STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ASTROLOGY. After seventeen hundred years and eighty-eight 37 This same prediction will be found in a work published at Lyons, in 1550, entitled Le Livre de l'Estat et Mutations des Temps, by Richard Roussat. Moreover, what is very amusing, a refutation of the prophecy was published by the Sieur de Pavillon, in 1560, 230 years before the fulfilment. This Lord du Pavillon says. "Is it not strange that in the year 1555 they threaten us with having only 235 years to live as we are; that is to say, till the year 1790? These are the things that make weak minds tremble with a terrible fear, and plunge them into a sea of disturbing passions. Yet this event with which they torment themselves is not to take place till the year 1789, the result of ten Saturnal revolutions! They calculate, also, that twenty-five years afterwards, in 1814, this revolution will stop. Yet, nevertheless, they make a marvellous doubt if the world will last so long! This Pavillon was, no doubt, one of the sceptical philosophers of his time, who regarded himself as by far too intelligent to believe in the fooleries of popular superstition. Yet how wofully has the philosophical wiseacre of the sixteenth century been mistaken! The prediction which he sneered at was the most notable, the most accurate and genuine prediction of which astrology can boast; nor do we believe that any prophecy can be found in the annals of the world so astoundingly precise. The Journal des Debats calls it a "bizarre coincidence," seeming thus to refer it to chance. But it is all the result of mathematical calculation. And, moreover, the coincidence is twofold, which, in the estimation of all sound logicians, at once dispels all ideas of chance. Had the date of the commencement of the Revolution alone been given, it would have been sufficiently remarkable; but the termination is given with equal precision; and thus two powerful witnesses, instead of one only, are found to substantiate the truth. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every thing be established." Two stronger witnesses cannot be found. The present state of astrology is full of hope. The superstitions of the seventeenth century, like the serpents that attacked Hercules of yore, have been already strangled by the astrological writers of the nineteenth; and we begin to see the ancient science of the stars stand forth in all the majesty of eternal truth. Its foes are found nowhere but among the foes of all free inquiry, the more pernicious because assuming the garb of lovers of freedom; a ready and deceitful garb, which the whig, or, more properly, the political-economy school of politicians adopt. They are great friends of the people forsooth, so long as they may be leaders; but tell them that something more than their panacea is required, and they instantly yell forth the old brutalities of physical force. They feel themselves as unable to overthrow the arguments of the astral philosopher as were the monks of 38 STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ASTROLOGY. old to disprove the theory of Galileo; but, like those monks, they threaten imprisonment, verily! And do they not know that from the depths of his cell, like as did that philosopher, the modern astrologer would still exclaim, è puor se muove, "and still it moves?" Is it thought, for a moment, at this time of day— at the close of 1848, so pregnant with new ideas, so teeming with efforts for freedom, be they wise or not-that the public of England, the energetic spirits of this age of scientific investigation, will be put off with a "pooh! pooh!" or be contented with an idle declaration that the vastly important doctrines of astrology have been settled long ago? Will they not insist that a question so full of interest for the public, so vitally important to the struggling sons of adversity as this, which declares that there are, or there are not, certain powers above us which affect our health, our minds, our destinies, and by searching into the nature of which we may possibly ameliorate the conditions of these and vastly increase our measure of happiness-will the public not insist, we ask, that this question, so high, so great, so fearfully important, be at once thoroughly investigated? Ay, indeed will they; and ay, they are doing so; for the sale of astrological books far surpasses imagination. Not a book-stall but is ransacked for old authors on the science; and the sale of modern works on the subject is beyond what our puny critics either dream of or desire. The steady sale of the Ephemerides of the Planets' places, which can be of no use but to the actual student of astrology, becomes the surest index to the existence of such students; and these are now to be counted by thousands, and found in every nook of the three kingdoms, and far away to the far west of America. The appearance of two several translations of the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy within these few years, and the eager demand for all works professing to teach astral doctrines, bespeak alike the steady and growing interest taken in the matter. Soon will the day arrive, for the dawn is perceived, when the opponents of the science must cry peccavi, and confess that our forefathers, who believed in it, were not greater fools for following the light of evidence and listening to the voice of nature, than have been the children they begat, who have, in rejecting the husks of magic and superstition, thrown away the invaluable kernel-the doctrine of astral influences on mundane events. That precious and vital truth, that the stars do influence all things in this nether world, as it was of old expressed-Astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus; the stars rule mankind, but God ruleth the stars-this sentiment is found to be not opposed to revelation, not against the honour of the Deity, not injurious to the happiness or destructive of the virtue of men; FARTHER APHORISMS OF J. CARDAN. 39 while it is found consistent with the facts that every day, every hour presents in the birth of children, whose vitality is concomitant with the presence or absence of certain of the heavenly bodies on the eastern horizon at the moment. And these are facts that no ingenuity could devise, and that no love of falsehood can disguise or disprove. FARTHER APHORISMS OF J. CARDAN. 