ASTROLOGY-NO. 2. BY PROF. W. H. CHANEY. ASTROLOGY AND THE BIBLE. It is claimed that our Bible is the oldest of all books, and although I grant it for the purpose of a consideration of this subject, still I hold myself in readiness to maintain against all comers that our Bible is chiefly a compilation from more ancient writings, wherein were veiled in riddles and allegories the mysteries of science, more especially that of Astronomy. But Astrology was thoroughly known. and practiced thousands of years before the Bible was written. That both Astronomy and Astrology are older than the Bible, appears from the Bible itself. Take, for instance, the Book of Job, one of the oldest in the Bible, being from a Chaldean M.S., wherein the constellation Scorpio is personified and represented as a man. This must have been written about the time that Scorpio was projected from the summer to the winter regions, called also "the war in heaven," when the old serpent was cast out; and by calculating the precession we fix the time at least six thousand years ago. It may be objected that a written language was unknown at so early a date. I reply that in a very interesting work published in London in 1868, by J. P. Lesley, an American, on the origin of man, Mr. Lesley proves conclusively that the Egyptians had a written language seven thousand years ago. Then why not a written language at Bayblon, "the glory of the Chaldean empire," six thousand years ago? Because the Israelitish barbarians were unlettered at that date, is no evidence that their neighbors had not already achieved many of the triumphs of civilization. According to their own showing, the Israelites led nomadic lives, tending their flocks by day and pitching their tents in Genesis as the "first man," because in picturing the hieroglyphical character which we see at present on all celestial globes, this was the first man, as Virgo, (which comes to the meridian just before Bootes, and therefore leads him to his "fall," that is, to go down the western slope of the sky,) was the "first woman," baring the rib story. "Can'st thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?" The ancient Astrologers taught that all the fixed stars falling within the zodiac exerted an influence in Nativities, the signs of the zodiac, planets and luminaries. The innotwithstanding the science deals almost exclusively with fluence of these stars was various, according as they were aspected by good or evil planets. Thus, if the Pleiades but when aspected by Jupiter or Venus, then the “influwere aspected by Mars, storms, shipwrecks, etc., resulted; ence" was harmonious. It was evidently in this light that the question was asked which is quoted at the beginning of this paragraph. Furthermore, this question establishes beyond controversy the fact that whoever wrote it held to the doctrine of "planetary influences," which is only another term for Astrology. If the Pleiades had no "influence," then the author stands convicted of blasphemy for having put an absurdity into the mouth of God himself. In Greek and Roman Mythologies, which I rank the same as our Bible, Atlas had twelve daughters, seven of of Taurus, commonly called "the seven stars,” or “seven whom constituted the Pleiades, a constellation in the neck sisters." Only six of these being visible to the naked eye, the other was said to have been lost; hence the poetic and allegorical lament for "The Lost Pleiad." The remaining five daughters of Atlas constitute the Hyades, a constellation in the face of Taurus in the shape of the letter V. Atlas himself was assigned to the posision of holding up the heavens, lest they might fall, when "every one could catch larks." His name has been perpetuated by tradition at night, like the Modoc, always watching for a chance to by being applied to a representation of all the constellasteal or murder, at a time when the Babylonians and Egyptions, as an "atlas of the heavens." So, too, in Geogratians were rearing those immense superstructures whose tions, as an "atlas of the heavens." So, too, in Geograawful ruins still whisper of the glory of the illustrious phy we apply his name to the maps. past. No tongue can so speak as do the desert sands, sighing through the lone colonades that once guarded the Helliopolis of Egypt. The Israelites the authors of the oldest book! As well say that the Digger Indians were the authors of the Declaration of Independence! And who knows but this may not actually be the case, a thousand years hence, should some descendant of the Diggers then write a book? But to return from this digression. In the allegorical dialogue between God and Job, the former says: "Can'st thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Can'st thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or can'st thou guide Arcturus with his sons?”