JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY--ITS CHEMICAL APPLICATION TO THE PROLONGATION OF LIFE
AND HEALTH--ALCHYMICAL DELUSIONS.
The study of astrology, so flattering to human curiosity got into favour
with mankind at a very early period,--especially with the weak and
ignorant. The first account, of it we meet with is in Chaldea; and at
Rome it was known by the name of the "Babylonish calculation," against
which Horace very wisely cautioned his readers.[66] It was doubtless the
first method of divination, and probably prepared the mind of man for
all the various methods since employed of searching into futurity; a
brief view therefore of the rise of this pretended science cannot he
improper in this place, especially as the history of these absurdities
is the best method of confuting them. Others have ascribed the invention
of this deception to the Arabs;--be this as it may, Judicial
Astrology[67] has been too much used by the priests and physicians of all
nations to encrease their own power and emolument. They maintain that
the heavens are one great book, in which God has written the history of
the world; and in which every man may read his own fortune and the
transactions of his time. In this department of astrology (judicial) we
meet with all the idle conceits about the horary reign of planets, the
_doctrine of horoscopes, the distribution of the houses, the calculation
of nativities, fortunes, lucky and unlucky_ hours, and other ominous
fatalities. They assert that it had its rise from the same hands as
astronomy itself;--that while the ancient Assyrians, whose serene
unclouded sky favoured their celestial, observations, were intent on
tracing the paths and periods of the heavenly bodies, they discovered a
constant settled relation or analogy between them and things below;
hence they were led to conclude these to be the fates or destinies
(Parcae) so much talked of, which preside at our birth, and dispose of
our future state.
The Egyptians, who derived their astrological superstitions from the
Chaldeans, becoming ignorant of the astronomical hieroglyphics, by
degrees looked upon the names of the signs as expressing certain powers
with which they were invested, and as indications of their several
offices. The sun, on account of its splendour and enlivening influence,
was imagined to be the great mover of nature; the moon held the second
rank of powers, and each sign and constellation a certain share in the
government of the world. The ram, (Aries [symbol: Aries]) had a strong
influence over the young of the flocks and herds; the balance, (Libra
[symbol: Libra]) could inspire nothing but inclinations to good order
and justice; and the scorpion, (Scorpio [symbol: Scorpio]) to excite
only evil dispositions. In short, each sign produced the good or evil
intimated by its name.
Thus, if a child happened to be born at the instant when the first star
of the ram rose above the horizon, (when, in order to give this nonsense
the air of a science, the star was supposed to have its greatest
influence,) he would be rich in cattle; and he who should enter the
world under the crab, would meet with nothing but disappointments, and
all his affairs go backwards and downwards. The people were to be happy
whose king entered the world under the sign Libra; but completely
wretched if he should light under the horrid sign scorpion. Persons born
under capricorn ([symbol: Capricorn]) especially if the sun at the same
time ascended the horizon, were sure to meet with success, and rise
upwards like the wild goat and the sun which then ascends for six months
together. The lion, (Leo [symbol: Leo]) was to produce heroes; and the
virgin (Virgo [symbol: Virgo]) with her ear of corn to inspire chastity,
and to unite virtue with abundance. Could anything he more extravagant
and ridiculous!
The case was exactly the same with respect to the planets, whose
influence is only founded on the wild supposition of their being the
habitations of the pretended deities, whose names they bear, and the
fabulous characters the poets have given them. Thus, to Saturn, [symbol:
Saturn], they gave languid and even destructive influences, for no other
reason but because they had been pleased to make this planet the
residence of Saturn, who was painted with grey hairs and a scythe. To
Jupiter [symbol: Jupiter] they gave the power of bestowing crowns and
distributing long life, wealth, and grandeur, merely because it bears
the name of the father of life. Mars [symbol: Mars] was supposed to
inspire a strong inclination for war, because it was believed to be the
residence of the god of war. Venus [symbol: Venus] had the power of
rendering men voluptuous and fond of pleasure, because they had been
pleased to give it the name of one who by some was thought to be the
mother of pleasure. Mercury [symbol: Mercury], though almost always
invisible, would never have been thought to superintend the property of
states, and the affairs of wit and commerce, had not men, without the
least reason, given it the name of one who was supposed to be the
inventor of civil polity.
According to Astrologers, the power of the ascending planet is greatly
increased by that of an ascending sign; then the benign influences are
all united, and fall together on the head of all the happy infants who
at that moment enter the world; yet can anything be more contrary to
experience, which shews us, that the characters and events produced by
persons born under the same aspect of the stars, are so far from being
alike, that they are directly opposite.
