84 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



celestial bodies exert a controlling influence on terrestrial life. This 

 belief is alluded to in the earliest poetical book extant; the Almighty 

 liimself is represented as saying to Job: " Canst thou bind the sweet 

 influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou 

 bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? " The word Mazzaroth is said 

 by commentators to signify the signs of the zodiac. 



The idea that man's life on earth and destiny for good or for 

 evil is subject to the heavenly planets and stars and to their relative 

 positions obtained in the early centuries of the Christian era; on a 

 tombstone erected 364 a. d., in memory of an infant named Sim- 

 plicius (that died the day it was born), there is an inscription which 

 states that this double event took place in the " fourth hour of the 

 night, of the 8th ides of May, the day of Saturn, the 20th day of the 

 moon, under the sign Capricorn." The details of this epitaph are in- 

 tended to account for the sad affliction of the parents. 



" Almighty Wisdom by a Mistique Tye 

 Spread through the World a Secret Sympathy, 

 Impregnating Superiours to dispense 

 On lower Bodies, daily Influence." 



Ames' Almanack, 1730, , 



Astrology flourished mightily throughout the middle ages, and 

 by degrees a novel conception became ingrafted on the pseudo-phi- 

 losophy; the physical universe came to be regarded as an organized 

 being endowed with a soul and analogous to man. An intimate cor- 

 relation between the universe and man was held to exist, the uni- 

 verse controlling the organism and destiny of man, and man having 

 power over the fundamental laws of Nature. In this connection 

 the terms macrocosm and microcosm came into use — the former to 

 designate the world at large, and the latter the smaller world within 



man. 



In the " Epistle of Tsis, Queen of Egypt and wife of Osiris, to 

 her son Horus," a Greco-Egyptian writing on the " Sacred Art," 

 of obscure origin and unknown authorship, man, as the microcosm, 

 is regarded as the physical epitome of the universe, or macrocosm. 

 " Hermes calls man the microcosm, because the man, or the small 

 world, contains all that which is included in the macrocosm or great 

 world. Thus the macrocosm has small and large animals, both 

 terrestrial nd aquatic; man, on the other hand, has fleas and lice — 

 these are the terrestrial animals; he has also intestinal worms— 

 these are aquatic animals. The macrocosm has rivers, springs, and 

 seas; man has internal organs— intestines, veins, and arteries. ^ The 

 macrocosm has aerial animals; man has gnats and other winged 

 insects. The macrocosm has volatile spirits, such as winds, thunders, 

 and lightnings; man has internal gases and ipordas of diseases. The 



