William Foester

“ The human memory of past events is often a very capricious thing, as we have already illustrated in the words of Kepler, and the remembrance of any one who has not learned to systematically collect pure and conclusive "experiences," free from bias and superstition, upon which to base a rational and conscientious judgment, possesses, as a rule, little value. ”

“ Here the so-called practical men are the visionists, and that pitiful remnant of an ancient false belief now no longer cope with the intrinsic worth, the clear and simple results of coincident measurements and calculations. ”

“ If we simply continue to reckon the days according to our present arrangement of the year, calling each fourth year a leap-year of 366 days, and assign to each hundredth year 365 days—although it ought to be a leap-year, according to the four-year cycle—and again to each four hundredth year 366 days, we shall be certain to remain for thousands of years in such agreement with the sun that we do not need to concern ourselves in the least in the times of his revolution and positions in the heavens. ”

“ The study of astronomy is especially fascinating and helpful to the understanding, in that the mind, translated so far away from the sphere of earth, catches glimpses of the grand and universal outlines of celestial phenomena, and is enabled to emancipate itself from the astrological superstition which we have endeavored to illustrate in the foregoing pages. ”

“ In fact, the calendar is so perfectly arranged and independent in itself that it requires no special assistance from astronomers. The statements regarding the position of the moon in the zodiac and the situations of the planets, and even the exact times of the moon's changes (if we except the significance of these latter respecting the ebb and flow of the tide) , no longer possess any value in daily life if we are free from astrological superstition. ”

“ As the calendar advanced, however, in the predetermination of days and phenomena on which periods of human labor were dependent, the attention of the majority of men was diverted more and more from the direct observation of the moon, the sun, and stars, resting contented with what was stated in the calendar, so that even in the civilization of the present day an evening is accepted as clear if moonshine is set down in the almanac. ”

“ An improvement could, indeed, be made if, in the alternation of months of 29 and 30 days, two months of 30 days each be allowed to succeed each other at intervals of 33 months; also, if each fourth solar year were to contain 3651/4 days instead of 365, and if, finally, once in nineteen years, the so-called golden cycle, the reckoning of the lunar months began with the same date of the sun; but a uniform and perfect coincidence of these cycles of days, months, and years would also, in this manner, be unattainable. ”

“ Among other people, as the Romans, the selfish and ignorant priesthood deemed it for their interests to allow such determinations to remain in obscurity, or, on the ground of real or fictitious observations, to regulate the calendar as they desired. In fact, the influence of the seers and priests upon the people would be greatly lessened if the knowledge, which they had acquired of the times of revolution of heavenly bodies and the chronological periods dependent thereon, were to become the property of all ”

“ The time is not far distant when instruments will be devised for ascertaining in the simplest manner and with the utmost accuracy the time of day from the sun and stars. In general, astronomy will find occasion each year, in ever-increasing measure, to communicate for universal use its advanced determinations and measurements. ”

“ In the regions of Asia, Southern Europe, and Northern Africa, where the weather was at first the most zealously studied, the daily as well as yearly changes of temperature, direction of wind, cloudiness, and precipitation, have a far greater regularity than in our climate.
As Nature there also yields her fruits in greater plenitude, the dependence of universal welfare on the weather phenomena is far less painful and disturbing than in our latitudes. ”

“ In countries, however, where continued clearness of the sky was not afforded, or where the necessity was urgently felt for a regular determination of future dates, the seers at length desired that they be permitted to calculate, upon the basis of the past determinations of the duration of the regular months, the recurrence of the phases of the moon for a certain time in advance, and therewith the regular succession of the months, and to publicly record the number and the method of counting the days of the single months. ”

“ By means of advanced, systematic research into the laws governing the movements of storms, wind, and air-currents, it enables voyages to be made under increased security and rapidity—furnishing information of incalculable value to the navigator. ”

“ During the lapse of centuries, in which astrology was perfecting and establishing itself in the minds of men, the pre-calculations for the positions of the moon among the planets had been zealously pursued, particularly by the Arabians, and, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, by the people of the Orient. ”

“ The solar year, as a great heat-period, naturally attracted the observation of men at an early time, and the knowledge of the recurrence of the same degree of warmth was early recognized as of great importance to the interests and progress of agriculture and navigation. ”

“ Venus the mild and pleasant; Mercury the ambiguous and deceptive. Each of the planets had, however, somewhat varying forebodings, according to the position which it assumed by day or by night in the zodiac or horizon. The twelve signs were assigned to the sun, moon, and planets, as follows: Leo to the sun; Cancer to the moon; and two to each of the five planets—the influence of each of these heavenly bodies being regarded as augmented when it stood in that sign belonging to it, or at points in the other signs which were esteemed peculiarly critical for it. ”

“ The apparent movement of the sun in the sky made itself manifest from the fact that the stars which were discernible in the western horizon shortly after sunset ceased to be visible after some days, the sun seeming to approach them, and that those observable in the eastern horizon shortly before sunrise gradually remained longer visible in the dawn, the sun appearing to recede from them. ”

“ Thus, the significance of the combined situation of all these bodies received its decisive character from the striking actions of one or more propitious or unpropitious planets, which stood in those positions of increased influence. The so-called horoscope, however, with its derived prognostications concerning the entire future life of the individual, was deduced from that point of the zodiac which appeared in view at the hour of birth. ”

“ As culture, however, slowly penetrated the more northerly regions, which are the chief field of the unremitting conflict between the warm equatorial air-currents and the cold polar currents, and which sections are thereby subjected to incomparably greater changes and uncertainties of weather, it was proved no longer wise to associate such variations with the slow changes in the positions of the sun among the stars. ”

“ Scientifically arranged facts are also not proof against erroneous conclusions, and it has too often happened that overhasty conclusions in science, which were opposed to the clear views of practical men, have been subsequently destroyed by further scientific inquiry ”

“ This method of reckoning time from the revolutions and phases of light of the moon has been long practiced in those countries in which the constant clearness of the heavens enables people to determine with considerable accuracy the first appearance of the moonlight, the so-called "new light," and, again, among those whose limited intercourse with other nations afforded no comparison of fixed standards. ”

“ The belief in the moon's influence upon the weather is still fostered with a tenacity and universality that seem to lend an especial value to specifications in the almanac regarding the so-called "moon's changes." ”

“ To the superficial view, the whole system of astrology will appear as a vexatious error of mankind; to the deeper observation, however, there is discernible not only the fund of astronomical knowledge acquired, but also a purer sentiment lying at the basis of all, acknowledging man's dependence upon higher powers. ”

“ Another cause of the power which this mighty system of astrology continued to exert over the minds of people during so many centuries, and whose traces are still observable in greater or less degree, not only in the minds of the masses, but also in men of acute understanding, is suggested in the pithy remark of Kepler: "The failures of astrological predictions are soon forgotten, because they are of little consequence ”

“ The publication of arranged calendar matter and the constant improvement in the same were owing chiefly to the efforts of wise men, in early Greece, for instance, to the zealous labors of the priesthood at Delphi, who justly esteemed an established calendar a potent element of national unity and order, and as a means of security against the power and influence of those fostering secret teaching. ”