—Job xxxviii: 31, 32. The constellations here named, Pleiades and Orion, have been known in Astronomy by the same names for thousands of years, and are so known to the present day. The same may be said of Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, also called Adham, Adima, Adam; the common name is "the Celestial Herdsman," being personified Hence we discover in the Bible not only the same ideas advanced in the pagan Mythologies, but even the same names are preserved. To account for this coincidence we must accept of one of the following conclusions: First, Mythology was copied from the Bible. Second, The Bible was copied from Mythology. Third, Both the Bible and Mythology were derived from the same source, and therefore the coincidence is not surprising. The first of these Roman Mythologies are derived from the Persian, Chalconclusions cannot possibly be true, for the Greek and had an existence in legend, in hieroglyphics, engraved dean, Egyptian and East Indian Mythologies, where they upon monuments and written in the Sanscrit language for thousands of years before the Hebrew language was spoken; and of course the Bible worshipers dare not claim an antiquity for it greater than the language in which they claim that God gave its inspired truths to man. From these considerations it is evident that both the second and third conclusions may be true. That the third is true I have not a doubt. The verses quoted from Job are sufficient to establish the fact that both Astronomy and Astrology were known before the Bible was written. But aside from this proof there are hundreds of passages confirming my statement-passages wherein the words Astrology, Astrologers, etc., occur. The "wise men" of the New Testament were Astrologers, and the term should have been translated magii instead of "wise men." The ancient magii were the scholars and philosophers of the past, the term including Astrology just as much as the word "Science" now includes mathematics. A LESSON FROM HISTORY. In May, 1831, that distinguished author and accurate observer of men and things, Robert Dale Owen, furnished for the columns of the Free Inquirer (a paper then published in New York city) the following account of the workings of marriage and "placements" as they are found, side by side, among the Haytians. It refutes, as he claims, "one of the vulgar accusations against our species, that, but for the restraints of indisssoluble marriage, the world would be a universal brothel." "Ever since the revolution which established the independence of the Haytian Republic, a custom has prevailed in the island which is not found elsewhere; and which has not, so far as I am aware, attracted that attention from the philosopher and the moralist which I conceive it most emphatically to deserve. I mean the custom which the inhabitants designate by the word placement. Those who choose to marry, are united as in other countries by a priest or magistrate. The difference between placement and marriage is, that the former is entered into without any prescribed form, the latter with the usual ceremonies; the former is dissoluble at a day's warning, the latter is indissoluble, except by the vexatious and degrading formalities of divorce; the former is a tacit social compact, the latter a legal, compulsory one; in the former the woman gives up her name and her property; in the latter she retains both. Marriage and placement are in Hayti equally respectable; or, if there be a difference, it is in favor of placement; and, in effect, ten placements take effect in the island for one marriage. Petian, the Jefferson of Hayti, sanctioned the custom by his approval and example. Boyer, his successor, the present President, did the same; and by far the largest portion of the respectable inhabitants have imitated their Presidents and are placed, not married. The children of the placed have, in every particular, the same legal rights and the same standing as those born in wedlock. * "I imagine I hear from the clerical supporters of orthodoxy one general burst of indignation at this sample of national profligacy; at this contemning of the laws of God and man. * Learn that although there are ten times as many placed as married, yet there are actually fewer separations among the former than divorces among the latter. If constancy, then, is to be the criterion of morality, these same profligate unions-that is, unions unprayed for by the priest and unpaid for to him—are ten times as moral as the religion-sanctioned institution of marriage. "But this is not all. It is a fact, notorious in Hayti, that libertinism is far more common among the married than among the placed. The explanatory cause is easily found. A placement secures to the consenting couple no legal right over one another. They remain together, as it were, on good behavior. Not only positive tyranny or downright viragoism, but petulant peevishness or selfish ill-humor are sufficient causes of separation. As such they are avoided | with sedulous care. The natural consequence is, that the unions are usually happy, and that each being comfortable at home is not on the search for excitement abroad. In indissoluble marriage, on the contrary, if the parties happen to disagree, their first jarrings are unchecked by considerations of consequences. A husband may be as tyrannical as to him seems good; he remains a lord and master still. A wife may be as pettish as she pleases; she does not thereby forfeit the rights and privileges of a wife. Thus ill humor is encouraged by being legalized, and the natural results ensue―alienation of the heart and sundering of the affections. The wife seeks relief in fashionable dissipation; the husband, perhaps, in the brutalities of a brothel. "But aside from all explanatory theories, the