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[PDF page 257] CH. X] ASTROLOGY. 241 and, if at the instant of birth Saturn was in that house, the native always would incur considerable risk on his journeys. Moreover every planet was affected to some extent by its aspect (conjunction, opposition, or quadrature) to every other planet accord- ing to elaborate rules* which depended on their positions and directions of motion: in particular the angular distance between the Sun and the Moon—sometimes known as the “part of fortune”—was regarded as specially important, and this distance affected the whole horoscope. In general, conjunction was favourable, quadrature unfavourable, and opposition ambiguous. Each planet not only influenced the subjects in the house in which it was situated, but also imported certain objects into the house. Thus Saturn was associated with grandparents, paupers, beggars, labourers, sextons, and gravediggers. If, for example, he was present in the fourth house, the native might look for a legacy from some such person; if he was present in the twelfth house, the native must be careful of the consequences of the enmity of any such person; and so on. Similarly Jupiter was associated generally with lawyers, priests, scholars, andclothiers; but, ifhewasconjoinedwithamalignantplanet, he represented knaves, cheats, and drunkards. Mars indicated soldiers (or, if in a watery sign, sailors on ships of war), masons, doctors, smiths, carpenters, cooks, and tailors; but, if afflicted with Mercury or the Moon, he denoted the presence of thieves. The Sun implied the action of kings, goldsmiths, and coiners; but, if afflicted by a malignant planet, he denoted false pretenders. Venus imported musicians, embroiderers, and purveyors of all luxuries; but, if afflicted, prostitutes and bullies. Mercury imported astrologers, philosophers, mathematicians, states- men, merchants, travellers, men of intellect, and cultured workmen; but, if afflicted, he signified the presence of pettifoggers, attorneys, thieves, messengers, footmen, and servants. Lastly, the presence of the Moon introduced sailors and those engaged in inferior offices. I come now to the influence and position of the zodiacal signs. So far as the first house was concerned, the sign of the zodiac which was there present was even more important than the planet or planets, for it was one of the most important indications of the durations of life. Each sign was connected with certain parts of the body—ex. gr. Aries influenced the head, neck and shoulders—and that part of the * Raphael, pp. 132–170.

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[PDF page 258] 242 ASTROLOGY. [CH. X body was affected according to the house in which the sign was. Fur- ther each sign was associated with certain countries and connected the subjects of the house in which the sign was situated with those coun- tries: ex. gr. Aries was associated especially with events in England, France, Syria, Verona, Naples, &c. The sign in the first house determined also the character and ap- pearance of the native*. Thus the character of a native born under Aries (m) was passionate; under Taurus (f) was dull and cruel; under Gemini (m) was active and ingenious; under Cancer (f) was weak and yielding; under Leo (m) was generous, resolute, and ambitious; under Virgo (f) was sordid and mean; under Libra (m) was amorous and pleasant; under Scorpio (f) was cold and reserved; under Sagittarius (m) was generous, active, and jolly; under Capricorn (f) was weak and narrow; under Aquarius (m) was honest and steady; and under Pisces (f) was phlegmatic and effeminate. Moreover the signs were regarded as alternately masculine and fem- inine, as indicated above by the lettersm or f placed after each sign. A masculine sign is fortunate, and all planets situated in the same house have their good influence rendered thereby more potent and their un- favourable influence mitigated. But all feminine signs are unfortunate, their direct effect is evil, and they tend to nullify all the good influence of any planet which they afflict (i.e. with which they are connected), and to increase all its evil influences, while they also import an element of fickleness into the house and often turn good influences into malig- nant ones. The precise effect of each sign was different on every planet. I think the above account is sufficient to enable the reader to form a general idea of the manner in which a horoscope was cast and inter- preted, andIdonotproposetoenterintofurtherdetails. Thisistheless necessary as the rules—especially as to the relative importance to be assigned to various planets when their influence was conflicting—were so vague that astrologers had little difficulty in finding in the horoscope of a client any fact about his life of which they had information or any trait of character which they suspected him to possess. That this vagueness was utilized by quacks is notorious, but no doubt many an astrologer in all honesty availed himself of it, whether consciously or unconsciously. It must be remembered also that the rules were laid down at a time when men were unacquainted with any exact * Raphael, pp. 61–69.

