of the Sun on the 11 of the kalends of May immediately foregoing as that many expected the Vniversal Dissolution of Nature then to come and yet when all came to all there was not so much as a storm ensued at the time Predicted and the contrary event derided the skill of the Astrologers and foolish credulity of those that beleived them There was no cause why I should inferr these rare instances considering that every dayes experience doth sufficiently demonstrate the like fallacy at least to such as give themselves the fatisfaction of observing the times in which the Conventions of the Planets are set down in the Ephemerides For how many Apertiones Portrarum are there not only in every year and moneth but also in every week nay day and yet nevertheless are there not whole weeks moneths nay somtimes years too in which no extraordinary changes of weather can be observed but what are agreeable to the Season And let them add as much as they please the variety of situation in respect of the Sun of the Eccentrick of the Epicycle still there is nothing which they can prove by experience or which may not be disproved by contrary experience so that their rules become plainly arbitrary and the matter comes to pass alike whether you predict fair weather or rain or winds or calmes unless it be that in winter commonly there is most wett and in Summer most heat But the Plow-man may as easily divine of the weather as our learned Astrologer with all his Books Tables and Celestial Figures or Scheams about him Schonerus once observed that as Mars was passing near the Pleiades there fell down aboundant rain but how often have we our selves observed that Planet travailing the same way and yet not so much as a cloud to be seen in the sky for many days together both before and after Ought he therfore instantly to set it down for a rule that we should always expect great rains when ever Mars was approaching the Pleiades Or may not we with more reason institute the quite contrary Besides it is no unreasonable question to demand of Astrologers why Mars should not rather repress and abate than extimulate and heighten the watery influence of the Pleiades And why should not the Moon and Venus and Mercury rather excite and encrease it When yet we so frequently observe these Planets ariving at the Pleiades when the Air is most serene and no showers succeed I add nothing likewise of the Rising and Setting of the Fixt Stars of which I have already said enough only I advertise that since the Telescope hath discovered innumerable Stars in the Firmament besides those formerly beheld by the naked ey if there be any virtues to be ascribed to the Stars certainly it is requisite we should compose new Rules and precepts according to which the newly discovered Stars may challenge to themselves those Effects that are fully attributed to others Nor can it be Objected that these New-found Stars are too smal because since their multitude is incredible and chiefly in all the Galaxy or Via Lactea it seems reasonable that their vast excess in number should compensate their defect in bigness and though each one singly cannot have much of energy yet all of them together may do well Where we cannot but wonder that the Galaxy being so spacious and considerable a part in the Heavens had never any particular Effects attributed to it especially when to the two smal Stars of Cancer to the Manger and other cloudy Stars which yet are nothing but very small assemblies of most minute Stars great Effects have been imputed and the Via Lactea conteins myriads of the like heaps of minute Stars in all parts of it and through the whole Zodiack CHAP. XIII The Astrologers Plea and the Answer thereto HEre let us a while attend to the Plea of Astrologers and hear what they can alledge in their Defence Their principal Allegations are that the Rules and Placits of their Art according to which they institute their Predictions of weather were grounded upon long Observations that the same are still confirmed by many experiments that among many predictions of the Ancients that of Thales is very memorable when foreknowing that there would be great Plenty of Olives the next year he went and farmed all the Olive yards in Miletum and Chio before hand and so the Event answering his expectation he thereby very much enriched himself that if the Effects do not alwayes follow according to their divination the fault is not to be imputed to the Art it self but to the unskilfullness or negligence of the Artist that since they subject the Stars not to Fate but to God who can at pleasure change and avert Effects that would otherwise come to pass when things do not succeed according to their presignifications the blame doth not belong to Astrology that all the objections made against them prove no more than this that Astrology is only a Conjectural Art as Physick Rhetorick and the Art of Navigation not that it is no Art at all or a meer Hariolation that to contradict their Art is injurious not only to the Heavenly bodies themselves as if they were made in vain but even to the Divine wisdom as if either that had not made the Stars for the use of Man or it had not endowed man with such sagacity as might serve to make him fore-see what good was to be hoped for and what evil to be shunned and finally that it is down-right madness to referr these Effects either to Chance or to any other Cause but the Heavens especially since though there may be inferior Causes admitted to conduce to the production of those Effects yet those are only the instruments of the Heaven which gives them their activity and useth them as subordinate Agents Now judge you whether