of a certain star: its constitution was bad, and its life short and miserable, which is the ordinary lot of weak temperaments; another, on the contrary, was born when the moon was at the full, and the sun in all his power, in calm weather, at the rising of another particular star; his constitution was good, and his life long and happy." If such observations had been frequently repeated, and found just, experience might, at the end of a few thousand centuries, have formed an art which it would have been difficult to call in question: it would have been thought, not without some appearance of truth, that men are like trees and vegetables, which must be planted only in certain seasons. It would have been of no service against the astrologers, to say, "My son was born in fine weather, yet he died in his cradle." The astrologer would have answered, "It often happens that trees planted in the proper season perish prematurely: I will answer for the stars, but not for the particular conformation which you communicated to your child astrology operates only when there is no cause opposed to the good which they have power to work."

One of the most famous mathematicians of Europe, named Stofler, who flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, foretold a universal deluge for the year 1524. This deluge was to happen in the month of February ; and nothing can be more plausible; for Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, were then in conjunction in the sign of the Fishes. Every people, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, that heard of the prediction, were in consternation. The whole world expected the deluge, in spite of the rainbow. Several cotemporary authors relate, that the inhabitants of the maritime provinces of Germany hastened to sell their lands, at any price, to such as had more money and less credulity than themselves. Each one provided himself with a boat, to serve as an ark. A doctor of Toulouse, in particular, named Auriol, had an ark built for himself, his family, and friends; and the same precautions were taken in a great part of Italy. At last, the month of February arrived, and not a drop of rain fell: never was a month more dry; never were the astrologers more embarrassed. However, we neither discouraged nor neglected them; almost all our princes continued to consult them.

Nor would astrology have suffered any more discredit from its being said :-" Of two children who were born in the same I have not the honour to be a prince; minute, one became a king, the other no- nevertheless, the celebrated Count de thing more than churchwarden of his Boulainvilliers, and an Italian, named parish;" for a defence would easily have Colonna, who had great reputation at Pabeen made, by showing that the peasantris, both foretold to me that I should inmade his fortune in becoming churchwarden, just as much as the prince did in becoming king.

And if it were alleged that a bandit, hung up by order of Sixtus the Fifth, was born at the same time with Sixtus, who, from being a swineherd, became Pope; the astrologers would say that there was a mistake of a few seconds, and that, according to the rules, the same star could not bestow the tiara and the gallows. It was, then, only because long-accumulated experience gave the lie to the predictions, that men at length perceived that the art was illusory; but their credulity was of very long duration.

fallibly die at the age of thirty-two. I have already been so malicious as to deceive them thirty years in their calculation,—for which I most humbly ask their pardon.

ASTRONOMY,

WITH A FEW MORE REFLECTIONS ON
ASTROLOGY.

M. DUVAL, who, if I mistake not, was librarian to the Emperor Francis I. gives us an account of the manner in which, in his childhood, pure instinct gave him the first ideas of astronomy. He was contemplating the moon, which, as it declined towards the west, seemed to

touch the trees of a wood. He doubted principles of astronomy before the Doge not that he should find it behind the and Senators of Venice on St. Mark's trees; and, on running thither, was as-tower; he demonstrated every thing to tonished to see it at the extremity of the the eyes. horizon.

The following days his curiosity prompted him to watch the course of this luminary; and he was still more surprised to find that it rose and set at various hours.

The different forms which it took from week to week, and its total disappearance for some nights, also contributed to fix his attention. All that a child could do was, to observe and to admire: and this was doing much; not one in ten thousand has this curiosity and perseverance.

Indeed, not only a child, but even a man of mature age, who has seen the constellations only on maps or globes, finds it difficult to recognise them in the heavens. In a little time, the child will very well comprehend the causes of the sun's apparent course, and the daily revolutions of the fixed stars.

He will, in particular, discover the constellations, with the aid of these four Latin lines, made by an astronomer about fifty years ago, and which are not sufficiently known :

Libra Auguem, Anguiferum fert Scorpios: Antinoum Arcus,
Delphinum Caper, Amphora Equos, Cepheida Pisces.

He studied, as he could, for three Delta Aries, Perseum Taurus, Geminique Capellam; years, with no other book than the hea-Nil Cancer, Plaustrum Leo, Virgu Comam, atque Bootem, vens, no other master than his eyes. He observed that the stars did not change Nothing should be said to him about their relative position; but the brilliancy the systems of Ptolemy and Tycho of the planet Venus having caught his Brahe, because they are false; they can attention, it seemed to him to have a never be of any other service than to ex particular course, like that of the moon.plain some passages in ancient authors, He watched it every night: it disappeared for a long time; and at length he saw it become the morning instead of the evening star.

The course of the sun, which from month to month rose and set in different parts of the heavens, did not escape him. He marked the solstices with two staves, without knowing what the solstices were.

relating to the errors of antiquity. For instance, in the second book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Sun says to Phaë

ton,

Adde, quod assiduâ rapitur vertigine coelum ;
Nitor in adversum: nec me, qui caetera, vincit
Impetus; et rapido contrarius evehor orbi.
A rapid motion carries round the heavens;
But -and I alone-resist its force,
Marching secure in my opposing path.

