alicia, Ratisbon, Calabria, etc. It
is feminine, and therefore, naturally, unfortunate.

Let us next consider the influences assigned to the various planets and
constellations.

Though we can understand that in old times the planets and stars were
regarded as exercising very potent influences upon the fates of men and
nations,[9] it is by no means easy to understand how astrologers came to
assign to each planet its special influence. That is, it is not easy to
understand how they could have been led to such a result by actual
reasoning, still less by any process of observation.[10] There was a
certain scientific basis for the belief in the possibility of
determining the special influences of the stars; and we should have
expected to find some scientific process adopted for the purpose. Yet,
so far as can be judged, the influences assigned to the planets depended
on entirely fanciful considerations. In some cases we seem almost to see
the line along which the fancies of the old astrologers led them, just
as in some cases we can perceive how mythological superstitions (which
are closely related to astrological ideas) had their origin; though it
is not quite clear whether the planets were first regarded as deities
with special qualities, and these qualities afterwards assigned to the
planetary influences, or whether the planetary influences were first
assigned, and came eventually to be regarded as the qualities of the
deities associated with the several planets.

It is easy, for instance, to understand why astrologers should have
regarded the sun as the emblem of kingly power and dignity, and equally
easy to understand why, to the sun regarded as a deity, corresponding
qualities should have been ascribed; but it is not easy to determine
whether the astrological or the Sabaistic superstitions were the
earlier. And in like manner of the moon and planets. There seems to me
no sufficient evidence in favour of Whewell's opinion, that 'in whatever
manner the sun, moon, and planets came to be identified with gods and
goddesses, the characters ascribed to these gods and goddesses,
regulated the virtues and powers of the stars which bear their names.'
As he himself very justly remarks, 'We do not possess any of the
speculations of the earlier astrologers; and we cannot, therefore, be
certain that the notions which operated in men's minds when the art had
its birth, agreed with the views on which it was afterwards defended.'
He