Through the literature of this science, which was
widely diffused even before the invention of printing, a dilettantism
also grew up which as far as possible followed in the steps of the
masters. The worst class of astrologers were those who used the stars
either as an aid or a cloak to magical arts.
Yet apart from the latter, astrology is a miserable feature in the life
of that time. What a figure do all these highly gifted, many-sided,
original characters play, when the blind passion for knowing and
determining the future dethrones their powerful will and resolution!
Now and then, when the stars send them too cruel a message, they manage
to brace themselves up, act for themselves, and say boldly: 'Vir
sapiens dominabitus lustris', the wise man is master of the stars--and
then again relapse into the old delusion.
In all the better families the horoscope of the children was drawn as a
matter of course, and it sometimes happened that for half a lifetime
men were haunted by the idle expectation of events which never
occurred! The stars were questioned whenever a great man had to come to
any important decision, and even consulted as to the hour at which any
undertaking was to be begun. The journeys of princes, the reception of
foreign ambassadors, the laying of the foundation-stones of public
buildings, depended on the answer.
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