THE GREATNESS AND THE FALL OF ASTROLOGY.
Our study of the opinions of the ancients on the various phenomena of
astronomy, leads us inevitably to the discussion of their astrology,
which has in every age and among every people accompanied it--and though
astrology be now no more as a science, or lingers only with those who
are ignorant and desirous of taking advantage of the still greater
ignorance of others--yet it is not lacking in interest as showing the
effect of the phenomena of the heavens on the human mind, when that
effect is brought to its most technical and complete development.
We must distinguish in the first place two kinds of astrology, viz.,
natural and judicial. The first proposed to foresee and announce the
changes of the seasons, the rains, wind, heat, cold, abundance, or
sterility of the ground, diseases, &c., by means of a knowledge of the
causes which act on the air and on the atmosphere. The other is occupied
with objects which would be still more interesting to men. It traced at
the moment of his birth, or at any other period of his life, the line
that each must travel according to his destiny. It pretended to
determine our characters, our passions, fortune, misfortunes, and perils
in reserve for each mortal.
We have not here to consider the natural astrology, which is a veritable
science of observation and does not deserve the name of astrology. It is
rather worthy to be called the meteorological calendar of its
cultivators. More rural than their descendants of the nineteenth
century, the ancients had recognised the connection between the
celestial phenomena and the vicissitudes of the seasons; they observed
these phenomena carefully to discover the return of the same
inclemencies; and they were able (or thought they were) to state the
date of the return of particular kinds of weather with the same
positions of the stars. But the very connection with the stars soon led
the way to a degeneracy. The autumnal constellations, for example, Orion
and Hercules, were regarded as rainy, because the rains came at the time
when these stars rose. The Egyptians who observed in the morning, called
Sirius "the burning," because his appearance in the morning was followed
by the great heat of the summer: and it was the same with the other
stars. Soon they regarded them as the cause of the rain and the
heat--although they were but remote witnesses. The star Sirius is still
connected with heat--since we call it the dog-star--and the hottest days
of the year, July 22nd to August 23rd, we call dog-days. At the
commencement of our era, the morning rising of Sirius took place on the
earlier of those days--though it does not now rise in the morning till
the middle of August--and 4,000 years ago it rose about the 20th of
June, and preceded the annual rise of the Nile.
The belief in the meteorological influence of the stars is one of the
causes of judicial astrology. This latter has simply subjected man, like
the atmosphere, to the influence of the stars; it has made dependent on
them the risings of his passions, the good and ill fortune of his life,
as well as the variations of the seasons. Indeed, it was very easy to
explain. It is the stars, or heavenly bodies in general, that bring the
winds, the rains, and the storms; their influences mixed with the action
of the rays of the sun modify the cold or heat; the fertility of the
fields, health or sickness, depend on these beneficial or injurious
influences; not a blade of grass can grow without all the stars having
contributed to its increase; man breathes the emanations which escaping
from the heavenly bodies fill the air; man is therefore in his entire
nature subjected to them; these stars must therefore influence his will
and his passions; the good and evil passages in his career, in a word,
must direct his life.
As soon as it was established that the rising of a certain star or
planet, and its aspect with regard to other planets, announced a certain
destiny to man, it was natural to believe that the rarer configurations
signified extraordinary events, which concerned great empires, nations,
and towns. And lastly, since errors grow faster than truth, it was
natural to think that the configurations which were still more rare,
such as the reunion of all the planets in conjunction with the same
star, which can occur only after thousands of centuries, while nations
have been renewed an infinity of times, and empires have been ruined,
had reference to the earth itself, which had served as the theatre for
all these events. Joined to these superstitious ideas was the tradition
of a deluge, and the belief that the world must one day perish by fire,
and so it was announced that the former event took place when all the
planets were in conjunction in the sign of the Fishes, and the latter
would occur when they all met in the sign of the Lion.
The origin of astrology, like that of the celestial sphere, was in all
probability in upper Asia.
There, the starry heavens, always pure and splendid, invited observation
and struck the imagination. We have already seen this with respect to
the more matter-of-fact portions of astronomy. The Assyrians looked upon
the stars as divinities endued with beneficent or maleficent power. The
adoration of the heavenly bodies was the earliest form of religion among
the pastoral population that came down from the mountains of Kurdestan
to the plains of Babylon. The Chaldaeans at last set apart a sacerdotal
and learned caste devoted to the observation of the heavens; and the
temples became regular observatories. Such doubtless was the tower of
Babel--a monument consecrated to the seven planets, and of which the
account has come down to us in the ancient book of Genesis.
