same time they strain another part of it beyond the true and real Action it self which may very properly take the Name of Partiality Or by some hot-headed Hearer and Teller of News who having heard the Relation from half a dozen at once remembers scarce any thing from either of them but makes a new Relation of his own something like the other and away he runs with that and tells it to every one he meets for Truth and this you may very well call Confidence c. And do you think this is not ground enough to fill a whole Parish or City with Lies when the Reporters of these things like Atoms fly into every Corner and Part thereof and each man tells what he hath heard or apprehended of the Matter And thus will the Account go till you can speak with the Actors of it themselves or with some Intelligent man that hath had it from them or the true Relation of it by one that saw and observed the whole Now let us consider how many People there are that are willing or desirous to enquire out the Truth of this matter not one in a hundred perhaps not one in a thousand for the generality of People are not inquisitive after Truth but News And when they have heard a Story it serves them to talk of till they hear another and so one Lie drives in and also drives out another and by this Course and Custom the Faculties of the Body are imployed and the things serve to talk of as well as if they were true indeed it sounds as well spends Time as well and the Hearers of it when related stare and admire at it as much as if it was perfectly true and thus the Rattle goes on and they are all very well contented Why just so it is with our Book-wrights exactly in every particular thing I have here mentioned for every one that can talk is not fit to tell a Story or carry a Relation of a Matter nor is every one that can write fit to write things of Science though perhaps he may understand something of it and he that can tell a Story well doth generally embellish his Discourse set it off with a Lie or two or to speak more soft some new emphatick Invention of his own why just so it is with our Writers and Authors of Books in general They throw in something of their own which they think sounds well enough to them and may pass current without Suspicion of being a new Doctrine and this the Reader is obliged to take among the rest without either Why or Wherefore â—ut it would be endless to run into Discourses and Arguments of this Nature and of a Prooemium make a Treatise Besides it is needless to follow this Track any longer for I suppose there are few or none will deny Errors to be delivered in this Method and Order if they do let them repair to any printed Author in every Page of which it is very probable they may find either Errors of the Author or Mistakes of the Printer and in some Pages both for their Safaction For if Authors in all kind of Learning had not been sufficiently fertile in that untoward sort of Product the Learned D. Primrose and Sir Thomas Brown had spent their Time in vain when they made an Enquiry into Vulgar and Common Errors And to that Purpose hear what the latter of them saith pag. 20. Pseudo Epidem But the mortallest Enemy saith he unto Knowledge and that which hath done the greatest Execution upon Truth hath been a peremtory Adhesion unto Authority and more especially establishing of our Belief upon the Dictates of Antiquity For as every Capacity may observe most men of Ages present so superstitiously do look on Ages past that the Authorities of the one do far exceed the Reasons of the other Whose Persons indeed being far removed from our Times their Works which seldom with us pass uncontroll'd either by Contemporaries or by immediate Successors are now become out of the Distance of Envy And the further removed from present Times are concerned to approach the nearer uâ—â—o Truth it self Now hereby methinks we manifestly deluâ—e our selves and widely walk out of the Track of Truth For first men hereby impose a Thraldom on their times which the Ingenuity of no Age should endure or indeed the presumption of any did yet enjoyn Thus Hippocrates about Two thousand Years ago conceived it no injustice either to examin or refute the Doctrines of his Predecessors Galen the like and Aristotle most of any Yet did not any of these conceive themselves infallible or set down their Dictates as Verities irrefragable but when they either deliver their own Inventions or reject other men's Opinions they proceed with Judgment and Ingenuity establishing their Assertions not only with great Solidity but submitting them also to the Correction of future Discovery Lastly While we so devoutly adhere to Antiquity in some things we do not consider we have deserted them in several others For they have indeed not only been imperfect in the Conceit of some things but either ignorant or erroneous in many more They understood not the Motion of the eighth Sphere from West to East and so conceived the Longitude of the Stars invariable They conceived the Torrid Zone unhabitable and so made frustrate the goodliest part of the Earth But we know now 't is very well empeopled and the Habitation thereof esteemed so happy that some have