Perhaps for clearness sake it is not useless to
enter into more detail about this vain science. I will say
nothing of my own to refute them; I will use their words, bringing a
remedy for the infected, and for others a preservative from
falling. The inventors of astrology seeing that in the extent of
time many signs escaped them, divided it and enclosed each part in
narrow limits, as if in the least and shortest interval, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
1 Cor. xv.
52. to speak with the
Apostle, the greatest difference should be found between one birth and
another. Such an one is born in this moment; he will be a prince
over cities and will govern the people, in the fulness of riches and power.
Another is born the instant after; he will be poor, miserable, and will
wander daily from door to door begging his bread. Consequently
they divide the Zodiac into twelve parts, and, as the sun takes thirty
days to traverse each of the twelve divisions of this unerring circle,
they divide them into thirty more. Each of them forms sixty new
ones, and these last are again divided into sixty. Let us see
then if, in determining the birth of an infant, it will be possible to
observe this rigorous division of time. The child is born.
The nurse ascertains the sex; then she awaits the wail which is a sign
of its life. Until then how many moments have passed do you
think? The nurse announces the birth of the child to the
Chaldæan: how many minutes would you count before she opens
her mouth, especially if he who records the hour is outside the
women’s apartments? And we know that he who consults the
dial, ought, whether by day or by night, to mark the hour with the most
precise exactitude. What a swarm of seconds passes during this
time! For the planet of nativity ought to be found, not only in
one of the twelve divisions of the Zodiac, and even in one of its first
subdivisions, but again in one of the sixtieth parts which divide this
last, and even, to arrive at the exact truth, in one of the sixtieth
subdivisions that this contains in its turn. And to obtain such
minute knowledge, so impossible to grasp from this moment, each planet
must be questioned to find its position as regards the signs of the
Zodiac and the figures that the planets form at the moment of the
child’s birth. Thus, if it is impossible to find exactly
the hour of birth, and if the least change can upset all, then both
those who give themselves up to this imaginary science and those who
listen to them open-mouthed, as if they could learn from them the
future, are supremely ridiculous.