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[PDF page 259] CH. X] ASTROLOGY. 243 science, with the possible exception of mathematics, and further that, if astrology had been reduced to a series of inelastic rules applicable to all horoscopes, the number of failures to predict the future correctly would have rapidly led to a recognition of the folly of the art. As it was, the failures were frequent and conspicuous enough to shake the faith of most thoughtful men. Moreover it was a matter of common remark that astrologers showed no greater foresight in meeting the difficulties of life than their neighbours, while they were neither richer, wiser, nor happier for their supposed knowledge. But though such observations were justified by reason they were often forgotten in times of difficulty and danger. A prediction of the future and the promise of definite advice as to the best course of action, revealed by the heavenly bodies themselves, appealed to the strongest desires of all men, and it was with reluctance that the futility of the advice was gradually recognized. The objections to the scheme had been stated clearly by several classical writers. Cicero* pointed out that not one of the futures fore- told for Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar had been verified by their subse- quent lives, and added that the planets, being almost infinitely distant, cannot be supposed to affect us. He also alluded to the fact, which was especially pressed by Pliny†, that the horoscopes of twins are practi- cally identical though their careers are often very different, or as Pliny put it, every hour in every part of the world are born lords and slaves, kings and beggars. In answer tothelatter obvious criticism astrologers replied byquot- ing the anecdote of Publius Nigidius Figulus, a celebrated Roman as- trologer of the time of Julius Caesar. It is said that when an opponent ofthearturged as anobjectionthedifferent fates ofpersonsborn intwo successive instants, Nigidius bade him make two contiguous marks on a potter’s wheel, which was revolving rapidly near them. On stopping the wheel, the two marks were found to be far removed from each other. Nigidius received the name of Figulus, the potter, in remembrance of this story, but his argument, says St Augustine‡, who gives us the nar- rative, was as fragile as the ware which the wheel manufactured. On the other hand Seneca and Tacitus may be cited as being on * Cicero, De Divinatione, ii, 42. † Pliny,Historia Naturalis, vii, 49; xxix, 1. ‡ St Augustine,De Civitate Dei, bk.v, chap. iii;Opera omnia, ed. Migne, vol.vii, p. 143.

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[PDF page 260] 244 ASTROLOGY. [CH. X the whole favourable to the claims of astrology, though both recognized that it was mixed up with knavery and fraud. An instance of successful prediction which is given by the latter of these writers* may be used more correctly as an illustration of how the ordinary professors of the art varied their predictions to suit their clients and themselves. The story deals with the first introduction of the astrologer Thrasyllus to the emperor Tiberius. Those who were brought to Tiberius on any im- portant matter were admitted to an interview in an apartment situated on a lofty cliff in the island of Capreae. They reached this place by a narrow path overhanging the sea, accompanied by a single freedman of great bodily strength; and on their return, if the emperor had conceived any doubts of their trustworthiness, a single blow buried the secret and its victim in the ocean. After Thrasyllus had, in this retreat, stated the results of his art as they concerned the emperor, the latter asked the astrologer whether he had calculated how long he himself had to live. The astrologer examined the aspect of the stars, and while he did this showed, as the narrative states, hesitation, alarm, increasing terror, and at last declared that the present hour was for him critical, perhaps fatal. Tiberius embraced him, and told him he was right in supposing he had been in danger but that he should escape it; and made him thenceforth a confidential counsellor. But Thrasyllus would have been but a sorry astrologer had he not foreseen such a question and prepared an answer which he thought fitted to the character of his patron. A somewhat similar story is told†of Louis XI of France. He sent for a famous astrologer whose death he was meditating, and asked him to show his skill by foretelling his own future. The astrologer replied that his fate was uncertain, but it was so inseparably interwoven with that of his questioner that the latter would survive him but by a few hours, whereon the superstitious monarch not only dismissed him uninjured, but took steps to secure his subsequent safety. The same anecdote is also related of a Scotch student who, being captured by Algerian pirates, predicted to the Sultan that their fates were so involved that he should predecease the Sultan by only a few weeks. This may have been good enough for a barbarian, but with a civilized monarch it * Annales, vi, 22: quoted by Whewell,History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i, p. 313. † Personal Characteristics from French History, by Baron F. Rothschild, London, 1896, p. 10. The story was introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Quentin Durward (chap. xv).

