that is, consult not the tables or planetary calculations used by Astrologers of Babylonish origin. This therefore was the opinion of the Romans on the subject of Astrology. Others have ascribed the invention of this deception to the Arabs: be this as it may, judicial Astrology has been too much used by the priests of all nations to increase their own power and emoluments.
The Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks and Romans, furnish us with innumerable instances of the extent to which Astrology was carried for interested purposes. Brahmins in India, who take upon themselves to be the arbiters of good and evil hours, and who set an extravagant price upon their pretended knowledge of planetary influence and predictions, maintain their authority at the present day by similar means. Nor among the Christians, notwithstanding the enlightened era in which we live, are we without our Astrologers, as well as its admirers and advocates; for though they may not have all pursued and adopted the same technical method, still it is certain, that whoever pretends to discover future events by other means than through the light of Divine revelation, may be properly classed under the species of judicial Astrologers.
Astrological Schemes, &c.
Those who pretend to reduce the practice of Astrology to a system, present the world with certain schemes formed upon the Aspects of the planets, and attribute certain qualities or powers to each sign. Thus, to discover the influence of the heavens over the life of a person, they erect a THEME, at the given time of the moment the person was born, by which the Astrologers pretend to discover the star that presided, or in what part of the hemisphere it was placed, when the individual came into the world. The erection of this THEME they perform, or at least pretend to reform, with the assistance of the celestial globe, or planisphere, with regard to the fixed stars; but with respect to the planets, they do it with Astronomical tables. To accomplish these, they have recourse to a semi-circle, which they call POSITION, by which they represent the six great circles passing through the intersection of the Meridian and Horizon, and dividing the Equator into twelve equal parts. The spaces included between these circles, are what they call the twelve HOUSES; which they refer to the twelve triangles marked in their theme; placing six of those HOUSES above and six underneath the horizon.
The first of the HOUSES under the horizon toward the East, they call the Horoscope, or House of Life; the second, the House of Wealth; the third, the House of Brothers; the fourth, the House of Parents, &c.; as is clearly expressed in the following lines:
Vita, lucrum, fratres, genitor, natique Valetud,
Uxor, Mors, pietas, et munia, amici inimici.
Which, translated by some English students in Astrology, runs thus:
The first house shews life, the second wealth doth give;
The third how brethren, fourth how parents live;