these be not weighty Considerations I Return that they never have proved nor ever will be able to prove that the Rules or Institutes of their Predictions were founded upon long Observations aswell because those Times from which both the Chaldeans and Egyptians boast to have had their Observations are altogether fabulous as because the Ancient Astronomers were studious to know only the motions and courses of the Sun and Moon in order to the prediction of Eclipses but not at all of any other of the Planets as may be evinced from hence that Hipparchus knew nothing of them sufficient to enable him to reduce their motions into Tables and Ptolomy was the first who from Hipparchus and his own Observations composed Tables of their several motions Again because the Places of the Planets in the Zodiack being then unknown no man could observe what would be the Effect of each Planet being in the various places of the Zodiack which their Placits suppose most falsly Further because the Chaldeans manner of Observing mentioned by Empiricus doth sufficiently declare what kind of gross and imperfect Observations they made Moreover because the
when Events disprove their predictions the fault is not of the Art it self but of the Artists this is a subterfuge and so poor a one as that it betrayeth the vanity and imposture of the very Art For they have patched up an Art of so many and so various things as that whatsoever the ' Event be they have still some rule or other to shew according to which the Event observed may be thought to have come to pass And grant that the contrary had happned then they have another rule in readiness according to which that sell out And hereupon forsooth they become admirable when after a thing is come to pass they tell you how it came so to pass but before the Event nothing is safe nor can they more certainly divine that a thing will come to pass than that the quite contrary will come to pass And O wonderfull If when they have divined positively the thing predicted doth not ensue accordingly they excuse themselves and say that they mistook in their Calculations and had a respect to one thing when they ought to have had regard to another And do not you think they would have run to the same excuse in case they had predicted the quite contrary and that nevertheless had fallen out otherwise than they had predicted Wherefore to speake the truth the Artists deserve to be condemned for their easy credulity and implicite embracing the dictates of their Art as if they were sacred and oraculous and Art it self to be exploded in that it is composed of such ambiguous and uncertain Placits as seem rather to have been chosen by a Lottery or casting of Dice than by judgement and Observation But nevertheless it was discreetly done of some of them for I do not find them All to have so much piety in them to exempt the Stars from the jurisdiction of Fate and to suppose them under the government only of God who made them and yet when they pretend this for an excuse and support of a most vain and indeed prophane Art I dare not say they have done either discreetly or piously For they make as if they were certain that such an Effect would inevitably ensue as they have foretold unless God by some special resolve of his providence is pleased to avert it as if it were better that God should be supposed to pervert the General order of Causes and Effects that his infinite wisedom ordained and instituted from all Eternity than that their foolish Aphorismes should be suspected of uncertainty and deceipt and as if it were more reasonable to recurr to a miracle than to confess the fallability of their rules And certainly if any man can think this refuge of theirs to be considerable we not despair to perswade him that there can be no dream so wild and absurd that is not capable of defence from the same allegation Again I cannot but allow them to be somwhat Modest when they confess their Art to be only Conjectural and yet they may be accused of great Arrogance when they boast it to be of equal certainty with the Arts of Physick Rhetorick and Navigation For in these Human prudence and industry so act their parts as that the proposed and desired End doth for the most part follow thereupon and when it doth so follow the Cause is not immanifest But in Astrology meer Chance plays the whole game and the Event fore-told doth seldom or never follow and when it doth follow the Cause is not altogether obscure and uncertain and every man may give as good a Cause among sublunaries for that Effect as Astrologers do from the Stars and so Astrology is not so much a true Art as a meer Lottery or Guessing at randome Nor am I in saying this injurious to those noble Creatures the Stars whose true and genuine virtues whatsoever they bee I most wilingly allow them but it is injurious to them to dishonour them with the imputation of such power and efficacy as is incompetent to them and to make them many times the instruments not only to Mens ruine but even to all their vicious inclinations and delestable villanies Nor is it Derogatory to the Divine wisedom which maketh nothing in vain and may be conceived to have had some respect unto Man when it made the host of Heaven but it is derogatory thereto to imagine God to have an ey to those ridiculous purposes and ends that men many times foolishly propose to themselves and so to presume of the certain knowledge of Human Events as if they had pried into the secret Councells of Providence Divine We deny not but God hath endowed the Stars as all the rest of his Creatures with some certain Virtues but we question whether Astrologers know what those Virtues are and