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For this Apology, Mr. Boyle has a juft Apology in his Hiftory of the Air.—- Generation and Corruption being the Extremes of ■ Motion, and Rarefaflion and Condenfation the Mean ones ; ' he mews, that the Effluvia of the Heavenly Bodies, as we 6nd • them immediately contribute to the latter, mud alfo have a me- < diate Influence on the former; and confequently, all phyfical Bo- • dies be afFefled thereby. See Generation, Corruption, • Rarefaction, Condensation, &c.
'Tis evident, that the Properties of Moilture, Heat, Cold, . &c. employ'd by Nature to produce the two great Effects of > Rarefaction and Condenfation almoft wholly depend on the • Courie, Motion, Pofition, &c. of the heavenly Bodies.— And • 'tis alio clear that every Planet muft have its own proper Light, dillinct from that of any other,- Light not being a bare vilible < Quality, but endued with its fpecifick Power. The Sun, we . know, not only mines on all the Planets, but by his genial . Warmth calls forth, excites, and raifes the Motions, Properties, . &c. peculiar to them; and his Rays mull fhareor receive feme- ■ what of the Tincture thereof; and thus tinged be again refleaed < into the other Parts of the World, and particularly the adjacent • Bodies of the planetary Syllem. Whence, according to the An- . gle the Planets make with that grand Luminary, and the Degree . wherein they are enlightened, either by his direct or his oblique i Rays; together with their Diftance and Situation in refpeft of . our Earth; the Powers, Effects, or Tinctures, proper to each, i muft be tranfmitted hitherto, and have a greater or left effect on . fubiunary Things.— See Mide dl laperio So/it & Lena-, &c.
Jud-.uary, or Judicial Astrology, which is what we com- , monly call Apology, is that which pretends to foretell moral i Events; :. e. men as hare a Dependance on the Will and Agen- cy of Man; as if that were di,eeted by the Stars. See Will, ■ Action, &c.
The Profeffors hereof maintain, " That the Heavens are one
- great Volume, or Book wherein God has wrote the Hiltory
" of the World ; and in which every Man may read his own " Fortune, and the Tranfactions of hisTime.— The Art, fay they, " had its Rife from the fame Hands as Aponomy itfelf : While " the antient Ajfyriam, whofe ierene unclouded Sky favour'd « their Cueleitial Obfervations, were intent on tracing the Paths " and Periods of the heavenly Bodies; they difcover'd a con- " ftant fettled Relation or Analogy, between them and things be- « low ; and hence were led to conclude, thefe to be the Peru.; the " Deitinies, fo much talked of, which prelide at our Births/and " difpofe of our future Fate. See Par/e, Destiny, Fate, " &c.
" The Laws therefore of this Relation being afcertained by a
- Series of Obfervations, and the Share each Planet has therein;
<■■ by knowing the precife Time of any Perfon's Nativity, they « were enabled from their Knowledge in Altronomy, to erect a " Theme or Horofcope of the Situation ot the Planets, at that
- ' Point of Time; and hence, by coniidering their Degrees of
" Power and Influence, and how each was either ftrengthened or •' ten-.per'd by oilier, to compute what muft be the refute there- < " of. See Horoscope, Nativity-, House, &c.
Thus the Apobgtrs.—Bw. the chief Province now remaining to the modern ProreiTors, is the making of Calendars or Alma- nacks. See Calendar and Almanack.
Judicial Apology is commonly laid to have been invented in . Cbaldca, and thence tranfmitted to the Egyftians, Greeks, mc\ Ro- mans.— Though it is to the Arabs we owe it. At Sjrnie the Peo- ple were fo infatuated with it, that the Afitohgers, or as they were then cail'd, the Mathematicians, maintained their Groundin Ipight'of all the Edicts of the Emperors to expel them out of the City. See Mathematicks.
Add, that the Brmix, who introduced and practiced this Art among the Indians, have hereby made themfclves the Arbiters of good and evil Hours, which gives them a vaft Authority : They are conlulted as Oracles; and they have taken care never to fell their Anfwers but at good Rates. See Brachman.
The fame Superftition has prevailed in more modern Ages and Nations. The French Hiltorians remark, that in the Time of Queen Catherme £• Mcdicis, Apology was in fo much Vogue that the molt inconliderabic thing was not to be done without cor.- fulting the Stars. And in the Days of King Henry III. and IV of France, the Predictions olAjtrologers were the common Theme ot the Court Converfation.
This predominant Humour in that Court was well rallied by
Barclay, mhisArgejiis, Lib. II. on Occafion of an Apologer, who
had undertook to inilruct King Henry in the Event of a War then
threatned by the Faction of the Cuifis.