It appears to me that some profit might This idea of a first mover turning the be derived from this example, in teaching heavens round in twenty-four hours with astronomy to a child of ten or twelve an impossible motion, and of the sun, years old, and with much greater facility though acted upon by this first motion, than this extraordinary child, of whom I yet imperceptibly advancing from west have spoken, taught himself its first ele-to east by a motion peculiar to itself, and without a cause, would but embarrass a young beginner.

ments.

It is a very attractive spectacle for a mind disposed to the contemplation of nature, to see that the different phases of the moon are precisely the same as those of a globe round which a lighted candle is moved, showing here a quarter, here the half of its surface, and becoming invisible when an opaque body is interposed between it and the candle. In this manner it was that Galileo explained the true}

It is sufficient for him to know that, whether the earth revolves on its own axis and round the sun, or the sun completes his revolution in a year, appearances are nearly the same; and that, in astronomy, we are obliged to judge of things by our eyes, before we examine them as natural philosophers.

He will soon know the cause of the

eclipses of the sun and the moon, and why they do not occur every night. It will at first appear to him that the moon, being every month in opposition to and in conjunction with the sun, we should have an eclipse of the sun and one of the moon every month. But when he finds that these two luminaries are not in the same plane, and are seldom in the same line with the earth, he will no longer be surprised.

universal extravagance, which so long infected all mankind, and is still in great vogue in Persia.

A inan born, according to the almanack, when the sun was in the sign of the Lion, was necessarily to be courageous: but, unfortunately, he was in reality born under the sign of the Virgin. So that Gauric and Michael Morin should have changed all the rules of their art.

It is very odd, that all the laws of He will easily be made to understand astrology were contrary to those of astrohow it is that eclipses have been foretold, nomy. The wretched charlatans of anby knowing the exact circle in which the tiquity and their stupid disciples, who apparent motion of the sun and the real have been so well received and so well motion of the moon are accomplished. paid by all the princes of Europe, He will be told that observers found by talked of nothing but Mars and Venus, experience and calculation the number stationary and retrograde. Such as had of times that these two bodies are pre- Mars stationary, were always to conquer. cisely in the same line with the earth in Venus stationary, made all lovers happy. the space of nineteen years and a few Nothing was worse than to be born under hours, after which they seem to recom- Venus retrograde. But the fact is, that mence the same course; so that, making these planets have never been either rethe necessary allowances for the little in-trograde or stationary, which a very equalities that occurred during those slight knowledge of optics would have nineteen years, the exact day, hour, and sufficed to show. minute, of an eclipse of the sun or moon were foretold. These first elements are soon acquired by a child of clear concep

tions.

Not even the precession of the equinoxes will terrify him. It will be enough to tell him, that the sun has constantly appeared to advance in his annual course, one degree in seventy-two years, towards the east; and this is what Ovid meant to express in the lines just now quoted—

Contrarius evehor orbi.

Marching secure in my opposing path.

How then can it have been, that in spite of physics and geometry, the ridiculous chimera of astrology is entertained even to this day, so that we have seen men distinguished for their general knowledge, and especially profound in history, who have all their lives been infatuated by so despicable an error? But the error was ancient, and that was enough.

The Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Jews, foretold the future; therefore, it may be foretold now. Serpents were charmed and spirits were raised in those days; therefore spirits may be raised and serpents charmed now. It is only necessary to know the precise formula made use of for the purpose. If predictions are at an end, it is the fault, not of the art, but of the artist. Michael Morin and his secret died together. It is thus

Thus the Ram, which the sun formerly entered at the beginning of spring, is now in the place where the Bull was then. This change which has taken place in the heavens, and the entrance of the sun into other constellations than those which he formerly occupied, were the strongest ar-that the alchymists speak of the philosoguments against the pretended rules of judicial astrology. It does not, however, appear, that this proof was employed before the present century to destroy this

pher's stone: if, say they, we do not now find it, it is because we do not yet know precisely how to seek it; but it is certainly in Solomon's collar-bone. And,

that he will be devoured; but you cannot be absolutely sure of it, after the adventures of Hercules, Jonas, and Orlando Furioso, who each lived so long in a fish's belly.

It cannot be too often repeated, that Albertus Magnus and Cardinal d'Ailli both made the horoscope of Jesus Christ. It would appear that they read in the stars how many devils he would cast out of the bodies of the possessed, and what sort of death he was to die. But it was unfortunate that these learned astrologers foretold all these things so long after they happened.

It is still less astonishing that so many men, raised in other things so far above the vulgar; so many princes; so many We shall elsewhere see that in a sect popes, whom it would have been impos- { which passes for Christian, it is believed sible to mislead in the smallest affair of to be impossible for the Supreme Intelliinterest, have been so ridiculously se- gence to see the future otherwise than by duced by this astrological nonsense. supreme conjecture; for, as the future They were very proud and very ignorant. does not exist, it is, say they, a contraThe stars were for them alone; the restdiction in terms to talk of seeing at the of the world were a rabble, with whom present time that which is not. the stars had nothing to do. They were like the prince who trembled at the sight of a comet, and said gravely to those who did not fear it-"You may behold it On the Comparison so often made between without concern; you are not princes."

