True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1858-08-04
An AstrOlOger's sPredictiOn.
BY EMERSON BENNETT.

L
During the prevalence of the Cholera
in ls49, a small party Of US were one
evening sitting together, discussing the
all absorbing topic of the day. One ad-
vanced the idea-not new one, however
that he believed cases arose, and pro.
gressed rapidly to a fatal termination,
resulting simply from the emotion of fear,
acting upon nervous organization.
This was denied by second, who con.
tended that the idea was fallacy, having
its origin in certain brains which were
more imaginative than scientific. His
position was in turn denied by third, a
gentleman of high scholastic attainments,
who had in his day been a traveller over
a great portion OF the habitable globe,
and resident at different times of several
foreign cities of note. In the course of
his remarks, he cited several cases which
had come under his own notice, where
he had reason to believe that the mind
had so acted upon the body as to produce
serious and even fatal results--the mani
festations of the different symptoms of
each being in accordance with the idea
which was supposed to induce them.
Gone of the most remarkable OF these,"
he said, "and which may be cited most
directly in illustration of my argument,
happened while l was resident of Paris ;
and if you are in the mood to listen, I'll
give you the story"
We all signifed our interest in his
forthcoming narration, and he accordingly
proceeded,
"Some years ago, he resumed, I occu-
pied ROOMS iii the most pleasant quarter Of
Paris, and had for companions two men
Of directly opposite temperament. One
Of these was small, delicately- formed, ,
light.haired Englishman, ofrather retiring
unobtrusive, and superstitous nature ;
and the other a fine, manly looking
Spaniard:-tall graceful, of very dark
complexion, with black hair and eyes
and possessing what might be termed a
strong mathematical turn of mind--a firm
believer in demonstrable facts, but total
sceptic concerning anything mysterious
and incomprehensible- in fact,
for which a rational cause could not be
assigned. Henry Russell, the English.
man, believed in everything Of a marvel
lous nature; but Juan Salvador, the Span
lard, believed in nothing he could no
demonstrate. The former would often
introduce old legends and superstitions
and narrate them with all the earnestnes;
of facts; and the latter would make sport
Of his credulity, and attempt TO reason
him out Of what he termed his insane fol.
ly. They were warm friends, notwth'
standing; but sometimes in the course oI
their discussions, both would get excited
and ] who was generally more listener
than debater, would be appealed to tc
decide the point which I generally die
by taking neutral ground, or something
between the two, and endeavoring to make
each satisfied with himself and his argu
ment- without deciding in favor Of either
"About this time the gossipping por
tion Of Paris became not little exer
cised concerning a foreign astrologer,
who had domiciled himselfin the heart ol
the city, and had male, it was said, sew.
eral wonderful predictions, some Of which
had been strangely verified. Being q
matter much talked Of outside Of our circle
il naturally came up for discussion be.
tween the Englishman and the Spaniard
the former Of course assuming that unto
certain men was given the power of re-
vealing the future, and citing various
instances Of both ancient and modern
times to sustain his hypothesis and the
latter denying--if such were really the
facts. which he doubted-that they were
anything more than mere chance coinci'
dences, each veri6cation being selected
from thousand failures, and bruitet
..oabroad by just such credulous persons as
;" his friend Russell, or by designing men,
for selfish or sinister purpose.
az boldly deny he said, 'that any
man has, or every had the power Of pro
phesy-of stating any future fact with
certainty. not based upon present causes
already in action ! For instance, admit
that when a man is known to be dying
il may be positively asserted by his scien'
tihc physician that he cannot recover
that he may not live week, day, OF
even an hour--but deny that the precise
moment Of his decease can be foretoldP
I" And claim returned Russell, that
all causes Of all future events are presen
withthe Almighty -thatthey are written
in his Great Book Of N ature-and that i
is only necessary for mortals to read ant
interpret Alright that Book Of Nature, t
arrive at a definite and infallibe conclu.
!, sion 7
81" sYou might as we'll tell me, reioinet
1 Ealgator, that q man could point out th.
gold veins in the mountain, If he sau
thems and claim that it is just as easl
for him to SEQ them, or to see the bed d
the unfathomable ocean, asit is for hin
70 read and interpret the Great Book o
Mature, as you call II; 90 that your con