Ibrahim, while he bowed in submission to God, and
adored His inscrutable decrees, blessed Him also for having restored his
son; and the tears which he saw flow from the eyes of Shah Abbas, were a
consolation in his dying moments.
APPLICATION OF ASTROLOGY TO THE PROLONGATION OF LIFE, &C.
Astrology was also made subservient to the means of prolonging human
life; but how an art which determines the fate of mortals, and
ascertains the impassable limits of the grave, could consistently be
made subservient to such a purpose, we are rather at a loss to conceive,
unless accounted for as follows. The teachers of divination maintained,
that not only men, but all natural bodies, plants, animals, nay even
whole countries, including every place and family, were under the
government of some particular planet. As soon as the masters of the
occult science had discovered by their tables, under what constellation
the misfortune or distemper of any person originated, nothing farther
was required, than that he should remove to a dwelling ruled by an
opposite planet, and confine himself exclusively to such articles of
food and drink as were under the influence of a different star.
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