“The study of astrology itself, as professing to discover, by celestial phenomena, future mutations in the elements and terrestrial bodies, ought, perhaps, not to be despised.† The theory of the tides, for example, is altogether an astrological doctrine, and, long before the days of Sir Isaac Newton, was as well understood as it is at this moment. The correspondence alleged by the ancient physicians to exist between the positions of the Moon and the stages of various diseases, is so far from being rejected by the modern faculty, that it has been openly maintained.”†† The writer then recounts sundry incidents, asserted by the astrologers to be dependent on the Moon, and he adds these words: “The fact of these allegations might be so easily ascertained, that it is surprising they should still be pronounced incredible, and _denied_ rather than _contradicted_.” †“Sir Christopher Heydon’s Defence of Astrology, p. 2, edit. 1603.” ††“Dr. Mead on the Influence of the Sun and Moon upon Human Bodies. See also Edinb. Rev. vol. 12, p. 36—Balfour on Sol-Lunar Influence.” _Blackwood’s Magazine for Dec., 1821, Part 2, No. 59._ The author of the present Translation has no intention now of either advocating or impugning the doctrines of the science of which his Translation discourses: his purpose is a different one. He has that sort of respect for “the dead, which are really dead,” which, although it does not incline him to “praise” them “_more_ than the living, which are yet alive,” is still sufficient to incite him to endeavour to avert the imputation of idiot credulity, to which their faith in astrology seems now to subject them in the general opinion of the enlightened “living.” And, while he disclaims all idea of presuming to offer any argument on either side of the question, as to the validity of the science, he must still, at the same time, confess his admiration of the ingenuity and contrivance manifest in its construction, and avow his readiness to believe that all its harmonized complications might have easily held dominion over some of the strongest minds in that darker period when it flourished.