or such an impression Again it is confessed that Heat doth arise from the Celestial rayes of light but it is no good consequence that therefore there is no Heat in the Earth but that which comes from those rayes Cold also ariseth from the absence of the Sun but it followes not that therefore there is no cause of Cold inherent in the Earth which may diffuse it selfe through the Air and over-power the weaker heat of the Sun Barrenness also and Epidemical Diseases arem any times induced by two much Cold or Heat or other affections of the Air but the Cause of those Affections arise from the very Earth and if they were not known nor the seasons of the year when they usually take their turns of Predominion in the Air could we divine by any Celestial inspection or how or when they would mis-affect us The Affections of the Air we confess work somthing not only upon the temper of the body but also upon the mind it selfe by the intercession of the temperament but the main buisiness is to be able to foreknow when the Air will be so or so qualified of what particular temper a man must be in order to his being moved and altered by such an affection upon what occasion he shall be at that time in such or such a place where the Air is so mis-affected neither of which I am sure can be learned from the Rules of Astrology Furthermore we deny not but a man may be according to his individual temperament more disposed to Love marriage and procreation of Children than to Continence Single life or barrenness but the Difficulty is how to fore-tell what his individual temperament will be and what occasions he shall meet with to induce him to love this or that Woman rather than any other in this or that year of his life rather than sooner or later and what inducements that Woman shall meet with either to accept or refuse him for her Husband and whether they shall have issue or not c Likewise a mans complexion may be such as to dispose him to Anger Quarrels and a Soldiers life but who can fore tell what occasions of Anger Quarreling or Fighting he shall meet with at such or such times of his life whether he shall hearken to the dictates of his own or friends prudence and decline the danger or not whether he shall be victor or not whether sickness imprisonment or other accidents shall hinder him from going to the Wars or not whether his wounds shall be in such a place or mortal or not Lastly we deny not but the Studies Successes Fates of Men are Various but the Riddle is how we should know that God hath suspended their Studies Successes and Fates upon the Stars and not rather upon other Causes which for the most part are easily known and as easily pointed out though we never know them till after the Events and so in respect of our ignorance may be said to work by chance or accident But in the Heavens we can find no such probable Causes for such Events and indeed it seems meer foolishness and unjustifiable rashness to suppose these petty affairs to be so important and considerable as that God should impose the care of them upon the Stars or that their Successes should depend upon none but such great and noble Causes Phavorinus apud Gellium judgeth it to be meer madness for us to imagine that because the Tides of the Sea agree with the course of the Moon therefore the trivial contention of a Man with his Neighbour about some smal Water-courss or some Bank lying in common betwixt them should be judged for or against him according to the state of the Moon when his suit was commenced as if that matter were predeter mined in Heaven and of absolute necessity so or so to succeed And thus we see how little reason They have to pretend Reason for their defence CHAP. XXI Their Pretence to Experience Vnjust WE are now at length come to their Last and strongest Hold Observation or Experience which they so frequently boast of and against which far be it from me to make any opposition if there be the least of truth in what they alleadge since against genuine and certain Experience no Reason can prevail But it was well said of that brave Prince of Physicians Hippocrates 1. Aphorism that Experience is Fallacious since so many things inter vene that may occasion mistake and make men run into a Paralogisme or accepting that for a Cause which really is none and since those Experiments are very rare which convince such an effect to arise from such a particular Cause and no other And therefore no man hath ever denied but Experience is to be weighed in the ballance of Reason least there should be some fallacy concealed that might prejudice our assent and so that strict examination ought to be made of all particulars and circumstances since nothing is more common in matters of Experiment than for unskilfull to be deceived themselves and for dishonest men to deceive others nor are we without great circumspection to yeeld our assent to all experiments especiall such as we rather hear of from others than see with our own eys And as for the matter in hand how many things are there that oblige us to question the truth of those Experiments which Astrologers obtrude upon the World as testimonies of the Certainty of their Art In the First place we have already seen that the Chaldeans performed nothing in this kind nor Hipparchus from either them or the Egyptians nor Ptolomie from all of them as to the point of observations relating to the true motions or true places of the Five Planets Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus Mercury Wherefore the Chaldeans were very far from eithet establishing the Fundamental statutes of the Art by their own Observations or proving that they made those statutes upon any considerable grounds at all Again whereas each single precept or Rule ought to have been constituted upon many experiments had of the certain variety thereof we have plainly seen that it was not possible for them ever to make the same experiment so much as only twice because the same position of the Heavens cannot return again not only after many hundreds but also many millions of years Further the Ancients were ignorant of all those notable discoveries that have been lately made aswell of the Fixt as Erratique Stars which would have required them to alter their Astrological decrees and chiefly those which concern the spots in the Sun which being frequently both more in number and greater in bulk than Mercury or Venus ever appeared ought to be presumed to have stronger operations upon the Earth than either of them being interposed betwixt the Sun and us or as they phrase it in the Heart of the Sun Besides should it be granted that the decrees of the Chaldeans were grounded upon and confirmed by Observations and that the discoveries lately made to
but also reproacheth it with the odious terms of vis maxima erroris and deliralis incredibilis the very quintessence of Error and a madness incredible adding withall non omnem errorem dicondum esse stultitiam most ingeniously intimating the Fraud aswell as folly of Divinatory Astrology in his 2. Books de Divinatione Furthermore it is likewise true that in the ancient Greek Poets Philosophers and other eminent Authors we read of various predictions from the Stars but these were very far different from the Art Astrological which the Chaldeans of old and our half-witted Astromancers now a dayes so much glory in For such Prognostications nothing at all concerned the Events of Human affairs to which Astrologers chiefly pretend but only the several mutations of the Air of Tempests of plenty or dear years and the like and these they deduced only from the various Risings and Settings of the Stars as may be proved out of Hippocrates lib. de aer aqu loc Plato in Epinom who speaks that particularly of Hesiod and some other old writers but not from the casting of Figures as the Vulgar phrase is or the laborious Erecting of Scheams so much used by our Astrologers and admired by the ignorant who address to them as to the oracles of Fate and the secretaries of Divinity It appears therefore that those Predictions recorded among the Ancient Grecians were not called Astrologicall but by the simple and modest appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presignifications or rather yet more simply Significations and this because the Stars according to the variety of their Risings and Settings do signify as well the several seasons of the year for Seed time for Harvest and for other works of Agriculture as the dayes on which the Husbandman may expect Rain Winds and other changes of Weather Nor was this observed only by the Grecians but familiar to most if not all other Nations as it is even with us frequent for such Country People as have no Kalenders and cannot read them if they had to observe certain Celestial Signes or Stars which as they either Rise in the Morning or Set in the Evening and as they are near unto or far from the Sun at its Rising or Setting declare at what seasons through the whole course of the Year such and such labours of Husbandry are most opportunely to be performed And yet I must confess the Grecians seem to have been more studious and exact than any other Nation not only in observing but also in digesting into Tables both upon what dayes of the Year such and such of the principal Stars usually arise and Set and those mutations of the Air or changes of Weather which did commonly succeed at such times and so may be signified by them accordingly I dare not affirm that they took occasion for this their