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had no wish to impose upon any one, and was of opinion that his calling was as legitimate and fair as that of any person in the realm."

The magistrates, however, through their "stupid ignorance," of the subject, not thinking exactly as he did, committed this astrologer as a rogue and a vagabond to the house of correction. Whatever might now be his opinion of "the twelve houses of heaven," he found to his great detriment* the reality of one on the earth, the quartile dimensions of which would afford him but little joy,t for having had such a fall, he would remain there completely peregrine, without any essential dignity. This star-expounding knave, who pretended to anticipate time, and naine the events of distant years, knew not that the officers of justice were at hand, to conduct him to the bar of a British tribunal for violating the laws of his country—and that he should that night sleep in a prison, if his conscience would allow him any repose; and were it not for the long-suffering of a gracious God, he might have been summoned to the tribunal above, and consigned to an eternal prison, where

Detriment is the sign opposite to the house of any planet: when a planet is thus situated it is a sign of weakness and distress. + The planets have particular signs in which they are said to joy. A planet is in its fall, when in the sign opposite to its exaltation.

there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in them to do evil." Eccles. viii. 11.) But that being being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, "He shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy." (Prov. xxix. 1.)

I am, Sir, &c.

T. H. MOODY.

LETTER VIII.

SIR,

It is well known that several of our almanacks contain astrological predictions; and from the popularity of some of them, it is to be apprehended, that much evil results to the community, from their publication; and that many persons of weak minds and limited education are drawn aside from the dictates of sound reason, to give credence to the annual croakings of the wily adventurers in the cause of superstition. The brazen-faced confidence assumed by our "monthly prognosticators," the pretended fulfilment of their former predictions, and the awful endeavours of this venal tribe to make the sacred volume speak the language of astrology, are dangerous snares to the unwary. It is to be feared that many of the sons and daughters of Great Britain are led by the perusal of their bombastic fooleries, to exchange their habits of honest simplicity and in

dustry for the wild vagaries of a wayward fancy, and that restless irregular conduct which results from a discontented spirit, and a pe rturbed intellect·

"Illius occursus etiam vitare memento,

In cujus manibus, cen pinguia succina, tritas
Cernis ephemeridas; quæ nullum consulit, et jam
Consulitur."

"Beware the woman too, and shun her sight,
Who, in these studies does herself delight,

JUVENAL.

By whom a greasy almanack is borne,
With often handling, like chaft timber, worn;
Not now consulting, but consulted, she

Of the twelve houses, and their lords is free."

These considerations have induced me to offer some observations on mundane astrology, which, in the preface to Zadkiel's Grammar, is defined to be

"The art of foreseeing, by the positions of the heavenly bodies at certain periods, the circumstances of nations, such as wars, pestilences, inundations, earthquakes, &c."

And here I must again remind the reader, that all the empires, kingdoms, cities, and towns of the world, are supposed to be ruled by some of the heavenly bodies; but whether the planets, the signs of the zodiac, or both, be invested with this dominion, is a question which yet remains unsettled among the professors; every astrologer has his own system for prediction, and with inflexible tenaciousness, asserts

its infallibility. Lilly informs us (Horary Astrology, page 38) that, according to some late authors

"Saturn rules over Saxony, Bavaria, Stiria, Romandiola, Ravenna, Constantia, and Ingoldstadt;" [and, in page 40, that] "Babylon, Persia, Hungary, Spain and Cullen, are ruled by Jupiter."

But Zadkiel declares that he has

"No opinion of the rule of the PLANETS over different countries; but in mundane astrology, the signs which rule over thein must be observed."

Dr. Sibly, however, coinciding with Lilly, ascribes to the planets, as well as the signs, a powerful dominion over the different countries of the globe. At page 47, Lilly makes Arabia, Austria, Vienna, Polonia, Turin, Parthia, Media, and Cyprus, subject to Venus; but Zadkiel dissents from this, and affirms that these places are not ruled by Venus, but by Taurus and Libra, the houses of that fair planet. Lilly, however, makes Taurus to preside over

"Ireland, Persia, Great Poland, Asia Minor, the Archipelago, and the Southern parts of Russia; also the towns of Dublin, Mantua, Leipsic, Parma, Franconia, Lorrain; also the islands of Cyprus and Samos, and the port and vicinity of Navarino."

Page 59. Yet, notwithstanding this difference of sentiment, which prevails among the astrological doctors upon this matter, and though many of the arrangements

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