A long series of observations put the Chaldaeans in possession of a
theological astronomy, resting on a more or less chimerical theory of
the influence of the celestial bodies on the events of nations and
private individuals. Diodorus Siculus, writing towards the commencement
of our era, has put us in possession of the most circumstantial details
that have reached us with regard to the Chaldaean priests.
At the head of the gods, the Assyrians placed the sun and moon, whose
courses and daily positions they had noted in the constellation of the
zodiac, in which the sun remained, one month in each. The twelve signs
were governed by as many gods, who had the corresponding months under
their influence. Each of these months were divided into three parts,
which made altogether thirty-six subdivisions, over which as many stars
presided, called gods of consultation. Half of these gods had under
their control the things which happen above the earth, and the other
half those below. The sun and moon and the five planets occupied the
most elevated rank in the divine hierarchy and bore the name of gods of
interpretation. Among these planets Saturn or old Bel, which was
regarded as the highest star and the most distant from us, was
surrounded by the greatest veneration; he was the interpreter _par
excellence_--the revealer. Each of the other planets had his own
particular name. Some of them, such as _Bel_ (Jupiter), _Merodaez_
(Mars), _Nebo_ (Mercury), were regarded as male, and the others, as
_Sin_ (the Moon), and _Mylitta_ or _Baulthis_ (Venus), as females; and
from their position relative to the zodiacal constellations, which were
also called _Lords_ or masters of the _Gods_, the Chaldaeans derived the
knowledge of the destiny of the men who were born under such and such a
conjunction--predictions which the Greeks afterwards called horoscopes.
The Chaldaeans invented also relations between each of the planets and
meteorological phenomena, an opinion partly founded on fortuitous
coincidences which they had more or less frequently observed. In the
time of Alexander their credit was considerable, and the king of
Macedonia, either from superstition or policy, was in the habit of
consulting them.
It is probable that the Babylonian priests, who referred every natural
property to sidereal influences, imagined there were some mysterious
relations between the planets and the metals whose colours were
respectively somewhat analogous to theirs. Gold corresponded to the sun,
silver to the moon, lead to Saturn, iron to Mars, tin to Jupiter, and
mercury still retains the name of the planet with which it was
associated. It is less than two centuries ago, since the metals have
ceased to be designated by the signs of their respective planets.
Alchemy, the mother of chemistry, was an intimately connected sister of
Astrology, the mother of Astronomy.
Egyptian civilisation dates back to a no less remote period than that of
Babylon. Not less careful observers than the Babylonish astrologers of
the meteors and the atmospheric revolutions, they could predict certain
phenomena, and they gave it out that they had themselves been the cause
of them.
Diodorus Siculus tells us that the Egyptian priests pretty generally
predicted the years of barrenness or abundance, the contagions, the
earthquakes, inundations, and comets. The knowledge of celestial
phenomena made an essential part of the theology of the Egyptians as it
did of the Chaldaeans. They had colleges of priests specially attached to
the study of the stars, at which Pythagoras, Plato, and Eudoxus were
instructed.
Religion was besides completely filled with the symbols relating to the
sun or moon. Each month, each decade, each day was consecrated to a
particular god. These gods, to the number of thirty, were called in the
Alexandrine astronomy _decans_ ([Greek: dekavoi]). The festivals were
marked by the periodical return of certain astronomical phenomena, and
those heliacal risings to which any mythological ideas were attached,
were noted with great care. We find even now proof of this old
sacerdotal science in the zodiac sculptured on the ceilings of certain
temples, and in the hieroglyphic inscriptions relating to celestial
phenomena.
According to the Egyptians, who were no less aware than the Greeks, of
the influence of atmospheric changes on our organs, the different stars
had a special action on each part of the body. In the funeral rituals
which were placed at the bottom of the coffins, constant allusion is
made to this theory. Each limb of the dead body was placed under the
protection of a particular god. The divinities divided between them, so
to speak, the spoils of the dead. The head belonged to Ra, or the Sun,
the nose and lips to Anubis, and so on. To establish the horoscope of
anyone, this theory of specific influences was combined with the state
of the heavens at the time of his birth. It seems even to have been the
doctrine of the Egyptians, that a particular star indicated the coming
of each man into the world, and this opinion was held also by the Medes,
and is alluded to in the Gospels. In Egypt, as in Persia and Chaldaea,
the science of nature was a sacred doctrine, of which magic and
astrology constituted the two branches, and in which the phenomena of
the universe were attached very firmly to the divinities or genii with
which they believed it filled. It was the same in the primitive
religions of Greece.