exactness from that vast Golden Circle erected in Egypt and at last plundered by Cambyses which according to the account of Diodorus was a Cubit in thickness and three hundred sixty and five Cubits in compass with an inscription of each day in the Year on a particular Cubits space and the names and significations of those Stars that Rise or Set on each day respectively Yet certain I am of this that Geminus in Element Astron cap. 14. tels us that the Ancients usually made this Observation that taking the Signe and the degree of that Signe in which the Sun was in the beginning of the Year or first step of his annual progress and noteing afterward what changes of the Air or Weather did commonly fall out upon each day Week and Moneth they might at length referr that change to the places of the Sun through every Signe and degree thereof in the Zodiack His words are worthy the reading and therefore I shall faithfully recite them Id autem per plures annos observantes mutationes quae maxime arc a Zodiaci signa loca contingerent conscripserunt in Fabulis non ex arte aliqua neque ex certa methodo describentes sed ab Experientia id quod prope verum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congrueret sumentes And of these Observations were framed Tables such as the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some whereof are extant even at this day as particularly those of Geminus himself and of Ptolomy and those were collected out of the more antique ones of Democritus Metrodorus Dositheus Euctemon Meton Eudoxus Calippus Hipparchus Philippus Philemon Caesar and others For every one according to his curiosity of experimenting what changes of Weather dayly hapned in his Country composed a certain Diary of such changes and of many Diaries made Year after Year framed at last one great Parapegme or Table the Risings and Settings of the Stars and the affections of the Air observed most commonly to ensue immediately thereupon being expressly referred to each day respectively Hence some of the principal of these Parapegmes were so translated into Kalenders as that it is manifest Ovid would from thence illustrate his Fasti Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum Lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa canam And at this day our Vulgar Kalenders retain so much of the Ancient fashion as that in every month is inserted the precise time of the Suns ingress or entrance into the Signe proper thereto how many hours are in each day together with the image of Harvest Vintage and what is else the chief business of the Husbandman in each Month. Hence also were derived these General Precepts of Good Husbandry which are delivered in elegant verse by Hesiod among the Greeks and by Virgil among the Latines in imitation of him in his Georgicks CHAP. IV. That the Risings and Settings of the Stars are not the Causes but only Signes of Tempests and Mutations hapning in the Air contrary to the Vulgar opinion THat this was the Tenent of Epicurus and most other of the more sage and orthodox Philosophers among the Ancients is sufficiently inferrible from the very modesty of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significationes as was afore intimated which they generally used as most proper to express this notion Besides as for the General Cause of Seasons and aereal mutations they referred them for the most part to the Sun allowing nevertheless some activity in the Moon together with inferior causes towards the production of Cold Wind Rain and the like changes of Weather but the Stars both fixt and erratique they accounted no other then meer Signes of those particular times wherein the Sun and other Causes do usually concurr to the generation of Heat Rain Winds and the like mutations in the Air. That Epicurus was of this opinion is plain from his text in the 10. Book of Diogenes Laertius the sence whereof is this That whereas the Risings and Settings of the Stars according to the course of the Year do signify the various mutations of the temper of the Air proper to each of the four seasons in this they do no
more then the Swallows and other Fowles of the Air which by their coming presage the advent of the Spring and by their departure again in the end of Autumn foretell the approach of Winter and no more then some certain changes of the Air as the Rain-bow Thunder Clouds which foretell other changes immediately to succeed as serenity showers c. Because as the Swallows are not the Cause of the Spring nor the Rainbow of clear Weather but only a signe thereof so is not for Example the Rising of the Dog star a Cause of the great Heat and Drought that usually possesseth the Air at that time but only a Signe of that time when the Sun doth annually parch the Earth and rost the inhabitants of it As for other Philosophers see what Geminus saith among the rest Astrorum exortibus mutationes fiunt non quod Astra vim habeant ad mutationem ventorum aut imbrium sed quod signi gratiâ assumpta sint ad hoc ut pernoscamus aeris affectiones Et veluti Fax non ipsa est causa motus bellici sed bellici temporis signum sic etiam Astrorum ortus non ipsi sunt causa mutationum aeris verum posita ut Signa talium affectionum And afterwards speaking of the Rising of the Dog-star he saith Omnes putant hanc stellam vim habere propriam causam esse intensionis aestuum dum simul oritur cum sole attamen res non sic se habet sed quoniam juxta calidissimum tempus cum haec stella ortum faciebat hujus apparitione aeris in aestum mutationem significârunt And that you may not think Aristotle one of those who held the Rising of the Dog-star Orion or any other Constellation to be any more but a simple signe of the Mutations hapning in the Air about those times please you to observe how among his Problemes sect 26. quaest 12. and 13 enquiring Curâ—oriente Cane Auster moveatur why the South wind commonly blowes at the time of Dogs Rising He answers himself by referring it to the Sun not to that Star and demanding further why men are then exhausted with immoderate Heat he adds ideo spiritus ixcitari callidissimos per idem tempus congruum esse The same he replieth concerning Orion Rising in the Autumn and Setting again in Winter And in Meteorolog 2. cap. 5. discoursing of the same Constellation he hath these words Orion dum oritur dum occidit incertus ac difficilis esse propterea videtur quod ejus ortus occasus tum cum tempora evariant commutanturque ille estate hic Hyeme accidant By which you may perceive that He remarketh the Rising or Setting of Orion not as a Cause of the Changes then contingent in the Air but meerly that its Rising and Setting fall out at such times as the Air suffereth those changes from the vicinity and remotion of the Sun This Opinion of Epicurus and others might be confirmed with many strong Reasons but among them all I shall select only Three as most memorable and important The First That the Fixt Stars in respect of their constant though slow motion to the East do rise and set now in our days near upon a whole moneth later in the Year then they did in the Times of those Ancient Grecian Philosophers and yet nevertheless the seasons and general mutations are not retarded proportionately i. e. by a moneth but remain alwayes adliged to the Sun and Observe its progress through the Zodiack For Example those great Heats which so long ago usually came about the middle of July at which time the Dog-star arose in those days do now likewise invade us about the middle of July nor are they removed to the middle of August when the Dog-star doth now arise nor can any Men expect that after the Flux of ten Thousand Years in case the World should last so long the greatest Heats of the Year would fall upon the middle of January as it must come to pass in case the Heats were derived from the Dog-star and not from the Sun Again if these excessive Heats were the effect of the Canicular Star why do not we feel them in February and chiefly in the Night time during which that star remains above the Horizon And if you conceive that the burning of the Dog-star is augmented by the virtue of the Sun pray why was it not augmented long ago chiefly about the beginning of June since now it is not augmented to the highest at the end of that moneth being then nearest to the Sun Perhaps you may enquire by the By why the greatest Heats of the whole Summer are not co-incident to the Summer Solstice but succeed some dayes after it Why truely the Cause is manifestly this that the Sun proceeding to inflame the Air both by the Direction of its Rayes every day more and more Perpendicular and by its longer continuance above the Horizon untill the Solstice this Directness of its beams and its longer continuance doth persever sensibly the same for many daies together in which the like degrees being added to the Heat formerly acquired it is necessary the same should be much encreased so that unless both the Directness of its Rayes and its continuance above the Horizon did sensibly decrease the Heat of the Sun darted upon the Earth could not be remitted The Second That these Signes are not the same in all Climates or Regions but the Dog-star for Example which to us is a significator of Heat to the Antipodes is a Signe of Cold. An argument certainly and a sufficient one that neither our Heat nor their Cold hath any dependence on the Dog but only on the Sun to us by its presence to them by its absence For otherwise the Dog since he doth not change his situation as the Sun doth ought to have an equal and uniform efficacy nay more he ought so much the more to Heat the Antipodes then us by how much the more vertical he is to them and so doth ejaculate its Rayes more directly or Perpendicularly upon their heads But the Antipodes are somewhat too remote for us to have recourse unto in this plain case and therefore we shall deduce our plea from things neerer at hand Besides the general affections of seasons as of Heat and Cold which evidently arise the one from the presence the other from the absence of the Sun are not particular Countries and such as are near neighbours each to other subject to different changes of the Air so that while it is Dark and Rainy weather in one the Sun shines clearly and serenely in the other Is not for Example England many times infected with Tempests and high Winds while France at the same time enjoys a perfect calme And so of the rest Consider then whether be more seasonable to referr this variety of dispositions in the Air and difference of weather in Countryes almost touching each other to the Rising and Setting of Stars or to
