tree of lunar
superstition is the moon's influence on human fortune. Butler
satirizes the visionary who--

"With the moon was more familiar
Than e'er was almanac well-willer (compiler);
Her secrets understood so clear
That some believed he had been there;
Knew when she was in fittest mood
For cutting corns, or letting blood:
Whether the wane be, or increase,
Best to set garlick, or sow pease:
Who first found out the man i' th' moon,
That to the ancients was unknown."--_Hudibras_.

A Swiss theologian amusingly describes the superstitious person
who reads his fortune in the stars. He, it is said, "will be more afraid
of the constellation fires than the flames of his next neighbour's
house. He will not open a vein till he has asked leave of the planets.
He will not commit his seed to the earth when the soil, but when the
moon, requires it. He will have his hair cut when the moon is either
in _Leo_, that his locks may stare like the lion's shag, or in _Aries_,
that they may curl like a ram's horn. Whatever he would have to
grow, he sets about when she is in her increase; but for what he
would have made less, he chuses her wane. When the moon is in
_Taurus_, he never can be persuaded to take physic, lest that animal
which chews its cud should make him cast it up again. He will avoid
the sea whenever _Mars_ is in the midst of heaven, lest that warrior-god
should stir up pirates against him. In _Taurus_ he will plant his
trees, that this sign, which the astrologers are pleased to call
_fixed_, may fasten them deep in the earth. If at any time he has a
mind to be admitted into the presence of a prince, he will wait till
the moon is in conjunction with the sun; for 'tis then the society of
an inferior with a superior is salutary and successful." [393]

The _new moon_ is considered pre-eminently auspicious for
commencements,--for all kinds of building up, and beginning _de
novo_. Houses are to be erected and moved into; marriages are to be
concluded, money counted, hair and nails cut, healing herbs and
pure dew gathered, all at the new moon. Money counted at that
period will be increased. The _full moon_ is the time for pulling
down, and thinking of the end of all things. Cut your timber, mow
your grass, make your hay, not while the sun shines, but while the
moon wanes; also stuff your feather-bed then, and so kill the newly
plucked feathers completely, and bring them to r