The Thessalian women had an especially great reputation in the art of
enchantments. All the poets rival one another in declaring how they are
able, by their magical hymns, to bring down the moon. Menander, in his
comedy entitled _The Thessalian_, represents the mysterious ceremonies
by the aid of which these sorcerers force the moon to leave the heavens,
a prodigy which so completely became the type of enchantments that
Nonnus tells us it is done by the Brahmins. There was, in addition,
another _cultus_ in Greece, namely, that of Hecate with mysterious rays,
the patron of sorcerers. Lucian of Samosate--if the work on astrology
which is ascribed to him be really his--justifies his belief in the
influence of the stars in the following terms:--"The stars follow their
orbit in the heaven; but independently of their motion, they act upon
what passes here below. If you admit that a horse in a gallop, that
birds in flying, and men in walking, make the stones jump or drive the
little floating particles of dust by the wind of their course, why
should you deny that the stars have any effect? The smallest fire sends
us its emanations, and although it is not for us that the stars burn,
and they care very little about warming us, why should we not receive
any emanations from them? Astrology, it is true, cannot make that good
which is evil. It can effect no change in the course of events; but it
renders a service to those who cultivate it by announcing to them good
things to come; it procures joy by anticipation at the same time that it
fortifies them against the evil. Misfortune, in fact, does not take them
by surprise, the foreknowledge of it renders it easier and lighter. That
is my way of looking at astrology."
Very different is the opinion of the satirist Juvenal, who says that
women are the chief cultivators of it. "All that an astrologer predicts
to them," he says, "they think to come from the temple of Jupiter. Avoid
meeting with a lady who is always casting up her _ephemerides_, who is
so good an astrologer that she has ceased to consult, and is already
beginning to be consulted; such a one on the inspection of the stars
will refuse to accompany her husband to the army or to his native land.
If she only wishes to drive a mile, the hour of departure is taken from
her book of astrology. If her eye itches and wants rubbing, she will do
nothing till she has run through her conjuring book. If she is ill in
bed, she will take her food only at the times fixed in her _Petosiris_.
Women of second-rate condition," he adds, "go round the circus before
consulting their destiny, after which they show their hands and face to
the diviner."
When Octavius came into the world a senator versed in astrology,
Nigidius Figulus, predicted the glorious destiny of the future emperor.
Livia, the wife of Tiberius, asked another astrologer, Scribius, what
would be the destiny of her infant; his reply was, they say, like the
other's.
The house of Poppea, the wife of Nero, was always full of astrologers.
It was one of the soothsayers attached to her house, Ptolemy, who
predicted to Otho his elevation to the empire, at the time of the
expedition into Spain, where he accompanied him.
The history of astrology under the Roman empire supplies some very
curious stories, of which we may select an illustrative few.
Octavius, in company with Agrippa, consulted one day the astrologer
Theagenes. The future husband of Julia, more credulous or more curious
than the nephew of Caesar, was the first to take the horoscope. Theagenes
foretold astonishing prosperity for him. Octavius, jealous of so happy a
destiny, and fearing that the reply would be less favourable to him,
instead of following the example of his companion, refused at first to
state the day of his birth. But, curiosity getting the better of him, he
decided to reply. No sooner had he told the day of his birth than the
astrologer threw himself at his feet, and worshipped him as the future
master of the empire. Octavius was transported with joy, and from that
moment was a firm believer in astrology. To commemorate the happy
influence of the zodiacal sign under which he was born, he had the
picture of it struck on some of the medals that were issued in his
reign.
The masters of the empire believed in astrological divination, but
wished to keep the advantages to themselves. They wanted to know the
future without allowing their subjects to do the same. Nero would not
permit anyone to study philosophy, saying it was a vain and frivolous
thing, from which one might take a pretext to divine future events. He
feared lest some one should push his curiosity so far as to wish to
find out when and how the emperor should die--a sort of indiscreet
question, replies to which lead to conspiracies and attempts. This was
what the heads of the state were most afraid of.
