Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/189

IX.] fluence exercised on mankind by the nine planets, namely, the Sun,* Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu (the Moon's ascending node), and Ketu (the Moon's descending node). They believe, in common with many other races, that these heavenly bodies rule the destinies of men and nations ; and alleging that they possess a knowledge of their relative influence on the actions of each individual, they profess to be able to penetrate into his present, past, and future. Mr Proctor, in his well-known work, "Our Place among the Infinities," says "that of all the errors into which men have fallen in their desire to penetrate into futurity, Astrology is the most respectable, we may even say the most reasonable." It is also admitted that modern Astronomy owes a good deal of its early progress to Astrology. Kepler, in his preface to the Rudophine Tables, calls Astrology "a foolish daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the foolish daughter was indispensable." The admirers of the "daughter"