40 W. T. G.-The Astrologer will be most happy to receive communications from a gentleman whom he recognises as deeply versed in starry lore. He will see that in order to make our work popularly instructive, we have avoided as yet the abtruse technicalities that so frequently deter the multitude from crossing the mystic threshold scheme forwarded is placed in our portfolio of nativities for future The inspection. M. M.-The marriage will not take place at all for reasons which will speedily appear. WILLIAM NICHOLSON.-You will shortly leave the place where you now are, and become trammelled by the bonds of Venus. During June next avoid aquatic pleasures, or danger will arise. HOPE -You will soon recover, but will never prosper unless you abandon your dominant vice. J. P.-Have a residence of your own, or continual matrimonial disturb. DEE.-The name alone is a passport to our favour. We have erected a "A TRULY UNHAPPY WIFE."-We can hold out no prospect o a return B. B.-Your case has met with strong opposition, but you will ultimately obrain the property; it will, however, benefit others then, and not yourself. W. G. (Halifax)-Are there no benefits arising from family connexions? Mercury is well posited in the house of honour and should produce some good to the querent in a few months. We would advise him to traffic with metals. B. BUNGEY.-Your father will be speedily extricated. business of the richest among your relations. Follow the A. Z. D.-Wed not one who has a'ready so deceived you, but choose from a higher circle of acquaintances in your immediate vicinity. B. B. B. B.-Persevere in the business you now follow. It will shortly be more lucrative. You will have a girl born unto you. Sibly is almost out of date. Get Zadkiel's Grammar of Astrology. ASTAROTH-You have forgotten the third law in Newton's Principia which distinctly proves that to every action there is always opposed an equal reaction, consequently, as your premises are false your deductions must be erroneous too. After being exhilarated a depression of spirits is the natural result. E. T. C. (Somer's Town.)-You have wilfully thrown away too many excellent opportunities for bettering your circumstances to deserve being enlightened as to your future career. FELIS.-If you value those bachelor comforts which you seem so tho. M. A. G.-Yes, if he will persevere in a proper course. C. H.-It is decreed that you will be united to him you love, and yet ROBERTA.-Go into service, and by civility and attention you will prosper. M. K.-Your son will succeed, but his future reputation depends on yourself. 1. MARTYN. You have acted very foolishly, and from your restricted resources cannot make reparation. For the result, appeal to your own heart. Abandon all thoughts of a profession; but in the early part of next month adopt a suggestion which will be made to you, and leave England. You have no innate badness of heart, but your disposition is too volatile, and should be curbed. Abroad there are bright hopes in store for you. INGRAM -You will shortly have the kind assistance of a friend who NINA. Do not give way to despondency. The crushed hopes and T. M. W.-Yes, but delays will intervene. Avoid quarrels and bad A. T. R.-The appointment you have got will result to your advantage, Boz.-Riches, when compared with happiness, are as motes contrasted with sunbeams. Wed not without their consent, but doubt not it will promptly be granted. "INQUIRENDO."-The gratification we have received from your last letter, which merits our warmest acknowledgements, and the generous candour which admits the accuracy of our calculations, will, together, establish a claim to our courtesy that will be always at your service. You will find new friends arise every day, and may look forward with bright hopes to the future. W. E.-You have it in your power to succeed by perseverance, but some time will elapse before your hopes are realised." J. S. A. Have nothing to do with the speculation at all; you would regret it. B. S. M.-You will marry again-a widower, with probably three children, and one who will make you the buxom hostess of a country tavern. C. M.-He should write himself, but the indications are in his favour. J. T. ANDREWs.-Enclose the copy of your nativity, and it shall be at- E. B. (Lambeth).-Your father is prosperously located in a distant W. HAZELDINE.-Nothing more likely. CHARLES S.-Yes. Have you not had a similar adventure before? R. M. M.-If you are wise, stop where you are; if not, leave at once. "A REGULAR SUBSCRIBER" (Wednesbury.)-It is really too much to "ANXIETY."-The malific influences of the planets, which produce what is commonly called a run of ill luck, have been certainly against you, but still there is hope. Even as we write, you should be on the eve of improvement. You have friends, try them; spirits, raise them; talents, use them. NIL DESPERANDUM. J. T. (iverpool.)-Are you not aware that a rival-though not an ac- HOPE. (Birmingham.)-Answered, as requested, privately; but the least E. V.-A stranger now, but in three months will be the happy man. L. L.-A few days will restore you to your previous position, but your letter arrived so late we must defer further particulars till our next. You are forgiven. "ESPERANCE."-What is the nature of the relationship? The one who left England last year is still living, but we cannot as yet speak positively of the other. BLANCHE.