Tiberius had been to Rhodes, to a soothsayer of renown, to instruct
himself in the rules of astrology. He had attached to his person the
celebrated astrologer Thrasyllus, whose fate-revealing science he proved
by one of those pleasantries which are only possible with tyrants.
Whenever Tiberius consulted an astrologer he placed him in the highest
part of his palace, and employed for his purpose an ignorant and
powerful freedman, who brought by difficult paths, bounded by
precipices, the astrologer whose science his Majesty wished to prove. On
the return journey, if the astrologer was suspected of indiscretion or
treachery, the freedman threw him into the sea, to bury the secret.
Thrasyllus having been brought by the same route across these
precipices, struck Tiberius with awe while he questioned him, by showing
him his sovereign power, and easily disclosing the things of the future.
Caesar asked him if he had taken his own horoscope, and with what signs
were marked that day and hour for himself. Thrasyllus then examined the
position and the distance of the stars; he hesitated at first, then he
grew pale; then he looked again, and finally, trembling with
astonishment and fear, he cried out that the moment was perilous, and
he was very near his last hour. Tiberius then embraced him and
congratulated him on having escaped a danger by foreseeing it; and
accepting henceforth all his predictions as oracles, he admitted him to
the number of his intimate friends.
Tiberius had a great number of people put to death who were accused of
having taken their horoscope to know what honours were in store for
them, although in secret he took the horoscopes of great people, that he
might ascertain that he had no rivalry to fear from them. Septimus
Severus was very nearly paying with his head for one of those
superstitious curiosities that brought the ambitious of the time to the
astrologer. In prosperous times he had gained faith in their
predictions, and consulted them about important acts. Having lost his
wife, and wishing to contract a second marriage, he took the horoscopes
of the well-connected ladies who were at the time open to marriage. None
of their fortunes, taken by the rules of astrology, were encouraging. He
learnt at last that there was living in Syria a young woman to whom the
Chaldaeans had predicted that she should be the wife of a king. Severus
was as yet but a legate. He hastened to demand her in marriage, and he
obtained her; Julia was the name of the woman who was born under so
happy a star; but was he the crowned husband which the stars had
promised to the young Syrian? This reflection soon began to perplex
Severus, and to get out of his perplexity he went to Sicily to consult
an astrologer of renown. The matter came to the ears of the Emperor
Commodus; and judge of his anger! The anger of Commodus was rage and
frenzy; but the event soon gave the response that Severus was seeking in
Sicily,--Commodus was strangled.
Divination which had the emperor for its object at last came to be a
crime of high treason. The rigorous measures resorted to against the
indiscreet curiosity of ambition took more terrible proportions under
the Christian emperors.
Under Constantine, a number of persons who had applied to the oracles
were punished with cruel tortures.
Under Valens, a certain Palladius was the agent of a terrible
persecution. Everyone found himself exposed to being denounced for
having relations with soothsayers. Traitors slipped secretly into houses
magic formulae and charms, which then became so many proofs against the
inhabitant. The fear was so great in the East, says Ammienus
Marcellinus, that a great number burned their books, lest matter should
be found in them for an accusation of magic or sorcery.
One day in anger, Vitellius commanded all the astrologers to leave Italy
by a certain day. They responded by a poster, which impudently commanded
the prince to leave the earth before that date, and at the end of the
year Vitellius was put to death; on the other hand, the confidence
accorded to astrologers led sometimes to the greatest extremes. For
instance, after having consulted Babylus, Nero put to death all those
whose prophecies promised the elevation of Heliogabalus. Another
instance was that of Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina. The latter
was struck with the beauty of a gladiator. For a long time she vainly
strove in secret with the passion that consumed her, but the passion did
nothing but increase. At last Faustina revealed the matter to her
husband, and asked him for some remedy that should restore peace to her
troubled soul. The philosophy of Marcus Aurelius could not suggest
anything. So he decided to consult the Chaldaeans, who were adepts at the
art of mixing philters and composing draughts. The means prescribed were
more simple than might have been expected from their complicated
science; it was that the gladiator should be cut in pieces. They added
that Faustina should afterwards be anointed with the blood of the
victim. The remedy was applied, the innocent athlete was immolated, and
the empress afterwards only dreamed of him with great pleasure.