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[PDF page 261] CH. X] ASTROLOGY. 245 probably would in most cases be less effectual, as certainly it is less artistic, than the answer of Thrasyllus. I may conclude by mentioning a few notable cases of horoscopy. Among the most successful instances of horoscopy enumerated by Raphael* is one by W. Lilly, given in hisMonarchy or No Monarchy, published in 1651, in which he predicted a plague in London so terrible that the number of deaths should exceed the number of coffins and graves, to be followed by “an exorbitant fire.” The prediction was amply verified in 1665 and 1666. In fact Lilly’s success was embarrassing, for the Committee of the House of Commons, which sat to investigate the causes of the fire and ultimately attributed it to the papists, thought that he must have known more about it than he chose to declare, and on Oct. 25, 1666, summoned him before them. I may add that Lilly proved himself a match for his questioners. An even more curious instance of a lucky hit is told of Flamsteed†, the first astronomer royal. It is said that an old lady who had lost some property wearied Flamsteed by her perpetual requests that he would use his observatory to discover her property for her. At last, tired out with her importunities, he determined to show her the folly of her demand by making a prediction, and, after she had found it false, to explain again to her that nothing else could be expected. Accordingly he drew circles and squares round a point that represented her house and filled them with all sorts of mystical symbols. Suddenly striking his stick into the ground he said, “Dig there and you will find it.” The old lady dug in the spot thus indicated, and found her property; and it may be conjectured that she believed in astrology for the rest of her life. Perhaps the belief that the royal observatory was built for such purposes may be still held, for De Morgan, writing in 1850, says that “persons still send to Greenwich to have their fortunes told, and in one case a young gentleman wrote to know who his wife was to be, and what fee he was to remit.” It is easier to give instances of success in horoscopy than of failure. Not only are all ambiguous predictions esteemed to be successful, but it is notorious that prophecies which have been verified by the subsequent * Manual of Astrology, p. 37. † The story, though in a slightly different setting, is given inThe London Chron- icle, Dec. 3, 1771, and it is there stated that Flamsteed attributed the result to the direct action of the devil.

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[PDF page 262] 246 ASTROLOGY. [CH. X course of events are remembered and quoted, while the far more numer- ous instances in which the prophecies have been falsified are forgotten or passed over in silence. Asexceptionallywell-authenticatedinstancesoffailuresImaymen- tion the twelve cases collected by Cardan in hisGeniturarum Exempla. These are good examples because Cardan was not only the most em- inent astrologer of his time, but was a man of science, and perhaps it is not too much to say was accustomed to accurate habits of thought; moreover, as far as I can judge, he was perfectly honest in his belief in astrology. To English readers the most interesting of these is the horoscope of Edward VI of England, the more so as Cardan has left a full account of the affair, and has entered into the reasons of his failure to predict Edward’s death. To show how Cardan came to be mixed up in the transaction I should explain that in 1552 Cardan went to Scotland to prescribe for John Hamilton, the archbishop of St Andrews, who was ill with asthma and dropsy and about whose treatment the physicians had disagreed*. On his return through London, Cardan stopped with Sir John Cheke, the Professor of Greek at Cambridge, who was tutor to the young king. Sixmonthspreviously, Edwardhadbeenattackedbymeaslesandsmall- pox which had made his health even weaker than before. The king’s guardians were especially anxious to know how long he would live, and they asked Cardan to cast Edward’s nativity with particular reference to that point. The Italian was granted an audience in October, of which he wrote a full account in his diary, quoted in theGeniturarum Exempla. The king, says he†, was “of a stature somewhat below the middle height, pale faced, with grey eyes, a grave aspect, decorous, and handsome. He was * Luckily they left voluminous reports on the case and the proper treatment for it. The only point on which there was a general agreement was that the phlegm, in- stead of being expectorated, collected in his Grace’s brains, and that thereby the operations of the intellect were impeded. Cardan was celebrated for his success in lung diseases, and his remedies were fairly successful in curing the asthma. His fee was500 crowns for travelling expenses from Pavia,10 crowns a day, and the right to see other patients; the archbishop actually gave him2300 crowns in money and numerous presents in kind; his fees from other persons during the same time must have amounted to about an equal sum (see Cardan’sDe Libris Propriis, ed. 1557, pp. 159–175;Consilia Medica, Opera, vol. ix, pp. 124–148; De Vita Propria, ed. 1557, pp. 138, 193et seq.). † I quote from Morley’s translation, vol.ii, p. 135et seq.

