The apparent magnitudes of the fixed stars, and the colours of the luminous masses among them, are likewise to be remarked: for, when the stars appear brighter and larger than usual, they indicate an excitation of the wind from that quarter in which they may be situated. The nebulous mass of the Præsepe in Cancer, and others similar to it, also require observation; as, if in fine weather they appear gloomy and indistinct, or thick, they thereby threaten a fall of rain; but, if clear and in continual vibration, they announce rough gales of wind.[107]
Appearances occasionally visible in the sky, resembling the trains of comets,[108] usually indicate wind and drought; in a degree proportionate to their multitude and continuance.
Appearances, resembling shooting or falling stars, when presented in one part only, threaten a movement of wind from that part;[109] when in various and opposite parts, they portend the approach of all kinds of tempestuous weather, together with thunder and lightning. Clouds resembling fleeces of wool will also sometimes presage tempests; and the occasional appearance of the rainbow denotes, in stormy weather, the approach of serenity; in fine weather, storms. And, in a word, all remarkable phenomena, visible in the sky, universally portend that certain appropriate events will be produced, each harmonising with its proper cause, in the manner herein described.
After the forgoing brief investigation of the more limited as well as more extensive significations, regarding general events, it becomes proper to proceed to the doctrine of genethliacal prognostication, or judgments of individual nativities.
End of Book II
BOOK THE THIRD
CHAPTER I
PROEM
In the preceding pages, such events as effect the world generally have been discussed in priority; because they are operated by certain principal and paramount causes, which are, at the same time, predominant over particular and minor events applicable only to the separate properties and natural peculiarities of individuals. The foreknowledge of these particular events is called Genethlialogy, or the science of Nativities.
It must be remembered that the causation, by which all effects, whether general or particular, are produced and foreknown, is essentially one and the same; for the motions of the planets, and of the Sun and Moon, present the operative causation of events which happen to any individual, as well as of those which happen generally; and the foreknowledge of both may be obtained by the several creatures and substances, subjected to the influence of the heavenly bodies, and by due attention to the changes produced in those natures, by the configurations displayed in the Ambient by the planetary motion.
Still, however, the causes of general events are greater and more complete than those of particular events; and, although it has been now stated, that one single identical power supplies both the causation and the foreknowledge of general as well as particular events, yet there does not belong to the two sorts of events a similar origin or beginning, at which observation of the celestial configurations must be made, for prognostication. In regard to general events, the dates of origin and commencement are many and various; for all general events cannot be traced to one origin, neither is their origin always considered by means of the matter subjected to their operation, for it may be also established by circumstances occurring in the Ambient and presenting the causation. It may, in fact, almost be said that they all originate in eminent eclipses of the Luminaries, and in remarkable transits made by the stars, at various times.