astrological significance was
attached by the narrator to the event. And not so very long ago, when
astrologers first began to see that their occupation was passing from
them, the Wise Men of the East were appealed to against the enemies of
astrology,[2]--very much as Moses was appealed to against Copernicus
and Galileo, and more recently to protect us against certain
relationships which Darwin, Wallace, and Huxley unkindly indicate for
the human race divine.

Although astronomers now reject altogether the doctrines of judicial
astrology, it is impossible for the true lover of that science to regard
astrology altogether with contempt. Astronomy, indeed, owes much more to
the notions of believers in astrology than is commonly supposed.
Astrology bears the same relation to modern astronomy that alchemy bears
to modern chemistry. As it is probable that nothing but the hope of
gain, literally in this case _auri sacra fames_, would have led to those
laborious researches of the alchemists which first taught men how to
analyse matter into its elementary constituents, and afterwards to
combine these constituents afresh into new forms, so the belief that, by
carefully studying the stars, men might acquire the power of predicting
future events, first directed attention to the movements of the
celestial bodies. Kepler's saying, that astrology, though a fool, was
the daughter of a wise mother,[3] does not by any means present truly
the relationship between astrology and astronomy. Rather we may say that
astrology and alchemy, though foolish mothers, gave birth to those wise
daughters, astronomy and chemistry. Even this way of speaking scarcely
does justice to the astrologers and alchemists of old times. Their views
appear foolish in the light of modern scientific knowledge, but they
were not foolish in relation to what was known when they were
entertained. Modern analysis goes far to demonstrate the immutability,
and, consequently, the non-transmutability of the metals, though it is
by no means so certain as many suppose that the present position of the
metals in the list of _elements_ is really correct. Certainly a chemist
of our day would be thought very unwise who should undertake a series of
researches with the object of discovering a mineral having such
qualities as the alchemists attributed to the philosopher's stone. But
when as yet the facts on which the science of chemistry is based were
unknown, there was nothing unreason