"What completes the ridicule," says the Abbé La Pluche, to whom we are
obliged for these judicious observations, "is, that what astronomers
call the first degree of the ram, the balance, or of sagitarius, is no
longer the first sign, which gives fruitfulness to the flocks, inspires
men with a love of justice, or forms the hero. It has been found that
all the celestial signs have, by degrees, receded from the vernal
equinox, and drawn back to the East: notwithstanding this, the point of
the zodiac that cuts the equator is still called the first degree of the
ram, though the first star of the ram be thirty degrees beyond it, and
all the other signs in the same proportion. When, therefore, any one is
said to be born under the first degree of the ram, it was in reality one
of the degrees of pisces that then came above the horizon: and when
another is said to be born with a royal soul and heroic disposition,
because at his birth the planet Jupiter ascended the horizon, in
conjunction with the first star of sagitary, Jupiter was indeed at that
time in conjunction with a star thirty degrees eastward of sagitary, and
in good truth it was the pernicious scorpion that presided at the birth
of this happy, this incomparable child." And so it would, as Shakspeare
says, "if my mother's cat had kittened. This," says our sagacious bard,
"is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in
fortune, (after the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilt of our
disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by
necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, (traitors) by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and
adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all
that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on; an admirable evasion of a
whoremaster to lay his goatish tricks to the charge of a star! My father
compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was
under _Ursa major_; so that it follows I am rough and treacherous.--Tut!
I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled at my bastardizing." Thus it is evident, that astrology is
built upon no principles, that it is founded on fables, and on
influences void of reality. Yet absurd as it is, and even was, it
obtained credit; and the more it spread, the greater injury was done to
the cause of virtue. Instead of the exercise of prudence and wise
precautions, it substituted superstitious forms and childish practices;
it enervated the courage of the brave by apprehensions grounded on puns,
and encouraged the wicked, by making them lay to the charge of a planet
those evils which only proceeded from their own depravity.
But not content with such absurdities, which destroyed the very idea of
liberty, they asserted that these stars, which had not the least
connection with mankind, governed all the parts of the human body, and
ridiculously affirmed that the ram presided over the head, the bull over
the gullet, the twins over the breast, the scorpion over the entrails,
the fishes over the feet, etc. The juggles of astrology have been
admirably ridiculed by Butler in the following lines:
Some by the nose with fumes trepan 'em,
As Dunstan did the devil's grannam;
Others, with characters and words,
Catch 'em, as men in nets do birds;
And some with symbols, signs, and tricks,
Engrav'd in planetary nicks,
With their own influence will fetch 'em
Down from their orbs, arrest and catch 'em;
Make 'em depose and answer to
All questions, ere they let them go.
Bombastus kept a devil's bird
Shut in the pummel of his sword,
And taught him all the cunning pranks
Of past and future mountebanks.
_Hudibras_, part ii. canto 3.
By means of the zodiac, astrologers pretended to account for the various
disorders of the body, which were supposed to be in a good or had
disposition, according to the different aspects[68] of these signs. To
mention only one instance, they pretended that great caution ought to be
used in taking medicine under Taurus, or the bull; because, as this
animal chews his cud, the person would not be able to keep it in his
stomach.
Each hour of the day had also its presiding star. The number seven, as
being that of the planets, became of mighty consequence. The seven days
in the week,--a period of time handed down by tradition, happened to
correspond with the number of the planets: and therefore they gave the
name of a planet to each day; and from thence some days in the week were
considered more fortunate or unlucky than the rest; and hence seven
times seven, called the climacterical period of hours, days, or years,
were thought extremely dangerous, and to have a surprising effect on
private persons, the fortunes of princes, and the government of states.
Thus the mind of man became distressed by imaginary evils, and the
approach of these moments, in themselves as harmless as the rest of
their lives, has by the strength of the imagination, brought on the most
fatal effects.
Nay, the influence of the planets were extended to the bowels of the
earth, where they were supposed to produce metals. From hence it appears
that when superstition and folly are once on foot, there is no setting
hounds to their progress. Gold, as a matter of course, must be the
production of the sun, and the conformity in point of colour,
brightness, and value, was a sensible proof of it. By the same mode of
reasoning, the moon produced all the silver, to which it was related by
colour; Mars, all the iron, which ought to be the favourite metal of the
god of war. Venus presided over copper, which she might be well supposed
to produce, since it was found in abundance in the isle of Cyprus, the
supposed favourite residence of this goddess. In the same strain, the
other planets presided over the other metals. The languid Saturn
domineered over the lead mines, and Mercury, on account of his activity,
had the superintendency of quicksilver; while it was the province of
Jupiter to preside over tin, as this was the only metal left him, it
would appear, a kind of "Hobson's choice."
This will explain the manner in which the metals obtained the names of
the planets; and from this opinion, that each planet engendered its own
peculiar metal, they at length formed an idea that, as one planet was
more powerful than another, the metal produced by the weakest was
converted into another by the predominating influence of a stronger orb.