the particular condition and nature of the Countries themselves The Ancients I am sure chose to ascribe it to the different Soyls and situation of Countries and thereupon they thought fit to compose particular Tables for particular Regions and those too made up of many Years Observations conferred together because no General ones could serve the turn Hereupon also they conclude that the Tables of the Egyptians could be of use at the most only to those Nations who lived in the same Parallel or Climate and had but 14. hours day at the longest that those of Dofitheus and Phillippus might be usefull to such Nations who had 14. hours and an half of day those of Democritus and Cesar and Hipparchus to such who had 15. hours of day those of Callippus Eudoxus Meton Euctemon Metrodorus and Conon to such who Inhabite intermediate Climates I add moreover that these Tables cannot be usefull not only to such as live in divers Parallels but even not to such as live in the same but more toward the East or toward the West since experience attesteth that there are divers mutations of the Air not only toward the South and North but also toward the East and West The Third That these Signes afford but light uncertain Conjectures at best For their signification is most uncertain even in respect of the same Country which yet would not be in case they were as well Germane Causes as Signes And since the most that can be justly said in this kind is that the Air is made hot in Summer cold in Winter and Temperate in the Spring and Autumn but no man can certainly foretell of what temper the Air will be in this or the next Year at the time the Dog-star doth arise or Arcturus set because it is manifest some Years even in the middest of Summer there fall out very Cold days and very warm ones in the midst of Winter and those days that chance to be very wett and tempestuous this Year may be dry and serene the next and because in one Year it is wett weather all the Summer and dry all the Winter some Years are very dry all along and others continually wett Therefore is it manifest that concerning the particular changes of weather at sett and punctual times no certain rules of prediction can be drawn from these Signes Hence we may come to understand that those Tables do indeed contain what their Authors observed to have hapened in those Years during which they addicted themselves to make and record their Observations but yet cannot be extended to another series of Years in which perhaps there may be so great a difference as even to cross the former Tables in most things Which Geminus doubtless reflected upon when he so much commended Aratus for that conceiving the Signes of such changes to be fallacious as were taken from the Rising and Setting of the Stars he had recourse to others exhibited by nature such as are the Colours appearing in the Sun or Moon at their Rising or Setting the Circles about them called Halo's and Paraselenes and the like because these having their Causes and production in the Air hold some natural affinity and connexion with rain clear weather wind heat and other affections of the Air. Of this sort likewise are the motions observed in some Bruit Animals which as are sensible of so do they also prognosticate the changes of the Air both as they begin and encrease and this by running up and down by Drousiness by Bellowing by Crying making certain unwonted Noyses and the like according to that of the Poet Cana fulix it idem fugiens é gurgite ponti Nunciat honibiles clamans instare procellas Haud modicos tremulo fundens é pectore cantus c. CHAP. V. The Fundamental Maximes of Astrology examined THese considerations premised by way of Introduction let us now come up close to Astrology it self as distinct from Astronomy begining our Examination first at the General plants or fundamental positions thereof and then proceeding to the particular Praedictions thereof aswell concerning Changes of weather deduced from other Signes besides the Risings and Settings of the Stars as concerning the Fortunes of Men which Astrologers commonly deduce from their Genitures or Nativity Themes And these few things among innumerable others pertaining to this so promising Art will be sufficient to demonstrate the Vanity and Frauds of it The First general maxime whereby Astrologers endeavour to gain credit and reputation to their documents is what all men readily confess viz. that the Stars are not meer Signes but also natural Causes of very many effects as if Men were bound to admitt the same position for truth concerning other effects which they boast the divination of afore hand It is well known say they that inferiour natures are not subjected to superior in vain since they are so manifestly cherished moved and governed by them That the Sun is the Cause of Light and Heat and that by its access and recess annually it doth induce the series and vicissitude of seasons that it doth procreate plants and animals and in particular men according to that common saying Sol Homo generant Hominem that it doth extract vapours from the Earth which become the matter of Rain of Winds and the like That the Moon doth fill and empty all shell Fish the bones of animals the brains of Coneys and hath great power over all moyst bodies and especially the Sea whose Tides are conformed to her motion Lastly that there are certain Influences by which not only these two principal Luminaries but also the other lesser ones exercise their virtues upon sublunary bodies For since the Stars ought not to be conceived idle and ineffectual and that there are some certain Effects which cannot be referred to any other Causes but them as the Critical mutations of diseases and the inequallity of seasons c. And this is the sum of what our Astrologers alleage for support of their pretence and whereby they study to endear their Art and prepare the minds of men for the more smooth and easy admission of what they afterward impose with prodigious confidence And indeed what they urge concerning the Sun and Moon seems so plausible as yet even judicious men may at first diligently listen thereto and conceive some expectation that they would proceed to prove the rest of their suppositions with the like evidence not suspecting that upon such specious foundations they would soon fall to erect nothing but ridiculous Fables and wild absurdities But alas how far are they from making the members of their artificial body respondent to the Head of it For behold they have no sooner layd down this ground but they instantly run out to such superstructures which have no solidity nor strength from either Experience or Reason And indeed I cannot but wonder and blush when I observe the First writers of this Art Ptolomy Firmicus and Manilius after they have begun their discourses
Nativity to be all above the Horizon then also the supposition might seem more tollerable but to make their virtues and efficacy all one whether they be above or under the the Earth this is most intollerable For since in the night time we feel no virtue of the Sun but what remains diffused through the Air the day before because his beams cannot pierce through the body of the Earth is there any reason we should beleeve that either the Sun or any other of the Planets when they are depressed under the Earth can so transmit their virtues upon an Insant entring the World as to destine all things belonging to him as effectually as if they were above the Earth and in a posture convenient for the direct transmission of their rayes upon the subject on which they are to operate The same also may be said of the virtue of those Planets which at that time are covered by the Sun or Moon Lastly If they would allow that the rayes of the Planets should be so received by the tender Infant as to operate according to his constitution derived from his Parents and so to be varied to the production of various and sometimes contrary effects then they might more justly expect our assent but to make the Planets to do all things to subject both a sickly and un-sound Infant and a lusty and strong one if born at the same instant and in the same City to one and the same influence and the same effects Is this to be endured by reason Nor can you think that they are able to allow any thing of this kind by distinguishing for if they should but say that the influence of the Planets were only