made it the proper Seat of Paradise and been so far from judging it unhabitable that they have made it the first Habitation of all Many of the Ancients deny'd the Antipodes as Austin c. Others That the Earth was round as Lanctantius But the Experience of our enlarged Navigations can now assert them beyond all Dubitation Having thus totally relinquish'd them in some things it may not be presumptuous to examin them in others but surely more unreasonable to adhere to them in all as though they were infallible or could not err in any Thus I say must these Authors be read and thus must we be read our selves for discoursing Matters dubious and many controvertible Truths we cannot without Arrogancy entreat a Credulity or implore any farther Assent than the Probability of our Reasons and Verity of Experiments enduces Hence it is plain there is a Flood of Error in the World and that all Sciences and Learning as well as Astrology have an equal share therein and that the most learned among us have lodged the Cause thereof in our Old Authors whom we so much admire and endeavour to follow by zealous Adoration and Pursuit without Reason And in our own Credulity by which we are so easily and willingly deceived and not only brought thereby into a Custom of believing their Errors but also into such a Zeal as to quarrel and contend to maintain and justifie them as if they were undeniable Truths And if any of their Defenders chance to be furnished
DEFECTIO GENITURARUM Being an ESSAY toward the REVIVING and PROVING THE TRUE Old Principles of Astrology HITHERTO NEGLECTED Or at leastwise not Observed or Understood In FOUR PARTS The First shewing the Ground and Cause of Error The Second contains an Examination of those Nativities Printed by Morinus The Third considers those done by Argol And The Fourth those Printed by Mr. Gadbury in his Collection WHEREIN Many things relating to this Science are Handled and Discoursed But the principal End and Design of the Book is to prove the Power and sole Use Of the Hileg in Cases of Life and Death By JOHN PARTRIDGE Ne prorsus inutilis olim Vixisse hîc videar pereámque in funere totus LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet MDCXC VII To the Honourable Sir Joseph Tily Knight A Member of this Present Parliament Honoured Sir I Here presume to lay before you a small Treatise the Subject of which is overgrown with Years and perfectly obliviated so that it will seem to this Age to be a real Novelty and a product but of yesterday And this too among those who think themselves Masters of the Mystery because they have abandon'd the Old Doctrine and set up a new-fangl'd one of their own remote from the Old both in its Principles and Practice and no ways agreeable to the Doctrine of Ptolemy I need not use Arguments with you to perswade a Belief of Starry Influence you have both seen and felt it nay and foreseen it too as well in the late times of Iniquity when it was a Crime to be Just or to appear an Englishman as since our happy Restoration by the successful Arms and Conduct of His present Majesty to whom we owe our Safety both for Laws and Religion both which were ruin'd and torn from us by Force Your former Obligations lead me to beg your Patronage of this Treatise a Discourse out of the Common way and therefore more subject to Censure and Envy And though I am conscious of the meanness of my Performance therein yet I am the more bold to offer the Protection of it to you and hope you will be the less displeased when you find it already protected by an Honourable Gentleman and my Noble Friend Sir Edward Dering who having much approv'd the Scope and Design of the Book of which he is a very Able and Sufficient Judge was pleased in the interim to write the following Letter to me upon that Subject for my Encouragement wherein he hath learnedly vindicated the Immortal Ptolemy and set his Seal to that Old Doctrine of the true and genuine Hileg delivered only by him so many hunded years ago the thing which I here chiefly contend for Which Epistle being too worthy and noble a thing to be buri'd in my Study I made bold to importune Sir Edward Dering to permit me to publish it which at last referring it to my Discretion to do as I thought fit I was proud to honour my Treatise by prefixing so ingenious a Discourse from a Learned Hand before it Thus Sir with your Favour also I account my self and my poor Endeavours doubly protected and shall not fear the snarling of any Ignorant Readers although they bestow the like Railing Epithets on me as they do on the Great and Learned Ptolemy the chief and only Talent indeed in which they are famous I hope the owning these Sheets will no ways tend to your Dishonour because they come from so unlearned a Pen as mine The thing is well designed and I intend it for the Service of the present as well as the succeeding Ages though I despair to find Entertainment with the present they being wedded to a Method as a man to a false Religion with which he will by no means part tho' for his Safety and Advantage both here and hereafter Sir I beg your good Opinion of what I have done and though it may come short of what it ought to be and you may