[A History of Science Volume 2(of 5) by Henry Smith Williams]@TWC D-Link bookA History of Science Volume 2(of 5) BOOK II 189/368
A person born when the Sun is in any of the latter degrees of Taurus, say the twenty-fifth degree, will have a small, sharp, weak chin, curved up towards Gemini, the two vertical lines on the upper lip."(4) The time was when science went out of its way to prove that such statements were untrue; but that time is past, and such writers are usually classed among those energetic but misguided persons who are unable to distinguish between logic and sophistry. In England, from the time of Elizabeth to the reign of William and Mary, judicial astrology was at its height.
After the great London fire, in 1666, a committee of the House of Commons publicly summoned the famous astrologer, Lilly, to come before Parliament and report to them on his alleged prediction of the calamity that had befallen the city.
Lilly, for some reason best known to himself, denied having made such a prediction, being, as he explained, "more interested in determining affairs of much more importance to the future welfare of the country." Some of the explanations of his interpretations will suffice to show their absurdities, which, however, were by no means regarded as absurdities at that time, for Lilly was one of the greatest astrologers of his day.
He said that in 1588 a prophecy had been printed in Greek characters which foretold exactly the troubles of England between the years 1641.
and 1660.
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