a surname given to the sun, the parent of time, and
called by the Egyptians Horus. Hours are occasionally distinguished by
the epithet of "planetary," from a supposition of the ancients that
the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars
alternately presided over them. The first hour of the first day of the
week was under the control of the Sun, the second under that of Venus,
the third of Mercury, the fourth of the Moon, the fifth of Saturn, the
sixth of Jupiter, and the seventh of Mars. After such rotation, the
sun governed the eighth hour, Venus the ninth, and so on through the
whole twenty-four hours.

The sun, moon, and stars have been considered by the people of nearly
every nation on the face of the earth to affect the destiny of mortals
here below. A story of the proceedings at the coronation of a Persian
king is not without interest. The important ceremony of crowning could
not be performed before the lord of the astrologers--an officer of
great importance--declared the lucky moments that a happy
constellation pointed out the time for placing the crown on the
monarch's head. It was recorded that about ten o'clock at night the
chief of the astrologers and his companions, having been long
observing the position of the stars and conjunction of the planets,
returned to give notice to the prince and company that the fortunate
time for the coronation would be within twenty minutes. When the
twenty minutes were nearly expired, everything being in readiness, the
grand astrologer winked, and immediately the prince was made king.

For two years everything went well; but then the king's health began
to decline. Sometimes he lay whole weeks together, languishing in his
harem. In consequence of his majesty having indulged too freely in
stimulants, the court physician applied his secret arts to counteract
the effect of the baneful liquids, but without any good result; and
the astrologers began to whisper that the monarch would not recover.
They could not, they reported, find in his horoscope that he had more
than six years to live after the date of his coronation; and they
predicted that two of the years he had to survive would be spent in
perpetual misery. The queen-mother quarrelled with the physician,
asking him how it came to pass that her son was sick, and accused him
of treason or ignorance. The man of healing art defended his own
conduct, and blamed the stars or astrologers. He said that if the king
la