justly expect Yet attribute that not to my want of Gooâ—-will but Abilities and always be pleased to give both Book and Author your good Word a Favour sufficient and what I can never pretend to deserve yet shall always endeavour to the utmost to shew I am Honoured Sir Your real humble Servant John Partridge To his Ingenious Friend Mr. John Partridge Mr. Partridge SInce you have been so kind not only to acquaint me with the Intention and Design of your Defectio Geniturarum but also to permit me the perusal of some part of it in Sheets I have so good an Opinion of the Work and the Necessity of it that I am sorry the Laziness or Ignorance of some men hath given occasion for such an Exposure Never was Astrology more pretended to and vended than in this Age and never perhaps less understood for tho' there be some learned Students and Professors of it yet the most part of our Vulgar Practicers are so illiterate and negligent that I may complain with the learned Cardan Rem difficillimam maximae industriae adâ—o â—scitanter tractant ut artem in maximam vitâ—perationem dâ—duâ—erint And others that understand little or nothing at all of it yet that they may seem what they are not saith the same Author Lucrique cupidâ—tâ—te artem profitentur quam viâ— Ã limine salutarunt There is also a mixt sort of these self-conceited men who presumptuously trampling upon all Antiquity have the confidence to erect their Babels of new Theorems and Systems and other their dreaming Fancies in Astrology tho' upon due Examination they must fall to the like Confusion with that presumptuous Undertaking and in this Folly they shew their ill manners also and spare not to rail not only at their Contemporaries but even at Ptolomy himself to whom the world is obliged for what is preserved of the Art Tho' indeed some of them cannot read him nor others understand him he having wrapp'd up the Secrets of this Mysterious Science in dark and concise Language perhaps on purpose Ne detur sacrum Canibus And because in our Age also there have risen up some pitiful illiterate Mushrooms who for Gain would pretend to Astrology which they understand not and think that they shall raise themselves a Name and Reputation by scribling against others honester and more learned than themselves but especially if a bold fellow dares to fly in the face of Ptolomy himself whose Name he hath heard of but understands nothing of his Writings I will here take occasion to transcribe what the learnd Cardan's sense was of the incomparable Ptolomy and of such like Empericks as these which have been found in all Ages Thus therefore Cardan Ut in omni disciplina nobiliore semper vitia major a contingunt alia quidem per eos qui cum eam non norint se scire jactant alia per eos qui sciunt sed malè utuntur it à in hanc ut nobilissimam etiam pessima vitia
impossible to keep Death out of Doors let the Alchocoden be never so strong and 40 Years of its number to come On the contrary let the giver of Years be never so weak and a continued Series of good Directions to the Hileg succeed one another for some Years and no Doubt but that Native shall live though the Alchocoden hath been expired Twenty Years And yet after all I know there are some Nativities that are naturally stronger and more vital than others but it is from another Cause and Principle than this foolish and imaginary Whim And yet I do not doubt but in some Nativities it may nearly comply with what they pretend to but where it doth once it falls ten times and then where is your Rule CHAP. VIII Of the Almuten c. OUR Authors have made a great Bustle about this that they call Almuten it is an old Arabian Word and signities as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek that is Lord And indeed the Word in it self is well enough so long as it is used for the Lord of a House the Lord of a Sign c. But when they come to talk of the Lord or Almuten of a Nativity and that he shall signifie every thing as Stature Temperature Riches Preferment as you may see Doctr. Nativ pag. 92. where you are taught how to take it there I must leave them Now this Almuten is that Planet who is strongest both in Essential and Accidental Dignities as they say and according to their Method laid down both to examine and judge of its Fortitude And when they have done all I count no Planets strong but those that are Angular either in the Signs or in the Houses or both and they indeed are the true Lords of the Nativity and by whose Nature and Quality the Native shall be sway'd in his Inclinations and Passions c. And in this way of Judgment the Houses next in Power to the Angles are the Fifth and Ninth Houses The reason of that in Nature shall be taught another time and in another Treatise more proper than here But if you consider Naibod in Alcabitium he gives order to find this Almuten quite contrary to these already mentioned for he says it is that Planet that hath most Dignities in the Places of the Sun Moon Ascendent Part of Fortune and the Preventional New or Full Moon Which Doctrine is indeed laid down by Alcabitius himself however they came to pervert the Arabian Text for it came originally from that Author who doth indeed go