ASTROLOGY, the science which claims to foretell future events, especially the fate of men, from the position of the stars. Originally, that is, among the Greeks and Romans, the word had the meaning of (astronomy,* and, as in the case of alchemy and chemistry, the pseudo science and the real science had the same origin. In early times, when the earth was regarded as the centre of the universe and as that to which all else was somehow tributary, it was a not unnatural hypothesis that the changing con figurations of the heavenly bodies might be indicative of human destiny, or might influence human character. Hence, the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Chaldmans, the Romans and most other ancient nations, with the exception of the Greeks, became implicit believers in as trology. It was partly the cause and partly the effect of the prevalent worship of the heavenly bodies. The astar-gazers," sarcastically referred to in Isa. xlvii, 13, were perhaps astrologers; so also may have been what are called in the margin (viewers of the heavens'; but the Hebrew word rendered ((astrologers' in Dan. i, 20; ii, 2, 27; iv, 7; v, 7, is a much vaguer one, meaning those who practise incantations, with out indicating what the character of these in cantations may be. The later Jews, the Arabs, with other Mohammedan races, and the Chris tians in mediaeval Europe were all great culti vators of astrology. Some of the greatest as tronomers, among whom was John Kepler, who knew very much better, were accustomed to at horoscopes,' and to receive large fees for so doing. The ordinary method of procedure in the Middle Ages was to divide a globe or a planisphere into 12 portions by circles running from pole to pole, like those which now mark meridians of longitude. Each of the 12 spaces or intervals between these circles was called a ((house( of heaven. The sun, the moon and the stars all pass once in 24 hours through the portion of heavens represented by the 12 ahouses.° Every house has one of the heavenly
bodies ruling over it as its lord.
The houses symbolize different advantages or disadvantages. The first is the house of life; the second, of riches; the third, of brethren; the fourth, of parents; the fifth, of children; the sixth, of health; the seventh, of marriage; the eighth, of death; the ninth, of religion; the tenth, of dignities; the eleventh, of friends; and the twelfth, of enemies. The houses vary in strength, the first, one, that containing the part of the heavens about to rise, being the most powerful of all; it is called the ascendant, while the point of the ecliptic just rising is termed the horoscope. The important matter was to ascer tain what house and star was in the as cendant at the moment of a person's birth, from which it was deemed possible to augur his for tune. It followed that all people born in the same part of the world at the same time ought to have had the same future, an allegation which experience decisively contradicted. Even apart from this, astrological predictions of all kinds had a fatal tendency to pass away with out being fulfilled; and when, finally, it was dis covered that the earth was not the centre of the universe, but only a planet revolving around an other body, and itself much exceeded in size several of its compeers, every scientific mind in Europe felt itself unable any longer to believe in astrology, which has been in an increasingly languishing state since the middle of the 1701 century. It still flourishes, however, in Asia and Africa, and is a means of livelihood to many charlatans who prey upon the ignorant classes in all countries.