" Descend from heav'n Urania, by that name

If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine

Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,

Above the flight of Pegasean wing.

The meaning, not the name I call: for thou

Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top

Of old Olympus dwell'st, but heavenly born,

Before the hills appear'd or fountains flow'd

Thou with eternal wisdom didst converse-

Upled by thee,------

In the heav'n of heaven's I have presumed

An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air".

Milton.

The science of foreknowledge, relating to individual fate, necessarily forms a leading feature in our present work; the basis of which has already been given in the descriptions and peculiarities of the signs, planets, and celestial houses, which the student must well and cautiously digest, and in a great measure enrol them on the tablet of his memory, 'ere he turns his attention to the " Doctrine of Nativities;" the secrets of which the author will now proceed to develope, in a manner which he itters himself has been as yet unattempted; and which will, if riously studied, carry conviction home to the breast of the un-judiced enquirer. - -The first thing necessary to be observed ter the scheme of nativity is erected) is concerning the Space of Life.

Ptolemy, an ancient and renowned Astrologer, in his Quadripartite, or four books on the influence of the stars, justly observes, "of all events whatsoever, which take place after birth, the most essential is the continuance of life; and as it is of course useless to consider in cases wherein the life of a child does not extend to the period of one year, what other wants contingent on its birth might otherwise subsequently have happened, the enquiry into the duration of life, takes precedence of all other questions. The discussion of this enquiry is by no means simple, nor easy of execution; it is conducted in a diversified process, by means of the governance of the ruling places. And the method now about to be laid down, seems, of all others, the most consonant with reason and with nature! because the influence of the aphetical (or hylegiacal) places, and the anarctic stars, perform the whole operation of regulating the duration of life".