fact is as I have stated it, viz.: that (taking the proportion of each into account) there are ten legal separations of the married to one voluntary separation of the placed. What say you to favorite theory that man is a profligate animal, a desperthat, my reverend friends? How consorts it with your ately wicked creature? That, but for your prayers and blessings, the earth would be a scene of licentiousness and excess? That human beings remain together, only because you have helped to tie them? That there is no medium between priestly marriage and unseemly prostitution? "Does this fact open your eyes a little on the real state of things to which we heterodox spirits venture to look forward? Does it assist in explaining to you how it is that we are so much more willing than you to entrust the most sacred duties to moral, rather than legal, keeping? You cannot imagine that a man and a woman, finding themselves suited to each other, shall agree, without your interference, to become companions; that he should remove to her home, or she to his, as they found it most convenient; that the connection should become known to their friends without the agency of banns, and be respected, even though not ostentatiously announced in a newspaper. Yet all this happens in Hayti without any breach of propriety, without any increase of vice; but, on the contrary, much to the benefit of morality and the discouragement of prostitution. It happens among the white as well as the colored popula tion. "Do you still ask me, accustomed as you are to consider virtue the offspring of restrictions-do you still ask me what the checks are that produce and preserve such a state of things? I reply, good feeling and public opinion. Continual change is held to be disreputable; and where sincere and well-founded affection exists, it is not desired; and as there is no pecuniary inducement in forming a placement, these voluntary unions are seldom ill-assorted. "When our nature is blackened and abused, and when we are told that we are altogether vile and unclean until washed in the consecrated waters of theology, or purified by the searching influence of the law, let us appeal in its defense to facts like these." Frances Power Cobbe, in an address refers to Goldwin Smith's article on Woman Suffrage, and calls Smith the "Knight of the Rueful Countenance" though he did not use a lance in his attack, but ran down the road, picking She said he had found up mud to throw at the women. out some immoral novels written by women; but, as a professor of History, it might have occurred to him, that, if women wrote immoral things, men acted them. She then considered his argument. First, that women should not vote, because they are too weak; and secondly, because they are too strong-strong enough to overturn all institutions. These, she characterized as Mr. Smith's "Kilkenny cat arguments," that devoured one another. COMMON SENSE is furnished to subscribers for Three Dollars per annum, in advance. Letters intended for the Business Department should be addressed: AMANDA M. SLOCUM, BUSINESS MANAGER, 236 Montgomery st. 352 353 354 355 358 357 359 360 361 361 AMANDA M. SLOCUM, ASSISTANT. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., SATURDAY, DEC. 5, 1874. DEFERRED ARTICLES.-We are again obliged to leave over a number of interesting articles, some of which are already in type, including "Self Culture," by Jas. Bat POLITICAL PARTIES. We hear of the formation of all kinds of political parties. There is one on Temperance, one on Finance, there are the old parties, the Grangers, the Railroad party and the Woman Suffragists. But there is no party for the laboring and middle classes. They are supine amid accumulating evils that threaten to ingulph them and the country in lasting ruin. We have now enjoyed political freedom for 362 nearly a century. During that time we have had an unexampled national prosperity. The great breadth and richness of our national domain have increased our numbers, wealth and power to colossal proportions. We have invited the whole world to come here and help us develope the vast resources of our country. They have come-the representatives of all nations-white, black, brown, coppercolored, yellow, all who choose, and so far there has been ample space and opportunity for all. Fortunes have increased; millionaires have sprung up among us; our material progress has been unexampled; but what do we behold? As some us have become enormously rich, so others have become most abjectly poor. We have done nothing to solve that great question of adjustment between capital and labor, whose neglect has plunged the masses of the working people of the older countries into hopeless misery. The same evils are pressing at our doors. Our capitalists say, give us more cheap labor! Give us negroes, Chinamen, anybody who will work cheap, and enable us to pile up larger fortunes. And the laborers are supine and indifferent. Already every avenue is filled. Labor is unemployed. The poor suffer. They beg. They steal. tersby; "We are a Million," by Satan jr.; Stumbling Blocks," a lecture by Laura contributions. The Tuesday evening seances at Charter Oak Hall are increasing in interest and attendance. The tests are excellent, and the developing circle at the close highly successful. The