d wish to have matters outside the range of my
special branch of study presented for my own reading.

RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I. ASTROLOGY 1

II. THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID 53

III. THE MYSTERY OF THE PYRAMIDS 78

IV. SWEDENBORG'S VISIONS OF OTHER WORLDS 106

V. OTHER WORLDS AND OTHER UNIVERSES 135

VI. SUNS IN FLAMES 160

VII. THE RINGS OF SATURN 191

VIII. COMETS AS PORTENTS 212

IX. THE LUNAR HOAX 242

X. ON SOME ASTRONOMICAL PARADOXES 268

XI. ON SOME ASTRONOMICAL MYTHS 299

XII. THE ORIGIN OF THE CONSTELLATION-FIGURES 332

MYTHS AND MARVELS

OF

ASTRONOMY

I.

_ASTROLOGY._

Signs and planets, in aspects sextile, quartile, trine, conjoined,
or opposite; houses of heaven, with their cusps, hours, and
minutes; Almuten, Almochoden, Anahibazon, Catahibazon; a thousand
terms of equal sound and significance.--_Guy Mannering._

... Come and see! trust thine own eyes.
A fearful sign stands in the house of life,
An enemy: a fiend lurks close behind
The radiance of thy planet--oh! be warned!--COLERIDGE.

Astrology possesses a real interest even in these days. It is true that
no importance attaches now even to the discussion of the considerations
which led to the rejection of judicial astrology. None but the most
ignorant, and therefore superstitious, believe at present in divination
of any sort or kind whatsoever. Divination by the stars holds no higher
position than palmistry, fortune-telling by cards, or the indications of
the future which foolish persons find in dreams, tea-dregs,
salt-spilling, and other absurdities. But there are two reasons which
render the history of astrology interesting. In the first place, faith
in stellar influences was once so widespread that astrological
terminology came to form a part of ordinary language, insomuch that it
is impossible rightly to understand many passages of ancient and
mediaeval literature, or rightly to apprehend the force of many allusions
and expressions, unless the significance of astrological teachings to
the men of those times be recognised. In the second p