" You maintain," fays Barclay, « that the Circumftances cf Life
and Death depend on the Place and Influence of theCeleftial
■ Bodes, at :the Time when the Child firft comes to Light; and
' yet own that the Heavens revolve with fuch vaft Rapidity, that
the Situation of the Stars is confiderably changed in the leaft
Moment of Time.-What certainty then, can there be in
your Art; unlefs you fuppofe the Midwifes conltantly
careful to obferve the Clock; that the Minute of Time may
De convey d to the Infant as we do his Patrimony ? How often
aoes the Mother's Danger prevent this Care? And how many are
mere who are not touched with this Superftition? But fuppofe
them watchful to your Wifli : If the Child be Ions in Deli very ; if, as is often the Ca r e, a Hand or the Head come firft" and be not immediately followed by the reft of the Body - which State of the Stars is to determine for him? That, when the Head made its Appearance; or when the whole Body was difengaged? I fay nothing of the common Errors of Clocks, and other Time-keepers, fufficicnr to elude all your Cares. " Again, why are we to regard only the Stars at his Nativity, and not thofe rather which (hone when the Fgtus was anima- ted in the Womb ? And why mull thofe others be excluded which prehded while the Body remained tender, and fufcepti- ble of the vveakeft Impreffion, during Geftations? " But fctting this alide; and fuppoling, withal, the Face of the Heavens accurately known : Whence arifes this Dominion of the Stars over our Bodies and Minds, that they muft be the Arbiters of our Happinefs, our manner of Life, and Death ? Were all they who went to Battle, and died together, born under the fame Pofition of the Heavens? And when a Ship is to be calt away, fhali it admit no Paffengers but thofe doomed by rhe Stars to fuffer Shipwreck? Or rather, do not Pertons born under every Planet go into the Combat, or aboard the VelTel ; and thus notwithstanding the Difparity of their Birth, perifh alike ? Again, all who were born under the fame Configuration of the Stars do not live or die in the fame man- ner. Are all who were born at the fame Time with the King, Monarchs ? Or are they all even alive at this Day ? View M. Villeroy, here ; nay view your (elf: Were all that came into the World with him as wile and virtuous as he; or all born under your own Stars, Aftroiogers like you? If a Man meet a Robber, you will fay he was doomed to pcrilli by a Robber's Hand ; but did the fame Stars which, when the Traveller was born, fubjefled him ro the Robber's Sword ; did they likewifc give the Robber, who perhaps was barn long before, a Power and Inclination to kill him? For you will allow it as much ' owing to the Stars that the one kills, as that the other is kiU'd. ' And when a Man is overwhelmed by the fall of a Houfe, did
- the Walls become faulty becaufe the Stars had doom'd him
• to die thereby ; or rather, was not his Death owing to this,
- that the Walls were faulty ? The fame may be laid with regard
r to Honours and Employs: Becaufe the Stars that fhone 'at a ■' Man's Nativity promifed him Preferment, could thole have an
- influence over other Perfons not born under them, by whofe
' Suffrages he was to rife? Or how do the Stars at one Man's
- Birth annul or fet afide the contrary Influences of other Stats,
- which fhone at the Birth of another ?
" The Truth is, fuppofmg the reality of all the planetary ' Powers ; as the Sun which vifits an Infinity of Bodies with the •' fame Rays, has not the fame effect on all; but fome things
- are harden'd thereby, as Clay; others, foftened, as Wax;
' fome Seeds cherifhed, others deftroy'd ; the tenderer Herbs
- fcorched up, others indemnified by their coarfer Juice : So,
' where fo many Children are born together, like a Field tilled fo many different Ways, according to the various Health, Ha- bitude, and Temperament of the Parents, the fame Celeftial Influx muft operate differently. If the Genius be fuitable and towardly, it muft predominate therein : If contrary, it will ' only correct it. So that to foretell the Life and Manners of a
- Child, you are not only to look into the Heavens, but into
- the Parents, into the Fortune which attended the pregnant
- Mother, and a thoufand other Circumftances utterly inacceffible.
" Further, does the Power that portends the new-born
- Infanta Life, for Inltance, of 40 Years; or perhaps a violent
' Death at 30; does that Power, I fay, endure and refide ltill ■ in the Heavens, waiting the deltin'd time, when, delcending ' upon Earth, it may produce fuch an efficl? Or is it infilled 1 into the Infant himfelf; fo that being cherifhed, and gradually
• growing up together with him, it burfts forth at the appointed
• Time, and fulfils what the Stars had given it in Charge ?
- Perfilt in the Heavens it cannot; in that depending immediate-
ly on a certain Configuration of the Stars, when that is chan-
- ged, the effect connected with it mull ceafe, and a new, per-
- haps a contrary one, take place. What Repolitory then have
' you for the former Power to remain in, till the Time come
• for its Delivery ? If you fay it inheres or refides in the Infant,
- not to operate on him till he be grown to Manhood; the An-
'■ fwer is more prepofterous than the former : For this, in the ' Inltance of a Shipwreck, you mull fuppofe the Caufe why the ! Winds rife, the Ship is leaky, or the Pilot, through Ignorance
- of the Place, runs on a Shoal or a Rock. So the Farmer is
■' the Caufe of the War, that impoverifhes him ; or of the fa- < vourable Seafon which brings him a plenteous Harveft.
" You boaft much of the Event of a few Predictions, which, ' confidering the Multitude of thofe your Art has produced, ' plainly confefs its impertinency.— A Million of Deceptions are c induitrioufly hidden and forgot in favour of fome eight or ten ' which have fucceeded. Out of fo many Conjectures it muft ' be preternatural if fome did not hit; and 'tis certain, that c confidering you only as Gueffers, there is no room ro boaft ( youhavebeenfuccefsfultherein. Do you know what Fate awaits ' Sicily in this War; and yet are not appreheniive what fhall
- befall your felf ? Did not you forefee the Oppofition I was.
" this
