The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-21 00:00:00

LOOKING INTO NEXT YEAR.
(From the Pall Mall (a:ette.)

That infallible foreteller of the times to come, the
famous Zadkiel, has looked into next year, mid gives
us a depressing account of our prospects. Saturn is
very hard on Spain and Hungary through nearly all
the year. In May "Mars is still in Leo, afflicting
Rome, and in some degree France also, while Saturn,
retrograde in Sagittarius, afflicts Spain with many
tri ills." Royalty is impartially singled out for inis-
fortmie all over Europe. 111 February Alahil-Aziz "has I
a bail transit ;" and the En iperorof Austria "suffers from I
v ilence." In May the King of I lanover has the moon, I
jonnd with Saturn, at his birthday: a very bad sign.
Two months later the King of Prussia is to " meet "
trouble by the death of a female, the King being at
the same time threatened with Saturn, and doubts
being expressed whether the Pope will live till the end
of the year. Even our own royal family does not
escape. Zadkiel observes that the Prince (appa-
rently the Prince of Wales) has M. square Saturn
zod. con. =27 dui,. 50 sec. anck, Sun square Mars zod.
con. =27 (leg. 54 set'. These are very serious, and I
judge very serious consequences, which I do not feel
at liberty to explain more fully. If astrology were
believed in, WI I believe in it, these consequences
might be avoided," so that perhaps much depends
on the circulation of the almanack this year. Again,
, on the 11th of November "the opposition of Jupiter
to the sun, at the birthday of a well-beloved prince,
will affect the state of his blood which becomes
inflamed and too abundant." Almost the only ,
gleam of good fortune allowed is that "Jupiter, in ,
trine to the iilare of her moon at birth, will confer
strength and health on the Princess of Wales about the
'2lst of March." A conjunctii in of the planets in June
ensures trouble in London and elsewhere, and "may
produce shocks of earthquake." Moreover, it seems
to denote a "fall from power of the Ministry in this
country." In November, besides misfortunes to Royal
princes, the "roughs" of London " will give trouble,
and very nmnerous and serious fires will tell hard
upon the insurance offices." On the 11th of March the
moon seems "rather afflicted," and this points to
"many troubles and mighty changes among the
Ministry, which will go nigh to be cast out of power,
chiefly through the intrigues of female foes." All this
is enough to make nervous people quake in their shoes.
Let 113 hope that the voices of the stars have for once
deceived their prophet.

The Daily News also has the following, on Zadkiel'a
Alutanack:— .

See what people are expected to read and to believe
in this age of science. Zadkiel's A11)1(111(143 will now
be found on the counters of nearly every bookseller in
London, and they would not be there unless there were
people to buy them—not poor and uneducated people
merely, for they are found in shops into which these
but seldom enter, the shops of the rich and well-to-do.
In this almanack it is declared in the most strenuous
manner that the received, or Copernician, system of
abtronomy is a fable. "In sober truth," we are
told, "none but a man educated to the idea, could for
a moment imagine that this enormous globe of earth,
which is 25,000 miles in circtunfzrence, is forever hurry-
ing away through space at the mom rate of 03,000
miles in an hour, which is over 1,133 zniles in a minute.
If we had not been educated to believe in this absur-
dity, we should scout the first man who asserted it to
us as a madman. The more we examine the question,
the more we see its ridiculous nature, and perceive
that the truth is found only in agreement with
the solemn asbertion of God's word." The truth is
that the earth is stationary, that it is the centre of the
solar system, that it is only 305,006 miles from the
sun, that the moon is but 32,828 miles distant, that
the sun is not nearly so huge a ho iy as the men of
science vainly imagine, that it is only 3,407 miles in
diameter, and that the diameter of the moon isnotmore
than 301 miles. The Scriptures are invoked in the
most solemn manner to prove the falsehood of the
modern astronomy; there are elaborate unintelligible
calculations to show the unsoundness of the Newton-
ian philosophy; and to make assurance doubly sure
we are shown from astrology that Newton was bound
to go wrong and to mislead the world in the fatuity of
his reason. When such nonsense as this finds a sale
in the shops of London to which people of education
resort, perhaps the less we say the better of the stu-
pidity of those who resisted and persecuted "the
starry Galileo."