general or that the least power of Concurrence or opposition were to be ascribed to the Complexion of the Infant then Farewell their whole Art For the persumed Certainty thereof doth so depend upon the Starrs as that it must be wholly destroyed in case any respect be had of the individual Constitution of the Patient as a special and determining Cause which for the most part is not understood and which is subject to infinite variety And you well preceive that Astrologers require only two things viz. The time of the Nativity and the Altitude of the Pole or Latitude of the Place and from these two alone they undertake to predict the Infants Fate most certainly most punctually And perhaps it might be granted that at the time when one is born the same doth befall him that doth when he issueth forth from the place in which he was cherished by a special heat into the cold Air or the Air affected with any other degree of warmth as we see doth happen to a Red-hot Iron when it is taken out of the Fire and Plunged into cold water but when it shall be also granted that the external Air affected with the Rayes of the Stars is available to the changing of his temperament and to cause that his life should be longer or shorter yet nothing can be more like a dream yea more vaine then a dream then that therefore it is determinable how long precisely to an hour that Infant shall live since according to the care that is afterwards taken of the Child his life shall be longer or shorter and more or less subject to infirmities or what advencures of prosperous of adverse fortune shall thenceforth befall him since those depend upon such future occasions as have no relation at all with the condition of his Birth Let a man but seriously consider with himfelfe how many there are and have been in the world with whom he hath had to doe in some affaire or other either directly or indirectly from his Childhood to this present day in order to his dispatch of several buisines that he might take this or that Iourney acquire this or that Honour or Dignity heap up this or that mass of wealth sustain this or that dishonour or loss and so run over the most considerable Encounters of his life then let him consider whether those so many men of different Ages Complexions Humours Conditions Nations Countries without all which living at such times and in such places and meeting with him upon such occasions he could not have effected such designes or met with such Events had any relation at all to his Nativity Let him I say consider that when they could not but live at such a time in such a place meet him and be willing to do these or these things for or against him unless because others lived before them are dead and did this or that for them and so of the rest since the Fates of those men also depended upon others that went before them from Age to Age upwards to the begining of the World so that from thence forward all the successions of men and all the series of affaires to this present day are to be unravelled for if all things had not been so as they were neither had those men lived with whom he hath had to do nor those Events been which have besallen him Nor can our Astrologers evade this necessity by saying that the Planets do not designe particularly and singularly what Good or Evill and from whom and when and where a Man shall receive it for since the rayes are singular by which the Planets designe any one accident it is necessary that the definition be of a singular Event nor can the Event be singular unless from the singular circumstances of Person Place Time and manner And manifest it is that other Events then what are really to come cannot be defined nor can there be otherwise terms of singular actions that I may not take notice how Astrologers boast the certainty of their Predictions chiefly in respect of circumstance of Time which is most singularly and in respect of which such an Event cannot happen to such a Person unless that Person be at that time in such a place in such company upon such an occasion That I may likewise omitt that Astrology must be confessed most vain and useless unless it be able to premonish men of singular Events together with the Persons occasions and other circumstances of them for otherwise no man can know when how or from whom to expect benefit or detriment or what he must do to meet his good promised or decline his Evil threatned CHAP. XV. The Moment of an Infants Nativity uncertain TO persue the Doctrine of Astrologers touching this Omnipotent Moment of an Infants Nativity let us observe how strict and punctual they are in the investigation of it and this to the end that they may exactly know what point of the Ecliptick ascended at that time above the Finitor and that being found out to erect a Scheam of the position of the Heavens at the same and this done according to the Planets being in such or such Houses they proceed to give judgement of the future accidents of the Infant And indeed it is not without good cause
seriously and with gravity beseeming Philosophers and Men professing the severity of reason in a moment to fall upon meer childish toys and old wives dreams It is truely dishonourable for Learned men by the pretext of such positions as are generally confessed so to impose upon the credulity of their Readers as if those Fopperies which they intend to foist in afterwards were of the same evidence and certitude with the premises Dishonourable did I say Yea it is odious and detestable to delude men by a manifest Paralogisme and from a specious Antecedent to draw such a Consequence as really is no Consequence For as I began to say it is indeed attested by Experience that the Sun doth vary the seasons of the Year that the Moon doth fatten shell-fish in her full and make them lean again in her wane but doth Experience attest the like of the 12. Signes in the Zodiack and of their several degrees of Saturn Mercury and the rest of the Planets and Fixt Stars Certainly no nor can our Astrologers by any Observation shew any one the least effect that ought to be referred to this or that particular Constellation or Star rather than to any other or rather than to any sublunary Cause as we shall more expresly evince in the sequel of this discourse What then Have they any Reason to fly to None at all doubtless since all Reason resteth on Experience and of that here can be none and all that can with probility be inferred is this that each Luminary being a lucid body doth in proportion to its Orb enlighten warme and work such effects as arise from such light and heat Hereunto I add that forasmuch as the Stars are General Causes only in respect of sublunary things we may well demand a reason why any singular effect may not be ascribed to some singular Cause here below where are such multitudes of natural and convenient Actives and Passives rather then to those remote ones the Stars For as when we give an account of the Causes of Odours in compound Ointments we referr one kind of smel to the Roses another to the Jasmine a third to the Orange flowers and no particular smel to the Oyl which is the common matter of the composition and the cause of the fragrancy neither to the one nor to the other of the ingredients And as when we explicate why in a Garden this Plant groweth here and not there another there and not here we referr it to their seeds which were sown in those places where each one groweth not to the Water wherewith they are irrigated which is only a General Cause of the groweth of all the plants and indifferent nourishment to each sort So are we to Philosophise concerning those Effects that are ascribed to heavenly bodies For since the Heat of the Sun for instance is General why it should harden Clay and soften Wax is to be referred to the different dispositions of those bodies not to any various efficacy in the Suns heat And why the Sun produceth a plant in this place but not an Animal an Animal in another place but not a plant this is to be referred likewise to the virtue of the seed which is Plantary in one place and Animal in the other The same may be said of other things that arise from the influence of the Suns heat as for Example the Sun raiseth vapours from this part of the Earth and not from another because in one part is moisture in another none one Year it raiseth more vapours than in another because one year yeelds more moysture than another one year the exhalations are healthy and good another infectious and pestilential because of the different matter from which they are drawn c. Hence we learn that since it is besides all reason when there may be many Causes of any particular effect without the concurrence of all which that effect will not follow for us to think it sufficient to our Prognostication of that effect absolutely and positively that we know any one of all these various Causes that must concurr to the production thereof it must be likewise besides all reason when besides the Stars there are other inferior Causes that must conspire to the production of particular effects for any man confidently to foretell the contingency of those effects only because he knows the general influx of the Stars but not any one of the other inferior particular Causes that are required thereunto Again when there are some effects which have no dependence at all or what is exceedingly obscure upon the Stars but a manifest and necessary dependence upon sublunary Causes I would willingly know what reason there is why