Faith-healing, Christian Science and kindred phenomena / by J.M. Buckley.

  • Buckley J. M. (James Monroe), 1836-1920.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Faith-healing, Christian Science and kindred phenomena / by J.M. Buckley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    There are many references to it in the Bible, such as The stars in their courses fought against Sisera, and Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleia- des, or loose the bands of Orion? The Magi, who came from the East following the star of Christ, were astrologers. From some passages it seems probable that Daniel, who accepted the office of Chief of the Magi, studied the heavens and astrological books. Only when the astrologers contradicted the direct revelation of God's word were they specially con- demned. On such occasions the prophets denounced them: though seeming to admit that there might be an influence from the stars, they declared that they could not prevail against the will of God—as when Jeremiah says, Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them; or the sioiilar injunction by Isaiah, ''Let now the as- trologers, the stargazerS) the monthly prognostica- tors, stand up, and save thee. The ancient poets—--Eschylus, Virgil, Horace, Ho- mer, and many others—rose to the loftiest strains when praising astrology. In more modern times the chief physicians on the continent of Europe were as- trologers, some of them most famous. One was Cardan of Milan, who was not only a physician but an algebraist. The ''Text-book of Astrology gives a list of eminent men in England who believed in astrology,— Roger Bacon; Duns Scotus; Baron Napier, the inventor of logarithms; Tycho Brahe; Francis Bacon; [?] Kepler; Flamstead, first Astron- omer Royal; Sir Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ash- molean Museum. Chaucer was also a believer, and wrote a treatise on the astrolabe. John Dryden, skilled in the theory, computed the nativities of his children, and foretold certain severe accidents to his son Charles.