INTRODUCTION.
Although the present lecture seems to require some introductory remarks, they must necessarily be brief—our time being limited and this discourse rather discursive; yet it is sufficiently condensed to suit the present occasion, and illustrates fully the truthfulness of the axiom that—A little learning is a dangerous thing: from its tendency to inspire its possessors with vanity rather than with the humility which always accompanies profound knowledge.
You are no doubt all, or most of you, well acquainted with the use made of Astrology and Alchemy in the dramas of Shakspeare—"The Antiquary" of the "Wizard of the North"—the "Strange Story" of Lord Lytton—the "Faust" of Goëthe; and are probably familiar with the more instructive works of Scott on Demonology, and of Brewster on Natural Magic. Now we always find that fiction is more suitable than truth for romantic writings; truth is circumscribed, but the fictions whether of Astrology, Alchemy, or any other pseudo-philosophy are erratic, the delight of poets and romance writers, being the comets and ignes fatui of many popular compositions in our light literature.
There is no end of fabulous writings of the class we call novels and romances, and no end of deceptions which we patronize as tricks of legerdemain; the one gratifies our imagination and fancy, the other takes our common sense by surprise; but all these are harmless because only presented to us for our amusement.
Delusion, however, assumes a startling character when romance in the form of mystic writings, and jugglery in the form of pretended communication with the spirit-world demand our respect and serious attention, by claiming to have a divine origin. But hallucination of the human intellect, as we shall see, is not confined to such remote visionary speculations, and it is not unimportant to remark that in mathematics, as in physics, and in other branches of investigation, there is a singular persistency in upholding errors.
A contemporary astrologer, assuming the pseudonym of Zadkiel, tauntingly observes in his preface to a recent publication: "This is the age of inquiry; and yet prejudice continues to press down her leaden foot upon the neck of examination in this matter"—that is, Astrology. Now with this reproof before us we hope to discuss the subject with becoming propriety.