|
33. But to desire to predict the characters, the acts, and the
fate of those who are born from such an observation, is a great
delusion and great madness. And among those at least who have any sort
of acquaintance with matters of this kind (which, indeed, are only
fit to be unlearnt again), this superstition is refuted beyond the
reach of doubt. For the observation is of the position of the stars,
which they call constellations, at the time when the person was born
about whom these wretched men are consulted by their still more wretched
dupes. Now it may happen that, in the case of twins, one follows the
other out of the womb so closely that there is no interval of time
between them that can be apprehended and marked in the position of the
constellations. Whence it necessarily follows that twins are in many
cases born under the same stars, while they do not meet with equal
fortune either in what they do or what they suffer, but often meet with
fates so different that one of them has a most fortunate life, the
other a most unfortunate. As, for example, we are told that Esau
and Jacob were born twins, and in such close succession, that
Jacob, who was born last, was found to have laid hold with his hand
upon the heel of his brother, who preceded him. Now, assuredly, the
day and hour of the birth of these two could not be marked in any way
that would not give both the same constellation. But what a difference
there was between the characters, the actions, the labors, and the
fortunes of these two, the Scriptures bear witness, which are now so
widely spread as to be in the mouth of all nations.
34. Nor is it to the point to say that the very smallest and
briefest moment of time that separates the birth of twins, produces
great effects in nature, and in the extremely rapid motion of the
heavenly bodies. For, although I may grant that it does produce the
greatest effects, yet the astrologer cannot discover this in the
constellations, and it is by looking into these that he professes to
read the fates. If, then, he does not discover the difference when
he examines the constellations, which must, of course, be the same
whether he is consulted about Jacob or his brother, what does it
profit him that there is a difference in the heavens, which he rashly
and carelessly brings into disrepute, when there is no difference in
his chart, which he looks into anxiously but in vain? And so these
notions also, which have their origin in certain signs of things being
arbitrarily fixed upon by the presumption of men, are to be referred to
the same class as if they were leagues and covenants with devils.
|
|