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
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
his House while one third part of it is usurped by Jupiter another by Mars and the last by the Sun What shall I say of their Fines or Bounds which after the same manner leave the least part of the Houses to be possessed by the right owners of them when the Builders of them fall together by the ears here below about them as about some weighty and difficult matter in dispute What of their Monomaeria which some Astrologers cannot hold without laughing at themselves for it Is any thing more ridiculous than to appoint particular Signes to be Presidents over particular Provinces and Cities Indeed if the Heavens stood still there might be some slender pretence for the subjection of Countries to such Signes as were directly over them but since the Sphears are continually moving with what reason can that be imagined Especially since in the allotment the Dominions are not chosen according to parallels so that the places to be governed might be lookt upon with an equal aspect but as it were by leaping from distant Parallels and wholly confusedly toward the South and North neer remote coherent interrupted and however it chances without order I confess I cannot but smile to think how when they have assigned a whole Kingdome or Country to the soveraignty of some one Signe they yet referr particular Cities therein to the presidency of other Signes and such as are remote from the Signe first made Lord Paramont thereof Nor can I suppress the Rising of my spleen when I consider the dominion of the Signes over the several parts of Mans body For why should Aries be Governour of the Head rather then Gemini or Cancer that are the highest Signes of all Why should Pisces rule the feet of others when they have no feet themselves Why should Pisces that are next to Aries be appointed to preside over a part so remote from the Head Again nothing can be more wild and absurd than to constitute the Signes Lords of several Years as if they Ruled successively and the Government of one Signe being expired with the Year the Scepter were to be surrendred to the next successor at a sett time and then each Governor remain idle for the space of eleven Years together To conclude what shall we think of that poor refuge of our Astrologers when having observed that the Asterisms have removed themselves from their ancient places they transferr the virtues formerly attributed to the same to the 12. parts of the first moveable Heavens were not those virtues assigned at first formally and according to the conceived nature of each particular Asterisme Had the Heaven been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Star-less do you conceive that the Ancients would nevertheless have so named the twelve parts of the Zodiack as they did in respect of the Asterismes and have endowed them with the same virtues Nor can you say that their virtues were then observed when the Asterismes were each one in its proper twelfth part of the Zodiack and that those virtues were attributed to the Asterismes which of right belonged to the twelve parts of the Zodiack For since the Asterismes were in the twelve parts that beare their names only two thousand Years ago before that time the Asterisme of Aries was in the place of Pisces Leo in the place of Cancer and so of the rest and then no such thing could be Observed in the supposed moist parts of the Zodiack that would be agreeable to Fiery Asterismes by which they were possessed and from which the twelve parts that were afterward possessed by them were accounted and named Fiery And thus much in just derision of Astrologers conceipts of the 12. Signes CHAP. X. Their Attributes of the Planets destroyed AS for the supposed Nature and Virtues of the Planets however somthing in that kind might be from what we formerly granted inferred of the Su◠and Moon yet how we should come to determine the several natures of the other Five Planets I profess I am yet to learn In particular because Mars appeare◠reddish may we therefore conclude that he is a Burning scortching Planet Saturn because pale Is he therefore Cooling O this would be an admirable Consequence if a Carbuncle would but burn and Lime cool the hand that toucheth it As if all things that look reddish must of necessity be Fiery and all that look pale or whitish be Cold as Snow But it Mars be so scortching why are not we sensible of his heats in the middle of Winter and especially when he is Acronycal Why do we not feel the Cold of Saturn in the middest of Summer Is it because there are other more opportune times for us to experiment their virtues Or how can we distinguish and say that such a degree of heat doth proceed from Mars not from the Sun And such a degree of Cold from Saturn not from some other cause But let us grant that Mars is Hot and Saturn Cold and will it then follow that they are such Malefical and destructive Planets as that no Child is born whom they do not during their tyrannous influence invade with their poisoned darts Methinks it were more reasonable to beleeve that Mars doth comfort and cherish us with his heat and Saturn refresh us with his cooling influence The same may be said of Jupiter and Venus only it is somewhat more tollerable that Astrologers imagine them to be Good and Kindly Planets But oh that they would not run out into Extremes For when they come to this that nothing of good and happiness befalls man but by the dispensation and favour of these Planets is any thing imaginable more fabulous more prophane It is somwhat strange that extolling this unknown beneficence of these Planets they blush not in the mean time to be ungratefull to the Sun whose soveraigne benefits are dayly proclaimed through the whole World For Mercury I cannot much wonder his attributes are so few and uncertain considering he seldom renders himself conspicuous and so they cannot discern what sex he is of And here it is not worth the while to rehearse all their fooleries concerning the sexes of the Planets and other the like extravagances Only I would enquire how they come to know that the Planets in their own Houses have Five not Four Testimonies of Fortitude and in their Exiles Five not Four Testimonies of Debility Why have they in their Exaltations just Four not Five nor three And so of the rest Have they measured with an Ell or Weighed in the scales the forces of the Planets in each Place of the Zodiack that-they dare pretend to Calculate them so Exactly and according to the number of suffrages to determine the fates of Mortals and their affaires We might insist upon these particulars more expresly and especially upon the Fortitudes and debilities of Accidental Dignities But that no man who considers them can doubt that they are all gross and ridiculous Fictions meer arbitrary inventions having no ground either in Reason
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
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
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