ky, the predictions were made, not from observation of
the heavens, but from observations on globes, often very inaccurate.

Earlier still we have astrological tablets from Assyria and Babylon,
many of which show that they had nothing to do with any actual
observation, and were simply invented to give completeness to the tables
of omens. Thus an Assyrian tablet has been found upon which are given
the significations of eclipses falling upon each day of the month
Tammuz, right up to the middle of the month. It is amusing to read the
naive comment of a distinguished Assyriologist, that tablets such as
these prove how careful, and how long continued had been the
observations upon which they were based. It was not recognized that no
eclipses either of sun or moon could possibly occur on most of the dates
given, and that they could never occur "in the north," which is one of
the quarters indicated. They were no more founded on actual observation
than the portent mentioned on another tablet, of a woman giving birth to
a lion, which, after all, is not more impossible than that an eclipse
should occur in the north on the second day of Tammuz. In all ages it
has been the same; the astrologer has had nothing to do with science as
such, even in its most primitive form; he has cared nothing for the
actual appearance of the heavens upon which he pretended to base his
predictions; an imaginary planet, an imaginary eclipse, an imaginary
constellation were just as good for his fortune-telling as real ones.
Such fortune-telling was forbidden to the Hebrews; necessarily
forbidden, for astrology had no excuse unless the stars and planets were
gods, or the vehicles and engines of gods. Further, all attempts to
extort from spirits or from inanimate things a glimpse into the future
was likewise forbidden them. They were to look to God, and to His
revealed will alone for all such light.

"When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have
familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter:
should not a people seek unto their God?"

The Hebrews were few in number, their kingdoms very small compared with
the great empires of Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon, but here, in this
question of divination or fortune-telling, they stand on a plane far
above any of the surrounding nations. There is just contempt in the
picture drawn by Ezekiel of the king of Babylon, great though his
military power might be--

"The king o