" Canst thou the sky's benevolence restrain, And cause the Pleiades to shine in vain ? Or, when Orion sparkles from his sphere, Thaw the cold season, and unbind the year? Bid Mazzaroth his destin'd station know, And teach the bright Arcturus where to glow ?"

Urania.

" The links of the chain of prophecy, to a well informed mind, seem disposed in such a mode and succession, as to form a regular system; all whose parts harmonize in one amazing and consistent plan, furnishing a perfect moral demonstration.

Dr. Apthorp.

The theory of that part of judicial Astrology, which more immediately refers the grand and magnificent machinery of " the heavenly host" to the destinies of nations, rather than to the fate of individuals, is well deserving the student's most serious attention. By means of the light, which this part of the sublimest of all sciences will throw upon the page of future history, he may not only develope the causes of those extraordinary passing events, which are found to occupy the entire attention of the political world; but he may alike read in the heavens the future fate, either of the mightiest monarchy, or of the humblest principality. Neither will this be difficult, provided he take but the requisite trouble in erecting his figures or celestial themes, and observing the etherial revolutions of the heavenly bodies, which are the ground work whereon his predictions are founded; and which foundation (without straining any part of the metaphor) will be to him as a rock of adamant, that through ages has lifted its almost eternal head, above the dark and troubled waters of bewildered fanaticism and gloomy incredulity.

In the foregoing parts of this work, the author has laid down the systematic theory of the general effects universally found by Astrologers of all ages, and in every clime, to have operation over the earth and its inhabitants; to which he must refer the reader for his data, or first principles. In those, he will find recorded the celestial signs and constellations; which, by long experience, are found to govern peculiar countries; as well as the different parts of the great etherial circle, that being divided into equal proportions, and termed accordingly " the houses of heaven", bear symbolical rule in determining the particular effects, deduced from Astral agency. - And lest the light and frivolous of the present generation, may here be inclined to laugh at, or condemn our theory, it may be mentioned, as undeniable facts, well worthy the reader's most serious and candid attention, that if we look back to those periods in history, when the moral and political state of the nations of the earth have been most subject to the horrors of war, the ravages of pestilence, or the convulsions of anarchy; or other important revolutions, attended with direful results - we shall universally find that those disastrous events have been immediately preceded, or attended, by some extraordinary phenomena, or strange appearance in the heavens, as well as by (the natural effects of these celestial omens) some extraordinary convulsion in the elements of the globe !

The ancient philosophers, who were destitute of these means of scientific information, which Providence has condescended to place within our reach, were accustomed to consider the visible universe as exhibiting ample evidence of the existence of an invisible Almighty power: thus Socrates, (in his dialogue with Euthedemus) according to Xenephon, has these sublime remarks : "Me who raised this whole universe, and still upholds the mighty frame; who perfected every part of it in beauty and in goodness; suffering none of these parts to decay through age, but renewing them daily with unfading vigor, whereby they are able to execute whatever he ordains, with that readiness and precision which surpasses man's imagination;- even he - the supreme God, who performeth all these wonders, still holds himself invisible; and it is only in his works that we are capable of admiring him, Ptolemy, "the prince of Astrologers and philosophers", as he is usually termed, (and whose works translated by the Abbe Halma, the French government have lately patronized) had likewise the same elevated views of the beauty and order of the " heavenly host", for as he justly observes", It is manifest to all, that a certain power is distributed and passeth through all things that are near the earth, from the nature of the firmament; first on the sublunary elements,the fire and air, which are encompassed by and changed with the motion of the firmament, and these again encompass the rest, which are also varied according to the mutations of the other, the earth and water, with the planets and living creatures in them: for the Sun with that which doth environ (meaning the starry heavens) governs all things that are about the earth, not only by changing the seasons, and bringing to perfection the produce of animals, and the fruitfulness of plants, the flowing of waters, and the mutations of bodies - but also causing changes of the day, of heat and cold, dryness and moisture, as it hath respect to our meridian. - The Moon also, who is the nearest to the earth, distils down much influence; by which things animate and inanimate are affected and changed, rivers are augmented and diminished according to her light, the tides vary as she rises and sets, while planets and animals in whole, or in part, increase and decrease with her".

"In the same manner the stars, fixed and erratic, as they keep on their course, cause many appearances about us; for they are producers of heat, and winds/and storms, by which also things on earth are suitably governed; and their mutual configurations (their influence being thereby mixed) produce various mutations. But the power of the Sun is; more prevalent, inasmuch as it is more universal; the rest (according to the variety of their aspects to Sol (do co-operate, or oppose in some measure. The Moon doth this more frequently and manifestly, at the syzyges and quadratures; other stars in longer time, and more obscurely; as they either appear, disappear, or decline. - Since these things are so, not only conjoined bodies are subject to the motion of the stars, but also the buddings and perfection of seeds, are framed and formed according to the quality with which the ambient is endued. - Now the more observant husbandmen and shepherds, conjecturing from the winds which happen at the seasons of seed sowing, and generation of animals, foreknow the quality of succeeding accidents.