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[PDF page 263] CH. X] ASTROLOGY. 247 rather of a bad habit of body than a sufferer from fixed diseases, and had a somewhat projecting shoulder-blade.” But, he continues, he was a boy of most extraordinary wit and promise. He was then but fifteen years old and he was already skilled in music and dialectics, a master of Latin, English, French, and fairly proficient in Greek, Italian, and Spanish. He “filled with the highest expectation every good and learned man, on account of his ingenuity and suavity of manners.... When a royal gravity was called for, you would think that it was an old man you saw, but he was bland and companionable as became his years. He playeduponthelyre, tookconcernforpublicaffairs, wasliberalofmind, and in these respects emulated his father, who, while he studied to be [too] good, managed to seem bad.” And in another place* he describes him as “that boy of wondrous hopes.” At the close of the interview Cardan begged leave to dedicate to Edward a work on which he was then engaged. Asked the subject of the work, Cardan replied that he began by showing the cause of comets. The subsequent conversation, if it is reported correctly, shows good sense and considerable logical skill on the part of the young king. * De Rerum Varietate, p. 285.

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[PDF page 264] 248 ASTROLOGY. [CH. X I have reproduced on the previous page a facsimile of Cardan’s original drawing of Edward’s horoscope. The horoscope was cast and read with unusual care. I need not quote the minute details given about Edward’s character and subsequent career, but obviously the predictions were founded on the impressions derived from the above- mentioned interview. The conclusion about his length of life was that he would certainly live past middle age, though after the age of 55 years 3 months and 17 days various diseases would fall to his lot*. In the following July the king died, and Cardan felt it necessary for his reputation to explain the cause of his error. The title of his dis- sertation isQuae post consideravi de eodem†. In effect his explanation is that a weak nativity can never be predicted from a single horoscope, and that to have ensured success he must have cast the nativity of every one with whom Edward had come intimately into contact; and, failing the necessary information to do so, the horoscope could be regarded only as a probable prediction. This was the argument usually offered to account for non-success. A better defence would have been the one urged by Raphael‡ and by Southey§ that there might be other planets unknown to the astrologer which had influenced the horoscope, but I do not think that medieval astrologers assigned this reason for failure. I have not alluded to the various adjuncts of the art, but astrologers so frequently claimed the power to be able to raise spirits that perhaps I may be pardoned for remarking that I believe some of the more impor- tant and elaborate of these deceptions were effected not infrequently by means of a magic lantern, the pictures being sometimes thrown on to a mirror, and at other times on to a thick cloud of smoke which caused the images to move and finally disappear in a fantastic way capable of many explanations∥. I would conclude by repeating again that though the practice of astrologywassooftenconnectedwithimpudentquackery, yetoneought not to forget that nearly every physician and man of science in medieval Europe was an astrologer. These observers did not consider that its * Geniturarum Exempla, p. 19. † Ibid., p. 23. ‡ The Familiar Astrologer, London, 1832, p. 248. § The Doctor, chap. 92. ∥ See ex. gr.the life of Cellini, chap.xiii, Roscoe’s translation, pp. 144-146. See also Sir David Brewster’sLetters on Natural Magic.

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[PDF page 265] CH. X] ASTROLOGY. 249 rules were definitely established, and they laboriously collected much of the astronomical evidence that was to crush their art. Thus, though there never was a time when astrology was not practised by knaves, there was a period of intellectual development when it was honestly accepted as a difficult but a real science.

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[PDF page 266] CHAPTER XI. CRYPTOGRAPHS AND CIPHERS. The art of constructing cryptographs or ciphers—intelligible to those who know the key and unintelligible to others—has been studied for centuries. Their usefulness on certain occasions, especially in time of war, is obvious, while it may be a matter of great importance to those from whom the key is concealed to discover it. But the romance connected with the subject, the not uncommon desire to discover a secret, and the implied challenge to the ingenuity of all from whom the key is hidden, have attracted to the subject the attention of many to whom its utility is a matter of indifference. The leading authorities on the subject, few of which are less than a century old, are enumerated in an article by J.E. Bailey in the ninth edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica, and references to various his- toric ciphers are there given. My knowledge of the subject, however, is limited to ciphers which I have met with in the course of casual read- ing, and I prefer to discuss the subject as it has presented itself to me, with no attempt to make it historically complete and no reference to other authorities. In fact the theory of the subject is not sufficiently important to make it worth while to try to deal with it historically or exhaustively. Most writers use the words cryptograph and cipher as synonymous. I employ them, however, with different meanings, which I proceed to define. A cryptograph may be defined as a manner of writing in which the letters or symbols employed are used in their normal sense, but are so arranged that the communication is intelligible only to those possessing 250