-Hesitatingly we reply "No." Alas! for the inconstancy of man. He is but a general lover. JULIA. W. H. G., W. W., CHARLOTTE ROPER (for shame! again!) L.A.E., G C., and other correspondents whose letters have arrived too late in the week, will find replies in the "Oracle" next week. All letters and communications are requested to be addressed to "The Astrologer," 11, Wellington-street North, Strand, London. London: Printed by S. TAYLOR, George-yard, Drury-court, Strand. Published by G. Vickers; and sold by Strange, Cleave, Berger, Purkess, Clements, Barth, and all Booksellers. intelligence, what must be the intellectual endowments of a race of beings who throng a world so immeasurably greater ? Are they the destinations of those master minds who have bodily gone from amongst us ?-and do we dwell a life of gradual improvement on each star in our universe, until we reach this UNKNOWN WORLD, and attain perfection? Who shall answer us? It is not long since we propounded the question of "Have we lived before ?". We would now ask, how shall we live again? Our previous existence has been believed by even heathens. It is an article in the creed of Buddhism, and the number of systems in the universe, according to that creed, is infinite. They state that Gaudma, one of their deities, had lived in 400 millions of worlds before he was born into ours. What a field for imagination, then, is opened, when we contemplate a succession of such worlds for our future existence, filled with different orders of being, possessed of endless variety and power of intellect, the scale of gradation being wider than the expanse between our earth and the nearest fixed star, until, perhaps, at the summit of all stands the angelic band! The mind staggers in the contemplation of such infinity. THE SO-CALLED SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE." THE oracle of this self-sufficient body has lately propagated a stupid article on the mystic science, which the "true philosopher" has thus ably dealt with. The writer in the "Penny Magazine" remarks that "It has been observed by the Abbé Pluche that an exposition of astrology is its best refutation; and, as we entertain the same opinion, we shall proceed to develope the principles and practice of the art." Now, it is clear that, if he had been able, he would have been glad to show forth the fasehood of the science; and we may rest assured that he knows nothing of it, and is incapable of giving a single instance where its rules have failed, when applied to the facts in na ure, or he would have readily done so. This paragon of a seeker after truth afterwards declares that "the early astrologers, in assigning power to the constellations, seem to have imagined that their names were indications of their several offices and specifications of their influence." We could hardly imagine that even the readers of the "Penny Magazine" were capable of believing this trash; for surely it must be obvious that the first astronomers did far more likely name the constellations from some observed effects produced by them than from mere whim, especially when we reflect that similar names were given to them in Egypt, Chaldea, and India. If "the lion" were found to produce daring, brave, lion-like men, when rising at their births, that is, if it were found that many great conquerors were born when "the lion " was on the eastern horizon, that fact in nature would be more likely to lead to the naming the stars than mere chance. We assert that the character of every man does partake of the nature of the sign ascending at his birth. Will the "Penny Magazine show us a single instance where it has not? If this could be done, it would ere now. Speaking of the " appropriations" that are made to each planet, the writer says, "All of them appear to have been derived from some fancied approximation to poetical descriptions, or to the old mythological characters given to the deities after which the planets had been named. Not the slightest attempt seems to have been made to found any of the principles of the art on observation of facts-it was probably felt that any such proceeding would destroy it." The first clause of this clever tissue of falsehoods is refuted by pointing out that astrology was in existence before the art of constucting divining images, or teraphim, which were made under certain observed influences of the stars; and as these (the terahim) were in common use in the time of Jacob, that being long anterior to the oldest of the poets, and before the mythologies of the Egyptians even were known, from whom the Greeks derived theirs, it follows that the characters of the planets could not have been derived from either of those things. But the richest thing to be observed in this impudent string of false assertions is the statement in italics. Why, the oldest book on astroTetrabillos" logy is the "Phenomena❞ of Aratus; the next the " of Claudius Ptolemy, and these point out the very facts on which the principles of the science are founded; so that not only the "attempt" was made, but the thing was actually done-fully accomplished. The writer, doubtless, never saw either of these works, and was ignorant of the degree to which he indulged in "observation of mendacity. One of the principles founded on affects the ruling powers, the reigning family, &c. Well, upon facts" given by Ptolemy is, that an eclipse on the meridian this very principle did we predict that, as the eclipse of the 24th of November, 1844, fell upon the meridian, "the pageant of the tomb will be witnessed around the royal walls of