further than all this with it For he makes it a great Significator of Life in which he makes it a Partner with the Hileg and Alchocoden his Words are these Aâ—muten est qui praeest Nativitati ab eo significatur esse nâ—ti pâ—st Hâ—lech Alchocoden Now after all I can see no ground for its Power Use oâ— Election and that it is no more but an Arabian Whim of the same Stamp with the Alchocoden and serves rather to puzzle the Cause than to inform the Understanding of any man for it is indeed the only Mischief that attends the young and perhaps some of the old too Students in this Art That they have such a cluster of Causes and such a Cloud of Circumstances to consider in every Case that it confounds them in considering and betrays their Judgment into Error when if their Causes were fewer and their Rules in Judgment more concise they would sooner arrive to a degree of Perfection and the Artist from being a good Guesser as Mr. Mutable has it would be thought half a Prophet or at least-ways one of the Prophetical Tribe In a Word seeing there is no Authority for it but Tradition nor no use for it but to create Labour I do not think it worth while to insist longer on a Subject void of all Advantage But they that are disposed to read more of it may have recouse to Alcabitius Differen Quarto cap. 5. Naibod in Alcabitium pag. 381. Julius Firmicus lib. 4 cap. 12. Origanus de Effectibus pag. 556. And all our English Writers in general that have writ of Nativities especially Mr. Lilly in his Introduction page 531. And so I come to say something to the Lord of the Orb the Chronocrators and the Alfridaries in which I shall be short CHAP. IX Of the Alfrydaries Chronocrators Lord of the Orb and the Division and Divisor c. PErhaps it may be said That seeing these are not Printed by our English Authors I have no need to mention them in this Treatise To which I answer I am led directly to what I intend because a certain Innovator tam Fide quam Arte among us did in an Almanack Anno 1693. tell the World That some died on Transits some on Eclipses some on Revolutions others on Profections and some on evil Alfrydaries some on the Combustion of the Ascendent or his Lord with sundry other Causes By this Word Causes you may observe he allows any one of these to be a Cause sufficient for Death I commend him he will have Strings enough to his Bow and the Devil is in 't if some one of them will not do but I dare him to prove what he hath so confidently asserted and to take a Nativity of one that is living and tell us which of all these his Causes that Native shall expire by and when he hath done settle it for a Standing Rule But to my Work in hand The Lords of the Alfrydaries are imaginary Lords and Dispositors of a number of Years appointed to every Planet so that the Seven Planets with the Head and Tail of the Dragon taking this Government successively one after another the whole number of Years will amount to 75 And in a Diurnâ—l Geniture they begin with the Sun in a Nocturnal with the Moon Their Years are as followeth ☉ 10 Years ♀ 8 Years ☿ 13 Years ☽ 9 Years ♄ 11 Years ♃ 12 Years ♂ 7 Years ☊ 3 Years ☋ 2 Years So that if the Birth is by Day the Sun rules the first 10 Years then begins Venus and she rules the next 8 then Mercury begins and he rules the next 13 and so on to the Moon Saturn and the rest But if the Birth were Nocturnal then the Moon governs the first 9 Years Saturn then begins and rules the next 11 then begins Jupiter and he rules the next 12 and so on to the End And this is the Method of the Alfrydaries and their Lords of which you may see more in Alcabitius and what their Effects are see in Schoner They have brought this Doctrine of the Alfrydaries into such a sort of Method as Ptolomy describes in his last Chapter of his Fourth Book called De Tempor Divisione But they differ from him both in the Number of Years they attribute to every Planet and in the Use of them as to Judgment in and on Nativities For in my Opinion it will make Astrology and its Rules very doubtful
Issue of Life and Death is lodged there without some better Proof than I have yet met with to convince me and to say the Truth the common Astrologers have foisted in so many idle Fooleries that they are never to seek for a Cause let the Case be what it will but especially in Death concerning which the only thing that remains yet undetermined is to know beforehand which of all the Lethiferos Causes shall give Death Whether Revolutions Transits Eclipses Alfrydaries Profections Climacterical Years or any of the other Chimera's that they so often talk of but not a Man of them will venture to predict Death on any one of these Causes no nor on half a dozen of them they believe them so well And now give me Leave not to part with you in the Dark about this matter but shew you how I understand Climacterical Years and from what Cause they derive their Power and by what measure of Years they are to be understood Climacters are not from a Mystery in Numbers as some vainly think but from the Motion of the Moon and therefore sometimes it is the Sixth and sometimes the Seventh Year according as the Moon is swift or slow so that Critical Days in