we should not rather have recourse to those sublunary and particular Causes than to those superlunary and general ones the Stars Thus when grounds manured and enriched by compost do yeeld more plentifull crops of Corn than before it is plain that we are to ascribe this fertility not to the influence of the Sun and Stars but to the fatning of the ground by the dung or soyle seasonably laid upon it by the carefull Farmer CHAP. VI. The Astrologers suppositions concerning the Fixt Stars AS for the Fixt Stars the Astrologers doth ascribe little or no virtue to them unless they be comprehended in the Zodiack for they only mention Medusa's Head the Dog Arcturus and a few others nor indeed do they ascribe much virtue to them in the Zodiack as the Ey of the Bull the Heart of the Lion Spica Virginis the Heart of Scorpio unless as they are referred to certain degrees of the Signes in the same Hereupon their chiefest care is about the distribution of the Signes and Degrees of the Zodiack as the main fundament of their Art upon which they build whatever they afterward have imagined of the Planets and their Houses That we much touch upon some few things belonging to each Head let us observe in the First place how when they have divided the Zodiack into 12. parts called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they name Signes in respect of the Asterismes of Constellations occurring in the Zodiack according as Shepheards Plow-men and Mariners at first imagined them to refemble certain things on Earth and gave them denominations they have distinguished not only each of those signes into thirty Degrees and each Degree again into Minutes but have also considered denominated and compared the 12. Signes after innumerable wayes and manners For they thought it not sufficient to distinguish those Signes into Vernal Estival Autumnal Hyemal as also into Northern and Ruling Southern and obeying and again into Ascendent or Direct and Descendent or Oblique and winding into Cardinal Moveable Median or Fixt and Common into Conjunct or such as behold and face each other in a Trine Quartile or other aspect Disjunct which have no Aspect each to other at all Antisious which are equally distant from the Cardinal points c. This I say was not enough
would think the soveraignty should belong to the Sun and in the next place to the Moon not that it should be taken away from them and conferred upon Mars Mercury or any other so as that in respect of it the power of the Sun and Moon must be wholly diminished and obscured But how can that very moment wherein a Planet passeth by the Center of the Sun or Equator or either of the Tropicks conduce to the election of it for Lord Are not those Circles in the Heavens meerly imaginary distitute of all virtue or if there be any virtue adscriptive to them ought it not to be derived wholly from the Sun And doth not the Sun in its approach to and recess from them proceed on in one equal tenour nor so vary his influx in them as that it is not the same both before and after he hath passed them Or if he doth vary his influx is not the tenour of his variation the same both before and after so that from one punctual moment nothing of change can be inferred more from one particular moment than from any other precedent or consequent The same likewise may be said of those moments in which the Moon is in the points of Conjunction or Opposition or those that are immediately precedent or subsequent to them But what if no man can be certain of that precise moment in which the Sun is in a Cardinal point of Heaven Sure I am there are no Tables or Ephemerides so exact as to teach that time within 6 hours or the 4 th part of a Day For though those composed by Tycho come the nearest to truth yet they are somwhat short of it and we are confirmed that hitherto none have ever been free from some exorbitancy or other more or less so that yet there never was a Celestial Scheam erected at the precise moment of the Suns being in either of the Cardinal points and so no experiment could be made of this so magnified Dominion For suppose the Calculators mistake no more than only two hours in the time then what is ascribed to the First House doth really belong to the Twelfth or to the second betwixt which and the First how great difference they make every man perceiveth The same in proportion may be said of the uncertainty of the moment when the Moon is in Conjunction with or Opposition to the Sun forasmuch as even the Eclipses observed do assure us that that moment is alwayes different from that which not only the Ancients but also the moderns Ephemerides prescribe And what if the true places of the Planets were never yet exactly known as we shall declare hereafter So that a Planet doth not deserve that Dominion which is given to it in respect of the Testimonies of Fortitude that do not belong to it when it is absent from that place upon the supposition of which it had them assigned Again what if those things we have discovered of the Planets and their motions be such as require a new Theory and new precepts concerning them and their periods different if not contrary to those that have hitherto been excogitated and delivered For if the Moon according as she is encreased or diminished in light acquireth various degrees of Fortitude and Debility and causeth various effects must we not allow the same also to Venus which likewise hath the same Variety of Phases as the Moon If the Earth suffer so much of alteration from the various aspects of the Moon it is fit that Jupiter should suffer some alteration from the aspects of his proper Moons which as they are more in number so are they swifter in their motions and oftner changed in their configurations And according to this alteration is it not reasonable to conceive that Jupiter becomes stronger or weaker as to his activity upon inferior bodies May not the same be said of Saturn in respect of his Ansulae And are not those his Ansulae and also the Jovial Moons to be numbred among the Planets which in respect of the Earth display their particular virtues and so may have their various Testimonies of Fortitude and Debility and thereby stand Candidates for the honour of the supreme Dominion when it comes to their turn aswell as any of the rest But why do I dwell thus long upon this subject when common Experience convinceth the Dominions supposed to be meer Dreams As also are all the mighty Attributes not only of the Dodecatemoria or twelve Divisions of the First Moveable Heaven than which Vanity it self is not more Vain but also of the Asterismes and Stars themselves which they will have to act according as each doth resemble such or such a Planet in colour For who could ever experimentally tell that the Heart of Scorpio doth heat and dry since no Star is in colour more like Mars And why should the Ey of Taurus which is one of the Hyades and the chiefest among them cool and moysten since that also comes as near the redness of Mars as the Heart of Scorpio Why was not the Dog-star conceived to be the cause of the greatest heats in Summer rather accounted Martial Of their Aspects I add nothing because look how much authority and faith our Astrologers conferr upon them so much doth dayly Experience detract from them For in vaine doe they recurr to the signes and Triplicities in vain do they alleadge their Conjunctions when the Events nevertheless deceive them It is memorable what we read in Histories and indeed almost in all Books of the former Age that when Astrologers in respect of great Conjunctions and some mean ones to happen in the watery signes had Praedicted a General Deluge forsooth and so great calamities of men and beasts by water as was never before heard of and this to fall out in the moneth of February in the year 1524. so that many being terrified with this Prognostication in Spaine France Italy Germany and other Parts of Europe provided themselves of shipping boats Victuals and other necessaries for a long Voyage and betook themselves to the topps of the highest mountains in expectation of the Deluge fore-told It fell out that all that moneth of February was fair and clear and more temperate than ordinary as if Providence had ordained that exceeding serenity at that time on purpose to refute and deride the vain Predictions of our Star-prophets for it is rare to see February pass away without leaving raines and cold behind it which even Cardan and Origanus themselves could not dissemble their sorrow for complaining that that judgment of a Deluge then to come was given by Stofler not without the irreparable disgrace of Astrology Just such another Prognostication was that which Scaltger reports in Praefation in Manil out of Rigordus who wrote that the Astrologers had foretold so general a destrnction by the violence of winds and tempest because of a Conjunction of aswell the inferior as superior Planets in September MCLXXXVI there being an Eclips