1. In sicknesses when the Moon applies to a planet contrary to the nature of the distemper, especially if it be a fortune, the disease will be changed for the better. 2. When the Moon at the decumbiture, or first falling sick, shall be under the beams of the Sun, or with Saturn, Mars, or Dragon's tail, if the party be ancient, even her conjunction with Jupiter, Venus, or Mercury, is not without peril. 3. Saturn causes long diseases, Venus indifferent, Mercury various ones, the Moon such as return after a certain time, as vertigos, falling sickness, &c. Jupiter and Sol give short diseases, but Mars the acutest of all. 4. When the Moon is in a fixed sign, physic works the less; and if in Aries, Taurus, or Capricorn, will be apt to prove nauseous to the patient. 5. In purging it is well that both the Moon and Lord of the Ascendant be descending and under the earth; in vomiting, that they ascend. 6. Purging, vomiting, bleeding, and making issues, &c. ought to be done while the Moon is in moist signs, the chief of which is Pisces, and the next Cancer. 7. Every immoderate position of the heavens to persons weak and aged brings death; to others, violent accidents and grievous calamities. 8. The infortunes, being oriental, cause defects and occidental diseases. 9. Venus with Saturn in the 7th, and Mars elevated above them both, causes barrenness in men and abortions in women. 10. Gemini and Sagittary shew diseases that come with falling, as swooning, epilepsy, suffocation of the womb, &c. 11. When at the beginning of a disease the luminaries are both with the infortunes, or in opposition to them, the sick will hardly escape. 12. From the Moon's good aspects to the fortunes or the Sun, 40 FARTHER APHORISMS OF J. CARDAN. if not afflicted, health may be expected. If to the infortunes, or Sun's evil aspects, death may be feared. 13. Mars in the Ascendant makes the disease swift, violent, afflicting the upper parts, and disturbing the mind; and if also the luminaries and their dispositors be afflicted, then death will follow. 14. From the first hour of the day (or one in the morning. inclusive) till six, blood predominates; whence morning sleeps becomes so sweet and pleasant. From thence till noon choler; afternoon, phlegm; and from the beginning of night till midnight, melancholy. 15. Saturn in fiery signs, when the Sun is weak, causes hectic fevers; Jupiter, sanguinary ones; and if Mars behold him, putrid ones. Mars in such signs gives burning fevers of all sorts; Venus, ephemeral fevers; and if the rays of Mars be mixed, putrid ones, from phlegm. Mercury mixed ones; but if the Moon be joined with them, she makes pituitous fevers, from the corruption of the humours. Saturn mixing signification with Mars causes melancholy fevers; and if Mars be under the Sun's beams, or in the 6th, and afflict the significator, it occasions burning, pernicious fevers, of a venemous character; and if to these Saturn, or the Dragon's tail, or Venus when combust, be added, or if these planets be in Scorpio or Leo, the fever will be altogether pestilential. 16. Mischievous fevers are caused when the Sun is afflicted in Leo. 17. Watery signs threaten putrid fevers, if Mars (especially combust) have any rule in them; but earthy signs are altogether free from fevers. 18. It will be a fatal time to suffer amputation, or lose any member, when the Moon is under the Sun's beams and opposed by Mars*. 19. A tedious childbirth is to be expected if the Moon be aspected by the infortunes and a retrograde planet be in the ascendant. 20. The special significator of a disease is that unfortunate planet from whom the significator separates by a bad aspect. Also the Lord of the Ascendant shews the disease if he be unfortunate. [And the planet in the 6th house.-Z.] 21. The Lord of the Ascendant an infortune, the sick will be unruly; if a fortune, he will readily take what is prescribed. 22. The 5th house and its lord shew the medicines and their nature, whether proper or improper. 23. Several planets' significators shew that the distemper is complicated of several diseases. * We advise our hospital surgeons to test the truth of this aphorism.-Z. FARTHER APHORISMS OF J. CARDAN. 41 24. The significator of the disease in double-bodied signs signifies a relapse, or that it will change into some other distemper. 25. That sign in which the significator of the disease is posited shews the member or parts of the body principally afflicted. 26. Mercury unfortunate prejudices the phantasy, and inward faculties; and thence threatens madness, &c. especially if Mars afflict him; and if Mercury be an earthy sign, it threatens the patient will make away with himself. 27. 'Tis a very bad sign when the significator of the sickness is in the 6th, or lord of the 6th, in the 8th, or lord of the 8th in the 6th. 28. Saturn or Mercury significator and aspecting each other shews strange affections, unnatural. To cure any member, the Moon and lord of the Asc. should be free from impediment, the sign that governs the part ascending, and the Moon therein; and when you think to do good to your eyes, let the Moon be fortunate, increasing in light, and by no means in a sign of the earthy triplicity. A CHAPTER ON NOODLEISM. MODERN Zoologists have industriously ransacked the earth and rummaged the ocean for new species of known animals and animalcula; but they have recently very much confined their researches to the "British naked-eyed Medusa," or the "British Nudibrauchiate Molusca," &c., works on which have been lately published by the Ray Society. These learned gentlemen seem totally to have neglected the genus Noodle; and though a vast number of species of the "British Stultus," or in the vernacular, the Dunderhead or Noodle, may be met with even in the vicinity of London, and specimens occasionally found walking, unconscious of their own egregious folly, in the very streets of the capital, and possibly poking their noses into the rooms of the Ray Society itself, yet we are not aware of any recent treatise which gives a good account or report of the progress of this branch of zoology. purpose, therefore, to endeavour to supply the deficiency, by introducing to the reader's notice a few particulars of this extensive race. It will not be necessary to apply to Professor Forbes for instruction in the manipulation of the dredge; for we know exactly where we may any day find a shoal of these very useless fish. But before we speak of the habitat of the |