316 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



compounded of warm and moist, as is Venus. Mer- 

 cury is variable in his character. From these no- 

 tions were derived others concerning the beneficial 

 or hurtful effect of these stars. Heat and moisture 

 are generative and creative elements ; hence the 

 ancients, says Proclus, deemed Jupiter, and Venus, 

 and the Moon, to have a good power ; Saturn and 

 Mercury, on the other hand, had an evil nature. 



Other distinctions of the character of the stars 

 are enumerated, equally visionary, and suggested by 

 the most fanciful connexions. Some are masculine, 

 and some feminine : the Moon and Venus are of 

 the latter kind. This appears to be merely a my- 

 thological or etymological association. Some are 

 diurnal, some nocturnal ; the Moon and Venus are 

 of the latter kind, the Sun and Jupiter of the for- 

 mer ; Saturn and Mars are both. 



The fixed stars, also, and especially those of the 

 zodiac, had especial influences and subjects assigned 

 to them. In particular, each sign was supposed to 

 preside over a particular part of the body; thus 

 Aries had the head assigned to it, Taurus the neck, 

 and so on. 



The most important part of the sky in the 

 astrologer's consideration, was that sign of the zo- 

 diac which rose at the moment of the child's birth ; 

 this was, properly speaking, the horoscope, the as- 

 cendant, or the first house; the whole circuit of the 

 heavens being divided into twelve houses, in which 



