and some feminine: the moon and Venus are of the latter kind; this appears to be merely a mythological or etymological association. Some are diurnal, some nocturnal; the moon and Venus are of the latter kind, the sun and Jupiter of the former; Saturn and Mars are both.

The fixed stars, also, and especially those of the zodiac, had especial influences and subjects assigned to them. In particular, each sign was supposed to preside over a particular part of the body; thus Aries had the head assigned to it, Taurus the neck, and so on.

The most important part of the sky in the astrologer's consideration, was that sign of the zodiac which rose at the moment of the child's birth; this was, properly speaking, the horoscope, the ascendant, or the first house; the whole circuit of the heavens being divided into twelve houses, in which life and death, marriage and children, riches and honours, friends and enemies were distributed.

We need not attempt to trace the progress of this science. It prevailed extensively among the Arabians, as we might expect from the character of that nation. Albumasar, of Balkh in Khorasan, who flourished in the ninth century, who was one of their greatest astronomers, was also a great astrologer; and his work on the latter subject, "De Magnis Conjunctionibus, Annorum Revolutionibus ac eorum Perfectionibus," was long celebrated in Europe. Aboazen Haly (the writer of a treatise

De Judiciis Astronom.) who lived in Spain in the thirteenth century, was one of the classical authors on this subject.

It will easily be supposed that when this apotelesmatic or judicial astrology obtained firm possession of men's minds, it would be pursued into innumerable subtle distinctions and extravagant conceits; and the more so, as experience could offer little or no check to such exercises of fancy and subtlety. For the correction of rules of astrological divination by comparison with known events, though pretended to by many professors of the art, was far too vague and fallible a guidance to be of any real advantage. Even in what has been called natural astrology, the dependence of the weather on the heavenly bodies, it is easy to see what a vast accumulation of wellobserved facts is requisite to establish any true rule; and it is well known how long, in spite of facts, false and groundless rules (as the dependence of the weather on the moon) may keep their hold on men's minds. When the facts are so loose and many-sided as human characters, passions, and happiness, it was hardly to be expected that even the most powerful minds should be able to find a footing sufficiently firm, to enable them to resist the impression of a theory constructed of sweeping and bold assertions, and filled out into a complete system of details. Accordingly, the connexion of the stars with human persons and actions was, for a long period, undisputed. The vague, obscure, and heterogenous cha

racter of such a connexion, and its unfitness for any really scientific reasoning, could, of course, never be got rid of: and the bewildering feeling of earnestness and solemnity, with which the connexion of the heavens with man was contemplated, never died away. In other respects, however, the astrologers fell into a servile commentatorial spirit; and employed themselves in annotating and illustrating the works of their predecessors to a considerable extent, before the revival of true science.

It may be mentioned, that astrology has long been, and probably is, an art held in great esteem and admiration among other eastern nations besides the Mohammedans: for instance, the Jews, the Indians, the Siamese, and the Chinese. The prevalence of vague, visionary, and barren notions among these nations, cannot surprise us; for we have no evidence from them, as from Europeans we have, that they are capable, on subjects of physical speculation, of originating sound and rational general principles. The arts may have had their birth in all parts of the globe; but it is only Europe, at particular favoured periods of its history, which has ever produced sciences.

We are, however, now speaking of a long period, during which this productive energy was interrupted and suspended. During this period Europe descended, in intellectual character, to the level at which the other parts of the world have always stood. Her science was then a mixture of art and mysticism;

we have considered several forms of this mysticism, but there are two others which must not pass unnoticed, alchemy and magic.

We may observe, before we proceed, that the deep and settled influence which astrology had obtained among men, appears perhaps most strongly in the circumstance, that the most vigorous and clear-sighted minds which were concerned in the revival of science, did not, for a long period, shake off the persuasion, that there was, in this art, some element of truth. Roger Bacon, Cardan, Kepler, Brahe, Francis Bacon, are examples of this. These, or most of them, rejected all the more obvious and extravagant fallacies with which the subject had been loaded; but still conceived that some real and valuable truth remained when all these were removed. Thus Campanella20, whom we shall have to speak of as one of the first opponents of Aristotle, wrote an "Astrology purified from all the Superstitions of the Jews and Arabians, and treated physiologically."

4. Alchemy. Like other kinds of mysticism, alchemy seems to have grown out of the notions of moral, personal, and mythological qualities, which men associated with terms, of which the primary application was to physical properties. This is the form in which the subject is presented to us in the earliest writings which we possess on the subject of

20 Bacon, De Aug. iii. 4.

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chemistry;—those of Geber11 of Seville, who is supposed to have lived in the eighth or ninth century. The very titles of Geber's works show the notions on which his pretended science proceeds. They are, "Of the Search of Perfection;" "Of the Sum of Perfection, or of the Perfect Magistery;'" Of the Invention of Verity, or Perfection." The basis of this phraseology is the distinction of metals into more or less perfect; gold being the most perfect, as being the most valuable, most beautiful, most pure, most durable; silver the next; and so on. The "Search of Perfection," was, therefore, the attempt to convert other metals into gold; and doctrines were adopted which represented the metals as all compounded of the same elements, so that this was theoretically possible. But the mystical trains of association were pursued much further than this; gold and silver were held to be the most noble of metals; gold was their king, and silver their queen. Mythological associations were called in aid of these fancies, as had been done in astrology. Gold was Sol, the sun; silver was Luna, the moon; copper, iron, tin, lead, were assigned to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The processes of mixture and heat were spoken of as personal actions and relations, struggles and victories. Some elements were conquerors, some conquered; there existed preparations which possessed the power of changing the whole of a body into a substance of

21 Thomson's Hist. of Chem. i. 117.