Windsor." And, on the 29th, only five short days after the eclipse, a royal princess dies, as it were, to confirm this principle of our science. falls on the place where the Sun or Moon was in at birth of an indiAnother "principle" given by Ptolemy is that, where an eclipse vidual, that individual will feel the effects. Now, the late Princess Sophia was born on the 23rd of May, when the Sun was in the third degree of Gemini, the very degree in which the eclipse took place, which heralded this royal lady s death. Thus the friend to truth will observe that the observation of facts "alone is the basis of astrology; and that, instead of destroying it," the more they be observed, the more they uphold its reality. SONGS OF THE STARS. INVOCATION TO NIGHT. From thy dark cavern of the west, From the abode of thy unrest, Antagonist to daylight, come! Spread o'er this hemisphere thy pall, Densely as in the marble tomb, Imperial jewels rest; o'er each, o'er all, Daylight is faint with watching, sweet! Takes thine impress upon its tide. As meteor in the star-wrought dome. It fades, and thou hast come! · J. C. Hi ARE WE TO BELIEVE ONLY WHAT acts. WE CAN COMPREHEND ? Such is the plain and simple question which all arrogant votaries of matter-of-fact science, should put to themselves, before they dare to impugn the truth of astral influences, merely because they are unable to discover the principles on which this influence Corroborative facts and demonstrative proofs, we have in abundance; but these sage philosophers, forsooth, must know how and why, and not merely that it is so. For their behoof we have strung together on the principle of the inductive catechisms, a few questions for self-examination, to which we should be glad to receive answers from the would-be learned. Not only are the principles of the growth, and the phenomena of the evolution or development of plants inexplicable, and concealed from our most active research, but we are totally ignorant how the principle of life is infused into the vegetable fabric, or how, when suspended, it is again revived. Neither have we any means of analyzing and explaining the beautiful variegation of the colour of flowers, or the apparatus by which the rose elaborates its perfume-the pine apple its flavour-or the nettle and the deadly night-shade its venom. Nor are we better acquainted with many of the operations of nature in the animal economy; indeed, our ignorance in this respect, is really the opprobrium of medical pretension, and may justly, in analogy to the geometrical problem of Euclid, be termed the pons asinorum medicina. The statement of a few instances will prove that this rebuke is not mere assertion. Who can give anything like an adequate and a philosophical explanation of the phenomena of intellect, the operation of the understanding, or the functions of the brain in the process of thought and reasoning-the influence of the affections of the mind on the heart, or the seat of the passions? Of the physiology even of the healthful function of sleep, or of the common sensations of hunger and thirst, no satisfactory explanation can be given. Indeed, the physiology and process of the whole nervous system, and the functions of all the primary or vital organs of the animal economy, are involved in mystery, and inexplicable. Who can explain the perception of sound-the cause of sensation-that of the mechanism by which the blood traverses the numerous ramifications of the arterial vessels, and again returns in a modified state to its original locality-the non-synchronism of the action of the heart and the pulse, namely, that their beating or movement does not take place at the same exact period of time-the ventilation or oxygenation of the blood, and the process of its being successively converted into saliva, gastric juice, bile, &c., by its mere transmission through a series of minute tubes-the conversion of aliment into blood-how those particles only that are nutritious are separated, and appropriated to the sustentation of the body-the identification of the nutritive materials taken into the body with the composition of the organs which they are destined to repair-the uses and modus operandi of the various fluids secreted by the glands, the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the omentum, the kidneys, the absorbents, &c. -the cause and origin of emotion, or even those of the principle of life itself? The phenomena of conception, or the laws that govern the fatal economy, superfotation, or second impregnation, extra-uterine (abdominal or ventral) pregnancies-those occasional deviations from the ordinary process of nature, monstrosities of fœtus, moles, hydatids, &c., with the causes of the extraordinary effect that the irritation of the organs produce in the whole animal economy at the period of puberty, or that those symptoms should appear at even an infantile age (instances of which precocity are recorded in medical annals, even at the tender age of four years), are also enveloped in mysterious darkness. The phenomena of the lacteal system-how, when an extraordinary demand for nourishment is necessary in one part of the system, a redundancy should take place in another part, is perfectly inexplicable.. Why certain diseases, as small-pox, measles, scarlatina, &c., should generally attack a person but once in life, while there is no immunity from being assailed by fever, erysipelas, and the generality of diseases, every hour of existence, can never be explained