Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/371

ROBERT WYER. 357 pointing to the heavens and guiding him in his observations. But when we turn to the inside of the book difficulties arise. Here and there are passages quite close to the c Quadripartitum ' ; others are vaguely reminiscent ; still others seem to have no counterparts in Ptolemy's Greek or in any Latin translation of it. Moreover, Wyer's title declares his ' Compost ' to be ' from the French/ and there was no French translation of the 'Quadripartitum' 1 as yet made in Wyer's day. The c Compost ' as a whole emphasizes the connection between the aspects of the stars and human health under what signs to let blood, what is the proper regimen for spring not so Ptolemy. The Ptolemy of the ' Compost ' is a devout Christian, achieving a faith which would have done honour to the star-led wisdom of the c Quadripartitum.' The Ptolemy of the * Compost ' gives rough-and-ready horo- scopes ; the Ptolemy of the c Quadripartitum ' sug- gests so many modifying elements that no definite prediction would ever seem possible under his cautions. Most striking of all, the Ptolemy of the ' Compost ' is not an impersonal savant, but a mem- ber of a great brotherhood, * these astronomiers,' who are widely spread and have a fixed regimen of life. By-and-by a sense of puzzled familiarity may arise in one's mind, and in an instant, on 1 Bourdin, N., 'L'Vraine . . . ou la traduftion des quatre livres des iugements des astres. . . .* Paris, 1640. * Quant a le mettre en Francois personne n'a paru iusques icy qui 1'ait entrepris* (preface). No bibliographical authority lists a translation earlier than < L'Uraine.'