The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-31
CONFIDENCE IN ASTROLOGY.
Belief in Its influence Held by Wise
Celestial Scholars.

| Belief in Its Influence Held by Wise
Celestial Scholars.
| Students of the ancient science of as
! troi0gy. if any still exist. cf more in
| telIigent class than that which sometimes
| appears 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 true believers. Reuter- tells us
| that the Emperor of China has ordered
his official astroIogers 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 in the cut
Of our dress clothes. Perhaps the Chinese
recourse to astrology may also be only
| ceremonial survival or a convenient
| excuse for putting off that famous re-
| turn a little longer. But 1t is none the
| less interesting to remember that the
| first definite mention of astronomy in the
| world can be traced back to the predeces-
| sors of the Chinese astrologers who are
| now called into requisition- We read
! that Hi and Ho were the royal astrono-
niers or astrologers-in those days the
| terms were synonymous-of very early
\ Chinese Emperor 1t was their duty to
| study the heavenly movements with care
| and give timely warning of any u11pro-
| pitious arrangement of the planets. which
/ might if it arrived unexpectedly, per
/ plex the throne with fear of change ana
expose the land to, the anger Of the sods
| Unfortunately Hi and Ho were not so at
| tentive to business as we are accustomed
! to find modern official astronomers.
4 tc said In
| the habit of stirring up any member OF
| the Greenwich staff who missed an obser-
| walton by Oversleeping himself or other
| wise with a cutting little calculation
| THE royal observatory" he would say,
| "vas founded for observations of the
moon during the year in all and the OBJ
servatory costs the nation $4,000 year.
| Hence each observation of the moon is
worth SEQ, and by losing one last night
you have cost the nation 500. Hi and
| Ho were not kept up to their work by
\ any such reflections. They gave them
| selves UP to rotous living and so failed
| to predict an eclipse of the sun The re-
ligious rites due in such case were not
| performed. China was exposed to the
! anger of the gods and the unfortunate
| astrologers were seized and put to death
with the usual accompa niments of boiling
|
| comb says that the date of this affair has
been computed in the twenty-second CEN
! fury before Christ which makes it the
| earliest astronomical transactions of
which profane history has left us any
| record.
We have said that astronomy and as
| trology were originally one. In fact, it
is safe to say that astrology came first,
and astronomy 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 inyen-
lions that have done so much to trans
form 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 utilitarian view. 1t is con-
| nected with the dazzling wonders of which
| the astronomer has to tell US. and his
| fairy tales concerning the origin of the
/ universe and the nature of the systems
in which ''Other planets circle other suns.
| But when man first raised his eyes 10
| the Observation-Disclosures he did so in digni-
| fed obedience to his Creator or in dull
| amazement that he no longer went on
| four feet-it was rather in the spirit pre-
served by the Chinese Emperor, alone
| among potentates. that he regarded the
stars Anthropologists have given us
many theories to account for the undis-
| puted fact that the stars and planets were
in all parts of the world, looked upon by
| primitive man as the rulers of his for
| Of fat hpIIb
| the obvious control Of the sun over the
| seasons and harvests-sO important part
| of early Hfe-and that of the moon over
| the tides. were the first factors in the
worship that man soon learned to pay to
| the lights of the heavens. After the actual
| identification of the heavenly bodies with
! the gods. which found a very recent ava
tar in the medieval theory that each
planet was kept in its complicated orbit
| of cycles and epicycles by an attendant
angel came the later and more reaSona-
| BILE belief that the movements of the stars
| must be signs of the celestial will, even
| if they had not such actual influence on
| the affairs of men as the moon obviously
had over the tides. Its natural origin
| could hardly be better explained than in
| the fine verses of Byron. which sum up the
ceilings that made Chaldeans ana Zulus,
Otibways and Eskimus, Tycho Brache and
Paracclsus Wallenstein and Napoleon.
agree in the attrihution of such powers
| Of prediction. If not of influence, to the
stars:
| We stars, which are the poetry Of heaveni
Ii in your bright leaves would learn the fate
| OF men and cmpires-'tis to be forgiven.
That in our aspirations to be great,
our destinies o'erloap their moral state,
| And claim kindred with YOU; for We are
beauty and mystery. and create
In us such love and reverence from atar
That fortune fame. power. life. have named them
selves a star.
We need only refer to such words as
disastrous" ''ill-starred, 'ascendency,"
or -'ioviaI' to remind ourselves of the
depth to which this ancient belief rooted
itself in European ways of thought As
late as the seventeenth century the wisest
man held with Bacon and Sir Thomas