-

it is highly reasonable to think, is equally a natural measure of time for some purpose, hence its ideal fitness for equating arcs of direction; and the scale of a day for a year is an analogy amply warranted. Such is the argument unanswerable, compact and conclusive. No other method is supported by any argument: the degree for a year one, from the musty old Ptolemy, is a wholly spurious assumption, used for making work easy, and sure to make it wrong.

The Placidian method is based on this ever-varying movement of the Sun, and to be consistent with nature, should be for the apparent days. There is no need for this purpose of using the Sun's place at birth; the differences of its right ascension at apparent noon from day to day is sufficiently exact, especially if the birth be near noon, as in this case. Obtained in this way from the Sun's place at apparent noon, beginning Nov. 9, 1841, in the Nautical Almanac, the table below gives the solar arcs for the Prince's nativity from 15 to 55 years of age, and will include all the arcs of direction to be used in this chapter, and many more that we have not space to mention.

In getting such solar arcs, use always a government ephemeris, if possible, as having the only accurate tables of the Sun's right ascension.

It is impracticable to give here the tabular form, commonly called a speculum, containing the latitudes, declinations, right ascensions, etc., of the planets and stars that we have used in the numerous directions calculated; and of the latter we give only the few that are necessary to show their agreement with our time of birth and the events that we know the dates of accurately.

The Prince's tour on the Continent in 1859 began Jan. 10, and presumably covered several months. The arc for that date is 17°50'. The arc for M. C. A zo. is 17°57'. His trip to the United States began July 11, 1860, arc 19°27', and he arrived July 24. The arc for Asc. * Ozo. is 19°25'. When that are had, elapsed, the O that morning had moved forward, and its ✶ with, it, about '3', so that the✶ to body of O is 19°28'. These facts in the sky making directions double, as it were, have, of course, not been noticed before. The Prince's father died Dec. 15, 1860, arc 20°58'. The arc for Asc. 6 and a M.C.d., is 20°56', and to the body of & is about 2' more. The arc of Asc. AO zo. is 54°17', and measures to middle of Mar., 1892, when the Prince was elected to the head of the Masonic fraternity. We have many more directions, but not the dates at hand to test them by. The four given above make out a pretty good case for the exactness of the time used, and for the truth of the Placidian way of equating; but we hardly claim that they are positive proof. At any rate, they expose the monstrous fallacy of the degree for a year scale, so easy to use, so hard to give any reason for.

We have made a most thorough search for arcs of direction to fit the violent fever of 1871. Its crisis was on Dec. 14, arc 31°51', and, of course, weeks before and after that are to be included. par. M.C. zo., zo., par. h zo., allco me in that period. Asc. □ Regulus con. measures several months too late. Asc. & Rigel con. comes long before. Drapt par. is much too late.

No small change in the time, or any change in other factors, will fit the events as a whole better than is done above.

To conclude this sketchy account of the Prince's nativity, we

have the notable fact that the great star Alpha Lyræ, or Vega, comes to the Midheaven by an arc of 67°43', which measures to June, 1904. This would be a very fitting direction for the Prince of Wales to come to the throne.

(To be continued.)

MR. HARGRAVE JENNINGS, in a communication to Notes and Queries, observes: "There can be no doubt that Judicial Astrology, or the knowledge of future events by the study of the stars, was received and practised by all the ancient Jews, Persians, and many of the Christians, particularly the Gnostics and the Manicheans. The persons now spoken of thought that the planets were the signs; that is, gave information of future events; not that they were the causes of them; not that the events were controlled by them. Eusebius tells us, on the authority of Eupolemus, that Abraham was an astrologer, and that he taught the science to the priests of Heliopolis, or On. This was a fact universally asserted by the historians of the East. Origen was a believer in this science, qualified as above; and M. Beausobre observes: 'It is thus that he explained what Jacob says in the prayer of Joseph: "He has read in the tables of heaven all that will happen to you and your children."""

Whatever it might have been once, is astrology altogether impossible in the present day? Mr. Jennings then relates, in reply, a recent instance, namely: that the horoscope of the future, in the form of an Astrological Judgment, in the prophetic and mystical sense, on a most important occasion foretold the winner of "the Queen's shot," at the great rifle contest at Wimbledon, on Monday, the 2d of July, 1860. This augury

was taken at the precise second of time; which infinitesimal accuracy, as all diviners know, is of the last consequence in astrological foretelling; and this calculation was the work of one of the most accomplished astronomers and astrologers in Europe. "Astrology, as the ancients tell us, is the mother of astronomy. And shall we be right in too hastily denying to the higher forms of this refined and elaborate science that regard which was paid to it by such persons as Queen Elizabeth, Wallenstein, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Leicester, Sir Walter Raleigh, Louis XI. of France, (an able man though an eccentric one), Henry the Great, the Regent Orleans, Frances I., Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam), Mary de Medici, the Earl of Surrey, Dryden, and Sir Walter Scott.

Astrology is not only possible in the present day, but the practice is much easier than formerly on account of the discoveries in mathematics and the greater accuracy of astronomical calculation. But, as a rule, no one cares to let his studies be known, so great is the prejudice that confounds an art requiring the highest education with the jargon of the gipsy fortuneteller."

TO OUR READERS.

We want you to help THE SPHINX by your personal influence.

We are getting ready to place next year upon the market one thousand copies of our new AMERICAN GRAMMAR, and we hope one thousand copies of Dr. Alfred J. Pearce's valuable TEXT-BOOK, also one thousand copies of the Character and Fortune of the Rising Sign.

There is a large call in this country of 75,000,000 inhabitants for all these books, which will represent three out of twelve volumes eventually to appear "The Sphinx Series." We shall also arrange to carry this Fall a fine assortment of English and American astrological books and ephemerises.

The demand for an American magazine and for THE SPHINX increases and promises eventually to reach an enormous sale, as it has taken possession of a wide field that no one has as yet covered. In fact, it will be impossible to say what will be the limit, in a few years, of the business of this unique publishing house.

T

FOR EQUATING DIRECTIONS.

HIS TABLE gives the approximate differences of the Sun's R. Asc. at apparent noon for each five days in any year (according as it may be a leap-year or otherwise) within about a century before or after the present time. It is, in fact, made from the Sun's movement in the years 1875-1878 as given in the Nautical Almanac; and by numerous experiments with other years it is proved to be practically accurate as a general table, having seldom an error of much more than 1' for intervals as great as 70 days. Thus solar arcs for equating directions of a life-time can be made from it with sufficient exactness. Provided, however, that for years previous to 1850 an addition to the sum of the differences for 70 days be made, of about 3', and for other number of days in the same proportion. For 1800 use the column of "2d Y. after," just as it is; for 1900 use that of "3d Y. after." We present this table only as an empirical one, a tolerable substitute for the government ephemeris of the year wanted. As such, it contains in this small space what could elsewhere be found only in many large books.

The use of this table requires careful work and only some skill in simplest mathematics, without which it is of course rank folly to attempt to handle directions. Take from the proper column the differences for those intervals that include the day of birth and as many days after as may be wanted. Dividing each of these by 5 gives the difference for the middle day of each, and any apt computor, taking account of 2d differences, can easily fill in the differences for each day of the whole period, increasing or decreasing as they may be, and then by successive additions of them will obtain the solar arc for each year of the life.