LETTER VIII. SIR, It is well known that several of our almanacks contain astrological predictions; and from the popularity of some of them, it is to be apprehended, that much evil results to the community, from their publication; and that many persons of weak minds and limited education are drawn aside from the dictates of sound reason, to give credence to the annual croakings of the wily adventurers in the cause of superstition. The brazen-faced confidence assumed by our "monthly prognosticators," the pretended fulfilment of their former predictions, and the awful endeavours of this venal tribe to make the sacred volume speak the language of astrology, are dangerous snares to the unwary. It is to be feared that many of the sons and daughters of Great Britain are led by the perusal of their bombastic fooleries, to exchange their habits of honest simplicity and in dustry for the wild vagaries of a wayward fancy, and that restless irregular conduct which results from a discontented spirit, and a pe rturbed intellect "Illius occursus etiam vitare memento, In cujus manibus, cen pinguia succina, tritas "Beware the woman too, and shun her sight, JUVENAL. By whom a greasy almanack is borne, Of the twelve houses, and their lords is free." These considerations have induced me to offer some observations on mundane astrology, which, in the preface to Zadkiel's Grammar, is defined to be "The art of foreseeing, by the positions of the heavenly bodies at certain periods, the circumstances of nations, such as wars, pestilences, inundations, earthquakes, &c." And here I must again remind the reader, that all the empires, kingdoms, cities, and towns of the world, are supposed to be ruled by some of the heavenly bodies; but whether the planets, the signs of the zodiac, or both, be invested with this dominion, is a question which yet remains unsettled among the professors; every astrologer has his own system for prediction, and with inflexible tenaciousness, asserts its infallibility. Lilly informs us (Horary Astrology, page 38) that, according to some late authors "Saturn rules over Saxony, Bavaria, Stiria, Romandiola, Ravenna, Constantia, and Ingoldstadt;" [and, in page 40, that] "Babylon, Persia, Hungary, Spain and Cullen, are ruled by Jupiter." But Zadkiel declares that he has "No opinion of the rule of the PLANETS over different countries; but in mundane astrology, the signs which rule over them must be observed." Dr. Sibly, however, coinciding with Lilly, ascribes to the planets, as well as the signs, a powerful dominion over the different countries of the globe. At page 47, Lilly makes Arabia, Austria, Vienna, Polonia, Turin, Parthia, Media, and Cyprus, subject to Venus; but Zadkiel dissents from this, and affirms that these places are not ruled by Venus, but by Taurus and Libra, the houses of that fair planet. Lilly, however, makes Taurus to preside over "Ireland, Persia, Great Poland, Asia Minor, the Archipelago, and the Southern parts of Russia; also the towns of Dublin, Mantua, Leipsic, Parma, Franconia, Lorrain; also the islands of Cyprus and Samos, and the port and vicinity of Navarino." Page 59. Yet, notwithstanding this difference of sentiment, which prevails among the astrological doctors upon this matter, and though many of the arrangements K are comparatively recent, yet it is impudently asserted that "the principles of astrology are now what they were three thousand years ago among the Babylonians." At page 20 of the Horoscope, we have the following observations: "The city of Paris has been found to be ruled by Virgo; London by Gemini, the nineteenth degree especially, which very degree ascended at the moment when the first pile of the New London Bridge was driven, &c. * We have ascertained that the ruling sign of Liverpool is Scorpio, and that the nineteenth degree of Scorpio is its ascendant, &c.!" - Now, were all the sons of astral science assembled were it possible, I could ask the whole posse comitatus what the nineteenth degree of Gemini has to do with the driving of the first pile of London bridge; or the nineteenth degree of Scorpio with the laying of the first stone of the Custom house, at Liverpool, they would be astounded at the interro-. gatory! If there be no connexion between such buildings and these degrees of the ecliptic, mundane astrology is false; and if there be, new bridges, custom houses, &c. ought to be commenced every day at London or Liverpool; for the 19th degree of Gemini, and the 19th degree of Scorpio, are in the horizon of those places respectively every twenty four hours throughout the year; and I will give the "Astrological Society of Great Britain," though instituted secundum artem, the rest of their existence to get free from this absurdity. I will not fatigue the patience of your readers, or exhaust my own, by making more extracts upon this subject; I have already proved in a former letter, that the very division of the ecliptic into signs and degrees is the work of art and not of nature: this consideration, together with the precession of the equinoxes, deprives the astrologer of his very data for prediction; leaves him without principles; and exhibits him to the world, as a hair-brained enthusiast, who, in the greatness of his folly" (Prov. v. 23), has departed from every principle of sound reason. I promised, in my last, to notice Zadkiel's predictions respecting Ferdinand of Naples. 60 "The position of Saturn in square aspect to the Sun's place in the nativities of Frederick King of Denmark, and Charles XIV.King of Sweden and Norway, denotes much sorrow to these royal personages. But chiefly may the traitor King tremble in his shoes; he will ere long make up his account; even now he is full of grief. Warlike deeds are rife in many lands. [When were they not.] King Otho weeps for Greece, and his father for Bavaria; nor may Charles Amadeus be tranquil, even in Sardinia. And thou, Ferdinand of Naples, art grieved! And England! Alas! that enemy of peace, the evil Herschel, is this month again traversing the Sun's place when William IV. was born." The preceding quotation is "The voice of the stars for January, 1836," but no distant event is |