A RELIC OF ASTROLOGY. 87 



spiritualized man, spirit being absolute over matter. The same 

 writer informs us that " Aries is the head-sign of the Grand Man ; 

 cardinal, masculine, equinoctial, and movable, the positive pole of 

 the Fire Triplicity. People born under Aries are usually very 

 executive, earnest, and determined, also noble, generous, magnetic, 

 and have occult powers and metaphysical tastes. Good scholars and 

 great talkers." The modem astrologer professes to predict the per- 

 sonal appearance, characteristic temperament, dominant faults, 

 prevalent diseases, love affairs, and character of children born under 

 each of the twelve signs. 



This " craft by means whereof knaves practice on fools " is now 

 enjoying a revival in both Europe and America. Several periodicals 

 are devoted to its propaganda; as recently as August, 1897, a 

 monthly magazine was started in New York city, and, as an induce- 

 ment to subscribe, every one is promised, not a chromo, but a " Free 

 Horoscope of Events for 1897 and 1898." In December, 1897, a 

 society was formed by women in New York city to study the 

 influences of the zodiac on human life and destiny; the society is 

 called The Zodiac, and plans to hold monthly meetings at which 

 each sign is to be studied in turn. 



The " Faust Institute of Solar Biology, Occult Science, Astro- 

 Phrenology, and Biblical History," situated in Philadelphia, em- 

 ploys a perambulating agent to lecture in the streets of Eastern 

 cities to the admiring crowds that are attracted by a vividly colored 

 diagram and by printed handbills. Those seeking more light are 

 referred to " Professor Faust." 



M. Pierre Leroy Beaulieu concludes an article in the Revue des 

 Deux Mondes, on social conditions in Australia and New Zealand, with some 

 observations on the effect of the enlargement of the sphere of occupations 

 for women in the postponement of the age of marriage. In 1883 the pro- 

 portion of married women who were minors in New South Wales was 

 28"17 per cent; in 1892 it had fallen to 23"55 per cent. A similar condition 

 is found in Victoria, where the proportion of married women under twenty- 

 one years of age was 21 per cent, and of those between twenty-one and 

 twenty- five years old 43*2 per cent, from 1881 till 1890, while the correspond- 

 ing figures in 1893 were only 17 4 and 39 '8 per cent. In New Zealand, 

 where the married women minors constituted 29 '4 per cent of the total in 

 1882, they formed no more than 19'3 per cent in 1893. "When a woman 

 earns her living herself," M. Leroy Beaulieu observes, "and custom allows 

 her considerable independence, she is in less haste to marry; and often, 

 too, marriage forces her to give up her calling.'' The fact that children 

 are less numerous when marriages are so late is the principal objection 

 brought against tbis system by the author. Yet, he remarks, we ought not 

 to sacrifice the woman's independence or forbid her all occupation unre- 

 lated to housekeeping in order that more children may be born. 



