SCORPIO. Frankfort, Halifax, Cappadocia, Liverpool, Stockport, Newcastle-on-Tyne, New Orleans, Washington, D. C., Baltimore, Cincinnati.

SAGITTARIUS. Cologne, Buda, Avignon, Sunderland, Bradford, Sheffield, Toledo, West Bromwich.

CAPRICORN. Brussels, Oxford, Keighley.

AQUARIUS. Bremen, Salzburg, Salisbury, Piedmont, Trent.

PISCES. Bournemouth, Christchurch, Grimsby, Farnham, Southport, Hull, Seville, Worms, Ratisbon, Compostella, Tiverton, Preston, King's Lynn.

HEINRICH DÄATH.

JOURNALISM, that useful but inartistic product of our time,a manure from which wiser men grow roses,- that goes into periodical hysterics over a Jumbo or a Jaggers, but always sneers at or suppresses any evidence of man as a spiritual being related to the unseen and finer forces of nature, had it appears a more illustrious parent than would have supposed on the hypothesis of its great apostle Darwin. Julius Cæsar, the reference books tell us, was the first journalist, for he ordered the discussions of the Senate and reports of the public games to be written in that first newspaper, the Acta Urbis, which was sent through the then known world. The historical bulletin, Veni Vidi Vici still remains an unsurpassed model of its kind. And he really did the great things which he records with that superb and, as it were, half indifferent simplicity of style, while it is a wise and a wary man that can find the truth in the weltering mire of prejudice and misrepresentation of the partisan journalism of today.

An Enquiry Concerning Our Nation's
Mativity.

MUCH interest attaches to the article in the August number of SPHINX relative to the birth-figure of our independence. This contribution is to be commended, not only as indicating in the writer the investigative spirit of the earnest student, but as an incentive to keener research into a matter of such vital interest to the astro-scientific mind.

We may be pardoned, however, if the testimonies therein adduced seem to us too indeterminate for the settlement of the question at issue. The few citations favorable to the sign Virgo seem very meager in a chronology replete with essential happenings, from the laying of corner-stones to the waging of great battles, and which include in their natii every segment of the zodiacal circle. In view of such diversity one is necessarily led to infer that any one of these various ascendants is but relevant to the character of the particular incident to which it relates, and that the whole of the twelve signs may govern respectively according to the nature of the circumstance. This may be illustrated in the following enumerations, each of which we believe to be of more than passing gravity to the nation at large, and wherein Virgo did not occupy the ascendant.

I. Cornwallis surrendered Oct. 18, 1781, about 9.30 A.M., Sascendant.*

2. Washington took the first presidental oath, April 30, 1789, 0.45 P.M., ascendant.‡

3. Emancipation Proclamation signed Jan. 1, 1863, middle of afternoon, П ascendant. §

4. Cuba declared independent by Congress, April 19, 1898, 2.40 A.M., ascendant. An assimilative measure.

5. Ultimatum to Spain signed April 20, 1898, 11.10 A.M., ascendant.

* Bancroft's "Life of Washington," p. 288.

Lossing's "Biography of Washington," Vol. II., chap. viii.

§ "Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation," McClure's, April, 1899.

6.

rises March 4, between noon and one o'clock, when the presidential oath is invariably taken.

And so on, ad infinitum.

Besides, to reason by analogy, one must admit that many serious moves not conjunctive with the radical ascendant take place in the experience of every individual. At this moment we have in mind an instance in which the last will and testament of a Gemini person was signed when Capricorn, the ruler of his 8th House, was rising; another, where a Leo native threw open the doors of a big wholesale business with Sagittarius culminating; while the horoscopes of offspring are quite as often at variance with the ruling signs of the parents, and yet one must concede that such events are of paramount importance in every household government.

From these premises the non-utility of this line of evidence must be apparent.

