(Among the Astrologers.)
14. Then some no longer climbed thus upward; rather did they, gazing from below, study what the constellations were. They then arranged triangles, quadrangles, hexagons, conjunctions, oppositions, and other aspects;[1] by means of these they predicted, either publicly to the world or privately to certain persons, fortune or misfortune; wrote prognostics, and distributed them among the people. Hence sometimes fear and terror arose among the people, sometimes gaiety; for some heeded them not, threw the prognostics into a corner, mocked the astrologers, saying that even without prognostics one could eat enough, drink enough, sleep enough. But it did not seem to me fitting to heed so one-sided a judgment, if but the art itself was a true one. But the more I watched them, the less certainty did I perceive. If one prediction came true, five again proved false. Understanding now that, even without stars, guessing is easy, and that guessing rightly obtains praise, and that guessing wrongly is excused, I considered it vain to be delayed by such matters.
(Among the Historians.)
15. And we enter yet another square, where, behold, I see something new. For there stood
- ↑ Terms of mediæval astrology. The relative positions of the planets, the sun, and the moon in the zodiac were called aspects, and it was believed that the fates of men could be ascertained through them.
