18 



ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



till prevalent in several Mahometan and Pagan 

 countries.* Comets, too, with their blazing 

 otils, were long regarded, and still are, by the 

 mlgar, as harbingers of divine vengeance, pre 

 saging famines and inundations, or the downfall 

 of princes and the destruction of empires. i 

 The Aurora Boreales, or northern lights, have 

 been frequently gazed at with similar appre 

 hensions, and whole provinces have been thrown 

 into consternation by the fantastic coruscations 

 of those lambent meteors. Some pretend to 

 see, in these harmless lights, armies mixing in 

 fierce encounter, and fields streaming with 

 blood ; others behold states overthrown, earth 

 quakes, inundations, pestilences, and the most 

 dreadful calamities. Because some one or other 

 of these calamities formerly happened soon after 

 the appearance of a comet, or the blaze of an 

 aurora, therefore they are considered either as 

 the causes or the prognostics of such events. 



From the same source have arisen those 

 foolish notions, so fatal to the peace of mankind, 

 which have been engendered by judicial astro 

 logy. Under a belief that the characters and 

 the fates of men are dependent on the various 

 aspects of the stars and conjunctions of the 

 planets, the most unfounded apprehensions, as 

 well as the most delusive hopes, have been ex 

 cited by the professors of this fallacious science. 

 Such impositions on the credulity of mankind 

 are founded on the grossest absurdity, and the 

 most palpable ignorance of the nature of things ; 

 for since the aspects and conjunctions of the 

 celestial bodies have, in every period of dura 

 tion, been subject to invariable laws, they must 

 be altogether inadequate to account for the di 

 versified phenomena of the moral world, and 

 for that infinite variety we observe in the dispo 

 sitions and the destinies of men ; and, indeed, 

 the single consideration of the immense dis 

 tances of the stars from our globe, is sufficient 

 to convince any rational mind that their influ 

 ence can have no effect on a region so remote 

 from the spaces which they occupy. The pla 

 netary bodies, indeed, may, in certain cases, 

 have some degree of physical influence on the 

 earth, by virtue of their attractive power, but 

 that influence can never affect the operation of 

 moral causes, or the qualities of the mind. 

 Even although it were admitted that the hea 

 venly bodies have an influence over the desti 

 nies of the human race, yet we have no data 

 whatever by which to ascertain the mode of 

 its operation, or to determine the formula or 

 rules by which calculations are to be made, in 

 order to predict the fates of nations, or the in 

 dividual temperaments and destinies of men ; 

 and consequently, the principles and rules on 

 which astrologers proceed in constructing horo- 

 tcopeq and calculating nativities, are nothing 



See Appendix, No. II. 



t Ibid. 



else than mere assumptions, and their preten 

 sions nothing short of criminal impositions upon 

 the credulity of mankind. With equally the 

 same reason might we assert, that the earth, in 

 different positions in its orbit, would have an 

 influence in producing fools and maniacs in the 

 nlanet Jupiter, or in exciting wars and insurrec 

 tions among the inhabitants of Saturn, as to 

 suppose, with Mr. Varley, the prince of modern 

 astrologers, that &quot; Saturn passing through the 

 ascendant, causes dulness and melancholy for a 

 few weeks,&quot; and that &quot; Jupiter, in the third 

 house, gives safe inland journeys and agreeable 

 neighbours or kindred.&quot; 



Notwithstanding the absurdity of the. doc 

 trines of astrology, this art has been practised 

 in every period of time. Among the Romans, 

 the people were so infatuated with it, that the 

 astrologers, or, as they were then called, the 

 mathematicians, maintained their ground in 

 spite of all the edicts of the emperors to expel 

 them from the capital ; and after they were at 

 length expelled by a formal decree of the senate, 

 they found so much protection from the credu 

 lity of the people, that they still remained in 

 Rome unmolested. Among the Chaldeans, the 

 Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the 

 Arabians, in ancient times, astrology was uni 

 formly included in the list of the sciences, and 

 used as one species of divination by which they 

 attempted to pry into the secrets of futurity 

 The Brahmins in India, at an early period, in 

 troduced this art into that country, and, by 

 means of it, have rendered themselves the ar 

 biters of good and evil hours, and of the for 

 tunes of their fellow-men, and have thus raised 

 themselves to great authority and influence 

 among the illiterate multitude. They are con 

 suited as oracles, and, like all other impostors, 

 they have taken great care never to sell their 

 answers without a handsome remuneration. In 

 almost every country in the world this art is still 

 practised, and only a short period has elapsed 

 since the princes and legislators of Europe were 

 directed in the most important concerns of the 

 state by the predictions of astrologers. In the 

 time of Queen Catharine de Medicis, astrology 

 was so much in vogue, that nothing, however 

 trifling, was to be done without consulting the 

 stars. The astrologer Morin, in the seven 

 teenth century, directed Cardinal Richelieu s 

 motions in some of his journeys, and Louisa 

 Maria de Gonzaga, queen of Poland, gave 

 2000 crowns to carry on an edition of his Astro- 

 los;ia Gallica ; and in the reigns of Henry the 

 Third and Henry the Fourth of France, the 

 predictions of astrologers were the common 

 theme of the court conversation. Even in the 

 present day, and in the metropolis of the British 

 empire, this fallacious art is practised, and its 

 professors are resorted to for judicial informa 

 tion, not only by the vulgar, but even by manv 