of his skill in Divination And hence is it that he whose prediction comes to be fulfilled by the Event may indeed be accounted the Happier or more Lucky-man in his conjecture but not a jot the more skilfull or Knowing for it This I speak only of Astrologers because Mariners Plow-men and Shepheards and others may from the paleness or redness of the Moon from Halo's Paraselen's Rain-bowes and the like Meteorological Signes probably conjecture what weather there will be either the same day or the next following by reason of the familiar connexion of such Events to such Causes but our Astrologers who glory that they are able to predict all sorts of weather on each Day of the Year and that not only many hours but many Dayes Weeks Moneths Years and Ages before hand can predict no such thing because there is not the like familiar and manifest connexion betwixt the Causes and Events Nor can they object that their Calculations are very laborious and difficult for this when all is done is nothing but with great labour and pains to make a Calculation from some intricate game on the Dice For allow that fair weather shall succeed upon such or such particular chance of the Dice and foul weather upon another and wind upon another and then make your predictions of each according to the chances and you shall find the buisiness succeed with as much certainty as if you raised your predictions from the Aphorisines and Calculations of Astrologers Nor is this a wonder since I have heard of some Almanak-makers who were famous for their Weather-wisedome and yet they never used other art to make them by than the Chances of a Die But they confidently demand whether there be in nature any Cause to which the changes of Weather ought in probability to be referred except only the Heavens Whereas it is easily Answered that the Heavens indeed or rather the Stars and chiefly the Sun are the General Causes of most of the mutations in the Air and yet besides them there are other special and principal Causes among inferior bodies to which it is to be referred that those mutations happen in this or that place in this or that time and in this or that manner rather then otherwise and not to the Heavens which without them could not Cause any Effect or change at all and that by the nature and activity of these inferior Causes it is that the Stars do attemper their influence and accommodate their action This considered They do ill to affirm that all sublunary Agents are no more but meerly the instruments of Superlunary for in truth they have special Virtues of their own such as are incompetent to meer Instruments and it is they that rather make use of the virtues of the Stars as their instruments Again there are some certain Effects to which no man can say the Heavens do much conduce such as the suddain eruptions of Flames and Fire and Vapours caused by them from subterraneous Waters yea Metals themselves which though some have supposed to be generated in the bowels of the Earth by the special energy of the Sun yet none have ever given an account of the true reason or manner of that Generation nor is it indeed conceivable how True it is indeed that the warmth of the Sun doth cherish the body of the Earth and so promote the fertility of the seeds therein contained but yet an External cherishing Cause doth not exclude internal and more proper Causes from executing their particular faculties As for the Moon and the other Planets if they may be admitted to act any thing upon the Earth by the same reason the Earth may be conceived to re-act upon them nor can the Earth be more their Instrument then they the Earths The parts of the World mutually contribute their operations and assistance each to other forasmuch as every part hath its peculiar virtues and in a special manner displayeth the same by its actions I add that it hath been granted that the Sun and Moon have their operations upon inferior bodies and that they produce such Effects as may be fore-known and fore-told but not that the prenotion and prediction of those Effects do belong more to Astrologers than to the common People since no man is ignorant that the Sun for instance doth produce heat and serenity more frequently than foul weather in the Summer It hath been granted likewise that other sydereal bodies and chiefly the Planets have some influence and activity upon the Earth in proportion to their flender light but what the special activity of each Planet or Star in particular is Astrologers are as much ignorant of as the most illiterate Clown in the World For as when a room is enlightned by a Flame from which many smal sparks issue forth no man can discern the particular light which ariseth from each particular spark the Air being promiscuously illumined by them all so the Sun Moon and Stars acting promiscuously upon the Earth by their several influences blended or confused together it is impossible for any man to distinguish their several activities But you 'l say are the virtues of the Stars to be measured by the Greatness or smalness of their particular Lights And why not I pray Will you have it to be measured by that of their Diametres or of their Discuses If so though we should allow that each of the Fixt Stars is not less potent in it self then either the Sun or Moon or any other of the Planets must you not yet confess that the Distance which doth diminish the light and discuss aswell of the Fixt as of the Erratique Stars must in the same proportion diminish also their activity so that the virtue of each Fixt Star compared to the virtue of the Sun and that of each Planet compared to that of the Moon can be no more than the light of the one is to the light of the other or the Discuss of one to the Discuss of the other And this seems much more reasonable than what Astrologers suppose viz. that the virtues ascribed to the Planets are equal if not superior to those of the Sun and Moon But say they again whence come's that great variety of sublunary Effects if not from the various positions and various influences of the Stars Why I have already declared that the variety of Effects among sublunaries ariseth from the variety of Causes among sublunaries as they are variously compared either among themselves or with others To Day there arise vapours from this part of the Earth which elevated into the Air become condensed into Clouds and so fall down again in showers In the mean time the matter of them is exhausted or the heat by which they were evaporated groweth less at the same part of the Earth And albeit by the continual action of some parts of the Earth upon others the like matter be to be congested upon the same place and new heat to succeed yet that
among whom were Petosyris Necepsos Hermes and that great man Ptolomie who after his prodigious labours in the instauration of Astronomy cultivated Astrology also in a particular Book which they call his Quadripartite Work In the Second they alleadge Reason and particularly that that admirable magnitude multitude pulchritude and variety of Heavenly bodies cannot serve to no other end or purpose at all but to be gazed upon That the Connexion of the inferior World to the superior so as that it deriveth its virtues and force of activity from thence is sensibly manifest That the Efficacy of the Sun and Moon upon all sublunaries is generally confessed and that other Stars both Erratique and Fixt ought likewise to be allowed to have their peculiar Faculties such as cause more admirable Effects than can be referred to them meerly as Luminaries That from the various positions of the Moon with the Sun the temper and constitution of sublunary things is dayly changed and therefore from the various configurations of the other Planets and Stars there must arise a great variety of vitues and effects which being acknowledged by Shepheards Plowmen and Marriners cannot but be better known to Astrologers who search more profoundly into their natures That the Heavens as all men allow are the Cause of Heats Colds and all Changes happening in the Air and therefore they must cause likewise Barrenness Fruitfullness diseases and all affections not only of mens bodies but also of their Minds which follow the temper of their bodies and so be the Causers of their Loves Marriages and Children of their Animosities Quarrels Wars Slaughters c. Again that the wonderfull variety of ingenies Studies Habits manners among several nations and several persons of the same nation can have no other origine or disposition but what proceeds from a superior Cause i. e. the Heavenly influences Lastly that the Fates of men being so diverse so unexpected and many Times so undeserved cannot be referred to any but a Celestial Cause as Firmicus confirmeth by a long series of Examples and Manilius sings in these and other verses Fata quoque vitas hominum suspendit ab Astris Quae Summas operum parteis quae lucis honorem Quae famam assererent c. In the Third they take sanctuary in Observation and Experience For say they though we be ignorant of and cannot investigate the true cause of some Effects yet we are not therefore to conclude that either those Effects doe not happen or that from the exact observation of many of them an Art may not be framed Otherwise it might be said that the Loadstone hath not that Virtue of attracting iron and directing to the Poles which our sences assure us it hath or that the Art of Navigation cannot consist of the observation of magneticall effects because no man can give a good cause or reason for the demonstration of those admirable Proprieties of the Loadstone By equal reason though we cannot demonstrate why such or such effects should ensue upon such or such positions of the Heavens which we are able to predict yet it is sufficient that many the like observations have been made of the like effects following upon the like positions so that an Art may be thereupon erected according to which it may be predicted that when such positions happen again the like effects will follow upon them They proved and affirme