Dr. Pierce's assumption of the Bull's North Horn (B Tauri) as a determining factor in the solution of the problem, was logical in theory if not fruitful of results, for the ancients to whom he hearkened laid great stress on the operations of the fixed stars as being more comprehensive than the planets in their effect on national destiny. To quote from Bonatus :

The Fixed Stars are most slow in motion, and consequently in mutation; whence it comes to pass that their impressions require subjects and patients of the same nature, that is to say, such as are the most lasting, and carry a conformity with them to perfect or accomplish their effects. . . . . The significations of the Fixed Stars being so great, so high, and free from mutability, they cannot easily take upon them a variable commixture with things quickly corruptible and suddenly changeable. (Con. 141.)

Zadkiel I. also inclined to Gemini as ruler of the figure, but the opinion obtains that he was greatly influenced to this through the regency of this sign over North America generally, a fact conceded by astrologers who wrote previously to the Revolutionary period. Sibly's work, published in 1788, gave 19° 49′ as the probable ascendant (and not, as intimated in Mr. Tilley's article), though on what authority this calculation was based, deponent sayeth not. With his usual disregard

for mathematical accuracy Sibly used a table of houses for London latitude.

The editor of SPHINX once mentioned to the writer that a tradition still exists in the New England states, to the effect that the bells announced the tidings at cock crow, though this obviously had reference to the local gongs rather than to the one of liberty fame.

First, touching upon the validity of this chart as an astrological basis for our nation's nativity, the argument has been advanced that July 2, which witnessed the Resolution of Independence, was technically the natural moment of birth. But the Resolution and the Declaration were separate and distinct measures, and, as embodied in the journal of Congress for July 4, the latter was officially commemorated as "a Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled," and so announced to the world. much on this point.

So

We have drawn attention to three distinct charts illustrative of the actuating conditions which surrounded this immortal state paper, two of a Mercurial character and one Aquarian. Let as examine cursorily into their respective promises, and see in what measure the testimonies accord with later develop

ments.

In the Sibly chart, rising, ours would seem to be a destiny of perpetual opposition, with hand in the 7th, and Hand opposing the mid-heaven. These point to a disruptive rather than a constructional tendency, and the stability of our home interests would have been chronically endangered: in contradistinction to which our internal economy has unfolded and fructified with a rapidity surpassing even the phenomenal. A contributive element in favor of the probable accuracy of this chart was the transit of through its 4th during both the Revolutionary and Civil War periods.

In the Gemini horoscope the ascendant is sadly afflicted by two malign influences, and instead of a peaceful and law-abiding community, patient and conservative under trying circum

* "Notes on Lord Mahon's History of the American Declaration of Independence," Peter Force, p. 38.

stances, we would have constantly paraded with a chip on our shoulder. In many respects the chart is more significant than the preceding one, for with and in the second mansion one might easily have divined the possibilities which have made us a Utopia among nations in point of thrift, and that with our full natural resources scarcely drawn upon.

The Virgo map, with the god Neptune trying to look dignified in the earthy element, votes us a sham, a commonwealth heartily given to double-dealing, and in addition, with the meridional point so heavily besieged, entirely contradicts the highminded official integrity which marked the lives of Washington and Lincoln and, with but possibly one or two exceptions, the entire line of our chief executives. h on the cusp of the 2d, ruling the 5th and squaring the O, would keep us in a state of speculative bankruptcy, contrary to which United States securities usually maintain a healthy marginal advantage throughout the world's markets. The conjunction of the benefics in the mid-heaven is a factor not to be overlooked in considering the merits of this scheme.

Thus it will be observed that, while indicating the apparent anomalisms in these figures, we seek not to undervalue the consistencies which may be found therein. On the other hand, if one dare not carry prejudice into the vestibule of Truth, neither will the true spirit of inquiry permit the slighting of any testimony, hypothetical or otherwise, which may serve to throw light upon a subject under discussion. For which reason we

have searched further into this matter, and present herewith a horoscope of the Declaration whose basis is more in keeping with historical fact, and whose radical features as well as its directional testimonies, seem to approximate more nearly to the real significance of this document, and the marvelous chain of events which it subsequently evolved.

According to Lossing, a historian whose work is noted especially for the quantity and accuracy of its detail — “At a little past meridian, on the Fourth of July, 1776, a unanimous vote of the thirteen colonies was given in favor of declaring themselves free and Independent States."* This statement owes its authenti

44 'Harper's Magazine," June, 1851, p. 153.