crew to the church, where they returned thanks to Heaven, which had so wonderfully conducted and crowned with success a voyage of greater length and of more importance than had been attempted in any former age. On the evening of the same day, he had the satisfaction of seeing the Pinta, which the violence of the tempest had driven far to the north, enter the harbour. The first care of Columbus was to inform the king and queen, who were then at Barcelona, of his arrival and success. Ferdinand and Isabella, no less astonished than delighted with this unexpected event, desired Columbus, in terms the most respectful and flattering, to repair immediately to court, that from his own mouth they might receive a full detail of his extraordinary services and discoveries. During his journey to Barcelona, the people crowded from the adjacent country, following him everywhere with admiration and applause. His entrance into the city was conducted, by order of Ferdinand and Isabella, with pomp suitable to the great event, which added such distinguishing lustre to their reign. The people whom he brought along with him from countries which he had discovered, marched first, and by their singular complexion, the wild peculiarity of their features, and uncouth finery, appeared like men of another species. Next to them were carried the ornaments of gold fashioned by the rude art of the natives, the grains of gold found in the mountains, and dust of the same metal gathered in the rivers. After these, ap the peared the various commodities of the new-discovered countries, together with their curious productions. Columbus himself closed the procession, and attracted the eyes of all the spectators, who gazed with admiration on the extraordinary man, whose superior sagacity and fortitude had conducted their countrymen, by a route concealed from past ages, to the knowledge of a new world. Ferdinand and Isabella received him clad in their royal robes, and seated upon a throne, under a magnificent canopy. When he approached, they stood up, and raising him as he kneeled to kiss their hands, commanded him to take his seat upon a chair prepared for him, and to give a circumstantial account of his voyage. He delivered it with a gravity and composure no less suitable to the disposition of the Spanish nation, than to the dignity of the audience in which he spoke, and with that modest simplicity which characterises men of superior minds, who, satisfied with having performed great actions, court not vain applause by an ostentatious display of their exploits. When he had finished his narration, the king and queen, kneeling down, offered up solemn thanks to Almighty God for the discovery of those new regions, from which they expected so many advantages to flow in upon the kingdoms subject to their government. Every mark of honour that gratitude or admiration could suggest conferred upon Columbus. was Such is the story of the discovery of America MEMOIRS OF AN EXTINCT SCIENCE. SOME WORDS ON ASTROLOGY AND ASTROLOGERS. LTHOUGH astrology, or the science which pretended to tell the future from the position and movements of the stars, is no longer believed in, yet it had once a most important influence on human affairs. The astrologer, by his pretended revelations, often changed the purposes of kings and councils. Hence some account of the past history of this pseudo-science comes very fitly within our plan. The following erudite notice of this and kindred arts we borrow from an essay which appeared, some time ago, in the columns of the Standard: "The fortune-teller of the nineteenth century is still an important personage, plying in most of our towns a lucrative business. In spite of the march of intellect,' she retains her influence among the credulous classes, despising with scornful contempt any effort on the part of education to expose her impostures. Indeed, endowed with the prophetic mantle, she regards with pity those who ever, it appears that in days gone by the upper classes frequently in real earnest resorted to these wise sybils. Thus Henry, in his History of Great Britain,' speaking of astrology, informs us how this passion for penetrating into futurity prevailed not only among the common people, but also among persons of the highest rank and greatest learning. All our kings, and many of our earls and great barons, had their astrologers, who resided in their families, and were consulted by them in all undertakings of great importance.' James. I. was notorious for his credulity about such delusions, and both Charles I. and Cromwell are reported to have been equally superstitious. Even, too, the clergy-instead of denouncing such absurdities, rather sanctioned and encouraged them. Among some of the most popular methods of fortune-telling may be mentioned astrology, which has in a masterly manner been ridiculed by Shakespeare in King Lear (Act i., Scene 2), where he makes 'Edmund' say, This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune reject or ridicule her superior know--often the surfeit of our own behaviour ledge, and considers herself cruelly used when summoned before the magistrate for extorting the hard-earned wages from her deluded victim. However much ridiculed, too, for her pretensions, she nevertheless offers her services to the most erudite in the land, who occasionally, for amusement's sake, yield to her importunities. Conscious, also, that she is dealing with crafty customers, she generally manages to give her information