The first Christians were as much addicted to astrology as the other
sects. The Councils of Laodicea (366, A.D.), of Arles (314), of Agdus
(505), Orleans (511), Auxerre (570), and Narbonne (589), condemned the
practice. According to a tradition of the commencement of our era, which
appears to have been borrowed from Mazdeism, it was the rebel angels who
taught men astrology and the use of charms.
Under Constantius the crime of high treason served as a pretext for
persecution. A number of people were accused of it, who simply continued
to practise the ancient religion. It was pretended that they had
recourse to sorceries against the life of the emperor, in order to bring
about his fall. Those who consulted the oracles were menaced with severe
penalties and put to death by torture, under the pretence that by
dealing with questions of fate they had criminal intentions. Plots
without number multiplied the accusations; and the cruelty of the judges
aggravated the punishments. The pagans, in their turn had to suffer the
martyrdom which they had previously inflicted on the early disciples of
Christ--or rather, to be truer, it was authority, always intolerable,
whether pagan or Christian, that showed itself inexorable against those
who dared to differ from the accepted faith. Libanius and Jamblicus were
accused of having attempted to discover the name of the successor to the
empire. Jamblicus, being frightened at the prosecution brought against
him, poisoned himself. The name only of philosopher was sufficient to
found an accusation upon. The philosopher Maximus Diogenes Alypius, and
his son Hierocles, were condemned to lose their lives on the most
frivolous pretence. An old man was put to death because he was in the
habit of driving off the approach of fever by incantations, and a young
man who was surprised in the act of putting his hands alternately to a
marble and his breast, because he thought that by counting in this way
seven times seven, he might cure the stomach-ache, met with the same
fate.
Theodosius prohibited every kind of manifestation or usage connected
with pagan belief. Whoever should dare to immolate a victim, said his
law, or consult the entrails of the animals he had killed, should be
regarded as guilty of the crime of high treason.
The fact of having recourse to a process of divination was sufficient
for an accusation against a man.
Theodosius II. thought that the continuation of idolatrous practices had
drawn down the wrath of heaven, and brought upon them the recent
calamities that had afflicted his empire--the derangement of the seasons
and the sterility of the soil--and he thundered out terrible threats
when his faith and his anger united themselves into fanaticism.
He wrote as follows to Florentius, prefect of the praetorium in 439, the
year that preceded his death:--
"Are we to suffer any longer from the seasons being upset by the effect
of the divine wrath, on account of the atrocious perfidy of the pagans,
which disturbs the equilibrium of nature? For what is the cause that now
the spring has no longer its ordinary beauty, that the autumn no longer
furnishes a harvest to the laborious workman and that the winter, by its
rigour, freezes the soil and renders it sterile?"
Perhaps we are unduly amused with these ideas of Theodosius so long as
we retain the custom of asking the special intervention of Providence
for the presence or absence of rain!
In the middle ages, when astrology took such a hold on the world,
several philosophers went so far as to consider the celestial vault as a
book, in which each star, having the value of one of the letters of the
alphabet, told in ineffaceable characters the destiny of every empire.
The book of _Unheard-of Curiosities_, by Gaffarel, gives us the
configuration of these celestial characters, and we find them also in
the writings of Cornelius Agrippa. The middle ages took their
astrological ideas from the Arabians and Jews. The Jews themselves at
this epoch borrowed their principles from such contaminated sources that
we are not able to trace in them the transmission of the ancient ideas.
To give an example, Simeon Ben-Jochai, to whom is attributed the famous
book called _Zohar_, had attained in their opinion such a prodigious
acquaintance with celestial mysteries as indicated by the stars, that he
could have read the divine law in the heavens before it had been
promulgated on the earth. During the whole of the middle ages, whenever
they wanted to clear up doubts about geography or astronomy, they always
had recourse to this Oriental science, as cultivated by the Jews and
Arabians. In the thirteenth century Alphonse X. was very importunate
with the Jews to make them assist him with their advice in his vast
astronomical and historical works.
Nicholas Oresmus, when the most enlightened monarch in Europe was
supplying Du Guesclin with an astrologer to guide him in his strategical
operations, was physician to Charles V. of France, who was himself
devoted to astrology, and gave him the bishopric of Lisieux. He composed
the _Treatise of the Sphere_, of which we have already spoken. A few
years later, a learned man, the bishop Peter d'Ailly, actually dared to
take the horoscope of Jesus Christ, and proved by most certain rules
that the great event which inaugurated the new era was marked with very
notable signs in astrology.