by any known laws of the animal economy. The causation of disease-the last movement of the healthy, and the first of the morbid process-the vis naturæ medicatrix, or the spontaneous curative process which Nature often adopts in the cure of disease--the lightening up of the mind in the recollection of the events of past life a short period before death, even in the case of persons labouring under mental derangement-with a variety of other vital phenomena, are, in our present defective state of physiological knowledge, among the recondite processes of Nature, not to be accounted for either physiologically or metaphysically. The idiosyncracy of constitutionwhy one kind of food should be wholesome and palatable at one time, at another loathsome and a poison-why the goat should browse and feed luxuriously on that which to the horse and the ox is destructive of life- why the fiercest poisons, mineral and vegetable, should have no effect on the hedgehog-with many other anomalous proceedings in nature, are perfectly inexplicable by any of the known laws and processes of nature. Nor are we incapable of explaining only the growth, nutrition, motion, reproductive efforts, and the other vital phenomena of the animal machine. We are, in many cases, in equal ignorance of the laws and principles which govern the material world. Even of the great principle that combines, animates, and preserves the harmony and existence of the creation-universal gravitation-we have but very imperfect and undefined notions. Of the sublime and mighty truths and principles of geological science-many of the phenomena of the atmosphere-the wonders of the heavens, the earth, the ocean, and the air, are as unknown and as mysterious as if our knowledge was but of the growth and origin of yesterday. In short, though every phenomena of matter and mind is governed by certain and invariable laws, our knowledge in many of the mysterious operations of nature, is mere hypothesis or conjecture; every attempt to trace her steps in the production of those operations having hitherto completely failed; and the only satisfactory answer that can be given (or ever will be given until the mystic veil is removed, and the sealed fountain of knowledge laid open to our vision), to the enquiries of those mysterious processes, in the occult laboratory of nature, must be that given by the doctors to Voltaire's question, as to the process of chylefication. "Demandez ce à Dieu qui nous donne la vie." GEOLOGICAL CHANGES OF THE EARTH.-The sea is gradually retiring and encroaching in both hemispheres; hence all the varieties of marine appearances and accumulations of marine remains. It is evident, from observation of those strata, that the periodical changes have occurred at least three times; or, in other words, it appears that every site has been three times covered by the ocean, and three times has afforded an asylum for vegetables and animals! How sublime-how interesting-how affecting is such a contemplation! How transitory, therefore, must be the local arrangements of man, and how puerile the study of the science miscalled Antiquities! How foolish the pride which vaunts itself on splendid buildings and costly mausoleums! How vain the ostentation of large estates, of extensive boundaries, and of great empires! All, all, will in due time be swept away and defaced by the unsparing ocean; and, if recorded in the frail memorials of human science, wilt be spoken of like the lost Atalantis, and remembered only as a philosophical dream! ARE IDEAS INNATE?-Most believe in the truth of their own existence, and in the existence of the material world, yet many there are who, advocating the creed taught by Bishop Berkeley, have doubted both. A doubt of one's actual existence must necessarily lead to the doubting of everything else, for if it be true that there is no such thing as matter, this must be the sole truth in nature, for every other must only be a phantom. The chief part of this extraordinary scepticism consists in a belief of universal immateriality, which has led many to suppose that the whole of what we see, hear, or feel, is purely mental, and has no separate being. This is the natural consequence of a belief that the mind existed prior to the body, and that all ideas are innate; but if ideas were originally formed in the mind, they would have an existence, whether external objects existed or not. It may also be asked how it is that we have ideas of things to-day which we had not yesterday, for if there were no external objects to produce them, whence did they come? If it be replied that they were dormant in the mind before, we would ask what power called them into action then rather than a twelvemonth before or after? THE ASTROLOGER'S STUDY; Being Predictions of the Chief Events from Week to Week. THE ASTROLOGER'S CALENDAR. A Diary of Auspicious and Inauspicious Days, with Weekly Indications of the Weather, deduced from Planetary Influences WEDNESDAY, March 26th.- Unsettled. Fair at intervals. Surgeons may be consulted, but no affairs of import undertaken. THURSDAY, March 27th.-Cold winds, frosty air. Fortunate. Woo the fair, who will smile on thy suit. FRIDAY, March 28th.-Keen winds, but sunshiny. Auspicious for everything. Ask favours, and begin new works. SATURDAY, March 29th.-Frosty and fair. Good for legal matters and business, but avoid marriage. SUNDAY, March 30th.-Milder, but cloudy at night. Evil. Beware of disastrous occurrences. MONDAY, March 31st.