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Proofs os the Enquiry into

Sect.' among Men : The Poet shews the Power they VI. * have over the Tempers of Men, when— &c. '-""v—^ * It is thus that Virgil casts the Horoscope of ' the Roman Empire at its Nativity. Of Epic Poetry, Book 4, If the Father's whole Treatise had been of a-piece with this Passage, it had not met with the Approbation of the Learned. The Influence of the Stars upon Human Affairs has been by turns the Subject of Admiration and Ridicule. Thus the Satyrist : P. 75. (f) 0, there's strange Difference, 'what Planets Jhed W- (f) Their Influence on the new-born Infant's Head. "Tis Fate that flings the Dice ; and as Jhe flings Of Kings makes Pedants, and ofPedants Kings. What made Ventidius rife ? and Tullius great ? But their kind Stars, and hidden Power of Fate t Mr. Ch. Dryden.

There isa curious Question proposed by Velleius Paterculus, a Roman Historian, " Why " the greatest Masters in every Art and Science " have always appeared in the same Period of " Time, and as it were in a Cluster?" He an swers it by this Maxim ; That what we study 7 7- (h) with the greatest Desire, naturally gains the Sum mit ; and it is difficult to arrest Perfection in any thing ; and what cannot advance, naturally 3 g°ts Rh