Lead, though really a metal, and as perfect in its kind as any of the
rest, was considered only half a metal, which, in consequence of the
languid influences of old Saturn, was left imperfect; and, therefore,
under the auspices of Jupiter, it was converted into tin; under that of
Venus, into copper: and at last into gold, under some particular aspects
of the sun. From hence, at length, arose the extravagant opinion of the
alchymists, who, with amazing sagacity, endeavoured to find out means
for hastening these changes or transmutations, which, as they conceived,
the planets performed too slowly. The world, however, became at length
convinced that the art of the alchymist was as ineffectual as the
influences of the planets, which, in a long succession of ages, had
never been known to change a mine of lead to that of tin or any other
metal.[69]
The first author we are acquainted with who talks of making gold by the
transmutation of one metal, by means of an alcahest[70] into another, is
Zozimus the Pomopolite, who lived about the commencement of the fifth
century, and who has a treatise express upon it, called, "The divine art
of making gold and silver," in manuscript, and is, as formerly, in the
library of the King of France.
As regards the universal medicine, said to depend on alchemical
research, we discover no earlier or plainer traces than in this author,
and in Aeneas Gazeus, another Greek writer, towards the close of the
same century;[71] nor among the physicians and materialists, from Moses
to Geber the Arab,[72] who is supposed to have lived in the seventh
century. In that author's work, entitled the "Philosopher's stone,"
mention is made of medicine that cures all leprous diseases. This
passage, some authors suppose, to have given the first hint of the
matter, though Geber himself, perhaps, meant no such thing; for, by
attending to the Arabic style and diction of this author, which abounds
in allegory, it is highly probable that by man he means gold, and by
leprous, or other diseases, the other metals, which, with relation to
gold, are all impure.
The origin and antiquity of alchymy have been much controverted. If any
credit may be placed on legend and tradition, it must be as old as the
flood--nay, Adam himself is represented to have been an alchymist. A
great part, not only of the heathen mythology, but of the Jewish
Scriptures, are supposed to refer to it. Thus, Suidas[73] will have the
fable of the philosopher's stone to be alluded to in the fable of the
Argonauts; and others find it in the book of Moses, as well as in other
remote places. But, if the era of the art be examined by the test of
history, it will lose much of its fancied antiquity. The manner in which
Suidas accounts for the total silence of alchymy among the old writers
is, that Dioclesian procured all the books of the ancient Egyptians to
be burnt; and that it was in these the great mysteries of chemistry were
contained.[74] Kercher asserts, that the theory of the philosopher's
stone is delivered at large in the table of Hermes, and the ancient
Egyptians were not ignorant of the art, but declined to prosecute it.
FOOTNOTES:
[66]
------ nec Babylonios Tentaris numeros.--Lib, 1. ad XI.
That is, consult not the tables of planetary calculations used by
astrologers of Babylonish origin.
[67] This conjectural science is divided into natural and judicial. The
first is confined to the study of exploring natural effects, as change
of weather, winds and storms--hurricanes, thunder, floods, earthquakes,
and the like. In this sense it is admitted to be a part of natural
philosophy. It was under this view that Mr. Good, Mr. Boyle, and Dr.
Mead pleaded for its use. The first endeavours to account for the
diversity of seasons from the situations, habitudes, and motions of the
planets; and to explain an infinity of phenomena by the contemplation of
the stars. The honourable Mr. Boyle admitted, that all physical bodies
are influenced by the heavenly bodies; and the doctor's opinion, in his
treatise concerning the power of the sun and moon, etc. is in favour of
the doctrine. But these predictions and influence are ridiculed, and
entirely exploded by the most esteemed modern philosophers, of which the
reader may have a learned specimen in Rohault's Tract. Physic. pt. II. c
27.
[68] By aspect is to be understood an angle formed by the rays of two
planets meeting on the earth, able to execute some natural power or
influence.
[69] Those who wish to read a curious monument of the follies of the
alchymists, may consult the diary of Elias Ashmole, who is rather the
historian of this vain science, than an adept. It may amuse literary
leisure to turn over his quarto volume, in which he has collected the
works of several English alchymists, to which he has subjoined his
commentary. It affords curious specimens of Rosicrucian mysteries; and
he relates stories, which vie for the miraculous, with the wildest
fancies of Arabian invention.
[70] Alcahest, in chemistry, (an obsolete term,) means a most pure and
universal menstruum or dissolvent, with which some chemists have
pretended to resolve all bodies into their first elements, and perform
other extraordinary and unaccountable operations.
[71] In this writer we find the following passage: "Such as are skilled
in the ways of nature, can take; silver and tin, and changing their
nature, can turn them into gold." He also tells us that he was "wont to
call himself a _gold-melter_ and a _chemist_."
[72] The principal Authors on alchymy are Geber, the Arab, Friar Bacon,
Sully, John and Isaac Hallendus, Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, Van
Zuchter, and Sendirogius.
[73] Corringius calls this statement in question, and asks how Suidas,
who lived but five hundred yours between them, should know what happened
eight hundred years before him? To which Borrichius the Dane, answers,
that he had learnt it of Eudemus, Helladius, Zozimus, Pamphilius, and
others, as Suidas himself relates.
[74] It does not appear that the Egyptians transmuted gold; they had
ways of separating it from all kinds of bodies, from the very mud of the
Nile, and stones of all kinds: but, adds Kercher, these secrets were
never written down, or made public, but confined to the royal family,
and handed down traditionally from father to son.