in such a manner as to be capable of having any meaning. In this way she shows her artifice, and at the same time escapes detection. Unfortunately, how -we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence.' That this notion is not by any means obsolete is evident from the many thousands of Zadkiel's Almanack' which are yearly sold. Indeed, as Mr. Tylor remarks in his 'Primitive Culture,' 'Astrology, in the immensity of its delusive influence on mankind, and by the comparatively modern period to history of the world, when animating in- | curious, and we find many of our old telligences were supposed to reside in the celestial bodies, and hence we can understand why a child born under a writers condemning it. Thus Sir Thomas Browne goes so far as to attribute fortune-telling by astrology to Satan, adding that 'he makes the ignorant ascribe natural effects to supernatural causes, and thus deludes them with this form of error.' Hall, also, in his Virgidemiarum' (Bk. II., Sat. 7), speaks in equally strong language on this pseudo-science : "Thou brain-sick tale of old astrologie Some doting gossip 'mongst the Chaldee wives Another old writer, also, aptly remarks that although astrologers tell all people most obscure and hidden secrets abroad, they at the same time know not what happens in their own houses and in their own chambers.' Again, palmistry is still much practised by fortune-tellers, every line on the palm of the hand being said to have its own meaning. One of the most popular treatises on the subject in days gone by was the Universal Fortune Teller,' an authority still in use in the north of England. After dilating on the importance of the matter, the amount of knowledge to be gained, and its absolute certainty and truth, it describes the various lines on the hand, and adds that the left one should always be chosen, because the heart and brain have more influence over it than the right hand.' In the Merchant of Venice (Act ii., Scene 2), Launcelot, referring to the language of palmistry, calls the hand the table,' meaning thereby the whole collection of lines on the skin: 'Well, if any man in Italy hath a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book, I shall have good fortune.' He then alludes to one of the lines in the hand, known as the 'line of life.' Much attention is also paid by the fortuneteller to the nature of the hand. Thus a moist one has generally been supposed to denote an amorous constitution, an allusion to which we find in Othello: 'Othello: Give me your hand; this hand is moist, my lady.-Desdemona : It yet have felt no age, nor known no sorrow. Othello: This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart.' Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Iras says, 'There's a palm presages chastity;' whereupon Charmian replies, "If an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.' Another species of palmistry is divination by the fingernails, the presence or absence of certain marks upon them being regarded as ominous. Sir Thomas Browne, however, in his Vulgar Errors,' ridicules this notion, although he admits that conjectures of prevalent humours may be collected from the spots on our nails.' However fanciful this mode of divination may seem, it is one extensively credited by the lower classes, and may be found in full force at any provincial fair. Of the many other common forms of fortune telling may be noticed that by a pack of cards. Indeed, this finds special favour among the gipsy community, and during the past months several cases have occurred in which certain so-called 'wisewomen' have been punished for pretending to reveal to simple-minded individuals their future condition in this life. According to an old chap-book each card has a symbolical meaning, and a rhyme formerly used in this country informs us how: 'He that draws the ace of hearts So long, however, as foolish and credu- standing, and whence it may have spread into all other countries where we hear of it. The shoulder-blade is put on the fire till it cracks in different directions, and then a long split lengthwise is reckoned as the 'way of life,' while cross-cracks on the right hand and left stand for different kinds and degrees of good and evil fortune, and so on. In Ireland, Camden describes the looking through the blade-bone of a sheep to discover a black spot which foretells a death; and Pennant has bequeathed us an account of this practice as once kept up in Scotland. Drayton, too, has thus commemorated in his 'Polyolbion' : "By th' shoulder of a ram from off the right side par'd, Which usually they boil, the spade-bone being bar'd, Which when the wizard takes, and gazing thereupon, Things long, to come foreshows, as things done long agone. Once more, fortune-telling by words is of very ancient date, the mode of procedure having been to open some poems at hazard, and to accept the passage which first turned up as an answer. Among the Greeks, the works of Homer were specially in request, and the Romans used Virgil. At the present day the Bible is the modern substitute, and much reliance is frequently attached to the passage, which must be selected at random. Socrates, it is said, was not proof against the superstition; and the elevation of Severus to the Empire is reported to have been foretold by his opening at these words : Remember, Roman, with Imperial sway, To rule the nations.' The modern gipsy, of course, professes to open the inspired volume at the prophetic passage." |