Astrology

Abstract

THE belief in astrology which still prevails among the English lower classes to a much larger extent than is supposed, will derive a fresh impulse from the happy guesses which have been made by the editor of “Moore's Almanac” in his issue for the current year. The hieroglyphic with which it is illustrated is less vague than usual, and represents two eagles fighting in the air, and on the plains beneath them hosts of armed men (in decidedly foreign uniforms) engaged in a bloody struggle. Lest the point should be missed, the prophet begins the forecast of the year with the distinct assertion that there will be war between France and Prussia, and that the month of July will be especially disastrous to the Emperor Napoleon. Thus far events have coincided with the voice of the oracle, and seem to confirm the poet's view that“The warrior's fate is blazoned in the skies.”But we have yet to see whether “in October the King of Prussia (if living) will meet with defeat, and the ex-King of Hanover recover some of his prestige, if not his throne also.” M. Comte would have us deal tenderly with astrology, because it was, in his opinion, the first systematic effort to frame a philosophy of history out of the apparently capricious phenomena of human actions. In theory we may do so, but astronomical science is hardly likely, for the sake of sentiment, to treasure up the discarded swaddling clothes which for so many centuries impeded its onward progress.