Mathias Corvin, King of Hungary, never undertook anything without first
consulting the astrologers. The Duke of Milan and Pope Paul also
governed themselves by their advice. King Louis XI., who so heartily
despised the rest of mankind, and had as much malice in him as he had
weakness, had a curious adventure with an astrologer.
It was told him that an astrologer had had the hardihood to predict the
death of a woman of whom the king was very fond. He sent for the
wretched prophet, gave him a severe reprimand, and then asked him the
question, "You, who know everything, when will _you_ die?" The
astrologer, suspecting a trick, replied immediately, "Sire, three days
before your Majesty." Fear and superstition overcame the monarch's
resentment, and the king took particular care of the adroit impostor.
It is well known how much Catherine de Medicis was under the influence
of the astrologers. She had one in her Hotel de Soissons in Paris, who
watched constantly at the top of a tower. This tower is still in
existence, by the Wool-Market, which was built in 1763 on the site of
the hotel. It is surmounted by a sphere and a solar dial, placed there
by the astronomer Pingre.
One of the most celebrated of the astrologers who was under her
patronage was Nostradamus. He was a physician of Provence, and was born
at St. Reny in 1503. To medicine he joined astrology, and undertook to
predict future events. He was called to Paris by Catherine in 1556, and
attempted to write his oracles in poetry. His little book was much
sought after during the whole of the remainder of the sixteenth century,
and even in the beginning of the next. According to contemporary writers
many imitations were made of it. It was written in verses of four lines,
and was called _Quatrains Astronomiques_. As usual, the prophecies were
obscure enough to suit anything, and many believers have thought they
could trace in the various verses prophecies of known events, by duly
twisting and manipulating the sense.
A very amusing prophecy, which happened to be too clear to leave room
for mistakes as to its meaning, and which turned out to be most
ludicrously wrong, was one contained in a little book published in 1572
with this title:--_Prognostication touching the marriage of the very
honourable and beloved Henry, by the Grace of God King of Navarre, and
the very illustrious Princess Marguerite of France, calculated by Master
Bernard Abbatio, Doctor in Medicine, and Astrologer to the very
Christian King of France._
First he asked if the marriage would be happy, and says:--"Having in my
library made the figure of the heavens, I found that the lord of the
ascendant is joined to the lord of the seventh house, which is for the
woman of a trine aspect, from whence I have immediately concluded,
according to the opinion of Ptolemy, Haly, Zael, Messahala, and many
other sovereign astrologers, that they will love one another intensely
all their lives." In point of fact they always detested each other.
Again, "as to length of life, I have prepared another figure, and have
found that Jupiter and Venus are joined to the sun with fortification,
and that they will approach a hundred years;" after all Henri IV. died
before he was sixty. "Our good King of Navarre will have by his most
noble and virtuous Queen many children; since, after I had prepared
another figure of heaven, I found the ascendant and its lord, together
with the moon, all joined to the lord of the fifth house, called that of
children, which will be pretty numerous, on account of Jupiter and also
of Venus;" and yet they had no children! "Jupiter and Venus are found
domiciled on the aquatic signs, and since these two planets are found
concordant with the lord of the ascendant, all this proves that the
children will be upright and good, and that they will love their father
and mother, without doing them any injury, nor being the cause of their
destruction, as is seen in the fruit of the nut, which breaks, opens,
and destroys the stock from which it took its birth. The children will
live long, they will be good Christians, and with their father will make
themselves so benign and favourable towards those of our religion, that
at last they will be as beloved as any man of our period, and there will
be no more wars among the French, as there would have been but for the
present marriage. God grant us grace that so long as we are in this
transitory life we may see no other king but Charles IX., the present
King of France." And yet these words were written in the year of the
massacre of St. Bartholomew's day! and the marriage was broken off, and
Henri IV. married to Marie de Medici. So much for the astrological
predictions!
The aspect in which astrology was looked upon by the better minds even
when it was flourishing may be illustrated by two quotations we may
make, from Shakespeare and Voltaire.
Our immortal poet puts into the mouth of Edmund in _King Lear_:--"This
is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune
(often the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters
the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains by necessity;
fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treacherous, 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 libertine to lay his
goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father married my mother
under the Dragon's tail; and my nativity was under _Ursa major_; so that
it follows I am rough lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had
the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my birth."
