Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/96

84 celestial bodies exert a controlling influence on terrestrial life. This belief is alluded to in the earliest poetical book extant; the Almighty himself is represented as saying to Job: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?" The word Mazzaroth is said by commentators to signify the signs of the zodiac.

The idea that man's life on earth and destiny for good or for evil is subject to the heavenly planets and stars and to their relative positions obtained in the early centuries of the Christian era; on a tombstone erected 364 in memory of an infant named Simplicius (that died the day it was born), there is an inscription which states that this double event took place in the "fourth hour of the night, of the 8th ides of May, the day of Saturn, the 20th day of the moon, under the sign Capricorn" The details of this epitaph are intended to account for the sad affliction of the parents.

 Almighty Wisdom by a Mistique Tye Spread through the World a Secret Sympathy, Impregnating Superiours to dispense On lower Bodies, daily Influence." Ames' Almanack, 1730.

Astrology flourished mightily throughout the middle ages, and by degrees a novel conception became ingrafted on the pseudo-philosophy; the physical universe came to be regarded as an organized being endowed with a soul and analogous to man. An intimate correlation between the universe and man was held to exist, the universe controlling the organism and destiny of man, and man having power over the fundamental laws of Nature. In this connection the terms macrocosm and microcosm came into use—the former to designate the world at large, and the latter the smaller world within man.

In the "Epistle of Tsis, Queen of Egypt and wife of Osiris, to her son Horus" a Greco-Egyptian writing on the "Sacred Art" of obscure origin and unknown authorship, man, as the microcosm, is regarded as the physical epitome of the universe, or macrocosm. Hermes calls man the microcosm, because the man, or the small world, contains all that which is included in the macrocosm or great world. Thus the macrocosm has small and large animals, both terrestrial ndand [sic] aquatic; man, on the other hand, has fleas and lice—these are the terrestrial animals; he has also intestinal worms—these are aquatic animals. The macrocosm has rivers, springs, and seas; man has internal organs—intestines, veins, and arteries. The macrocosm has aërial animals; man has gnats and other winged insects. The macrocosm has volatile spirits, such as winds, thunders, and lightnings; man has internal gases and pordas of diseases. The