He

ATHEISM.

SECTION I.

Atheism and Idolatry.

The famous German leader Wallenstein was one of those infatuated by this It seems to me that, in the Dictionchimera; he called himself a prince, and naire Encyclopédique, a more powerful consequently thought that the zodiac had refutation might have been brought against been made on purpose for him. the Jesuit Richeome's opinion concernnever besieged a town, nor fought a bat-ing atheists and idolaters-an opinion tle, until he had held a council with the formerly maintained by St. Thomas, St. heavens; but, as this great man was very Gregory Nazianzen, St. Cyprian, and ignorant, he placed at the head of this Tertullian-an opinion which Arnobius council a rogue of an Italian, named placed in a strong light when he said to Seni, keeping him a coach and six, and the pagans, "Do you not blush to regiving him a pension of twenty thousand proach us with contempt for your gods? livres. Seni, however, never foresaw that Is it not better to believe in no god, than Wallenstein would be assassinated by to impute to them infamous actions?"order of his most gracious sovereign, and an opinion long before established by that he himself would return to Italy on Plutarch, who said, he would rather have foot. it said that there was no Plutarch, than that there was a Plutarch, inconstant, choleric, and vindictive-an opinion, too, fortified by all the dialectical efforts of Bayle.

It is quite evident that nothing can be known of the future, otherwise than by conjectures. These conjectures may be so well-founded as to approach certainty. You see a shark swallow a little boy; you may wager a ten thousand to one

Such is the ground of dispute, placed in a very striking point of view by the

Jesuit Richeome, and made still more specious by the way in which Bayle sets it off:

at all.

sciously into the ideas of the vulgar, in supposing that God is jealous of his glory, wrathful, and given to revenge, and "There are two porters at the door of in taking rhetorical figures for real ideas. a house. You ask to speak to the mas- That which interests the whole world is, ter. He is not at home, answers one. to know whether it is not better to admit He is at home, answers the other, but is a rewarding and avenging God, recombusied in making false money, false con- pensing hidden good actions, and punishtracts, daggers, and poisons, to destroying secret crimes, than to admit no God those who have only accomplished his designs. The atheist resembles the for- Bayle exhausts himself in repeating all mer of these porters, the pagan the latter. the infamous things imputed to the gods It is then evident that the pagan offends of antiquity. His adversaries answer him the Divinity more grievously than the by unmeaning common-places. The atheist." partisans and the enemies of Bayle have With the permission of Father Ri-almost always fought without coming to cheome, and that of Bayle himself, this is not at all the state of the question. For he first porter to be like the atheist, he must say, not "My master is not here," out "I have no master; he who you pretend is my master, does not exist. My comrade is a blockhead to tell you that the gentleman is engaged in mixing poisons, and wetting poniards, to assassinate those who have executed his will. There is no such being in the world."

Richeome, therefore, has reasoned very ill; and Bayle, in his rather diffuse discourses, has so far forgotten himself as to do Richeome the honour of making a very lame comment upon him.

Plutarch seems to express himself much better, in declaring that he prefers those who say there is no Plutarch, to those who assert that Plutarch is unfit for society. Indeed, of what consequence to him was its being said that he was not in the world? But it was of great consequence that his reputation should not be injured. With the Supreme Being it is otherwise.

Still Plutarch does not come to the real point in discussion. It is only asked, who most offends the Supreme Being the man who denies him, or he who disfigures him? It is impossible to know, otherwise than by revelation, whether God is offended at the vain discourses which men hold about him.

Philosophers almost always fall uncon

close quarters. They all agree that Jupiter was an adulterer, Venus a wanton, Mercury a rogue. But this, I conceive, ought not to be considered: the religion of the ancient Romans should be distin{guished from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is quite certain that neither they, nor even the Greeks ever had a temple dedicated to Mercury the Rogue, Venus the Wanton, or Jupiter the Adulterer.

The god whom the Romans called "Deus optimus maximus"-most good, most great, was not believed to have encouraged Clodius to lie with Cæsar's wife, nor Cæsar to become the minion of King Nicomedes.

Cicero does not say that Mercury incited Verres to rob Sicily, though, in the fable, Mercury had stolen Apollo's cows. The real religion of the ancients was, that Jupiter, most good and just, with the secondary divinities, punished perjury in the infernal regions. Thus the Romans were long the most religious observers of their oaths. It was in no wise ordained that they should believe in Leda's two eggs, in the transformation of Inachus's daughter into a cow, or in Apollo's love for Hyacinthus.

Therefore it must not be said that the religion of Numa was dishonouring to the Divinity. So that, as but too often happens, there has been a long dispute about a chimera.

Then it is asked, can a people of athe