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Mentor Stellarum,

OR A COMPLETE

SYSTEM OF STARRY SCIENCE.

"God said, let there be Light, and there was Light."

Happy the man, who following Nature's laws
From known effects, can trace the secret cause.

DRYDEN.

THAT stupendous body the Sun, who more than all other created wonders elevates the soul to contemplate her God with a fervency almost too intense for the limited powers of thought, whether we view him in the magnificence and the refulgence of his form, or in the magnitude of his power, to animate, increase, and cherish nature, surpasses all in his similitude to that eternal goodness and eternal power, at whose mandate the planetary train marshalled themselves round his orb; thence receiving light and heat to illumine, and to cheer them in their destined courses. Impressed, as it is natural to suppose, with an unutterable feeling of awe, gratitude, and amazement, the ancients denominated him, Oculus Mundi, "or the Eye of the World."

Whether this fountain of light and heat was from its creation furnished with an inexhaustible mass of burning matter, or whether the beauteous orb is from some inscrutable agency endowed with a perpetual supply of an element peculiar to his nature, properties, and consumption, it has ever

been a matter of dispute and conjecture. But that the Sun is the fountain of light and heat, by which his masculine power and effective virtue are dispensed on creation, from mau down to the minutest particles of matter, no one has been disposed to question or able to controvert. But as this heat possesses the primitive virtue of giving life and action, so in some instances it becomes destructive, and would be so often, if the Sun had not, from the dryness of his nature, an absorbent as well as a communicative property, which is seen in that beautiful luminary the Moon, from her conjunction to her opposition. Here we behold, with mute awe and admiration, the wonder-working hand of the Creator; the grand fountain of moisture, and of the feminine property concentrated, displaying the glory of the First Cause. The absorbent property of the Sun appears most powerful when the planets approach his orb; then, at least, it reaches to the boundaries of their respective orbs, and most probably to the boundary of his ignited atmosphere, or rays of twilight, which are said to extend 18° every way. Now it is evident to the most contracted understanding, that as the Sun in his nature is hot, productive, communicative, active, and masculine, so the Moon becomes variable according to her configurations with him, and while temperating his otherwise intolerable heat, she herself receives warmth and moisture, and consequently becomes feminine and passive.

In these two great lights, then, is contained the whole power of the generative and nourishing principle; but the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, together with the fixed stars, contribute either to increase or to diminish, to prolong or to destroy, according to their different natures. That every planet or fixed star has an innate property or quality solely its own, no man who has studied Prognostic Astronomy will attempt to deny. How these peculiar properties and qualities are communicated to the luminaries, from the luminaries to the ambient, and from the ambient to

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the Earth, is accounted for only by the science I have undertaken to explain, previous to the attainment of which, the following considerations are to be observed.

A perfect knowledge must be obtained of the separate qualities of the planets and fixed stars; how each planet influences when configurated with the luminaries; and how the luminaries, when joined with the fixed stars, and also in parallels; the nature also of the signs containing the planets and fixed stars, which give them their effective virtue, and the angles possessing the cardinal or equinoctial signs, must be duly ascertained, and thus the artist, in giving judgment, will seldom err. In order to render the acquirement of this science as easy as possible, I shall first endeavour to prune it of those excrescences which have so long deprived it of its simplicity and truth, and then to lay down such rules as will be found to have their basis in reason; and I flatter myself with the hope of communicating valuable and interesting information.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ECLIPTIC AND ZODIAC.

OF THE ECLIPTIC.

To an observer, placed upon the earth, who casts his eye equally every way, all distant bodies, as the Sun, Moon, and Stars, wandering and fixed, as well as all remote objects, though very unequally constituted with respect to one another, both as to distance and altitude, appear to be placed, as it were, in the same concave superfices, which the sight, if not impeded, forms concentric with the point of vision; and while wandering over the canopy of heaven, with it encircles the world. This sphere, surrounding and concentric to the Earth, exhibits, when defined by the eye, thousands of sparkling orbs, that, in language of exquisite harmony, speak of the omnipotence, the majesty, and the glory of their Creator. Abstracted from the diurnal motion, whereby this

entire sphere, or rather the whole heavens, revolve from east to west in twenty-four hours; this immense space is considered. in a state of rest.

Thus the Sun is seen to approach, in his mundane path, the more eastern fixed stars, which path being marked out, is called the ecliptic; because no eclipse of either of the luminaries can take place except on this line. The Moon, and the rest of the planets, are eccentric in their motions, because they are sometimes on the north and sometimes on the south of the ecliptic, as they pass though their nodes and change their latitude, but within the limit of 10°, to which they are circumscribed each way.

Astronomers have called the track where these ever-varying motions are performed, a Zone, on account of its resemblance to a belt or girdle. This is 20° in breadth, and having the solar path for its centre, passes through all the images or signs; for this reason it was called the Zodiac.

The ancient astronomers, having observed that particular groupes of fixed stars in the zodiac exhibited a marked resemblance to certain animals, named them according to their respective shapes; and each constellation is now recognized by the name then given it. Having numbered those forms. or images, they were found to be twelve; a remarkable number, for they found also that the Moon had gone through her phases twelve times within the space of a year, or during the time the Sun had performed his course through the twelve signs once.

The name of signs was given them by eterual Providence, who at their first creation said, "Let them be FOR SIGNS, and for seasons, for days, and for years." The Sun is supposed first to have begun his course in Aries; this formed the beginning of spring: when he entered Cancer, summer commenced, &c. till, having passed through the twelve signs, his annual journey was completed and closed. Thus the images became signs; signs of the seasons, by which the pro

per times are known. The zodiacal circle contains thirty degrees, each degree sixty minutes, and each minute sixty seconds, &c.*

The Characters and Names of the Images, or Signs.

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The first six signs decline from the equinoctial line, towards the north pole, and are therefore Northern.

The last six are called Southern, because they decline from the equinoctial towards the south pole.

The Seasons.

SPRING.

"Come, gentle Spring; ethereal mildness, come."

THE signs that constitute the spring quarter are т, Ŏ, II, and are called vernal; when the Sun in his path through the ecliptic reaches Aries, he then crosses the equinoctial line, and makes the days and nights equal; extending his cheering light to both poles, animating nature, and dissolving

* It will be proper in this place to observe, that the fixed stars have, since the days of Ptolomy, moved forward in the ecliptic one whole sign; as for instance, the first star in the Ram's following horn, now possesses the first degree of Taurus; therefore, this shews that great care must be taken to avoid errors both in general and in nativities.

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