Note 23 — Chapter II · KNOWLEDGE MAY BE ACQUIRED BY ASTRONOMY TO A CERTAIN EXTENT
J. M. Ashmand translation
In this passage the author seems to have anticipated, and exposed the absurdity of an argument now considered very forcible against astrology: viz. that “if the art were true, then any two individuals born under the same meridian, in the same latitude, and at the same moment of time, must have one and the same destiny; although one were born a prince, and the other a mendicant.” Such a monstrous conclusion is nowhere authorized by any astrological writer; it is, on the contrary, always maintained by all of them, that the worldly differences and distinctions, alluded to in the text, inevitably prevent this exact resemblance of destiny; and all that they presume to assert is, that, in their respective degrees, any two individuals, so born, will have a partial similarity in the leading features of their fate. Whether their assertion is uniformly borne out, I will not take upon me to determine, but it would be unfair not to subjoin the following fact:—
In the newspapers of the month of February, 1820, the death of a Mr. Samuel Hemmings is noticed: it was stated that he had been an ironmonger, and prosperous in trade; that he was born on the 4th of June, 1738, at nearly the same moment as his late Majesty, and in the same parish of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields; that he went into business for himself in October, 1760; that he married on the 8th September, 1761; and finally, after other events of his life had resembled those which happened to the late King, that he died on Saturday, the 29th January, 1820.
These coincidences are, at least, highly remarkable.