xxxn OMENS FROM LIGHTNING 81 



to it. But other things as well concern him, though 

 they pass unheeded. For instance, the Chaldaeans 

 confined their observation to the five great planets. 

 But do you suppose that the influence of so many 

 thousands of other bright stars is naught ? The 7 

 essential error of those who pretend to skill in 

 casting the horoscope lies in limiting our destinies 

 to the influence of a few of the stars, while all that 

 float above us in the heavens claim some share in 

 us. Perchance the lower stars exert their force on 

 us more directly ; and 1 the same may be true of 

 the stars that by reason of their more frequent 

 movements turn their view upon man in a different 

 way from that in which it is turned upon other 

 living creatures. But even those stars that are either 

 stationary or, from their velocity being the same as 

 that of the world as a whole, seem to be so, are 

 not without sway and dominion over us. Add 8 

 one other consideration and you have the subject 

 set out with due arrangement of its parts : 2 it is 

 not more easy to ascertain what the power of the 

 stars is than justifiable to doubt that they possess 

 such power. 



XXXIII 



To return now to lightning: the art relating to it falls 

 into three divisions its observation, its interpre- 



1 Or, Turn their view upon man no less than on the other living creatures 

 now from one point, now from another, i.e. under more varied aspects. The 

 passage is doubtful. The general sense is plain : nearness, frequency of 

 appearance, and variety of aspect severally are or may be special factors in 

 determining a star s influence on the fate of man. 



2 The text is corrupt and the sense more or less conjectural. Ruhkopf 

 suggests that the words may have been transferred from some other passage 

 to this. One would be inclined to suspect that adjice = add, instead of 

 aspice see, regard, is the correct word at the beginning of the sentence. 



G 



