"There are now two astrologers casting horoscopes in the next column to the secret remedies on the fourth page of the newspapers." "And it's a shame! Those people don't even know the first thing about the science.

They are simply tricksters who hope thus to pick up some money.

What's the use of speaking of them when they _don't even exist_! Really it must be admitted that only in England and America is there anybody who knows how to establish the genethliac theme and construct a horoscope." "I am very much afraid," said Des Hermies, "that not only these so-called astrologers, but also all the mages, theosophists, occultists, and cabalists of the present day, know absolutely nothing--those with whom I am acquainted are indubitably, incontestably, ignorant imbeciles.
And that is the pure truth, messieurs.

These people are, for the most part, down-and-out journalists or broken spendthrifts seeking to exploit the taste of a public weary of positivism.

They plagiarize Eliphas Levi, steal from Fabre d'Olivet, and write treatises of which they themselves are incapable of making head or tail.