friends of Laura Cuppy Smith will find her at 526 Chestnut steert, where she will doubtless be glad to see them without ceremony. She has no "reception days." This evening, Saturday, Dec. 5th, Professor W. H. Chaney is to give a lecture on the Evils and Dangers of Romanism, at the Hall of the Young Men's Christian Association. Go and hear him. Dr. P. B. Randolph has taken rooms at No 20 Montgomery street. He is to commence a series of lectures at Dashaway Hall on Sunday afternoon, and will undoubtedly have a large audience. His "flights of oratory" are something wonderful. We received too late for publication this week a letter from S. B. Brittan, publisher of the Quarterly Journal of Spiritual Science, correcting an item in COMMON SENSE which stated that it is proposed to raise money for his aid. The error was merely typographical, the word "his" should have been its, meaning the Journal, not Mr. Brittan personally, as was evident from the context. We have on several occasions given unstinted praise to the Journal, as the most able exponent of the Spiritualistic Philosophy ever published, and have expressed much regret that the Spiritualists of America have failed to give it adequate support. Next week Mr. Brittan shall speak for himself. J. L. YORK.-The people of the Southern part of the State will be glad to learn that this gentleman will spend several months in their section. He left on the steamer on Wednesday, for Santa Barbara, where he will remain during December, going from there to San Bernardino, and probably thence to San Diego. Mr. York's audiences in Stockton, and Sacramento, were very large, and his addresses gave great satisfaction. Their daughters prostitute themselves for bread. Their Well, perhaps you say, What remedy is there? Is it for you to inquire, you, poor man. The rich man's daughter is loaded with presents of silks and diamonds, with a million dollars in gold to begin the world with. Your daughter cannot marry because you have nothing to give her, and her lover finds it difficult by honest work to obtain adequate support. The rich man's daughter will die childless perhaps, enervated by luxury. Your's will do the same, too poor to raise a child. And you do not even ask if there is no remedy for these evils. You do not propose to apply one if it could be found. You do not organize with your fellow working men, and say this shall not be any longer. You say nothing and you do nothing; and the whole world is amazed at your blindness and stupidity. The land of your country is being grasped by the few, while the many have no place to lay their heads, and you put no veto on the process, though your own children will shortly be homeless. There is a peaceful remedy for all this misery, present and to come. Let it be applied soon, lest the heat of discontent that lies latent now become fierce flames of revolution quenchable but in blood. THE Boston City Government has voted $5,000 for soup to be fed to the poor during the winter. This, is well, but how much better it would be to spend a few thousand dollars to assist the poor to earn their own living; better still to so educate the poor that by combination of labor they would never come to want. Capital, under prevailing systems, has more power than is either just or necessary. This power seems to be a law of nature; but the seeming is only because centuries of usurpation on the part of capitalists have fixed the evil firmly in its seat. Nature never decreed that a few of her children should monopolize all her gifts. All human laws should discriminate against wealth instead of for it, as is now the case. The people, in this country, make the law, and when they are intelligent enough to see the injustice of our present system, they will change it. Industry should never be taxed. Trade should never be taxed. The property of the poor should be exempt, but the surplus wealth of the rich should pay all the expenses of Government. And these expenses should not consist, as now, in sustaining useless armies and navies, and hordes of office holders; but they should be for free schools, hospitals, orphan asylums, etc., for railroads, telegraphs and other internal improvements owned by and controlled for the general government. Our voters should be men and women of intelligence and good moral character, who have passed the examination of a competent tribunal. Such a state of affairs may be a long time hence; but when that time comes there will be no more soup houses, for there will be no necessity for them. REV. E. L. REXFORD, the new pastor of the Universalist Church of this city, is proving himself not only a man of ability, but of much liberality. With Rev. Mr. Stebbins, whose sermons are full of the highest spirituality, overflowing with love and charity; Rev. Mr. Ijams, a bold, earnest, honest man, a good thinker and entertaining speaker; Rev. Mr. Carpenter, a liberal though not a profound man; Rev. Mr. Rexford. Rev. Mr. Dunn, and several others, the people of San Francisco are favored indeed. They are neither compelled to listen to the crudities of our popular debates on religious subjects, nor obliged to feed on the dry husks of "orthodox" theology; but are priviledged to a choice between the teachings of a half dozen men who are as eminent for their scholarship as for