from Babylon-began to yield to, and in the devotions of their hierophants to be blended with, or superseded by, those-formed from a study of the energies of nature and the passions of man,*—which their early poets engrafted on the original Sabæan stock; and which gradually led them to deify almost every river, and mountain, echo, and even silence itself.

There are many circumstances concurring to persuade us that the dire conflict which has resounded through so many pages of fine poetry and ridiculous religion-those battles between the original Titanian possessors of HEAVEN, and the gods of Greece, was for no bi-forked mountain, and no upper region of clouds and ambrosia, but was simply—and far more consonantly to human experience-an ancient astronomical and sacred contest with the Sabæans, concerning the formation of the aste risms, and the names by which the planets and constellations should be severally known and adored-not that I intend launching further into this mythological ocean at present.

I beg to resume, that it will be our better course to attend to the more questionable points of this nativity in the outset. The two heads at the right hand extremity of the device, which I understand to be the oriental quarter of the present horoscope, I conceive to be those of auspicious omen to the native, Jupiter and Venus; by Ptolemy and Manilius termed "the two benevolent Fortunes." I question not but that this will appear sufficiently evident from the mature majesty and beauty of

"The primitive religion of the Greeks, (says Mr. R. P. Knight,) like that of all other nations not enlightened by revelation, appears to have been elementary: and to have consisted in an indistinct worship of the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and the waters; or rather of the spirits supposed to preside over those bodies, and to direct their motions and regulate their modes of existence.”

"At the same time that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such superior powers; the irregular and destructive efforts of nature, such as lightning and tempests, inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had passions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence."—Inquiry into the Symbolical Language of Art, &c. ch. ii.

the countenances respectively: but the three on the other side of the Centaur, do not correspond to our ideas of Saturn, Mars, and Mercury; for though one of them is helmeted, it is beardless; and therefore rather a head of Pallas, than of Mars; another is evidently Pan, rather than Saturn; and the third is apparently a female head, and with no indication of its being intended for that of Mercury.

With this occidental triumvirate lies the difficulty, and the only dif ficulty that presents itself to a clear understanding of the state of the heavens at the hour, and of the genethliacal and technical meaning of this horoscopical device. I can only solve it, or rather I can only state how it may possibly be resolvable-by supposing that the astrologer who cast this nativity, and directed the operations of the artist who engraved it, drawing his predictive inferences professedly from the state of the heavenly phenomena at the time, chose to ascribe military wisdom to the native, rather than mere martial propensity; for Pallas has but recently been admitted into our solar system. Moral, physical, and poetical meaning, it was their object, in these cases, to record and display; and we know, upon other occasions, how susceptible were the deities of Greece of subdivision, and of substitution of one for another. It is very common, in their most ancient hymns for example, to find them invoking their gods as "many-named" and "multiform." In the 14th of the Orphic hymns, Jove is invoked as a "multiform deity;" in the 15th, Juno, as a goddess whose names are numerous;" and in the 31st, Pallas is addressed as "multiform," and as "inhabiting the stars."

I think the same of the other two busts as of this of Minerva: that is to say, that they do not denote, integrally, planets; but particular aspects of planets, when viewed with reference to the surrounding phenomena, and interpreted according to the poetic system of the Greek mythology; for according as planets were "posited" in the zodiac, and as they "regarded each other," (technically speaking), their meaning and influence was held to vary. And that this is no idle reverie, as applicable to the present signet, may be safely inferred from those diagrammatic marks which are engraved in the field of the stone.

Immediately between the bust of the "two-horned god," whom I have

called Pan, but an epithet by which Apollo is addressed in the Orphic hymn to that deity, is the diagrammatical character which still remains in use to denote quartile aspect; and a little before this bust, and between it and the lunar dragon, of which I shall presently treat, is the character used to denote sextile aspect; both of which are unequivocally sculptured. There are two other of these ancient astrological characters, near the lower female busts, as may be easily seen, but which are become obsolete, or at least are unknown to me; nor can I find any thing bearing sufficient resemblance to them, in the various authorities that I have consulted, both MS. and in print,-to support me in venturing an opinion as to their meaning.

