Part 7

It is said that Dr. Fludd was in possession of the MSS. of Simon Forman, the Astrologer. We have seen that the studies of Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine, were early united in several persons connected with the faculty of medicine. Real Astronomy gave birth to judicial Astrology; which offering an ample field to enthusiasm and imposture, was eagerly pursued by many who had no scientific purpose in view. It was connected with various juggling tricks and deceptions, affected an obscure jargon of language, and insinuated itself into every thing in which the hopes and fears of mankind were concerned. The professors of this pretended science were at first generally persons of mean education, in whom low cunning supplied the place of knowledge. Most of them engaged in the empirical practice of physic, and some, through the credulity of the times, even arrived at a degree of eminence in it; yet since the whole foundation of their art was folly and deceit, they nevertheless gained many proselytes and dupes, both among the well-informed and the ignorant.

When Charles the First was confined, Lilly, the famous Astrologer, was consulted for the hour that should favour his escape.

A story, which strongly proves how much Charles II. was bigoted to judicial astrology, and whose mind was certainly not unenlightened, is recorded in Burnet’s History of his own times. The most respectable characters of the age, Sir William Dugdale, Elias Ashmole, Dr. Grew, and others, were members of an astrological club. Congreve’s character of Foresight, in Love for Love, was then no uncommon person, though the humour now is scarcely intelligible. Dryden cast the nativities of his sons; and, what is remarkable, his prediction relating to his son Charles, was accomplished. This incident is of so late a date, one might hope it would have been cleared up; but, if it be a fact, it must be allowed that it forms a rational exultation for its irrational adepts.

In 1670, the passion for horoscopes and expounding the stars, prevailed in France among the first rank. The new-born child was usually presented naked to the astrologer, who read the first lineaments in its forehead, and the transverse lines in its hands, and thence wrote down its future destiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV. then a child, to old Nostradamus, whom antiquaries esteem more for his Chronicle of Provence than for his vaticinating powers. The sight of the reverend seer, with a beard which “streamed like a meteor in the air,” terrified the future hero, who dreaded a whipping from so grave a personage. Will it be credited, that one of these magicians, having assured Charles IX. that he would live as many days as he should turn about on his heels in an hour, standing on one leg, that his Majesty every morning performed that solemn exercise for an hour; the principal officers of the court, the judges, the chancellors, and generals, likewise, in compliment, standing on one leg, and turning round!

It has been reported of several famous for their astrological skill, that they have suffered a voluntary death merely to verify their own predictions: this has been said of Cardan, and Burton the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy.

It is curious to observe the shifts to which astrologers are put when their predictions are not verified. Great winds were predicted, by a famous adept, about the year 1586. No unusual storms, however, happened. Bodin, to save the reputation of the art, applied it as a figure to some revolutions in the state, and of which there were instances enough at that moment. Among their lucky and unlucky days, they pretend to give those of various illustrious persons and of families. One is very striking:—Thursday was the unlucky day of our Henry VIII. He, his son Edward VI. Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, all died on a Thursday! This fact had, no doubt, great weight in this controversy of the astrologers with their adversaries.

The life of Lilly, the astrologer, written by himself, is a curious work. He is the Sidrophel of Butler. It contains so much artless narrative, and at the same time so much palpable imposture, that it is difficult to know when he is speaking what he really believes to be the truth. In a sketch of the state of astrology in his day, those adepts, whose characters he has drawn, were the lowest miscreants of the town. They all speak of each other as rogues and impostors. Such were Booker, George Wharton, Gadbury, who gained a livelihood by practising on the credulity of even men of learning so late as in 1650, to the 18th century. In Ashmole’s life an account of these artful impostors may be found. Most of them had taken the air in the pillory, and others had conjured themselves up to the gallows. This seems a true statement of facts. But Lilly informs us, that in his various conferences with angels, their voice resembled that of the Irish! The work is certainly curious for the anecdotes of the times it contains. The amours of Lilly with his mistress are characteristic. By his own accounts, he was a very artful man; and managed matters admirably which required deception and invention.

In the time of the civil wars, astrology was in high repute. The royalists and the rebels had their astrologers as well as their soldiers! and the predictions of the former had a great influence over the latter. On this subject, it may gratify curiosity to notice three or four works which bear an excessive price; a circumstance which cannot entirely be occasioned by their rarity; and we are induced to suppose, that we still have adepts in this science, whose faith must be strong, or whose scepticism weak.

