BOOKS CONSULTED. Le Propheties de Michel de Nostredame, dont il y en a trois cens qui n'ont jamais encores jamais esté imprimées. Troyes, 1570 (?). Guir Pronosticon am den savant meurbed Michel Nostredamus evit nas bloas, &c. Monhoulez (Morlaix, 1831). Extrait de Propheties des Centuries de M. Nostradamus touchant l'état présent des affaires. Extract von Prophecyen, &c. French and Dutch. Delft, 1688. Les Propheties de M. de Michel Nostredamus, dont il y en a trois cens qui n'ont jamais esté imprimées, ajoustées de nouveau par le dit Autheur. (Prédictions admirables pour les ans courans en ce siècle, recueillies des mémoires de feu Maistr. M. Nostradamus). Par V. Seve, Lyons, 1698. Le Propheties de M. M. Nostradamus, dont il y en a trois cens qui n'ont jamais esté imprimées, ajoustées de nouveau, &c. &c. Lyons, 1698. The Wizard; or, the Whole Art of Divining Dreams, by the help of Cabinet Edition of the Encyclopædia Metropolitana. Occult Sciences. Miraculous Prophecies, Predictions, and Strange Visions of sundry Eminent Men. London, 1794. M. Nostredame (Les Propheties) ses Visions et Songes. Lyons, 1555, A. D. Nostradamus, some of the Eminent Prophecies of (no place of publication). 1679. NOSTRADAMUS. A. D. 1503-1566. HE sage who, with the lower and nonreligious world-as distinguished from that which follows Dr. Cumming-deals chiefly in prophecy, and who now-a-days makes a large income from prophetic almanacs, is this year, perhaps, more lively than ever, and in his latest edition of "Zadkiel" boldly attacks the press for daring to assert that astrology was "exploded." "Who," he asks, "exploded it?" and, receiving no answer to his question, he asserts that, because England does not believe in the voice of the stars, we see among the poor want, misery, and indifference to Religion, Demons of Crime grovelling in vice-all the horrors of brutal ignorance, and the retrograde march of civilization; among the rich, bloated wealth, sinful and soul-enslaving luxury, cruelty, oppression, and harsh principles of law advocated . . 66 And the kingdoms of Europe, reaping no fruit from experience, but ever ready to obey the evil influences of the martial star, and pour out each other's hearts' blood! THESE! THESE ARE THE DIRE EVILS REAPED FROM THE MODERN ATTEMPTS TO DECRY THE SCIENCE OF ASTRO LOGY." The capitals are the writer's own. . But Zadkiel has a set-off against unbelief. He cannot only refer to the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy, to Plato, Pythagoras, Nigidius Figulus, and Manilius, Bacon, Melancthon, Nostradamus, Al Hakim the Wise, and John Kepler ("here be names, we hope"), but to the vast increase of believers of to-day. Cardinal Wiseman told us that, by the colportage system in France, from eight to nine millions of volumes were annually distributed; but, finding "that exploded fallacies" of astrology were still preserved as scientific truths in these books, "the Government wisely required a stamp," and, of 7500 works examined, three-fourths were rejected. It is possible, of course, that the Cardinal's friends wished to keep out some of the explosive fallacies of Protestantism as well as exploded fallacies" of astrology; but Zadkiel chuckles over the free press in England, and, to show our superiority to France, gives the returns of the astrological almanacs in the following list: "Moore's Almanac sells about Partridge's about 66 600,000 290,000 As each copy may be judged to be perused by six persons, this gives an aggregate number of readers not much below six millions! what other branch of literature can surpass this?" (Zadkiel's Almanac for 1863). What, indeed! Perhaps, after all-and this is the most melancholy part of the matter-these returns are not exaggerated by more than one-third, which, if so, leaves us four millions of astrological triflers, idlers, believers, or devotees, out of about ten millions of readers, if we may boast so many. If this be all that we have reached after many years of teaching, the ardent scholar may well ask with Milton," What boots it with incessant care strictly to meditate the thankless muse?" and may join with Zadkiel, from another point of view indeed, in lamenting the retrograde movement of civilization. Excepting, of course, Bacon and Kepler, many of the old disciples of astrology were mere puppets. Nostradamus has a sounding name, and he has certainly published twelve "centuries" (hundreds) of quatrains of prophecy; but, after reading most of these carefully, we may fairly say that, out of the fifty thousand lines, more than half are so utterly mystical that they cannot be understood, and that, of the remainder, only about one-tenth can be applied. His art is much the same as that practised at the present day. A direct application he seldom gives; but it is fair to say-little as it may be—that an ardent believer in his prophetic spirit could twist, perhaps, twenty of his verses into some comprehensible application. It is very possible that no one else would agree to that application; indeed, we always, with all prophets, want a key to the prophecy after it has occurred, and our modern soothsayers take |