From the earliest ages of the world's history the subject of Astrology has excited the interest of, and exercised a great influence over, the minds of a certain order of thinking men. The science has never been universal in its acceptance, though it is safe to say that, with its countless adherents in the East and the ever-increasing number of its advocates in the West, there is no faith which has a more universal application than the belief in the influence of the heavenly bodies over the destinies of human beings. It is not possible within the limits of a small handbook such as this to adequately consider the philosophic paradox which makes of Freewill in man a "necessity in play"; but it is obvious that the concept is not altogether unscientific, seeing that it is customary to speak of the "free path of vibration" in chemical atoms while at the same time it is known that these atoms have their restricted characteristics, modes of motion, &c., and are all subject to the general laws controlling the bodies of which they form integral parts. Let it suffice that if we can trace an actual connectedness between the disposition of the heavenly bodies at the moment of a birth and the known life and character of the individual then born, and an exact correspondence between the course of events in that life with the changes occurring in the heavens subsequent to the moment of birth, we shall do well to accept the fact for what it is worth, and arrange our philosophic notions accordingly.