Diseases and Climacterical Years have both the same Foundation only one is a Measure in Days and the other in Years Thus suppose one born the 12th of March at Noon 1694 5. the Moon then is in 00 degrees in Cancer when she comes into 00 degrees in Libra by telling the Days and the pâ—â—ts of a Day if you will be so exact it shews â—ou when the first Climâ—cter is which will be at the Age of 7 Years and almost 5 Months The second will be at almost 14 Years of Age the third at a little above 20 the fourth begins at 27 and 3 Months c. So that the Age of 42 is not a Climacter but 41 nor 63 but 62 is the dangerous time as supposed And yet for all this it signifies nothing at last unless the Hileg at the same time is directed to the Rays of a Violent Star which if so it addeth to the Danger of Death and when the Causes or Arguments on both sides seem to be equal in guiding your Judgment you may consider this as one and that is all the Use I ever make of it And I believe when you have taken as much Pains on the matter as I have done you will not be far different from me in the Conclusion When in a Nativity the Hileg shall be directed to the III Rays of a Malefick Star and that this Direction begins to work in a Climacterical Year it hath the same Effect and Power on the Life of a Man in Health and Vigour in order to a Change for the worse as the Moon hath on a Sick Man when she passeth by the ill Rays of the Sun Saturn Mars on a Critical Day And to say all in a Word Climacterical Years are the same in Nativities that Critical Days are in Decumbitures and as I have already told you they are both from the same Cause the Moon and her Motion And if any one else will be pleased to let us understand them in any other way that is intelligible I am not too old to learn and shall be ready to withdraw this my Judgment when my Reason shall be better Informed But methinks I hear some pert Capriciâ— object and say What! do you allow the Crisis and the Climacter to be both from the same Cause and yet allow the one to kill and the other not Yes that is my Assertion and yet if you will have but Patience to hear I will make that clear also for that is my next thing to insist on Critical Days in acute Diseases are only Time of Judging the good or ill State of the Patient because then both the Disease and Nature exeâ—t their â—ower to the utmost and the Superior carries the Point for the most part especiâ—lly if the same carries it in two successive Cryâ—es if the Patient lives so long but if the Dâ—cumbiture be viâ—leâ—t and the first Crisis so likewise they generally dye about or near the first Crisis and yet this is not caused by the Crisis but by the Fury of the Direction or Directions that give the Disease For if the Direction is not mortal a bad Crisis tho' never so ill â—hall not kill So likewise in Climacterâ—cal Years though it be that of 63. the most celebrated of all yet if no bad Direction concur the Native shall not then dye For if it did or doth certainly kill no man would live beyond that Year which we see daily contradicted Therefore when it doth kill it must be from some other superior Cause assisting it or rather giving it Power as it doth that of Critical Days I could say much more on this subject were it proper here and because I think I have sufficiently spoke to what I promised I shall conclude only advise those that would read more on both these Subjects to have recourse to Origanus pag. 770. de Effectibus Franciscus de Bonattis lib. cap. 14. 16. of his Astrosâ—phia Didac Prit in his Coelestis Philosophia lib. 1. cap. 19. where you may see that he calls them by no other Name than Anni Critici or Critical Years CHAP. XI Of Heliocentrick Aspects and Directions c. AMong all the Fooleries that have been set on foot to puzzle the Cause and make people stare this is not one of the least though it be one of the last and most groundless of all and carries no Reason in it self to make any man that hath the Use of his Senses believe that it any ways concerns us Geocentricks any more than those Aspects c. made or beheld at the Body of Saturn or the Moon And if the Interest of those that promote the Whim have Power to delude Mankind into the belief of it we may shortly expect to hear some mighty Champion asserting the Truth of the Chronocentricks Zeuocentricks Areocentricks and Selenâ—centricks and all of them maintained and justified with Reason and Truth equal to the Heliocentricks and indeed full as useful to help out at a dead lift when nothing else will do as we have seen already in a Nativity where we are told That the Earth was directed to the Heliocentrick Placâ— of Mars He might as well have told us That he saw a man with a Pot-Gun kill an invisible Ox and I should have been as ready to believe the one as the other For if we should allow the Earth to be directed which is real Nonsense will they direct it to a Point or Body not visible from the Earth For we see Mars in 25 degrees of Libra and at the same time they say his Heliocentrick place is where they direct him in that example in 17 degrees of Libra yet no Soul upon the Earth could see him in that degree at that time but he was to be seen