Existence of Evil on Astrological Principles.
3102.
Then I answered:
Since, therefore, I have to deal with one who is skilled in astrological science,
I shall treat the matter with you according to that science, that,
taking my method from those things with which you are familiar, you may the more readily acquiesce.
3103.
Listen now, therefore:
you confess that those things which we have mentioned are evils,
such as fevers, conflagrations, and such like.
3104.
Now these, according to you, are said to be produced by malignant stars,
such as the humid Saturn and the hot Mars;
yet things contrary to these are produced by benignant stars,
such as the temperate Jupiter and the humid Venus.
3105.
Is it not so?
3106.
My father answered:
It is so, my son; and it cannot be otherwise.
3107.
Then said I:
Since you say, therefore, that good things are produced by good stars
— by Jupiter and Venus, for example—
let us see what is the product where any one of the evil stars is mixed with the good,
and let us understand that that is evil.
3108.
For you lay it down that Venus makes marriages,
and if she have Jupiter in her configuration she makes the marriages chaste;
yet if Jupiter be not regarding, and Mars be present,
then you pronounce that the marriages are corrupted by adultery.
3109.
Then said my father:
It is even so.
3110.
Then I answered:
Therefore adultery is an evil, seeing that it is committed through the admixture of evil stars;
and, to state it in a word,
all things that you say that the good stars suffer from the mixture of evil stars,
are undoubtedly to be pronounced to be evil.
3111.
Those stars, therefore, by whose admixture we have said that fevers, configurations,
and other such like evils are produced,
— those, according to you,
work also murders, adulteries, thefts, and also produce haughty and stolid men.
How to Make Progress.
3112.
Then my father said:
Truly you have shown briefly and incomparably that there are evils in actions;
yet still I should wish to learn this, how God justly judges those who sin,
as you say, if genesis compels them to sin?
3113.
Then I answered:
I am afraid to speak anything to you, my father,
because it becomes me to hold you in all honour,
else I have an answer to give you, if it were becoming.
3114.
Then says my father:
Speak what occurs to you, my son;
for it is not you, yet the method of inquiry, that does the wrong,
as a modest woman to an libertine man, if she is indignant for her safety and her honour.
|
|
|
3115.
Then I answered:
If we do not hold by the principles that we have acknowledged and confessed,
yet if those things which have been defined are always loosened by forgetfulness,
we shall seem to be weaving Penelope's web, undoing what we have done.
3116.
And therefore we ought either not to acquiesce too easily,
before we have diligently examined the doctrine propounded;
or if we have once acquiesced, and the proposition has been agreed to, then we ought to keep by what has been once determined, that we may go on with our inquiries respecting other matters.
3117.
And my father said:
You say well, my son; and I know why you say this:
it is because in the discussion yesterday on natural causes, you showed that some malignant power,
transferring itself into the order of the stars, excites the lusts of men,
provoking them in various ways to sin, yet not compelling or producing sins.
3118.
To this I answered:
It is well that you remember it; and yet, though you do remember it, you have fallen into error.
3119.
Then said my father:
Pardon me, my son; for I have not yet much practice in these things:
for indeed your discourses yesterday, by their truth, shut me up to agree with you;
yet in my consciousness there are, as it were, some remains of fevers,
which for a little hold me back from faith, as from health.
3120.
For I am distracted, because I know that many things, yea, almost all things,
have befallen me according to genesis.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIX
Divisions 3121-3150
Book 10
RECOGNITIONS 10
Test of Astrology.
3121.
Then I answered:
I shall therefore tell you, my father, what is the nature of mathematics,
and do you act according to what I tell you.
3122.
Go to a mathematician, and tell him first that such and such evils have befallen you at such a time,
and that you wish to learn of him whence, or how, or through what stars they have befallen you.
|
|
|
3123.
He will no doubt answer you that a malignant Mars or Saturn has ruled your times,
or that some one of them has been periodic;
or that some one has regarded you diametrically,
or in conjunction, or centrally;
3124.
or some such answer will he give,
adding that in all these some one was not in harmony with the malignant one,
or was invisible,
or was in the figure,
or was beyond the division,
3125.
or was eclipsed,
or was not in contact,
or was among the dark stars;
and many other like things will he answer, according to his own reasons,
and will condescend upon particulars.
3126.
After him go to another mathematician, and tell him the opposite, that such and such good happened to you at that time, mentioning to him the same time, and ask him from what parts of your genesis this good has come to you, and take care, as I said, that the times are the same with those about which you asked concerning evils.
3127.
And when you have deceived him concerning the times, see what figures he will invent for you, by which to show that good things ought to have befallen you at those very times.
3128.
For it is impossible for those entreating of the genesis of men
not to find in every quarter, as they call it, of the heavenly bodies,
some stars favourably placed, and some unfavourably;
3129.
for the circle is equally complete in every part, according to mathematics, admitting of diverse and various causes, from which they can take occasion of saying whatever they please.
Дата добавления: 2019-02-13; просмотров: 234; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!