Miscellaneous.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1848, 10 May 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Miscellaneous.

Star Beliefs. WHY ALEXANDER WEPT. — THE RIVER OF HEAVEN. — ASTBOLOGT. The autumnal harvest of falling stars still continuing every year draws to the heavens the eyes of those who are blind to less sensational phenomena. Meteors have, therefore, always played a larger part in popular than in what may not unfairly be called scientific astrology. As to the fixed stars and planets, these have from the earliest time been invested with what may be termed human attributes, whether as being worlds in themselves, or as having a direct influence upon the fortunes and conditions and actions of men ; and the notion of a plurality of worlds was entertained by the ancients and eagerly discussed by the philosophers. Thalea held that every star is a world, and has its own complement of sun, planets, atmosphere, and inhabitants. Pythagoras was imbued with the flame idea, although he was so far in advance of his age as to doubt whether the conditions of life could be similar to our own ; and it was this notion of his that caused Alexander to weep, because, although he was master of his own world, there were yet others out of reach to be conquered. The Chaldeans and Arabians, as we know very well, made an exact and minute study of the stara, and no extraordinary movement even in domestic life could be made without a previous consultation of the astrolabe— hence the visit to Bethlehem of the three Wise Men, attracted by the appearance of a star of unusual magnitude and brilliancy. Eegisters of astronomical observations were kept by them as long ago as 2,000 years before Christ, and the Arabian influence upon our astronomical nomenclature is as marked as in our chemistry and our system of numeration. So by the Hindoos, the American Indians, the savages of Borneo and the South Sea Islands, the Chinese and Japanese, beside the Greeks, Romans gnd Scandinavians, separate systems of what we call stellar mythology were created, and some of the most beautiful pagan stories are derived from these sources. The milky way, especially, was a fruitful field for conjecture and invention. Pythagoras said that it was the sun's path — an idea which Pope reproduces in his expression, " the solar walk " — but Demooritus was the first to point out its real nature. The Japanese call it the Biver of Heaven, and have a fanciful belief that its two brightest stars are two lovers who were condemned to be separated, but were permitted to exchange positions oace a year — reminding us somewhat of the Greek fable of Ceres and Proserpine. The Chinese call it the Garden of Heaven, or the Flowery Bath, from which to the tradition of our south country rustics' that it is the Man in the Moon's tobacco smoke, is somewhat of a descent from the sublime to the ridiculous. Sirius, the bright star in the northern heavens, being the nearest, fixed star to the earth, is associated in our common belief with the dog days, and the old Engjish saying was that when he rises the sea boils, wine turns sour, dogs go mad, all oihetjraimala become languid, and the human ,r&6*, is subject to hysterics, fever, and freney. The association of Sirius with dogs is ,oij remote antiquity. The ancient Egyptians thought as soon as Sirius appeared the Nile began to overflow its banks ; hence it is called Slnpr, meaning the Nile, and it was typifie«Hii J tb.e hieroglyphics by a dog. The Romans wiled it Canicula, had their " dies caniettffUsit; aa we have our dog days, and annuafik sacrificed a brown dog to appease the wriwti-Of ;the genius of the star. Spencer speaks^^fhe scorching flame of fierce Orion's hdMftty;" the mention of Orion bringing us Ilip* Pleiades— watch stars alike of the maiSmd the shepherd. THE PLEIADES THEy|ft^^lONS OF DUNA. The Greek legend^^^wat the Pleiades were the oompanions^Eniia, and that, surprised by the hnnte^EWaß they prayed to ttie gods for relief, wJßßßera.otpb.osed into - doves, jind, tooktheuflHßi&iiong the stars ;

we read in the Book of Jobr"Oanst thou bind the swaet influences of the Pleiades, oe loose the bands of Orion ? " Mala, "the v brightest of them, oritjimted our moathT of v - May; and M^rope, who stopped to love;», ; mortal, is oalle.l the Lost Pleiad, on account j of her invisibility. • $ The connection botween astrology and physio wasalwavs intimate, even down to our own Middle Ajes. Chaucer writes of the Doctor of Physic in the Canterbury Talea : " In all this world there was none like him To speak of physic aad of surgery, For In was grounded in astronomy. He kept his patient wonderfully well In hours by his maqir natural." Haly, Sarapion, Avicen, and D*mascenue, alluded to afterwards, were famous Arabian )hyaicians as well as astrolo^rs. The most popular phaje of modern astrological belief is that every man has is good or " evil star. The star above the horizon at & man's birth, if in the ascendant, is held to be " hU good star, and vice versa ; and there are never wanted in our villages, even in this Nineteenth Century, wise women or philosopher 8 who can give information on the subject. Castor and Pollux are benefioient stars, especially for mariners, and always have been. Mars is an evil star, and in the " Compost or Pfcolemus" we read that "under Mars is born thieves and robbers, that kepe hye ways, and do hurt to irue men, and nyght walkers, and quarrel pykers, bosters, mockers, and scoffers. * * * He is ro and angry, ■with black heer and lytell eyne ; he shall be a great walker and a maker of swords and knyves, and a sbeder of man's blood." Saturn brought about strife ; Luoifer pride ; those who gathered dew at sunrise upon May Day were sure to be fortunate in love, for sunrise at that time of the year is the hour of Venus. The Greeks had a beautiful custom of burying the young in the morning twilight, for, they said, " Aurora, who loved the young, had stolen them for her embrace." Allusions to the influence of stars are frequent in our poets, and the phrases "rhyming planet," - " star of empire," " star of peace," " star of an r unconquered will," are but a few among many. So general was the belief in theße influences that Prior remarks : That if weak women went astray, Their stars were more at fault than they. Even in comparatively recent times we find people of high estates condescending to be ruled by the stars. Lord Burleigh calculated the nativity of Elieabeth, and Bhe wa« completely ruled by the astrological predictious of Doctor Dee. Charleß I. consulted Lilly, the astronomer, before his attempted escape from Carisbrooke Castle ; Charles 11. was a bigot to the science ; Catharine de Medicis brought Henry of France, when a child, to Nostradamus for his destiny; Burton, the author of the "Anatomy of Melancholy," is said to have committed suicide merely to verify his own prediction ; Dryden cast the nativities of his sons ; the Boyalists and the Puritans in the civil war had their astrologers, and Lilly was oonsidered to have performed a great feat by his prediction for the Roundheads of the victory at Naseby. Falling stars, the prominent features of the August heavens, are still looked upon with a certain amount of dread. In rustic England they are said to prognosticate a birth ; in rustic France they foretell a death; and it is a very popular opinion that every falling star means a world hurried into oblivion. There is alse a common fancy that a wish, if it can be formed during the passage of a falling star, will be fulfilled. — London Globe.

An Ear of Corn Shaped Like a Hand. Thebe is on exhibition at San Luis Obispo an ear of corn grown in the exact form of the hand of a child, showing the wrist, hand, thumb and fingers all perfect except the little finger, which is double. It is covered with small grains of corn to near the tip 3 of the fingers, whish are bare prongs of cob, giving the appearance of a hand olad with a mitt. In total length it is five and a half inches and three inches broad across the palm.

Revenge is a momentary triumph, which is almost immediately succeeded by remorse ; while forgiveness, which is the noblest of all revenges, entails a perpetual pleasure. It was well said by a Eoman emperor that he wished to put an end to all his enemies by converting them into friends.