iation
of Al-ghul, the monster or demon, and it cannot be doubted that the
demoniac, Gorgonian character assigned to this star was suggested by its
ominous change, as though it were the eye of some fierce monster slowly
winking amid the gloom of space. The two stars called the Aselli, which
lie on either side of the cluster Praesepe, 'are said' (by astrologers)
'to be of a burning nature, and to give great indications of a violent
death, or of violent and severe accidents by fire.' The star called Cor
Hydrae, or the serpent's heart, denotes trouble through women (said I not
rightly that Astrology was a masculine science?); the Lion's heart,
Regulus, implied glory and riches; Deneb, the Lion's tail, misfortune
and disgrace. The southern scale of Libra meant bad fortune, while the
northern was eminently fortunate.

Astrology was divided into three distinct branches--the doctrine of
nativities, horary astrology, and state astrology. The first assigned
the rules for determining the general fortunes of the native, by drawing
up his scheme of nativity or casting his horoscope. It took into account
the positions of the various planets, signs, stars, etc., at the time of
the native's birth; and as the astrologer could calculate the movements
of the planets thereafter, he could find when those planets which were
observed by the horoscope to be most closely associated with the
native's fortunes would be well aspected or the reverse. Thus the
auspicious and unlucky epochs of the native's life could be
predetermined. The astrologer also claimed some degree of power to rule
the planets, not by modifying their movements in any way, but by
indicating in what way the ill effects portended by their positions
could be prevented. The Arabian and Persian astrologers, having less
skill than the followers of Ptolemy, made use of a different method of
determining the fortunes of men, not calculating the positions of the
planets for many years following the birth of the native, but assigning
to every day after his birth a whole year of his life and for every two
hours' motion of the moon one month. Thus the positions of the stars and
planets, twenty-one days after the birth of the native, would indicate
the events corresponding to the time when he would have completed his
twenty-first year. There was another system called the Placidian, in
which the effects of the positions of the planets were judged with sole
reference to the motion of the ea