Chapter I. Knowledge may be acquired by Astronomy to a certain Extent（续 1）

% Chap. II.] | PTOLEMY’S TETRABIBLOS. | 7

pronounced; as well as the favourable and unfavourable events indicated by the state of the Ambient, and liable to attend the individual at certain future periods; since, for instance, an event dependent on one disposition of the Ambient will be advantageous to a particular temperament: and that resulting from another unfavourable and injurious.’ From these circumstances, and others of similar import, the _possibility of prescience is certainly evident. — |

_There are, however, some plausible assailants of this doc-' trine, whose attacks although greatly misapplied seem yet worthy of the following observations. |

In the first place, the science demands the greatest study

and aconstant attention to a multitude of different points ; and as all persons who are but imperfectly practised in it must necessarily commit frequent mistakes, it has been supposed that even such events as have been truly predicted have taken place by chance only, and not from any operative cause in nature. But it should be remembered that these mistakes ‘arise, not from any deficiency or want of power in the science itself, but from the incompetency of unqualified persons who pretend to exercise it. And besides this, the majority of the persons who set themselves up as ‘professors of this science, avail themselves of its name and credit for the sake of passing off some other mode of divination; by that means defrauding the ignorant, and pretending to foretel many things which from their nature cannot possibly be foreknowns and consequently affording opportunities to more intelligent people to impugn the value even of such predictions as can rationally be made. The reproach, however, thus brought upon the science: is wholly unmerited ; for it would be equally just to condemn - all other branches of philosophy, because each numbers among its professors some mischievous pretenders,

‘Secondly, it is not attempted to be denied that any individual, although he may have attained to the greatest possi-

ble accuracy in the science, must, stidl te hable to frequent error, arising out of the very nature of his undertaking, and fram the weakness of his limited capacity in comparison with the magnitude of his object. For the whole theory of the. quality of matter is supported. by inference rather than by positive and scientific proof; and this is caused principally by the concretion of its temperament out of 2 Miultitude of disaimilas ingredients. And, although the former configurations of the: planets have been observed to praduce certain consequences (which have been adapted to configurations now taking place), and ane, after Jong periods, and in a greater o¢ lesa degree, resembled by subsequent - configurations, yet these subsequent configurations. never become exactly similar ta those which have preceded thens. For an. entire return of all the beavenly bodes to: the exact situation, in which they have onee atood with regard to. the: earth will never take, place, ov at least nat in any pesiod de~ terminable by human caleulation, whatever vain attempts may be made ta acquire suck unattainable knowledge *. The examples referred te for guidance being therefore nos exactly similar to the existing: cases to. which they ave now applied, tt. muat naturally follew thet predictions. are sometimes not barne aut by the eweats. Hence: arises the sole difficulty in the consideration af events. preduced by the Ambient. Far na other concurrent eause has been hitherto

* Thaze sners reason to suppose that this was a favorite speculation amang the autients. iz Scipie’s Dream, as related by Cicero, the phantom of his Wustrious graydfether i¢. made to speak of thia entire return of all the celestial bodies ta same original position whiek they had once held, as being the completion of the revolution af ane great untrecsal year: and the phantom adds, “ but I must ac- “" quaint you that net one-twentiett part of that great year has been

ah notatien is fem memery, aad se may sat be verhally correc

combined with the motion of the heavenly bodies; although the doctrine of nativities, particularly that part of it relating to peculiar individual temperament, demands also the consideration of other concomitant causes, which are neither trifling nor unimportant, ‘but essentially potent in affecting the individual properties of the creatures born. Thus the variety in seed has the chief influence in supplying the peculiar quality of each species; for, under the same disposition of ‘the Ambient and of the horizon, each various kind of seed prevails in determining the distinct formation of its own proper species; thus man is born, or the horse is foaled; and by the same law are brought forth all the other various creatures and productions of the earth. It 1s also to be remembered, that considerable variations are caused in all creatures by the respective places where they may be brought forth: for although, under the same disposition of the Ambient, the germs of the future creatures may be of one species, whether human or of the’horse, the difference in situation, of the places in which they are generated,

produces a dissimilarity in the body and spirit of one from the body and spirit of another: and in addition to this it must be considered that different modes of nurture, and the variety of ranks, manners, and customs, contribute to render the course of life of one individual greatly different from that of another * ; consequently, unless every one of these

* In this passage the author seems to have anticipated, and exposed the absurdity of an argument -now considered very forcible against astrology: viz. that “if the art were true, then any two in- “ dividuals born under the same meridian, in the same latitude, and “ atthe same moment of time, must have one and the same destiny ; “ although one were born a prince, and the other a mendicant.” Sach a monstrous conclusien is nowhere authorized by any astrological writer ; itis, on the contrary, always maintained by all of them, that the worldly differences and distinctions, alluded to in the text, inevitably prevent this exact resemblance of destiny; and all that

varieties be duly blended with the causes arising in the Ambient, the pre-judgment of any event will doubtless be very incomplete. For, although the greatest multiplicity of power exists in the Ambient, and although all other things act as concurrent causes in unison with it, and can ‘never claim it as a concurtent cause in subservience to them, there will still, nevertheless, be a great deficiency in predic-- tions attempted to be made by means of the heavenly motions alone, without regard to the other concurrent causes just now adverted to.

Under these circumstances, it would seem judicious neither to deny altogether the practicability of prescience, . because prognostications thus imperfectly derived are sometimes liable to be fallacious; nor, on the other hand, to admit that all events, whatever, are open to previous enquiry; as if such enquiry could in all cases be securely conducted without having recourse to mere inference, and as if it were not limited by the narrow extent of mere human abilities. The art of navigation, for instance, 18 not rejected, although it is in many points incomplete; therefore the bare fact that predictions are frequently imperfect cannot authorise

. they presume-to assert is, that, in their respective degrees, any two

individuals, so born, will have a partial similarity in the leading features of their fate. Whether their assertion is uniformly borne out, I will net take upon me to Fee tee eo tean eee Pee ‘subjoin the following fact :—

In the newspapers of the month of February 1820, the death of a Mr. Sanruel Hemmings is noticed: it was stated that he had been an ironmonger, and prosperous in trade; that he was born on fhe © 4th of June 1738, at nearly the same moment as his Iate Majesty, and in the same parish of St. Martin’s in the Fields; that he went into business for himself in October 1760; that he married on the Sth September, 1761; and finally, after other events of his life had resembled those which happened to the late King, that he died on Saturday the 29th January 1820.