fate of those who are born from such an observation, is a great
58 ON CIIPJSTIAX DOCTRINE. [COOK II.
wandered in the heavens without the names they now bear. But as the men were dead whose memory people were either compelled by royal power or impelled by human folly to honour, they seemed to think that in putting tlieir names upon the stars tliey were raising the dead men themselves to heaven. But whatever they may be called by men, still there are stars which God has made and set in order after His own pleasure, and they have a fixed movement, by which the seasons are distinguished and varied. And when any one is born, it is easy to observe the point at which tliis movement has an-ived, by use of the rules discovered and laid down by those who are rebuked by Holy Writ in these terms : " For if they were able to know so much that they could weigh the world, how did they not more easily liud out the Lord thereof ? "
Chap. xxii.— Thefolhj of observing the stars in order to predict the events ofa Ife.
33. But to desire to predict tlie 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), tliis superstition is refuted beyond the reach of doubt. For the observation js 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 tliere is no interval of time between them that can be apprehended and marked in tlie position of the constellations. Whence it necessarily follows tliat 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 liave laid liold with his hand upon tlie lieel of his brother, who preceded
1 Wisil xiii. 9.