Instead of the exercise of prudence and wise
precautions, it substituted superstitious forms and childish practices;
it enervated the courage of the brave by apprehensions grounded on puns,
and encouraged the wicked, by making them lay to the charge of a planet
those evils which only proceeded from their own depravity.
But not content with such absurdities, which destroyed the very idea of
liberty, they asserted that these stars, which had not the least
connection with mankind, governed all the parts of the human body, and
ridiculously affirmed that the ram presided over the head, the bull over
the gullet, the twins over the breast, the scorpion over the entrails,
the fishes over the feet, etc. The juggles of astrology have been
admirably ridiculed by Butler in the following lines:
Some by the nose with fumes trepan 'em,
As Dunstan did the devil's grannam;
Others, with characters and words,
Catch 'em, as men in nets do birds;
And some with symbols, signs, and tricks,
Engrav'd in planetary nicks,
With their own influence will fetch 'em
Down from their orbs, arrest and catch 'em;
Make 'em depose and answer to
All questions, ere they let them go.
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