their earnestness in reform. SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS. The statements of Dr Beard, with regard to the Eddy manifestations, have been denied by hundreds of persons present at the seances. A large number of papers have published denials from various correspondents. The Evening Post of this city gives extracts contradicting Beard. We copy a small portion as follows: Dr. Beard's theory-and, in fact, the only supposable theory consistent with the belief that these manifestations sudden changes of costume, represents all the spirits. Colare not what they purport to be-is that Wm. Eddy, with onel Olcott says he first applied the test of measure, having made a height scale, and in a good light the spirits suffered themselves to be measured, Mr. Pritchard, a respectable and wealthy citizen of Albany, laying his cane over the head of each. He gives a table of measurements, varying from 6 feet 2 inches in the case of the spirit Santum, to 4 feet in the case of Carrie Arnold. "Honto" measured 5 feet three inches. Colonol Olcott then procured one of Howe's standard scales, certified to be set true and in perfect order, and got Mr. Pritchard, before mentioned, to do made herself lighter, weighing the second time 58 pounds, the weighing. Honto weighed 88 pounds, but by request, and on third trial 65 pounds. Thus, without any change of clothing, and all within the space of ten minutes, this spirit, who weighed at the beginning at least 50 pounds less than any mortal woman of her size and height should and, after holding it there several minutes, increased it 7 weigh, reduced her materiality to the extent of 30 pounds, pounds. An affidavit, sworn to by Mr. Pritchard, is given, in which he corroborates all these statements." Colonel Olcott tells many other curious things, some of which, if correctly stated, destroy Dr. Beard's theories. In the light seance, guitars and musical instruments were held above the curtain and used, and hands wrote names and moved about in such ways as to prove conclusively that they did not belong to the medium, etc. General Lippitt makes a statement, concerning the Katie King materializations in Philadelphia, in which he says: The Doctor then produced six oranges, and began putting them into her hands, which she held out to receive. But all at once appeared several other pretty and delicate hands under hers, some of which evidently belonged to very little children. These eageriy grasped the oranges, securing three or four of them; when oranges and hands at once disappeared. Afterward Katie reappeared and handed out to Mrs. Holmes one of the oranges, and also a bouquet of palpably earthly flowers, but whence obtained no one knew. Gen. Lippitt says: "All of the spirits, except Katie, had more or less a fixedness of look and immobility of features. This was even the case in some degree with John King while he was talking with us. Yet, if these were puppets, it is not easy to understand why they were not all made to look equally natural. And, as to Katie King, no one who who saw her could be made for one moment to believe her to be a puppet. Unquestionably, if she were one, there has been no such creation since Prometheus' time, and the exhibition of her as such would alone suffice to secure to these mediums an ample fortune. Certain it is that she was either a young girl of living flesh and blood, or else a spirit clothed in what was real flesh and blood to all the I closely watched Katie King's counte nance through an opera glass every time she appeared, and I invariably saw that, on her face being first visible, the eyes, as well as her other features, were perfectly natural senses. * * * and the Atlantic has an article from Robert Dale Owen, in which he argues that the spiritual phenomena are consist ent with the idea of the universal reign of law. The Graphic is publishing long letters in reference to the Eddy manifestations, and one can hardly take up a first class Eastern newspaper or periodical without finding some reference to Spiritualism. This state of things calls for such investigations as will set the matter completely at rest. Men of the highest character and attainments should no longer hesitate at investigations which will be conclusive, for if Spiritualism is a humbug, it is certainly a growing humbug, and is humbuging a large number of people. If spirits can make their existence tangible to our senses, let us know it. If the whole thing is a fraud, it is time it were conclusively exposed. The Chronicle says: "Whatever we may feel inclined to believe in regard to these marvellous narratives, apparently so well attested, one thing at least is clear, namely, that the time has at length arrived when the "phenomena" will engage the serious attention of men of science, and an earnest attempt to discover a purely natural and scientific solution of the mystery attending them will be made by persons qualified for the task.” "An attempt to discover a purely natural and scientific solution!" That would be like "discovering" the existence of man on this planet. Spiritualists have always contended that these manifestations are purely natural, and that they are scientific. Science is not something made by a few devotees of scientific investigation; it is the truth as manifested in nature, no