294 



KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[July 1, 1886. 



true the statement is. Happy for each one of us are those 

 hours when our will is at its strongest. And were the 

 truth known, the feeling we call repentance, the sorrow for 

 wrong done or temptation not resisted, is largely due to 

 the physical sense of weakened will. Submission, often 

 repeated, to mesmeric influence, has as evil an effect as 

 yielding again and again to temptations towards wrong- 

 doing. 



" O.v this weakening of the will Mr. Allen does not touch, 

 or rather his story does not turn on this observed pliysio- 

 logical fact. But the other form of mesmeric mischief is 

 very serious also. A person mesmerised or put into the 

 hypnotic state is like a .somnambulist. In fact, there is 

 nothing in leality more supernatural about hypnotism 

 than there is about somnambulism. Now, we know that 

 somnambulists often do very strange things. They are apt 

 to be quite different in their modes of apparent thought, 

 and most certainly in their actions, from what they are 

 when in full possession of their senses. The story of the 

 somnambulist who buried suit after suit of his own clothes 

 . — and also of clothes he had borrowed — see the " Ingoldsby 

 Legends " — is based on facts. So also are stories of som- 

 nambulists who have offended much more seriously, nay, of 

 some who have not stopped short of murder. Now, when a 

 mesmerist, having put his victim (I use the word advi.sedly) 

 in the hypnotic state before an audience, proceeds to suggest 

 to the hypnotised mind all manner of absurd fancies, he may 

 not be doing any very seiious harm — though, for my own 

 pait, I should as strongly object to my mind being set to 

 antics, thrown as it were into the clown groove, for how- 

 ever short a time But when these mesmerists go farther, 

 as they often do, and suggest to the hypnotised mind the 

 commission of acts which to the waking mind would be 

 offences, the matter becomes a great deal more serious. For 

 it has been shown that in many cases — possibly it is true 

 in greater or less degree in all cases — the awakened mind 

 retains something of the taint given to it while in the 

 hypnotic condition." — Xeiccastle Chronicle. 



In the cockney conundrum of one's boyhood the question 

 was propounded, why Neptune was like an alchemist in 

 search of the philosopher's stone 1 the reply being " Because 

 he's a sea-king what'll never be found." From a recent 

 police report it would seem that the latest appropriator of 

 the name of the ruler of the sea has found what he was by 

 no means seeking in the shape of a .5/. fine, or twenty-one 

 days' imprisonment in default. The sot-(:Z(.?«n? " Neptune " 

 in the case to which I am referring was a certain Mr. Eichard 

 Henry Penny, who Ciist nativities, somewhei-e in the purlieus 

 of Brunswick Square, for sums varying from five shillings 

 to " 100 shillings and upwards." He does not appear to have 

 much to thank his stars for, since they wholly failed to fore- 

 warn him that a certain Detective-Serjeant Khurt would 

 enter " the twelfth house " (in Grenville Street) as a quasi- 

 pryer into futurity. Perhaps no more curious illustration 

 of the crassitude of popular ignorance could be afforded than 

 that to be derived from the fact that this man seems to have 

 carried on a trade in fortune-telling lucrative enough to 

 enable him to advertise it for at least a year past. 

 * *• * 



But it seems to me that in being convicted under the 

 Act 5 Geo. IV. c. 83, s. 4, this Grenville Street " Neptune " 

 was a little hardly dealt with. I mean, of course, though, 

 only relatively. Surely the law is in a defective state when it 

 punishas a man for doing openly what the authors or editors 

 of such trash as " Zadkiel's Almanack " do anonymously. 

 Probably for one person who was deceived by Mr. Penny, a 

 dozen are imposed on liy jiublications pretending to predict 



future events fi-om the aspect of the heavens ; and yet the 

 latter are sold with absolute imjjunit}', no statute in any way 

 touching them. 



The last re.al astrologer is supposed to have been Morin, 

 who quarrelled so fiercely with Gassendi when the latter 

 abandoned istrology ; and was perpetually predicting (it is 

 needless to say quite wrongly) his opponent's death. He 

 also fixed the date of the decease of Louis XIII., but with 

 no better success. Bythe-bye he was a fixed earth man 

 too. But few indeed of Morin's successors have believed in 

 their own vaticinations ; in fact, if we are to stand or fall 

 by the fundamental astrological doctrine that the whole of 

 the events of a man's life, as well as his character, disposi- 

 tion, and even physique, are dependent on the aspect of the 

 heavens at the instant of his birth, the inference is 

 irresistible that every one born at the same time as Sir 

 Isaac Newton must have been a consummate m.athematician, 

 of small stature, and afflicted with temporary in-sanity ; 

 that every man who came into the world at the same instant 

 as Nelson must have been a born naval officer of un- 

 exampled courage and ability ; and that the contemporaries 

 in Belzoni's nativity must have all possessed the power of 

 carrying from seven to ten men at a time with ease ! The 

 allegation has only to be stated and illu.strated thus nakedly 

 for its childish alisurdity to Ije seen at once, and j-et there 

 are fools enough left in the woild to make astrology a paying 

 business. 



* * * 



Another popular superstition .seems in a fair way of 

 coming to grief. There is no vulga.r error more common 

 than that which connects the appearance of a comet with 

 a supposed ri.se in terrestrial temperature ; and " Comet 

 Years " in connection with wine have become almost pro- 

 verbial. The faith in this imaginai-y correspondence must 

 be more roliust, though, than I take it to be, if it survives 

 the fact that no less than five comets have been visible in 

 the sky during the prasent year, and that, as I write, the 

 North Atlantic is crowded with icebergs ! 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR JULY. 



By F.R.A.S. 



. ■ ■ i mmmm ii n i s the period of solar activity coDtinnes. the s' udent 

 ■" - • .should daily examine tlie sun for the spots and 



faculfB which (in, however, somewhat diminished 

 numbers) continue to appear. Tlie night sky will 

 be found delineated in map vii. of "The Stars in 

 their Seasons." Up to July 21 twilight will 

 persist from sunset to sunrise throughout the 

 United Kingdom. Mercury is an evening star 

 during the entire month. He may be caught 

 with the naked eye after sunset by the keen-siglited observer, 

 twinkling over the WXW. horizon early in July, and just to the N. 

 of AV. during the last part of the month. He attains his greatest 

 elongation east of the sun (26°-.52') on the morning of the 19th. 

 He will be about 3° south of Regulus (" The Seasons Pictured," 

 plate xxiv.) on the 27th. Venus is a morning star, and may be 

 seen in the ENE. between 1 and 2 A.M. She is an uninteresting 

 telescopic object, though, now; an observation which applies, 

 dfortioin, to Mars, who now appears after dusk merely as a big red 

 star in the West. Jupiter must be looked for as soon as possible 

 after sunset to be observed at all, as he is getting, like Mars, so 

 rapidly towards the West. During the time that he remains 

 visible he is travelling towards tj Virginis (" Tlie Seasons Pictured," 

 plate xsv.). The only phenomena of his satellites certainly visible 

 occur on July 6, when Satellite III. will leave the planet's disc 

 at 9h. 40m. p.m.; on the 11th, when Satellite I. will exhibit 

 the same phenomenon at 9h. 47m. P.M. ; and on the 18th, when 

 Satellite I. will enter on to the face of Jupiter at 9h. 28m. p.m. 

 Saturn has gone for the season, as has Neptune, but Uranus 