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[PDF page 267] CH. XI] CRYPTOGRAPHS AND CIPHERS. 251 the key. The word is sometimes used to denote the communication made. A simple example is a communication in which every word is spelt backwards. Thus: ymene deveileb ot eb gniriter troper noitisop no ssorc daor. A cipher may be defined as a manner of writing by characters ar- bitrarily invented or by an arbitrary use of letters, words, or characters in other than their ordinary sense, intelligible only to those possessing the key. The word is sometimes used to denote the communication made. A simple example is when each letter is replaced by the one that immediately follows it in the natural order of the alphabet,a be- ing replaced byb, b by c, and so on, and finallyz by a. In this cipher the above message would read: fofnz cfmjfwfe up cf sfujsjoh sfqpsu qptjujpo po dsptt spbe. In both cryptographs and ciphers the essential feature is that the communication may be freely given to all the world though it is un- intelligible save to those who possess the key. The key must not be accessible to anyone, and if possible it should be known only to those using the cryptograph or cipher. The art of constructing a cryptograph lies in the concealment of the proper order of the essential letters or words: the art of constructing a cipher lies in concealing what letters or words are represented by the symbols used. In an actual commu- nication cipher symbols may be arranged cryptographically, and thus further hinder a reading of the message. Thus the message given above would read in a cryptographic cipher as znfof efwfjmfc pu fc hojsjufs uspqfs opjujtpq op ttpsd ebps. If the message were sent in Latin or some foreign language it would furtherdiminishthechanceofitbeingreadbyastrangerthroughwhose hands it passed. But I may confine myself to messages in English, and for the present to simple cryptographs and ciphers. A communication in cryptograph or cipher must be in writing or in some permanent form. Thus to make small muscular movements— such, ex. gr., as talking on the fingers, or breathing long and short in the Morse dot and dash system, or making use of pre-arranged signs by a fan or stick, or flashing signals by light—do not here concern us.

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[PDF page 268] 252 CRYPTOGRAPHS AND CIPHERS. [CH. XI Again, the mere fact that the message is concealed or conveyed se- cretly does not make it a cryptograph or cipher. The majority of stories dealing with secret communications are concerned with the artfulness with which the message is concealed or conveyed and have nothing to do with cryptographs or ciphers. Many of the ancient instances of se- cret communication are of this type*. Illustrations are to be found in messages conveyed by pigeons, or wrapped round arrows shot over the head of a foe, or written on the paper wrapping of a cigarette, or the use of ink which becomes visible only when the recipient treats the paper on which it is written by some chemical or physical process. Again, a communication in a foreign language or in any recognized notation like shorthand is not an instance of a cipher. A letter in Chi- nese or Polish or Russian might be often used for conveying a secret message from one part of England to another, but it fails to fulfil our test that if published to all the world it would be concealed from ev- eryone, unless submitted to some special investigation. On the other hand, in practice, foreign languages or systems of shorthand which are but little known may serve to conceal a communication better than an easy cipher, for in the last case the key may be found with but little trouble, while in the other cases, though the key may be accessible, it is probable that there are only a few who know where to look for it. An illustration of this is afforded by the system used by Pepys in writing his Diary which is further alluded to below. I proceed to enumerate some of the better known types of cryp- tographs. There are at least three distinct types. The first type com- prises those in which the order of the letters is changed in some pre- arranged manner. The second type comprises those in which the con- cealment is due to the introduction of non-significant letters. The third type comprises those in which the letters used are written in fragments. The types are not exclusive, and any particular cryptograph may com- prise the distinctive feature of two or all the types. A cryptograph of the first type is one in which the successive letters of the message are re-arranged in some pre-determined manner. One of the most obvious cryptographs of this type is to write each word or the message itself backwards. He would, however, be a careless reader who could be deceived by this. Here is an instance in which the * A long list of classical authorities for different devices used in ancient times for concealing messages is given inMercury by J. Wilkins, London, 1641, pp. 27–36.
