156 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



sowing, and grafting, observations of the moon are not ab 

 solutely trifling, and there are many particulars of this 

 kind. But elections are more to be curbed by our rules 

 than predictions; and this must always be remembered, 

 that election only holds in such cases where the virtue of 

 the heavenly bodies, and the action of the inferior bodies 

 also, is not transient, as in the examples just mentioned; 

 for the increases of the moon and planets are not sudden 

 things. But punctuality of time should here be abso 

 lutely rejected. And perhaps there are more of these 

 instances to be found in civil matters than some would 

 imagine. 



There are but four ways of arriving at this science, 

 viz., 1. By future experiments; 2. Past experiments; 3. 

 Traditions; and 4. Physical reasons. But, 1. It is in 

 vain at present to think of future experiments, because 

 many ages are required to procure a competent stock of 

 them. And, 2. As for the past, it is true they are within 

 our reach, but it is a work of labor and much time to pro 

 cure them. Thus astrologers may, if they please, draw from 

 real history all greater accidents, as inundations, plagues, 

 wars, seditions, deaths of kings, etc. , as also the positions 

 of the celestial bodies, not according to fictitious horo 

 scopes, but the above-mentioned rules of their revolu 

 tions, or such as they really were at the time, and where 

 the event conspires, erect a probable rule of prediction. 3. 

 All traditions should be well sifted, and those thrown out 

 that manifestly clash with physical reasons, leaving such in 

 their full force as comport well therewith. And, 4. Those 

 physical reasons are best suited to this inquiry which search 

 into the universal appetites and passions of matter, and the 

 simple genuine motions of the heavenly bodies. And this 

 we take for the surest guide to astrology. 



There remains another piece of wild astrology, though 

 usually separated from it, and transferred to celestial magic 

 as they call it. It is a strange fiction of the human brain, 1S 



13 Agrippa, Mystical Philosophy, 