that this Art is confirmed by so many and certain Experiments as that it can be no longer indubitated And here might be cited many Famous Predictions made by Chaldeans to Alexander Antigonus and other Ancients but that those which were delivered concerning Augustus and other Roman Emperours sound more loud in the mouth of Fame For of Augustus it is reported by Suetonius that P. Nigidius having found the hour of his Nativity affirmed that he was born to be Lord of the whole Earth and that Theogenes enquiring into the Position of the Heavens at his Birth leaped for joy and adored him as one that should be a mighty Prince Of â—…rius it is well known that Scribonius Promised glorious things while he was yet in his Cradle and that the time would come when he should obtain the Soveraignty of the World Of Caligula that Sulla the Mathematician being demanded what his fortune should be according to his Geniture answered him that his death was neer at hand and inevitable Of Nero it was foretold that he should be first Emperour and then a Matricide But above all the story of Domitian is most memorable For saith Suctonius he was never so much moved with any accident as with the answer and misfortune of Ascletarion the Mathematician For being brought before Domitian and confidently avowing the Predictions that he disfused as deduced from the misteries of his Art Domitian asked him what should be his own end To which he returned that he was certain he should be ere long torn in pieces by Doggs Domitian to refute this prediction commanded him to be instantly slain and buried whereupon he was accordingly killed upon the place and caried to be burned But as the fire was kindling under the Rogues there suddainly fell so Prodigious a shower of raine as extinguished the fire and drove away all that assisted at the funeral and instantly there came thither a multitude of Doggs and plucked downe the dead Body from the pile of wood tore it in pieces To recite more examples in Antient times is superfluous for even in our dayes every man heares of some eminent Adventure or other that fell out according as it was predicted by Astrologers But we cannot omitt what they have observed to befall some notable opposers and contemners of their Art For of Plotinus it is recorded by Firmicus lib 1. cap. 3. that he who laughed at the rules and predictions of Astrologers perished by a most lamentable death adding these words And so he felt the power of Fate and suffered that end which the fiery judgements of the stars had decreed for him and being destroyed by the bitterness of that sickness he taught all men by his own sad example not by liberty of speech that the force and power of the fates can by no meanes be contemned And Gauricus speaking of Joh. Picus Mirandula who in twelve Books invaded and derided Astrologers sayth that he died immaturely in the 32. year of his age from the Direction of his Horoscope to the body of Mars as had been precisely fore-told him by some very learned Astrologers adding withall that he wrote against Astrology in a passion of anger because three Genethliacks had predicted that he should die before the six and thirtieth year of his life And this is the sum of their main Plea CHAP. XIX Their Pretence of Antiquity and Ancient Authors confuted NOw as for the great Antiquity they boast of we down-right deny it both in respect of what we have already said touching the Antiquity of Celestial Observations and of the memorials of
angry Tyrant would set the Dogs upon him Again supposing he did really predict that accident yet can he not be said to have predicted the true manner of his Death because he was not torn by Dogs till after his Death and Astrologers never extend their predictions beyond Death but he intended that he should be torn alive The same may be said of that Astrologer who in the presence of Gâ—leatius Duke of Millain predicted his own Death by the fall of a Beam upon him for to omitt other objections it is manifest there is no Aphorisme or Rule in Astrology so precise as to determine the instrument of Death or define it to be rather a Beam than a Tile or Stone c. But the Common people are wont to note all circumstances with overmuch curiosity and to let no passage escape without referring it to portentous Causes Historians likewise are wont to take less care in relating only what is true than in Setting down Vulgar reports of extraordinary occurrences Will you have a pregnant Example of this A certain Astrologer having predicted that Henry the Seaventh of England a wise Valiant and Fortunate King should dy in such a year the King sent for him and asked him if he could tell in what place himself should be at the next Christmas then neer at hand The Prophet being surprised with this unexpected question stood mute a good while and at length confessed he could not tell Thereupon the King smiling said then my freind I am more skilfull in Divination than you are for I can fore-tell that you shall keep your Christmas in the Tower of London and accordingly commanded him to be sent prisoner thither Nor did the King either dy in the Year predicted or set the Astrologer at liberty again untill a good while after when the heat of his Divining humour had been abated by the Waters of affliction and that was an act of more Clemency in the King than Princes usually shew to such impudent fellows For to pass by other Examples of Astrologers who have drawn suddain Death upon themselves by adventuring to vent Prophesies concerning the Deaths of others we have a memorable one out of the Anthologia of Diophantus the great Astrologer Hermogenem Medicum monet Astrologus Diophantus Vix illum menseis uivere posse novem Qui videns vide ait quid nobis astra minentur Imminet at moneo mors inopina tibi Dixit extendens dextram admovet Diophantus Desperare alium dum jubet ipse perit Hermogenes by Diophantus told He should not live nine Moneths more said my Friend In telling me my Destiny you are bold But trust me your life instantly will end And then he strook him so the Prophet fell While he from Stars anothers Fate did tell If this seem too Ancient we can furnish you with another of fresher date concerning Lucas Gauricus whom we have so often mentioned Could He think you who had sung the fatal Dirge of Johannes Bentivolio Prince of Bononia many years before hand could he I say fore-see and avoid his own untimely and miserable end Historians tell us No but Cardans testimony will do best in this case Gauricus saith he lib. de Genit Was put upon the Rack by the Bentivoglios which was more then he ever fore-saw by the Stars though he might portend the ruine of the Family more from a wise Conjecture of affairs than from Astrology for he was an egregious Sycophant What say you to Cardan himself who though he died at the time when he had predicted he should die starving himself on purpose to verify his prediction as was noted by Scaliger and Thuanus yet as to the time and manner of his eldest Son John Baptista's death he was grosly mistaken Every Learned man who hath perused his preface to Manilius well knows that he delivered sundry prophesies of his Sons Fate but he never premonished that that beloved Son of his should in the 24 th year of his Age loose his head by the stroke of the Hangman for Poisoning his Wife Concerning this sad and infamous Accident Sextus ab Heminga saith most excellently What will the World think when this tragical event shall be told to posterity and all Nations The most prudent most sage and most Learned Hieronymus Cardanus a Physician and Philosopher and Astrologer the most incomparable of the Age he lived in and without doubt the most to be honoured who took care for the education of his Children in Learning and piety and omitted nothing that might conduce to their erudition in knowledge and virtue studying their good as much as was possible For he most exactly described their Fates in those his voluminous Commentaries upon the Quadripartite Work of Ptolomie and expressed all particulars thereof that he might appear to have bin wanting in nothing for them whereunto his utmost providence could extend But unhappy man that he was he all this while never suspected from the Rules of his great Art that his dearest Son should be condemned and have his head strook off upon a Scaffold by an Executioner of Justice for destroying his own Wife by Poyson in the Flower of his Youth nor did he ever predict or mention any the least particular of all that Tragedy And thus Sextus ab Heminga Finally as to what Firmicus exaggerateth concerning the death of Plotinus all I shall say of it is that it is a meer vain Rhetorical aggravation For Porphyrius the disciple of Plotinus doth particularly describe both the nature of his sickness and his constant deportment at his death ensuing thereupon and He was more a Philosopher than to charge his disease and death upon any fiery decrees of the Stars and their fatal influences as Firmicus did afterward Again what did befall Plotinus which is not common and ordinary to all us Mortals and which may not aswell be objected against the memory of many thousand other good and pious men who never wrote against Astrology nor ever thought of it He died of a Consumption and that is caused not by any vindictive judgement of the Stars but by weakness of Constitution derived from ones Parents by ill Air unwholsome nourishment contagion and divers other Causes well known to Physicians That good Man therefore