Respecting the distribution of the doctrine of nativities, we are to consider first the _parents_, then the duration of life; the shape and figure of the body; after these the quality of the mind; then as to fortune in regard to honours as well as wealth. In succession to these the character of the employment; the questions relative to marriage, children, and friendships; then that concerning travel; and lastly, that concerning the _kind_ of death which awaits the native from the configuration of the heavens at his birth. _The Parents._--In conformity with nature, says Ptolemy, the Sun and Saturn are allotted to the person of the father, and the Moon and Venus to that of the mother; and the mode in which these luminaries and planets may be found posited, with reference to each other as well as to other planets and stars, will intimate the situation of affairs affecting the parents. If Mars should be in bad aspect to the Sun, the father will receive some injury to the face or die suddenly; but a long life is presaged if Jupiter or Venus be in any mode whatever configurated with either the Sun or Saturn. If Mars be succedent to the Moon or Venus, or in quartile or opposition to them, or if Saturn be similarly aspected to the Moon only, and both of them be void of course or retrograde, or cadent, adverse accidents and disease will attend the mother; should they, on the other hand, be swift in motion and placed in angles, they portend that her life will be short or grievously afflicted. Should the Sun be configurated, in any mode whatever, with the Moon or Venus, or should Venus herself be harmoniously configurated with the Moon, either by the sextile, the trine, or the conjunction, the mother will live long. Concerning the duration of the native's own life, the Hylegliacal[9] places are, according to Ptolemy, the sign on the angle of the ascendant from the fifth degree above the horizon to the twenty-fifth degree below it; the thirty degrees in dexter sextile thereto constituting the eleventh house; also the thirty degrees in dexter quartile forming the Mid-heaven above the earth; those in dexter trine making the ninth house; and, lastly, those in opposition belonging to the angle of the west. [9] Hyleg is the word used for that body or point which is the giver of life. Among these places, the degrees which constitute the Mid-heaven are entitled to preference, as being of a more potent influence; the degrees in the Ascendant are next in virtue; then the degrees in the eleventh house, succedent to the Mid-heaven; then those in the angle of the west; and, lastly, those in the ninth house, which precedes the Mid-heaven. He also holds that "the Sun, the Moon, and the Ascendant to be considered as the four principally liable to be elected to the office of prorogator"--or HYLEG.