The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

166 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS.
the moon is in her increase will become bald evidently
by analogy. 3
The entire existence of states and individuals, down
to the slightest incidents, was thought to depend on
the stars. The absolute control they were supposed
to exercise over everybody s daily condition, even mod
ified the language in every-day use and left traces in
almost all idioms derived from the Latin. If we
speak of a martial, or a jovial character, or a lunatic,
we are unconsciously admitting the existence, in these
heavenly bodies (Mars, Jupiter, Luna) of their an
cient qualities.
It must be acknowledged, however, that the Grecian
spirit tried to combat the folly that was taking hold
of the world, and from the time of its propagation
astrology found opponents among the philosophers.
The most subtle of these adversaries was the proba-
bilist Carneades, in the second century before our era.
The topical arguments which he advanced, were taken
up, reproduced, and developed in a thousand ways by
later polemicists. For instance, Were all the men that
perish together in a battle, born at the same moment,
because they had the same fate? Or, on the other
hand, do we not observe that twins, born at the same
time, have the most unlike characters and the most
different fortunes?
But dialectics are an accomplishment in which the
Greeks ever excelled, and the defenders of astrology
found a reply to every objection. They endeavored
especially to establish firmly the truths of observation,
upon which rested the entire learned structure of their
art : the influence of the stars over the phenomena of
nature and the characters of individuals. Can it be