When the 4th House contains benefic planets, or planets that throw good aspects to the luminaries, there will be peace and comfort in old age, or in the end of life whensoever it may be determined. Neptune therein shows retirement and sequestration, and when afflicting the luminaries or itself afflicted, it denotes death in an asylum, hospital, or other place of detention. Uranus in the 4th, in similar conditions, denotes a sudden and remarkable death. Saturn similarly placed and aspected shows death in exile, privation or great trouble. Mars in the 4th House afflicting the luminaries or itself afflicted by other adverse planets, denotes a violent death by gunshot or wound and in the midst of strife, or on the field of battle. Before any catastrophic death be predicted, it should be carefully decided whether or not the death is compassed with uncommon and violent indications, not that one need have fear of the mere going out or coming into the world, but there is some choice of gates, and rather than affright the weak-minded with a sinister judgment, it is better to leave them to find their own way. SECTION IV THE STARS IN THEIR COURSES CHAPTER I THE TIME-MEASURE The planets, in their motions after birth, come into certain relations with the planets in the horoscope of birth, and also form aspects among themselves owing to the diversities of their motions in the Zodiac. In Astrological science there are two separate means of calculating the time of events, but both methods consist of bringing the body of one planet to the body or aspect of another, which process is called “Directing,” and the arc described by the moving body is called an “Arc of Direction.” The first of these methods is the discovery of Claudius Ptolemy, the famous mathematician and geographer, the author of the Syntaxis, as set forth in his work the Tetrabiblos, or Four Books on the influence of the Stars. This method had the support and confirmation of the great Kepler. It has respect to the rising, setting, and meridian passage of the planets after birth, whereby they are brought to the places or aspects of the planets in the Radix (the Root), which is the horoscope of birth. The limits and nature of this work do not permit of a thorough exposition of this method, which entails some little knowledge of spherical trigonometry, but the reader who desires to perfect himself therein is referred to the author’s work, entitled “Prognostic Astronomy.” A facile application of the method is here given, by which any one may, by the aid of the Tables of Houses, make certain of the more important calculations by rule of thumb, and predict thence the times of remarkable events. The principle involved is this: The number of degrees which pass over the meridian between the moment of birth and the rising or culminating of a planet, will equal the number of years which must elapse from birth until the influence of that planet becomes dominant.