“I have reckoned it part of my duty to give you, benevolent reader, some short information as to the publication of this little work, which, having hitherto existed only in Greek,† is now, in its Latin dress, accessible to the curiosity of all persons. This Paraphrase of Proclus on the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy was translated a few years ago by Leo Allatius, a Greek by birth, eminently skilled in the learning of his own nation, as well as in Latin literature, and already celebrated for other writings in both languages. He lives, I have understood, in Rome, in the family of Cardinal Biscia, and holds some office in the Vatican Library. He undertook his present work, however, for his own private gratification, and that of certain friends; but when writings compiled with this view have once quitted their author’s hands, it will often happen that they have also, at the same time, escaped his control. So this offspring of Allatius, having emerged from Rome, arrived at Venice, from whence it was forwarded to me by a certain great personage of illustrious rank, in order that I might cause it to be printed. The names of Ptolemy and Proclus, so celebrated among mathematicians and philosophers, besides the subject of the work itself, seemed to me a sufficient warrant for committing it to the press. Whereupon I delayed not to avail myself of the advantages I possessed in having access to our excellent and most accurate typographers, the Elzevirs, and I earnestly solicited them to publish it: they, in their love for the commonwealth of letters, took upon themselves the charge of printing it in the form you see. You will learn from it, inquisitive Reader, how much power the stars have over the atmosphere and all sublunary things: for the stars, and those brighter bodies of heaven, must not be imagined to be idle. The whole doctrine of the stars is not, however, here treated of, but only that distinct part of it which the Greeks call judicial and prognostic, and which, while confined within certain limits is as entertaining as it is useful, and is partly considered to be agreeable to nature. But should it pretend to subject to the skies such things as do not depend thereupon, and should it invite us to foresee by the stars such things as are above the weakness of our apprehension, it will assuredly deserve to be reprehended as a vain and empty art, which has been demonstrated in many learned books by the great Picus of Mirandola. The Chaldæans, Genethliacs, and Planetarians, have been always held in disrepute, because they professed to know not only more than they actually did know, but also more than is allowed to man to know. Even Ptolemy, while he employs himself in his present work upon the Doctrine of Nativities, is scarcely free from the charge of superstition and vanity: perhaps, in a Pagan, this may be forgiven; but it is hardly to be tolerated, that persons professing Christianity should be led