ITS EARLIEST STAGES. 140 



excusable than this ignorance ; but it is curious to 

 see how long obstinately the belief lingered (if 

 indeed it be yet extinct) that the motions of the 

 stars, and the dispositions and fortunes of men, 

 may come under some common conceptions and 

 laws, by which a connexion between the one and 

 the other may be established. 



We cannot, therefore, agree with those who 

 consider astrology in the early ages as "only a 

 degraded astronomy, the abuse of a more ancient 

 science 33 ." It was the first step to astronomy, by 

 leading to habits and means of grouping pheno- 

 mena ; and, after a while, by showing that pictorial 

 and mythological relations among the stars had 

 no value, or at least no very obvious value. From 

 that time, the inductive process went on steadily 

 in the true road, under the guidance of ideas of 

 space, time, and number. 



Sect. 7. The Planets. 



WHILE men were becoming familiar with the fixed 

 stars, the planets must have attracted their notice. 

 Venus, from her brightness, and from her accom- 

 panying the sun at no great distance, and thus 

 appearing as the morning and evening star, was 

 very conspicuous. Pythagoras is said to have main- 

 tained that the evening and morning star are the 

 same body; which certainly must have been one 

 13 Dupuis, vi. 546. 