The central figure of a Centauric archer is undoubtedly that of the constellation Sagittarius, very conspicuously displayed. Beneath his body and between his fore and hind legs, is the ancient symbol of equipoise, Libra, or the Balance, just as we find it sculptured in repeated instances on the gems of Assyria, and of which I shall have future occasion to treat more especially. I interpret that one of these is meant to denote the asterism, whose stars were on and were near the meridian; and the other, those which at the hour of nativity were rising, or those which were simultaneously setting; for, taking for granted that this is a Grecian horoscope, and elevating the arctic pole of the sphere to any latitude between those of Crete and Macedonia-I here speak but in a general way, but-say to lat. 38°, which is nearly that of Athens,-we find the chief stars of Libra setting, as those of Sagittarius successively culminate, (or attain their meridian altitude); and of course as those of Libra come to the meridian, Sagittarius is rising. The two large and bright stars which have been named after the Dioscuri, set in this latitude nearly at the same moment; and this moment is a remarkable one, it being precisely as the meridian passes between the stars Alpha and Beta in Libra: now it is more than possible that the two beardless busts on the left may be intended for those of Castor and Pollux (supposing them to have been represented as adolescent Twins); in which case this horoscope is as complete as it is possible for such a document to be. I regret to write under uncertainty on this point; but it seems probable that any person who

G

may understand the mysterious characters before adverted to, will be able to inform us which of these is meant to be here exhibited as the existing state of the celestial phenomena at the hour of birth.

The ascendant stars have ever been esteemed of powerful efficacy, from the Chaldean ages to the present. If Sagittarius is now rising, as Jupiter is also in the oriental quarter of the heavens, and as Sagittarius is the proper domicile of this planet, the aspect would be prophetic of great future prosperity to the native, Jupiter would be lord of the ascendant, and would be posited in his mansion of power;—but considerations of this nature we are not called upon to follow up.

In the upper part of the gem is represented, (as I have already intimated), that astrological symbol of the monthly path of the Moon, which from time immemorial has been termed the Lunar Dragon. The number of rays which emanate from the head of this dragon-serpent is fourteen, that of the number of days of the moon's increase. At a short distance before this radiant head is a small orb, placed there, as I suspect, from finding the Moon where it is, by way of denoting, that though the nativity was nocturnal, the Sun was not far beneath the horizon at the time, nor far from Jupiter. The figure and place of the Moon herself agrees to this account, she being still a crescent, and removed but a short distance from the place of her ascending node-an important point in the casting of a nativity, which has always been technically known by the appellation of the Dragon's Head.

Again, should this matter be thought worthy of further antiquarian pursuit, and as far as respects the bust of the warrior goddess:-In the hymn of Callimachus "to the bath of Pallas," he invokes that goddess as synonymous with-that is to say, as a personification of-the earliest saffron coloured light of morning, which Dr. Dodd confirms in a note to his translation. This interpretation accords precisely with the place which I have here assigned to the Sun. Her Greek name, Athene, says the same learned and unfortunate annotator, is from the Hebrew (Ath) and (Thene), a serpent or dragon, being a known emblem of light in its darting motion.

Hymns of Callimachus, &c. translated from the Greek, p. 146.

And these poetical constructions are in perfect conformity with historical fact; for from the testimony of Herodotus, it appears that the Greek poets were in his time, the astrologers also. In chap. lxxxii. of his highly valued Euterpe, he says of the Egyptians that, "from observing the days of nativity, they venture to predict the particular circumstances of a man's life and death: this is done by the poets of Greece."*

Now, between the Chaldean horoscopes which I shall exhibit, and this more florid horoscope of Greece, there exists much such a difference as we should calculate upon finding, between a nativity cast by a mere astrologer, and one cast by an astrological poet. Herodotus reckons that Hesiod lived not more than four centuries before† himself; and from the "Works and Days" of that poet, may be safely inferred that he could tell fortunes.

The introduction of this Grecian horoscope is somewhat episodical, and quite an after-thought of mine. Should it be found to lead the reader's mind more easily and agreeably onward, it will not, I trust, be thought useless or premature. Return we now into that broad road toward Babylon, from which we diverged at the point where Lucian affirms that the ancient heroes were no otherwise of celestial descent, than as the native of this Grecian horoscope may have been termed a son of Jupiter, or fabled to have been favoured or patronised by Pallas. Many of the ancient classic legends, which the poets of antiquity have worked up into metamorphoses, and other the most extravagant fables, may thus be more easily and intelligibly understood, and without outraging our ideas either of mortal or immortal natures. What was true in the Lucianic sense, of Minos and Æneas, of Phrygia and of Crete, may be yet more easily believed of the ancient Sabæan nations of Chaldea, Canaan, and the oriental Ethiopia: the Phrygians, indeed, are known to have been a Sabæan people, and Troy was in alliance with Babylon.

And here we may again look toward that more venerable testimony, to which we have before adverted with advantage: we may look toward the poem of Job, a monument which can scarcely be thought of without an apostrophe of admiration! We may look, with becoming reverence to