suffered not any punishment for his judicious Book against Astrologers but as he was subject to the common Condition of Mans Nature so did he patiently undergo it Unless you please to allow that the Stars were more to blame for exciting so learned a Person to write against their supposed power or that they altered their former decrees concerning him and contrived a new Fate for him as soon as they sure he durst inveigh against the fooleries and impostures of Astromancers But to add more were a shame Concerning Picus Mirandulanus we may say the very same For it was the tenderness and delicacy of his Constitution his uncessant Studies and exhaustion of his vital vigour by continual writing which took away that illustrious Person out of the World so immaturely and not any malignant influence of incensed Mars Gauricus indeed much insults over him because of his derision of Astrology but may not wise men much more justly inveigh against Gauricus who by reason of his foolish confidence in Astrology brought himself to the torture of the Rack and so was the Cause of his own most miserable Death when Picus Mirandula did nothing but what was honourable and pious nor ever ran into such extravagancie as might occasion his untimely Death But Astrologers foretold his Death precisely as to the time That I deny for observe Picus fulfilled not more than 31. Years of Life and yet Gauricus reporteth that Three eminent Genethliacks had punctually predicted his death before the 36th There is only Bellantius who wrote against him and glorieth that he foretold he should die in the 33 d year from his Birth But if Bellantius came so neer the matter and yet he missed it a whole year and more he might conjecture Picus could not be a long lived man from his weakly constitution continual labours of the mind and other Signes there being nothing more familiar than for men who are no Astrologers to guess that a young Man of a fiery active Genius a pregnant and capacious Soul an over-lively wit and a soon-ripe judgement will not live long and to say of such a one Ostendent terris hunc tantum Fata nec ultrá Esse sinent Though all this while I see no reason why I should more beleeve Bellantius in this point than the rest of that arrogant tribe since they all cry up themselves and boast that they have predicted such and such Events long before they happened when in truth no Man ever heard of those predictions till after the Events But what I have said against Astrologers is enough especially since that Divine witt Picus hath said much more to whose incomparable writings I remit my Reader while I go Study some other Argument of more use to the Commonweal of Learning than Astrology hath ever been And so adieu to both Astrologers and their Art FINIS 1. Caâ—min Ode 11
no wonder if the Astrologers succeeding him did not approve his Doctrine in all things because where his positions wanted reason to support them every man thought himself to have as much right to reject or introduce whatsoever pleased him as he had which was the cause of so many and so great innovations in the Art And therefore the witty Cardan that he might vindicate the Astrology of Ptolomie condemns they are his own words that innumerable multitude of Knaves who corrupted and defiled the Art so as that not so much as any tract or signe of it remained undefaced For so many Albumazars Abenragels Altabitzij Abubaters Zaheles Messahalacusses Bethenes Firmicuses Bonatuses Boni Genij have since sophisticated the Ancient Theory that what can remain entire after so many Impostors so many Trifles I say Cardan the Witty for I cannot say the Judicious as to his supposition of the Arts being pure and reasonable in the dayes of Ptolomie as if the Astrology of Ptolomie had not bin taken out of other former Authors of the same rank as if Cardan himself who foisted in so many things of his own head did not deserve the same Character he gives of the other Innovators as if we might not to his list of Knaves and Impostors add also so many Cardans Schoneruses Gauricuses Junctinuses Leovitiuses Ranzoviuses Pezcliuses Origanuses and others of the same Tribe as if that Artist who calls his fellow professors Impostors were not an Impostor himself as if all of them put together were not Impostors or that I may sweeten the matter all of them did not write Impostures For thus I think fitt to sweeten the phrase for their sakes who were of too candid minds to write with purpose to delude others though of so simple and good minds as not to suspect that others wrote on purpose to delude them CHAP. XX. Their pretence to Reason excluded HOw little of Reason can be urged in defence of Astrology may well appear from those many and considerable reasons that I have brought against it several of the precedent discourses And therefore I conceive my self obliged in a voydance of tedious repetitions in this place to examine only that Consequence or Clue but which They boast themselves able to presage the particular Events of things For if all their Assumptions were granted as fully and amply as they can desire yet it would be worthily questionable by what right of Consequence they come to inferr what they so confidently conclude upon For First those many great and lumiuous bodies in the Firmament or Etherial spaces are not useless and idle forasmuch as they afford us their light comfort and cherish us by their warmth and may serve among themselves to that further end which the infinite wisedom intended at their Creation but because they have some Activity is there a necessity that activity must be such as Astrologers presume and their Effects such as They pretend to fore-know and fore-tell Whatsoever the Action of the Stars be it must be as we said afore only General nor can any singular Effect be produced thereby unless as it concurreth with the action of some singular Cause And therefore that it may be known what any singular Effect will be it is to no purpose to know what that General action of the Stars is unless that singular action and particular disposition which determineth the Effect to be so or so or causeth it to obtain such a condition of singularity be equally known Wherefore it is not to be inquired of the Stars why an Infant is born strong or weak of a sweet and mild disposition or of a cholerick and harsh but collected from the Complexion of his Parents from the good or evil condition of their seed from their diet course of life and the like Nor are we to say that such an Infant was born infected with a foul and contagious disease because the Sixth House was his Horoscope but because his Mothers Lower House was impure and infectious Nor that such a man was killed by a Canon shot because his Horoscope was direct to a Quartile of Saturn but because the Gunner had levelled and discharged his pieece directly against him Nor when a man is slain with a Sword is Mars or any secret Malignity of the Stars ruling at his Nativity to be accused of his death but the Thief Souldier or other person who is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homicide and so of other Accidents Secondly we deny not but there is a certain Connexion of this our inferior World with the superior and that some evolument doth rebound to us from thence but it doth not follow that therefore the inferior World hath all its Effects from the superior that it hath no virtues no power of acting of its own that here below is no Primary true and genuine Agent but all Instrumentary that whatsoever is done by sublunary Actives and Passives is the sole and immediate effect of the Heavens as a Cause that doth command execute and restrain all other Causes only to such or such an efficacy inevitable Thirdly we deny not but the Sun and Moon have strong operations and do many things by the virtue of their Rayes but it doth not follow that therefore the Planets and Fixt Stars must be their Competitors at least if not their superiors in the honour of this energy How can it be proved that as the Heat of the year is to be referred to the Sun the Fulness of Shel-fish to the moon so some special effect ought to be referred to Jupiter or rather to him than to Mars or Venus yea than to the Sun or Moon Observation teacheth that when the Moon is in Conjunction with the Sun the marrow in the bones of Animals is diminished but doth Observation teach that any such effect follows when Mars Venus or other Planet is in Conjunction with the Sun or Moon or other Planet Fourthly Astrologers boast that they have more Knowledge of Celestial Operations than Plow-men shepheards Mariners or the like Illiterate Persons can have when yet it is well known they do not observe the Stars motions as those Plain and honest men doe in the open Air but being shutt up in their closets make their Calculations out of Ephemerides or Almanacks by the light of a small Candle and unless it be the Sun and Moon know neither Planet nor Fixt Stars in the whole Heavens But when they turn over their Ephemerides can they have a more exact knowledge of Celestial matters than those who look only upon the Stars and Planets themselves If so how have they remarked what Saturn doth when Progressing beyond the Sun he is covered by the body thereof How his beams have passed through the whole great body of the Sun that so they might arive in full virtue at the Earth and affect the body of an infant entering into the world By what note of distinction have they known that Saturns and no other Cause introduced such