matter who recognizes or refuses to recognize it. It is not limited to things we call material. Its domain is the universe, and its study embraces all the phenomena of nature. The great difficulty in the way of the advancement of the spiritual theory among learned men has been mainly in the use of terms. The word Spiritualism has not clearly expressed what is meant by those who use it. Naturalism would be a much better word. Spirit, as used by Spiritualists, does not mean something in contra-distinction to matter. It is matter, and Spiritualists have always contended that there can be no manifestation of soul except through matter. A few men of acknowledged scientific attainments, refused, like Spencer, "from apriori reasons," to investigate anything claiming to be of a "spiritual" nature. Spirit, with them, was nothing; and "nothing" was not worthy of investigation. They arrogated to themselves the sole authority in matters scientific; and, although assured over and over again, that Spiritualists never claimed the existence of spirit apart from matter, yet they continued to treat the most important natural phenomena of this age with contempt. Truth, however, depends upon no man's opinion. It is truth which decides what science is, not men claiming to be scientific who decide what is truth. Men may assert time without end what the truth is in their estimation. That does not make it so; and Truth, in the end, asserts itself, overriding all human opinion, triumphing over all puny limitations. "DELL DART, or Within the Meshes," is the title of a new story by Rowena Granice Steele, which she sells for fifty cents each. It is a California story, founded on facts. in their appearance, the eyelids having all the appearance of those of a living person; but several times after her face had been a little longer visible than usual, the eyelids lost their mobility, the whites of the eyes became glassy and began to prolong themselves downward, looking like viscid masses about to roll down her cheeks. Of this change she always seemed to become suddenly conscious, hastily withdrawing her face from the window, at which, after a few moments, it would appear again with the eyes as natural as at first." So well established have become the proofs of these manifestations, that the press of the country generally are treating them respectfully. The Rochester Democrat, in an editorial article, says: What is this force or power? Does it really exist as thousands aver, or is it fraud or hallucination? The subject is agitating the public mind as never before, and the investigation will go on until some rational solution is reached. reached. But the explanation of Dr. Beard, like the toesnapping theory of the Burns, years ago, solves nothing; the weight of testimony is against them. Crookes, Wallace, Owen, Prof. Hare, and other scientific men investigated months and years before even venturing an opinion; but one seance is sufficient for Dr. Beard. Many persons admit the phenomena on investigation, but fail to adopt the spiritual hypothesis. They are looking for some new law Let really intelligent and scientific men investigate and or force in nature to account for all they see and hear. give an opinion, and the people will be glad to listen to them; but Dr. Beard's nine columns of egotism have not helped the matter. The Chicago Times, in a lengthy article on the present aspects of Spiritualism, says: two years. Though the moderate phases of Spiritualism have been known and commented upon for over a quarter of a century, they have had a fair discussion in print only about terlies of repute, in America and Europe, are vigorously But the dailies, weeklies, monthlies and quarmaking up for lost time. Robert Dale Owen has been at some pains to catalogue the prominent newspapers and magazines printed in the English tongue which have recently given fair mention of the Spiritualistic phenomena. A private letter from him shows that the list covers nearly every publication of any value or influence in this country and Great Britain. All of the great newspapers in New York, Philadelphia and London treat Spiritualism as they do other current topics; give impartial narrations of its effects, and candid comment as to its causes. The Atlantic Monthly, foremost of American magazines, has invited and accepted two articles upon the subject from Robert Dale Owen. The illustrated papers of the country are giving pictorial representations of "materialized" forms "Katie established magazine, has published long essays upon the King" and others. The London Fortnightly Review, an old general subject. So, too, have London Society, the fashionable magazine of that metropolis; the Quarterly Journal of Science, and other favorite British periodicals. The Eveuing Post of this city, compelled by the force of public opinion, gives facts for, as well as against, the spiritual theory, and says: manifestations, are attracting more attention now than ever One thing is certain-these manifestations, or reputed before, and that from a higher class of observers. Two of our foremost magazines this month give considerable space from General Lippitt, of the Holmes manifestations in to the believers in Spiritualism. The Galaxy has an account Philadelphia-a portion of which we quote on another page, |