The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1901-10-29
STUDENTS OFTHE SKY
ABOUT cHINA'S REGARD FOR
SCIENCE OF ASTROLOGY.
Stars Point Out the way-ceiestIaI De-
votion to the Oldest Superstition In
the World-Two Chinese Astrologers
Decentralization Belief

Students of the ancient science of
astrology, if any still exist Of a more
intelligent class than that which some
times apears in the police courts for
having abused the credulity Of servant
girls and country pumpkins, will be
pleased to see that they can still count
an emperor among the true believers.
Reuter- tells us that the emperor of
China has ordered his official astrolo-
gers to search for a propitious day for
the return of the court to Pekin. No
doubt it is possible that even in China
no very great Importance is attached
to this proceeding. We have plenty
OF "survivals" ourselves in our court
ceremonials, as well as in the cut Of
our dress clothes. Perhaps the Chi
nese recourse to ~astrology may also
be only a ceremonial survival" or a
convenient excuse for putting off that
famous return a little longer. But it is
none the less interesting to remember
that the first definite mention of as
tronomy in the world can be traced
back to the predecessors of the Chinese
astrologers who are now called into
requisition. We read that Hi and Ho
were the royal astronomers, or astrolo-
gers-in those days the terms were
synonymous-of a very early Chinese
emperor. 1t was their duty to study
the heavenly movements with care and
give timely warning of any unpropi-
tious arrangement of the planets,
which might, if it arrived unexpected
ly, perplex the throne with fear of
change and expose the land to the
anger of the gods. Unfortunately Hi
and Ho were not so attentive to bust
ness as we are accustomed to find
modern official astronomers.
Sir George Airy is said to have BEEN
in the habit of stirring up any member
of the Greenwich staff who missed an
observation by oversleeping himself, or
otherwise. with a cutting little ~calcula-
ton. The royal observatory" he
would say. was founded for obserya-
tons of the moon. We get about 800
observations of the moo during the
year in all, and the observatory costs
the nation $4,000 a year. Hence each
observation of the mon is worth $50,
and by losing one last night you have
cost the nation &20!" Hi and Ho were
not kept up to their work by any such
reflections. They gave themselves up
to riotous living, and so failed to pre-
dict IN eclipse of the sun. The relig-
ious rites due in such a case were not
performed. China was exposed to the
anger of the gods, and the unfortun-
ate astrologers were seized and put to
death-with the usual accomplishments
of boiling oil and melted lead. Prof.
Simon Newcomb says that the date OF
this affair has been computed in the
twenty-second century before Christ,
which makes it the earliest astronomi-
cal transactions of which profane his
tory has left us any record, says a
London Mail writer. We have said
that astronomy and a~strology were
originally one. In fact, it is safe to
say that ~astrology came first, and as
tronomy was gradually developed out
of its mists and mysteries. Most of us
now look at the stars with the very
practical feeling that they help our
ships to find their way across the
trackless wastes of ocean. Navigation
still depends on the work done at
Greenwich for it's efficiency, and all the
mechanical inventions that have lone
so much to transform the sailor would
be useless without the labors of the
astronomer.
If we have any higher regard for the
celestial phenomena, stars and planets,
meteors and comets, and so forth, than
Is involved in this unitarian view, it
is connected with the dazzling won
ders of which the astronomer has to
tell us, and his fairy tales concerning
the origin of the universe and the ma
ture of the systems in which "other
planets circle other suns But when
man first raised his eyes to the heav-
ens-whether he did so in digniied
obedience to his Creator or in dull
amazement that he no longer went on
four feet-it was rather in the spirit
preserved by the Chinese emperor,
alone among potentates that he regard
ed the stars. Anthropologists have
given us many theories to account for
the %undisputed fact that the stars and
planets we're, in all parts of the world,
locked upon by primitive nan as the
rulers of his fortune and arbiters of
his fate. No doubt the obvious control
of the sun over the seasons and the
harvests-so important a part of early
lfe-and that of the moon over the
tides. were the first factors in the wor-
ship that man soon learned to pay to
the lights of the heavens.