whether the Faculties which they ascribe to the Stars be the same that God gave them or others meerly imaginary Nor do we deny that God gave Man Sagacity or wisedom of Mind in order to his conjecture what may be beneficial and what hurtfull to him in the Future but we deny that this Sagacity is any other but the chiefest part of Moral prudence or that we ought to conceive it to consist only in the skill of Astrology as they will have it As if when Men stood in doubt what would be the Event of such or such an affair they ought not to consider the Causes Instruments Circumstances and probabilities of what they designe and so to proceed to action or desist accordingly but only to have recourse to the papers of Astrologers and there to enquire whether or no and how their enterprise should succeed Or as if Astrologers being to Sow their fields with this or that sort of grain would not rather take advice for the most opportune season from the experienced Plow-man than from their Almansors and preferr the honest Sagacity of the clouted shoe to that of their uncertain Astrology But they tell us that it is madness to referr to meer Chance fair Weather Rain Plenty Scarcity and the like Effects as if they had not their proper Causes in Nature or happened not by the disposition of Providence Divine This you 'l say is much and yet to say that those things happen by Chance in respect of Mans ignorance and of the prevision of Astrologers I hope is no madness at all since it amounts to no more than this that Man doth not understand their particular Causes nor their Connexion with the Effects and therefore that it cannot be foreknown from whence or when they will evene and that it is by chance that Men foretell that they will and when they will evene since the truth is concealed no less from him who doth adventure to predict them than from him who doth not not after those Events have or have not happned at the time prefixed can he who predicted them glory that he did it upon any certain science or he who did not predict them say that he forbore upon the score
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
this my wish be pleased to consider with me CHAP. II. Whether it be possible for Man from the inspection and Observation of the Heavenly bodies to acquire the fore-knowledge of such events as these Judicial Astrologers pretend they can divine aswell concerning the variety of Weather as great Colds Heats Droughts Winds Rains Fertility Barrenness Epidemical diseases and the like effects referrible to Meteorology as concerning the particular Fortunes of Men as their Marriages Children Friends Dignities Wealth Dangers Misfortunes Sicknesses Time and manner of their Death and almost all remarkable occurences of their lives Hermogenes by Diophantus told He should not live nine months more said my Friend In telling me my Destiny you are bold But beleeve me your life 's now at an end And then he strook him fatally so fell The Prophet while he anothers fate did tell Two General Rules concerning the prenotion of Future Events IN the First place that we may the better comprehend what shall be delivered in the sequel of our discourse let us premise this general Rule That whatsoever doth import the knowledge of any effect to come ought to be either the necessary Cause of that particular effect or which being posited such an effect doth alwaies follow or as a necessary Signe or which being given such an Event doth always succeed For Example because the Sun as often as it approacheth to the Vernal Equinox doth cause the Plants to bud forth and produce Flowers and because when the day-break is perceived in the East the Sun doth soon after shew it self above the Horizon therefore is it easy for us in Winter to foretell the approach of the Spring and the Budding forth of Flowers and in the Morning twilight to foreknow the approach of perfect Day the former in respect of the necessity of the Cause and the latter in respect of the necessity of the Signe But if there were no such necessity and that either such a Cause or such a Signe were not alwaies attended with such an effect or that such an effect did somtimes succeed without the precession of such a Cause or such a Signe it is manifest that we might have indeed a Conjecture but no certain foreknowledge of either of those Effects I say a Conjecture and that 's the most Because unless many Observations concurr to attest that such a Cause or Signe is more frequenly attended on by that particular effect than not or that that effect doth more usually succeed upon that Cause and after that Signe than upon any other in that case our Conjecture would be a meer Hariolation or Divination at best In the next place let us propose this considerable truth That the Certain and Infallible Prenotion of things to come whose necessary connexion to their particular Causes or signes is unknown to man ought to be ascribed to none but God himself who made and ordereth all Causes Signes and Events For substracting the knowledge of this necessary Connexion we have no help remaining for our prevision that such things will come to pass unless God who seeth into the darkness of Futurity shall please to reveal them to us And hence doubtless is it that such as use to prophesy of things to come are called Divines and their Prediction is called Divination Nor is it sacred Writ alone which declareth the knowledge of future Events to be the prerogative of God according to that of Isai chap. 41. Tell us what is to come hereafter and we shall know you to be Gods but even the Ethnicks generally acknowledged the same as Horat. Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit Deus c. And thereupon they enquired concerning future successes of only such as they beleeved acquainted with the secrets and Counsells of Divinity and were Divino Numine afflati or Entheati CHAP. III. The Antiquity Original and Inventors of this Astrology REflecting upon the Antiquity of this Divining by the Stars we perceive that for certain the Inventors of it were the Chaldean or Babylonian Philosophers For though the Egyptians who of all other Nations seem to have the best pretext to rival them in that honour gloriously boast that the Chaldeans were at first an excrescence of themselves cast off in a Colony and sent abroad to make themselves more room as Diodorus reports lib 1. yet the Egyptians with scorn and indignation have denied that extraction Again whereas the Egyptians accounted fifty thousand years from the time their Ancestors first made Celestial Observations the Chaldeans have been much larger in their fiction and reckon no less than four hundred and seventy thousand years from the original of that science among their Fore-fathers as I have more expresly declared in my Preface to the life of Tycho Brahe c. But to wave their fictious titles to this invention it is well known that from the most ancient memory of that Nation the Chaldeans and Astrologers were taken for the same Men and easily proved that the Astrology which first came to the Grecians from whom it was afterward derived down to the Latines and Arabians was translated thither by Berosus who as Vitruvius lib. 9. cap. 7. saith First sate down in the Isle and City of Cous and there opened a School for the teaching of the Art of Astrology Moreover it is evident that the Chaldeans were generally possessed with this opinion that the Planets because they observed not the same course with the Fixt Stars were Interpreters of the will of the Gods and did declare their determinations and purposes concerning sublunary affairs to us Mortals here below and this somtimes by their Rising somtimes by their Setting somtimes by their Colure somtimes by their Positions and somtimes by other Adjuncts and Circumstances and that they did conform their wanderings to the tract of the Zodiack only because therein were twelve Princely Gods presiding over the twelve Signes there being besides thirty other Stars as privy Councellours to those Deities which did Observe and recount all occurrences upon the Earth that the Celestial Senate might consult and decree accordingly All which Diodorus relates more expressly then any other Author And though the first Inventors of this Dream might perhaps designe it as a plausible Fiction to gull the Common People who otherwise would have derided the Contemplation of the Stars for I need not tell you that the Vulgar esteem this Study wholly vain and useless unless in respect of the supposed virtue of it for the foreknowledge of things to come yet those who came after seriously endeavoured to advance their reputation by promoting the same as a truth while they enquired how by the inspection of the Stars they might attain to the prescience of future Events and taught a certain method for the traduction thereof to others But this among the rest is well worthy our remark that this Astrology was not propagated without the concurrence of Superstitious Credulity and that in no smal proportion It is objected I
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
or Observation We should likewise discourse of the Planetary Aspects whose Energy is conceived to be almost omnipotent And truly were it not manifest that the Five kinds of Aspects were transfered upon all the Planets from the five principal Phases of the Moon there would be matter for our admiration but there can be no other cause given of that determinate number For why should not there be many more sorts of Aspects Are there any degrees in the Zodiack in which the Planets have not some special habitude or position among themselves in which they are idle un-active and ejaculate no rayes from their bodies Will they have that number of degrees which is an Aliquotal part of the Zodiacks We allow it them Gratis But besides a Diametre of an hundred and eighty a Trigone of an hundred and twenty a Tetragone of ninety an Hexagone of sixty are there not also a Pentagone of seventy two an Octagone of forty five an Enneagone of forty a Decagone of thirty six a Dodecagone of thirty a Pentekoode cagone of twenty four degrees c. But they demand whole Signes which may arise to the equal number of Twelve Well grant them that also And will not a Dodecagone or one Signe do that Perhaps the buisiness is two minute And is not a Conjunction Platical much more minute Or do they not call it an Oppression of a Planet when one Planet is intercepted by evill Planets distant from it by one Signe on each side In this place I might enumerate how many sorts of new Aspects have been not long since added to the former List by Kepler as a Biquintile or one of two Fifths i. e. of an hundred forty and four degrees a Tridecile or of three Tens i. e. an hundred and eight c. But it will be more usefull for us to discover what induced Astrologers to make some Aspects Benifical and other some Malefical which is a profound Mystery and worthy your notice Because forsooth we signify benevolence to a person when we look upon him Sextily or very Obliquely and malevolence or Spight when we behold him Quadrately or crookedly Torvo Aspectu as we say and express anger or indignation when we fix our eyes upon a man Dimetraly or in opposition to him all which Anatomists declare when they shew and read upon the Muscles moving the eyes therefore our subtile