Voltaire writes thus:--"This error is ancient, and that is enough. The
Egyptians, the Chaldaeans, the Jews could predict, and therefore we can
predict now. If no more predictions are made it is not the fault of the
art. So said the alchemists of the philosopher's stone. If you do not
find to-day it is because you are not clever enough; but it is certain
that it is in the clavicle of Solomon, and on that certainty more than
two hundred families in Germany and France have been ruined. Do you
wonder either that so many men, otherwise much exalted above the vulgar,
such as princes or popes, who knew their interests so well, should be so
ridiculously seduced by this impertinence of astrology. They were very
proud and very ignorant. There were no stars but for them; the rest of
the universe was _canaille_, for whom the stars did not trouble
themselves. I have not the honour of being a prince. Nevertheless, the
celebrated Count of Boulainvilliers and an Italian, called Colonne, who
had great reputation in Paris, both predicted to me that I should
infallibly die at the age of thirty-two. I have had the malice already
to deceive them by thirty years, for which I humbly beg their pardon."
The method by which these predictions were arrived at consisted in
making the different stars and planets responsible for different parts
of the body, different properties, and different events, and making up
stories from the association of ideas thus obtained, which of course
admitted of the greatest degree of latitude. The principles are
explained by Manilius in his great poem entitled _The Astronomicals_,
written two thousand years ago.
According to him the sun presided over the head, the moon over the right
arm, Venus over the left, Jupiter over the stomach, Mars the parts
below, Mercury over the right leg, and Saturn over the left.
Among the constellations, the Ram governed the head; the Bull the neck;
the Twins the arms and shoulders; the Crab the chest and the heart; the
Lion the stomach; the abdomen corresponded to the sign of the Virgin;
the reins to the Balance; then came the Scorpion; the Archer, governing
the thighs; the He-goat the knees; the Waterer the legs; and the Fishes
the feet.
Albert the Great assigned to the stars the following influences:--Saturn
was thought to rule over life, changes, sciences, and buildings;
Jupiter over honour, wishes, riches, and cleanness; Mars over war,
prisons, marriages, and hatred; the sun over hope, happiness, gain, and
heritages; Venus over friendships and amours; Mercury over illness,
debts, commerce, and fear; the moon over wounds, dreams, and larcenies.
Each of these stars also presides over particular days of the week,
particular colours, and particular metals.
The sun governed the Sunday; the moon, Monday; Mars, Tuesday; Mercury,
Wednesday; Jupiter, Thursday; Venus, Friday; and Saturn, Saturday; which
is partially indicated by our own names of the week, but more
particularly in the French names, which are each and all derived from
these stars.
The sun represented yellow; the moon, white; Venus, green; Mars, red;
Jupiter, blue; Saturn, black; Mercury, shaded colours.
We have already indicated the metals that corresponded to each.
The sun was reckoned to be beneficent and favourable; Saturn to be sad,
morose, and cold; Jupiter, temperate and benign; Mars, vehement; Venus,
benevolent and fertile; Mercury, inconstant; and the moon, melancholy.
Among the constellations, the Ram, the Lion, and the Archer were hot,
dry and vehement. The Bull, the Virgin, and the He-goat were heavy,
cold, and dry; the Twins, the Balance, and the Waterer were light,
hot, and moist; the Crab, Scorpion, and the Fishes were moist, soft, and
cold.
[Illustration: PLATE XV.--AN ASTROLOGER AT WORK.]
In this way the heavens were made to be intimately connected with the
affairs of earth; and astrology was in equally intimate connection with
astronomy, of which it may in some sense be considered the mother. The
drawers of horoscopes were at one time as much in request as lawyers or
doctors. One Thurneisen, a famous astrologer and an extraordinary man,
who lived last century at the electoral court of Berlin, was at the same
time physician, chemist, drawer of horoscopes, almanack maker, printer,
and librarian. His astrological reputation was so widespread that
scarcely a birth took place in families of any rank in Germany, Poland,
Hungary, or even England without there being sent an immediate envoy to
him to announce the precise moment of birth. He received often three and
sometimes as many as ten messages a day, and he was at last so pressed
with business that he was obliged to take associates and agents.
In the days of Kepler we know that astrology was more thought of than
astronomy, for though on behalf of the world he worked at the latter,
for his own daily bread he was in the employ of the former, making
almanacks and drawing horoscopes that he might live.