ZADKIEL'S MAGAZINE, ASTROLOGY, PHRENOLOGY, MESMERISM, AND OTHER SCIENCES. Reviews :-The Poetry of Science-The Gem of the Astral Sciences 24 LONDON: HALL & CO., 25, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. ADDRESS. THE objects of this work will be the fair investigation of the Truths of Natural Philosophy, more especially with reference to the furtherance of the sciences named in our title. In carrying out these objects, we shall "shoot folly as it flies," and, wherever detected, bring it down by the withering touch of the finger of Truth. The intolerable humbng of our public writers as to all matters concerning the Philosophy of Nature, founded on observed facts, shall be unflinchingly exposed; and the niaseries and noodleisms of many socalled philosophers shall be held up to the world for its scorn, contempt, or ridicule, as they may severally deserve. We feel the solid ground of reality under our feet; and shall take our stand with a firm resolve that the world shall see the mighty operations of Nature in harmony with those celestial causes the philosophers of old witnessed, and admired, and taught their disciples as that which it pleased the Deity to create. Yes, month after month we will shew the tempests of our own land, the hurricanes of the tropics, and the earthquakes of the mountainous countries of the South; all found to accompany the fact of the Earth being placed in peculiar situations with the other bodies of the system of which it is a minute portion. We shall demonstrate that the electric fluid is a constituent part of the principle of solar, stellar, and cometary light; and that the action of this principle on the magnets of our observatories coincides with the Earth's motion among, and relative position to, the Planets, with a regularity impossible by the doctrine of chances, and, therefore, the result of laws hitherto undiscovered. Also, that the derangement of its regular flow is as destructive as that of the tide of the ocean in a storm, bringing "Disease and death to scourge the neighbouring shores ;" failure of herbage and vegetation; pestilential air, irritating the systems and exciting the brains of mankind; who are thence hurried away to violence, quarrels, insurrections, and wars. On this principle-the sole one that enables man to penetrate the dark veil of the future-were foretold the earthquakes at Lisbon at the end of 1847, in Italy in June, and in the West Indies in August 1818. Here are three distinct instances of the fore-knowledge of these fearful phenomena, to the exact time and place, full twelve months beforehand. Let the reader conceive the uproar that even one such fulfilled prediction would have made in the world, if it came from one of our great philosophers. Alas! they are innocent of any such knowledge, because they allow the leaden fingers of prejudice to close their eyes. The hurricane may roar, the earthquake destroy, but mankind have no intimation of the danger until it arrive; because modern philosophy is pleased to deny (what it dares not attempt by reference to facts to disprove) all that knowledge of the influence of the Stars which the wise men of Greece, India, China, Persia, Egypt, and Chaldea, could reverence as the choicest gift of a benevolent Creator. N.B. All Letters and Contributions, and Advertisements for the Cover, to be sent to the Editor (post free), addressed exactly as follows:-"SAMUEL SMITH, ESQ., ACRE LANE, BRIXTON, near London." VOL. I.] ZADKIEL'S MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1849. [No. 1. ON THE PRESENT STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ASTROLOLY, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS ORIGIN, &c. CHAPTER I. "The Pharisees attributed ALL to fate; or, as some of them expressed it, to the heavens, i. e. to that chain of natural causes of which the heavens were the chief, and to which, according to them, the Creator had, at the beginning, subjected all things."-BISHOP BULL. IT cannot fail to interest the readers of a new work, intended mainly to uphold the doctrines of astrology, to consider the actual condition of that ancient science, and to throw a cursory glance at the probabilities of its future march; so far as they may be judged of by the circumstances of society, in the new phasis it is obviously about to enter, after passing through its present transition state of ignorance, turmoil, and discontent. But, before we say a word on these matters, let us endeavour to define clearly what we intend by "the doctrines of astrology;" and let us shew, also, what it is that those doctrines are capable of effecting for the benefit of society, in its physical, moral, and intellectual condition. This is the more necessary, as one of the great weapons of its opponents is misrepresentation; by which astrology has been held up to the world as not only a delusion, but a cheat, a fraud, a deception; in brief, a species of treason towards man, and blasphemy against God. The word Astrology is derived from Αστης, a star, and Λογος, reason or logic; thus implying the logic of the stars, or that which we reason from them. If we trace the origin of the Greek term ASTER, a star, it is obviously formed of the two Hebrew words ASH, "fire" (the stars being called originally the fires of heaven), and TER, "to go round;" because the stars were seen to go round the earth. Among the Hebrews, the word for an astrologer was ASH-PHE, literally "the mouth-piece of the star;" because he interpreted what the star imported. Astrology, then, is "the logic of the stars," that which we |