The Last Astrologer

Astrology is one of the most ancient sciences founded upon superstition. The history of its rise and progress is nearly the same as that of astronomy. Astrologers were supposed to foretell the principal events in a man's life, by the position of the stars and the influence of the planets at the time of his birth. The universality of the belief is found in our common adjectives, by which we designate a jovial man, as born under the influence of Jupiter or Jove, martial from Mars, saturnine from Saturn, and mercurial from Mercury.

Its decline may be dated from the time of Copernicus, A.D. 1540.

His discovery of the true planetary system shook the faith of most people in astrology. The last man of any note in England who claimed to be an astrologer was William Lily (1602-1651), in the time of Charles I. The term astrology is from two Greek words, <??>, signifying discourse concerning the stars; as astronomy, changing the word <??> for <??>, means the laws of the stars