318 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



known how long, in spite of facts, false and ground- 

 less rules (as the dependence of the weather on the 

 moon) may keep their hold on men's minds. When 

 the facts are such loose and many-sided things as 

 human characters, passions, and happiness, it was 

 hardly to be expected that even the most powerful 

 minds should be able to find a footing sufficiently 

 firm, to enable them to resist the impression of a 

 theory constructed of sweeping and bold assertions, 

 and filled out into a complete system of details. 

 Accordingly, the connexion of the stars with human 

 persons and actions was, for a long period, un- 

 disputed. The vague, obscure, and heterogeneous 

 character of such a connexion, and its unfitness 

 for any really scientific reasoning, could, of course, 

 never be got rid of: and the bewildering feeling 

 of earnestness and solemnity, with which the con- 

 nexion of the heavens with man was contemplated, 

 never died away. In other respects, however, the 

 astrologers fell into a servile commentatorial spirit; 

 and employed themselves in annotating and illus- 

 trating the works of their predecessors to a con- 

 siderable extent, before the revival of true science. 



It may be mentioned, that astrology has long 

 been, and probably is, an art held in great esteem 

 and admiration among other eastern nations besides 

 the Mohammedans: for instance, the Jews, the 

 Indians, the Siamese, and the Chinese. The pre- 

 valence of vague, visionary, and barren notions 

 among these nations, cannot surprize us; for with 



