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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[May 1, 1886. 



these were, the lively imaginations of those early observers 

 quite readily determined. To the moon had been assigned 

 the role of chief measurer of time, and potent influence on 

 all beloni;ing to the month ; in the sun they recognised the 

 chief ruler of the seasons, and the lord of wealth, because 

 the produce of their fields, alike in tillage and in pasturage, 

 depended manifestly on his power. The influences assigned 

 to the planets were more subtle but not less potent. The 

 ruddy Mars, with his strangely varying splendour, ruled the 

 fortunes of war, exciting men to conflict, and _ in battle 

 stimulating these and weakening those, according as the 

 god was disposed to favour or to anger. Venus, most 

 beautiful of all the planets as seen with unaided vision, 

 cri-owiiig more brilliant as the sky darkens, but languishing 

 with the growing day 



to faint in the liglit that she loves, 

 The light of the daffodil sky, 



seemed as obviously to be the orb which swayed the hearts 

 of men to love — a goddess, therefore, though perchance had 

 women had the sexiug of the planets, Yenus would have 

 been a masculine deity. The swift movements of Mercury, 

 and the way in which he flashes into his greatest glory and 

 anon bides "himself amid the beams of the sun, suggested as 

 naturally a deity moving men to brilliant subtleties, to cralt 

 and stratagem, if not to robbery and plunder. In regard 

 to Saturn, again, there could be little doubt. The slowliest 

 moving of aU the planets known to the ancients, gloomy in 

 aspect (though now known as most beautiful), what other 

 position could be assigned him than that of a woe-working, 

 penalty-inflicting deity, most to be dreaded if not most 

 powerful of all the heavenly host 1 Jupiter's position and 

 influence were probably determined rather by comparison 

 with the other celestial bodies than by any suggestions 

 derived from his aspect or movements. Considered in him- 

 seh", indeed, he suggests glory and steadfastness, because he 

 surpasses all the stars in brightness and all the planets of 

 the ni'jht (Yenus being never seen when it is actually night), 

 while he moves so statelily that he is nearly twelve years in 

 completing his circuit of "the zodiacal pathway of the gods. 

 But it is by comparing him with Yenns for lustre, with 

 Saturn for steadiness of light, a-id with the sun for stateli- 

 ness of motion that the planet- worshippers of old came to 

 assign to Jupiter his position as governing the fortunes of 

 chiefs and rulers among men. If Saturn were gloomy and 

 solemn, Jupiter was dignified and stately; if Yenus gave 

 love, Jupiter gave control; if the sun bestowed wealth, 

 Jupiter bestowed power. 



There were thus seven celestial rulers, diverse in power 

 and influence, diverse also in dignity, the sun and moon, 

 ]\Iercury, Yenus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn— the seven 

 planets "of ancient astronomy. How should these be classi- 

 fied ] How could they be classified but by reference to that 

 one quality which was common to them all, the quality 

 distinguishing them from the fixed stars, their motion 

 around their zodiacal roadway? Classed thus the planets 

 would have the order : — 



1. Saturn, most potent for evil. 

 ■2. Jupiter, most potent for good. 



3. Mars, most potent in strife. 



4. The Si:x, most potent for ivealth. 



5. Yenus, most potent in love. 



6. Mercury, most potent for craft. 



7. The Moon, most potent in working cliangc. 



How other relations would be recognised or imagined, and 

 the metals, numbers, forms, and so forth, would be associated 

 with the various planets, need not here be considered, 

 though in passing I may notice that the readiness and com- 

 pleteness with wliich in old times they found out all about 



the planets, metals, numbers, geometrical figures, times, &c., 

 itc, and the rflations of these to each other and to the 

 fortunes of individuals and of races, aSbrd instructive illus- 

 trations of the confidence of ignorance. The nascent doubts 

 of half-knowledge, and the gradual rising of doubt to its 

 place as chief among the scientific virtues, would have been 

 unintelligible to the men who confidently decided that there 

 are seven metals each associated with one of the seven only 

 planets, in the order quaintly stated by Chaucer : — • 



Sol gold is ; and LuxA silver we threpe ; 

 Maes iron ; quicksilver Mercury we clepe ; 

 Satursus lead ; and Jupiter is tin ; 

 And Venus copper, by my faderkin.* 



When the five planets had been associated with tlie sun 

 and moon as deities of the same order, it naturally followed 

 that the sacrificial sy-stem was extended to include all seven 

 orbs. Set times and seasons were appointed for the cere- 

 monial observances belonging to the iieavenly rulers of the 

 world. 



The year having been already assigned to the sun, and 

 the month to the moon, the onlj- way in which the planets 

 could be dealt with, in regard to set times, was by assigning 

 to them the days and the subdivisions of the daj's. The 

 week ah'eady existed, we may be sure, for among all ancient 

 races we find this natural division of time by a rough 

 approximation to the times of new moon, half moon, full 

 moon, and half moon again. Most probably, however, 

 at its first beginning, the week really was marked ofl' by 

 these phases, and not, as later, by seven days. In semi- 

 savage days there would be no greater inconvenience 

 from the occasional lapse of a day to get the weeks right 

 with the moon than before the beginning of chronological 

 exactness there would be any trouble in thi'owing in a few 

 days to make the year right, as in the rough-and-read}' 

 calendar systems of the ancient ancient Eg_yptians. Probably, 

 as accurate observations of the moon came to be made, the 

 idea of making a lunar month thirty days, instead of roughly 

 calling it four weeks, and so having in each month sis weeks 

 of five days, may have arisen. Nay, we know that among 

 certain nations this change was attempted, and that in a 

 proportion of these it was successfully introduced. The 

 five planets proper would then doubtless have been assigned 

 to the five several days of the week. But among races 

 which retained the week of seven days, and substituted the 

 uniform succession of such weeks for the mere fourfold divi- 

 sion of the actual moon-circuits (from '• new " to '• new ") all 

 the seven moving orbs would be associated with the week, 

 each as governing its own particular day. If by this 

 time, as must certainly have happened, the day itself had 

 been divided into portions, then, as these would have to be 

 assigned severally to their celestial rulers, a certain difficulty 

 would arise. For even as the first hour of each day symbolitses 

 the glory of the sun as natural Euler of the Day, so if each 

 planet is to rule a day in some more artificial system, tlie 

 first hour must be the special hour besides belonging to the 

 special day of that planet's rule. And the hours of each 

 day must also be assigned in uniform succession — seven 

 hours by seven hours — to the seven planets. AVe may 

 assume the early division of the day into twenty-four hours, 

 though probably daj-time was divided into twelve equal 

 hours and night-time into twelve equal hours, only equal to 

 the hours of daytime at autumn and spring. 



We can easily set ourselves the jjroblem which was set 

 the ancient planet worshipper. There are seven days, each 



* It is noteworthy that incumbers xxxi. 22, 23, where six of the 

 metals corresponding to the seven planets of the ancients are men- 

 tioned, we have afier gold and silver, which naturally are put first, 

 the remaining four in the order of the distances of the correspond- 

 ing planets — viz., brass, iron, tin, lead. 