-Fair and mild. Write no letters of importance, and journey not. TUESDAY, April 1st.-Genial weather, but showery. servants and accept engagements. The seer, in hailing the advent of spring, hath his attention drawn to the figure of the heavens, as exhibited at the sun's ingress into ARIES on the 20th of March, 5 h. 45 m., p.m. This ingress, which exerts an influence over the nation for six months, is usually termed the radix of the year, and from it the Astrologer derives some of his most important deductions. On the Eastern angle we find twenty-six degrees of Virgo and the Sun, ruler of the 11th, applying to a conjunction with Herschel, retrograde in the 7th, where even the benefic Jupiter is influenced by the fiery Mars. This must tend to a manifestation of discord, and the peace of the country will be disturbed by conflicting interests. The landed gentry will suffer during the summer by depreciation of property, and in the houses of legislation we shall find serious and dangerous disputes arise. Mercury in Pisces indicates numerous shipwrecks, and but an indifferent harvest, with, according to Ptolemy, a cold, wet spring. The evil Saturn, in afflicting aspect to the Moon, shows a succession of disasters will befal Italy and the adjoining states; and we shall hear of several accidents on railroads and by steam-boats, through carelessness and neglect. Those born under Aries should decrease their fulness of system during the summer, lest vertigo and apoplexy result. Venus in the 6th denotes prosperity to the fair sex, and happy issues to marriages now formed. During the week ensuing, the death of a brave admiral will cause regret, and the police reports will present some singular revelations of long-concealed frauds and embezzlements. CORN.-It is curious to remark the changes of custom in England relative to the kind of corn used for bread. The AngloSaxon monks of St. Edmund, in the eighth century, ate barley bread, "because the income of the establishment would not admit of their feeding twice or thrice a-day on wheaten bread." Piers Plowman, a satirical writer of the time of Edward III., says that "when the new corn began to be sold," "Would no beggar eat bread that in it beanes were, But of coket, and clemantyne, or else clene wheate." -Knight's Gallery of Arts. Hire NOTABILIA. The Moon enters her last quarter on Sunday, the 30th. Length of day, 12 h. 30 m. Day's increase, 4 h. 44 m. Sun rises, 5 h. 40 m.; sets, 6 h. 29 m. The planet Mercury is visible on the 27th as an evening star. ASTROLOGY AND MESMERISM. THE enthusiastic and learned astrologer, "Zadkiel," has so ably demonstrated the connection between astrology and Mesmerism, that we feel a greater boon cannot be conferred upon those who are investigating the science than by presenting them with his deductions. He says, "If the Sun be rising at the birth, the man will have a large brain, organs of fortitude and selfesteem full, and but small susceptibility to the magnetic action, yet the most powerful ability to Mesmerise others. If Saturn rise, the native will have a middle sized head, large organs of 'secretiveness' and 'acquisitiveness,' and still larger 'caution;" he will have a pale complexion and black leering eyes, and in general will be difficult to Mesmerise, yet, when Mesmerised, will be deeply so, and be likely to become clairvoyant. When Jupiter rises at the birth, the person born will be tall, with a ruddy, handsome, and commanding aspect, and be noted for large moral organs, but will not be very easily Mesmerised. Lastly, if the Moon be rising when any one is born, that person will be of full stature, fair, and pale, with grey eyes and phlegmatic body; the organ of 'locality' will be large, and fortitude' and 'combativeness' small; there will be but little 'ideality,' and the native be extremely susceptible to the Mesmeric action, and very likely to be a natural somnambulist. Here the philosopher will find abundant matter for contemplation and investigation. He will perceive that, if these facts really exist in nature, we have a clue to the origin of that variety in the formation of persons and characters, which the physiologist is at a loss to account for, which the Mesmerist observes with admiration, and which modern philosophy confesses to exist, at the same time that it evades the task of explaining. "The idea that the planets of our system act, in accordance with the Sun and Moon, upon our earth's atmosphere by means of their light, is by no means a new one; but we believe that we were the first to put forth the opinion that solar, stellar, and cometary light, acts by means of electrical currents. If, however, the intimate relation between light and electricity be taken as evidence that, wherever there is a stream of light falling on any portion of this earth, there must, in that locality, be a peculiar electrical condition induced; then may we easily conceive that, when first the rays of a heavenly body fall on any place (by that body rising above the horizon), there will a powerful electric current be excited. And, as we know that 'every body traversed by an electric current acquires magnetic properties,' we perceive how it is that, when the newly-formed brain of an infant is first subjected to a strong electrical current, it will be powerfully acted upon, and become accordingly magnetic. And as we find that the gymnotus electricus, for instance, retains its magnetic character through life, and is capable at all times of discharging |