Astrologers transferring the names of these our Aspects upon the Planets have also given them the Passions which we express in our eyes and what is most admirable not in respect of the Planets beholding each other but of man in whom that passion should be expressed It is an argument that they held a Conjunction to be indifferent in asmuch as it respondeth to no Aspect in us but to our closing our eyes by which we signify nothing or very obscurely at most And indeed who would imagine that a Planet which is Good in a Sextile aspect should not while it proceeds toward a Trine in which it is yet better rather continually encrease its goodness than put on so great malignity in the middle of its progress Who can conceive that Venus and Jupiter should in a Trine have five Testimonies of Fortitude in a sextile Four in the intermediate Quartile none at all Certainly if the Planets act any thing at all they should seem to act it continually and though perhaps their activity may be somtimes more somtimes less powerfull Yet I see no reason why that activity should be somtimes changed to a quite contrary and somtimes be none at all I am unwilling to trouble my self with subjoyning any thing concerning those rare Effects which the Planets are supposed to cause in their own Houses for what can be more ridiculous than those supposed Rejoycings and Decrees among them especially when They call in to the buisiness those imaginary points the Head and Tale of the Dragon and that point of Fortune which whoever first introduced hath given us occasion to doubt whether he was in his right witts or not But they could not conveniently imagine many Heads where the Decrees were to be so often varied CHAP. XI The Celestial Houses demolished TO blow up those Twelve Glorious Mansions of the Planets to which our Astrologers impute such wonderfull Efficacy and power over even whole Cities with their inhabitants here below let us consider First that the Division of the Heavens into Twelve parts rather than into eight ten sixten twenty or any other number is meerly Arbitrary nor can they give any Reason for it at all For though that number admitteth of more Quotal parts than any other neer it above or below yet this hath no relations to the nature or variety of the parts of a Circle the number Sixty having far more Quotal Parts and that of six being more naturally convenient for the division of a Circle in respect of the accommodation of its Radius Secondly would not the Distinction of the Houses be more artificially made by certain Circles Parallel to the Horizon or at least by such as might intersect each other in the Vertical and opposite points Since each Star doth either not act at all or is in-observable while under the Horizon doth not reason require that if it have any activity at all it should exercise the same chiefly while it is above the Horizon and that so much the more effectually by how much the higher or neerer to the Vertical point it ascends But they will have forsooth that the Stars in the Zodiack do display their virtues aswell below as above the Horizon and therefore that the division of Houses is fittly made by Circles which divide the Zodiack into twelve parts We grant them this but why then do not all of them agree in the intersection of these Circles in the Poles of the Zodiack And why do not all divide the Zodiack in the same places of it Is not that part of the Zodiack made one House by some which by others is made another Thirdly why must the First House be that part of the Zodiack which is yet wholly under the Earth rather than that which is wholly above it Ought not one half of it at least to be already risen above the Horizon that so the half of that which is called Medium Caeli might be toward the West I do not stand to object that the Medium Caeli or house in which the Sun is ought rather to have made the First house since the Energy of the Sun is much more manifest than that of any other of the Planets but I demand how it comes to pass that that House which is yet wholly beneath the Earth should be more efficacious to life than that which is risen above it And if that house whatsoever it be which begins to rise be the House of Life why should not that which begins to set be the house of Death Why is the Eighth House so destructive to Mankind above the rest
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
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
Bloody Flux and a violent Feaver Now doth Industry gain the better of Chance or not O if Cardan had the luck to have fore-told that this King should fall into some dangerous Disease in that year wherein he died what Joy what Tryumph what Quacking would there have been among Astrologers and how would the Diviner have magnified himself and his Art Another Cause is the Cunning and underhand Fraud of Astrologers in making their Praedictions For when a Geniture is given them to Divine upon in the first place they take special care to learn out of what Sex what Family what Quality what Country what Course of Life c. the Person is for as Cardan instructeth them without the knowledge of all these particulars no judgement is to be given And what great wonder is it if from the consideration of all these things they chance now and then to fore-tell some Events which may well be suspected not from the precepts of Astrology but from a natural Sagacity or Conjecture according to probabilities Hither-to you may referr the prediction of Ollerius Barcinonensis concerning that Heroical Prince Henry the 4 th of France not long before his inhuman assassination by that Monster a â—oviliack For it is likely enough that Ollerius