4. Nor is it any more reasonable to assert that the aspect of one
planet makes one joyous, or the other sad. What animosity could obtain
betwixt the stars? What could be its reason? Why should their condition
be different when they are in trine aspect, or in opposition, or in
quadrature? What reason have we to suppose that one star regards the
other when it is in some particular aspect to it, or that it no more
regards it when it is in the next zodiacal sign, though thus really
closer to it?
Besides, what is the manner in which the planets exert the influence
attributed to them? How does each exercise its own particular
influence? How do they all, in combination, exert an influence that
differs from this (particular influence)? In fact, they do not hold
deliberations to carry out their decisions on us, each of them yielding
a little of its individual influence. The one does not violently hinder
the action of the other, nor does it condescendingly make concessions
to it. To say that the one is joyous when it is in the "house" of the
other, and that the latter is sad when it is in "house" of the former,
amounts to saying that two men are united by mutual friendship, though
the former love the latter, while the latter hate the former.