, for it was apparent a

prodigious number of them would be turned away, and it was so. And

of them abundance perished, and particularly of those that these false

prophets had flattered with hopes that they should be continued in

their services, and carried with their masters and mistresses into the

country; and had not public charity provided for these poor creatures,

whose number was exceeding great and in all cases of this nature

must be so, they would have been in the worst condition of any people

in the city.

These things agitated the minds of the common people for many

months, while the first apprehensions were upon them, and while the

plague was not, as I may say, yet broken out. But I must also not

forget that the more serious part of the inhabitants behaved after

another manner. The Government encouraged their devotion, and

appointed public prayers and days of fasting and humiliation, to make

public confession of sin and implore the mercy of God to avert the

dreadful judgement which hung over their heads; and it is not to he

expressed with what alacrity the people of all persuasions embraced

the occasion; how they flocked to the churches and meetings, and they

were all so thronged that there was often no coming near, no, not to

the very doors of the largest churches. Also there were daily prayers

appointed morning and evening at several churches, and days of