professors of the art, the conclusion seems inevitable, that the leading events of every man's life may almost with certainty be predicted; and the sublimity of such attainments has an extraordinary effect upon the imaginative faculty, which is dazzled with the contemplation. Astrology is very flattering to the pride and vanity of the human heart, for when men are led to believe that all nature is ever concerned in what they are concerned, they rise in selfimportance; and even their follies and vices appear to be less odious than before, because they are then considered to be the necessary result of planetary agency; these sentiments coincide with those of Prior's heroine :

"She made it plain that human passion

Was ordered by predestination;

That if weak women went astray,

Their stars were more in fault than they."

But every well-informed mind rejects such doctrine with abhorrence, and perceives that if astrology were true, man would be degraded in the scale of being:

he would not be a free agent; and being overruled in every thing by the stars of heaven, his best actions would have no virtue, and his foulest atrocities no vice; for under such circumstances, no villains would be found on the earth, but such as had been made so by stellar influence. As this system of imposture has lately been gaining ground in the British Empire, it is hoped that the present work may, in some degree, be instrumental in checking its progress. The author has not been able to procure any regular refutation of astrology; but he believes the line of argument adopted in the following pages to be, for the most part, original. It will be seen that he has made numerous quotations from the Volume of Inspiration to illustrate and enforce his sentiments respecting astrology; for if the Bible be a revelation from heaven, as it most assuredly is, and if its sacred pages reflect any light to guide the mind through the difficulties of the inquiry before us, to neglect such aid would he criminal, as its authority is decisive wherever it is found to bear upon the question. Every argument, therefore, derived from this source

will have its proper weight with all who are firm believers in the Holy Scriptures. I write, not to convince sceptics and infidels that astrology is an absurd and impious art, and a diabolical delusion; for when the minds of men are so darkened by sin that they deny the truth of God, it is of small moment what else such characters may credit. It may also be remarked that astrologers are accustomed, in their writings, to appeal to the Divine Record as furnishing an authority for their practice; it is, therefore, incumbent on all who oppose them to shew that the sacred Scriptures strictly prohibit every kind of divination whatever. I now humbly commend the work to the Divine blessing, hoping that it may be a means of preserving the minds of Englishmen from being enslaved by the seductive arts of the astrological doctors.

T. H. MOODY.

7, PORTLAND STREET; August 22nd, 1838.

INTRODUCTION.

ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF ASTROLOGY.

ASTROLOGY IS TO ASTRONOMY WHAT SUPERSTITION IS TO RELIGION,THE FOOLISH DAUGHTER OF A WISE MOTHER."-ROBINSON.

We have no authentic records of the origin of astrology, but it is universally attributed to the Babylonians and Chaldeans; though it is certain that it must have been early introduced into Egypt. The Egyptians believed that if a child happened to be born when the first star of Aries was in the ascendant, the star being then supposed to have its greatest influence, he would then be very rich in cattle; but if he should come into the world when Cancer was rising, he would meet with continued disappointments. They also considered that a nation would be happy and prosperous whose king was born under Libra, but be completely wretched if born under Scorpio: Leo was to produce heroes; and Virgo chastity. Among the Egyptians, astronomy was principally cultivated by

their priests, who employed it to consolidate the empire of superstition over which they presided.

Eudoxus, as we are informed by Cicero, rejected the pretensions of the Chaldeans; and Cicero himself reasons powerfully against the stars having any influence over the destinies of mankind. He argues from the very remoteness of the planets, and asks, “What contagion can reach us from a distance almost infinite?" Pliny also says (Hist. Nat. vii. 49)-" Homer tells us that Hector and Polydamus were born on the same night, men of such different fortunes. And every hour, in every part of the world, are born lords and slaves, kings and beggars." From the time of the conquest of Egypt, it is certain that astrology was much cultivated at Rome, notwithstanding several edicts of the senate. Tacitus says

of its professors, "It is a class of men which, in our city, will always be prohibited, and will always exist." In the philosophic dreams of the Greeks, we find allusions to stellar influence. They discoursed of the influences or effluxes [ȧróppoias] that proceeded from the stars; and, in the second century, the greater part of the world was astrological; and perhaps Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos contributed, in no small degree, to extend the doctrines of the Babylonian superstition.

Astrology, also, was cultivated with great diligence by the Arabians; "Albumassar, of Balkh, in Khorasan,