The Chaldean sages were nearly put to the route by a quarto park of artillery, fired on them by Mr. John Chamber, in 1691. Apollo did not use Marsyas more inhumanly than his scourging pen this mystical race, and his personalities made them feel more sore. However, a Norwich knight, the very Quixote of astrology, arrayed in the enchanted armour of his occult authors, encountered this pagan in a most stately carousal. He came forth with “A defence of Judiciall Astrologye, in answer to a treatise lately published by Mr. John Chamber. By Christopher Knight. Printed at Cambridge, 1603.” This is a handsome quarto of about 500 pages. Sir Christopher is a learned and lively writer, and a knight worthy to defend a better cause. But his Dulcinea had wrought most wonderfully on his imagination. This defence of this fanciful science, if science it may be called, demonstrates nothing, while it defends every thing. It confutes, according to the Knight’s own ideas: it alleges a few scattered facts in favour of astrological predictions, which may be picked up in that immensity of fabling which disgraces history. He strenuously denies, or ridicules, what the greatest writers have said against this fanciful art, while he lays great stress on some passages from obscure authors, or what is worse, from authors of no authority. The most pleasant part is at the close, where he defends the art from the objections of Mr. Chamber, by recrimination. Chamber had enriched himself by medical practice, and when he charges the astrologers by merely aiming to gain a few beggarly pence, Sir Christopher catches fire, and shews by his quotations, that if we are to despise an art by its professors attempting to subsist on it, or for the objections which may be raised against its vital principles, we ought by this argument most heartily to despise the medical science and medical men! He gives here all he can collect against physic and physicians, and from the confessions of Hippocrates and Galen, Avicenna and Agrippa, medicine appears to be a vainer science than even astrology! Sir Christopher is a shrewd and ingenious adversary; but when he says he only means to give Mr. Chamber oil for his vinegar, he has totally mistaken its quality.

The defence was answered by Thomas Vicars, in his “Madnesse of Astrologers.”

But the great work is by Lilly; and entirely devoted to the adepts. He defends nothing; for this oracle delivers his dictum, and details every event as matters not questionable. He sits on the tripod; and every page is embellished by a horoscope, which he explains with the utmost facility. This voluminous monument of the folly of the age, is a quarto, valued at some guineas! It is entitled, “Christian Astrology, modestly treated of in three Books, by William Lilly, student in Astrology, 2nd edition, 1659.” There is also a portrait of this arch rogue, and astrologer! an admirable illustration for Lavater!

Lilly’s opinions, and his pretended science, were such favourites of the age, that the learned Gataker wrote professedly against this popular delusion. Lilly, at the head of his star-expounding friends, not only formally replied to, but persecuted Gataker annually in his predictions, and even struck at his ghost, when beyond the grave. Gataker died in July 1654, and Lilly having written in his Almanack of that year, for the month of August, this barbarous Latin verse:—

Hoc in tumbo, jacet presbyter et nebulo!

Here in this tomb lies a presbyter and a knave!

He had the impudence to assert, that he had predicted Gataker’s death! But the truth is, it was an epitaph to the “lodgings to let:” it stood empty, ready for the first passenger to inhabit. Had any other of that party of any eminence died in that month, it would have been as appositely applied to him. But Lilly was an exquisite rogue, and never at a fault. Having prophesied, in his Almanack for 1650, that the parliament stood upon a tottering foundation, when taken up by a messenger during the night, he contrived to cancel the page, printed off another, and shewed his copies before the committee, assuring them that the others were none of his own, but forged by his enemies.

PRACTICAL ASTROLOGY, &c.

By the word Astrology (derived from the Greek αστηρ, a star, and λογος, a discourse,) is meant the art of prognosticating or foretelling events by the ASPECTS, POSITIONS, and INFLUENCE of the HEAVENLY BODIES.

By ASPECT is to be understood an angle formed by the rays of two planets meeting on earth, able to execute some natural power or influence; which may be better explained by the following table.

CHARACTERS OF THE │ │ │

═════════════════╤═════════════════╤═════════════════╤═════════════════ Six Northern │Six Southern │Planets. │Aspects. Signs. │ Signs. │ │ ─────────────────┴┬────────────────┴─┬───────────────┴─┬─────────────── ♈︎ Aries. │♎︎ Libra. │♄ Saturn. │☌ Conjunction. ♉︎ Taurus. │♏︎ Scorpio. │♃ Jupiter. │⚹ Sextile. ♊︎ Gemini. │♐︎ Sagittarius. │♂ Mars. │Δ Trine. ♋︎ Cancer. │♑︎ Capricorn. │☉ Sun. │☐ Quartile. ♌︎ Leo. │♒︎ Aquarius. │⦵ Earth. │☍ Opposition. ♍︎ Virgo. │♓︎ Pisces. │♀ Venus. │ │ │☿ Mercury. │ │ │☽ Luna. │ ═════════════════╧═════════════════╧═════════════════╧═════════════════

This art, or rather this conjectural science, is principally divided into NATURAL and JUDICIARY.

NATURAL ASTROLOGY

Is confined to the study of exploring natural effects, as CHANGE OF WEATHER, WINDS, 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. Goad, 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, &c. is in favour of the doctrine. But these predictions and influences 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.

JUDICIAL OR JUDICIARY ASTROLOGY

Is a further pretence to discover or foretel MORAL EVENTS, or such as have a dependence on the FREEDOM OF THE WILL. In this department of astrology 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.

The professors of this conjectural science maintain “that the Heavens are one great book, wherein God has written the history of the world; and in which every man may read his own fortune and the transactions of his time. This art, say they, had its rise from the same hands as Astronomy itself: 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; and hence were led to conclude these to be the parcæ, or fates or destinies, so much talked of, which preside at our birth, and dispose of our future fate.”

The study of Astrology, so flattering to human curiosity, got early admission into the favour of mankind, especially of the weak, ignorant, and effeminate, whose follies induced the avaricious, crafty, and designing knaves, to recommend and promote it for their own private interest and advantage.

Origin of Astrology.