ASTROLOGY, DIVINATION,
AND COINCIDENCES
IT is incorrect to suppose that astrology has no votaries at the present time. Zadkiel's Almanac, which has been published for nearly forty consecutive years, sells more than one hundred and twenty thousand copies per annum, and it is not a publication which ignorant persons could understand,—nor does it appear to appeal to that class. The "Saturday Review" for July 4, 1863, says: "Without doubt there are a million of people who have some sort of confidence in Zadkiel; certainly there is ample encouragement to them in the countenance afforded Zadkiel by the great and wise and learned of the land." This writer also states that "society believes in astrology." It is quite possible that this is exaggerated, for "society" affects the study of all strange or new things. If its interest in a passing novelty or new aspect of something old should be allowed any value as indicating what it "believed," it might be held to accept almost anything.
I should not, however, think it a prudent economy of effort to treat astrology merely to delay its final disappearance. It is because the exhibition of its principles and methods will afford us almost indispensable aid in accounting for and explaining certain conditions of current thought, that it is worthy of investigation.
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