might have some secret intimation of that bloody designe which both the Kings Orators suspected and some certain Grande'es of Spain insinuated and which a common rumor diffused through Spain for above two moneths together seemed to premonish as I have more largely declared in the Life of Peireskius Again they give their predictions alwayes in the General-indefinitely and like the Devil of Delphos in Amphiboligies and this peece of subtlety they have learned of Ptolomie out of these words in Centiloq Sent. 1. It cannot be that an understanding Artist should predict the particular formes or manners of Accidents as the sence doth not receive the particular but a certain General form of a sensible object and he that deals in matters of Divination ought to use the skill of Conjecturing by probabilities and only those who are inspired by the Divine Spirit can predict Particulars And why should not they be beleeved to come near the mark when they presage some Danger or Death or Favour or Calamity or the like common Accidents from which no man is exempted For who is there to whom some such Accidents do not at some time or other happen Providence having so generally mixed evil and good together in this Life And as for their Amphibologies or ambiguous Answers they contrive them so cunningly as that be the Event what it will still the words shall be capable of intimating it or if they deliver any judgement in plain terms which they seldom do they annex some certain Condition that so if the Event fore-told do not succeed accordingly then they may lay the blame upon the failing of the Condition but if it doth succeed then without regarding the correspondence or disagreement of the Condition they magnify themselves for infallible Prophets Hereupon though when their Divination doth fail they presently alleadge that either the Providence of God or the study of Philosophy or the very premonition it self put an hinderance to the Event designed yet when it succeedeth they mention nothing but their own admirable skill They are wont also to excuse themselves with being afraid of the Anger of Princes if they should plainly and in simple terms predict the Events attending them and yet if there chance to be but the least shadow of the Events predicted then whole Troy is conquered and they boast themselves acquainted with the secrets of Fate And this again is the Cause why they so complicate their Aphorisms as that unless the thing presaged fall out exactly so they lay the fault upon their own incircumspection in omitting the consideration of somthing or other that ought to have been considered in their Calculation of the Nativity proposed that so the Art may still be thought sufficient to make predictions to an hairs breadth Lastly in case any thing succeed which was fore-told that must be done by the exact observation of the rules of Art but if nothing succeed then forsooth they exclame that the buisiness was not done with due exactness that the Scheam ought to be corrected and the Horoscope so removed forward or backward so as that the Effect may be brought at length to quadrate or correspond with their direction And because for the most part one direction being accommodate to the Effect the rest are incongruous therefore their Cunning is such as that they say that the Effect is somtimes either Anticipated or Prorogated by one Year at least wide of the direction But why should I run over all their Frauds and starting holes One remedy will serve against them all and that is to propose a Nativity to one or two of the best of them and when they have studied it as much as they please require them to predict any one particular Event to come in plain terms together with the certain day manner of the accident and other Circumstances and when they have done that see if they will lay a considerable wager that that Event shall succeed accordingly If they accept the condition pray let me go your half if they refuse it you may understand how little confidence they have in their own Art which yet they would impose upon others as divine and infallible The Last Cause is the Ignorance and Stupidity of such as come to consult them about their Fortunes For First there are very few who sufficiently understand what we have more than once inculcated that the iflux of the Heavens is only General and that all particular Effects belong to particular Causes Men generally do not consider that Brute Animals which have their Births Synchronical to those of Infants have yet different fates from those of Men when yet the Stars lookt upon both indifferently And so well conceipted are we of our selves that we suffer our selves to be perswaded that what ever befalleth us certainly the Heavens took care for it and being deluded by this proud credulity we instantly beleeve what ever is told us from the Heavens as somthing ordained and inevitable contributing to our own delusions as if it were not sufficient for us to be subject to the delusions of others Men therefore being commonly possessed with Hope Fear Love Hatred or some other passion interpret all things in favour of that passion and expect that even the Stars should be as much concerned therein as themselves and thus they swell themselves with the Air of Phansy that they may be much greater than indeed they are and of Gnats be taken for Elephants And whether it be good or evil that the Astrologers have predicted to them they scorn to think themselves lyable to so low a thing as Fortune but derive the least grace or injury done them from those sublime and glorious bodies the Stars There is a Tale and it is a
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