one which had been seen was _his star_.

All ancient nations were very superstitious in regard to the influence
of the stars upon human affairs, and this ridiculous idea has been
handed down, in some places, even to the present day. Dr. Hooykaas,
speaking on this subject, says:

"In ancient times the Jews, like other peoples, might very
well believe that there was some immediate connection between
the stars and the life of man--an idea which we still preserve
in the forms of speech that so-and-so was born under a lucky
or under an evil star. They might therefore suppose that the
birth of great men, such as Abraham, for instance, was
announced in the heavens. In our century, however, if not
before, all serious belief in astrology has ceased, and it
would be regarded as an act of the grossest superstition for
any one to have his horoscope drawn; for the course, the
appearance and the disappearance of the heavenly bodies have
been long determined with mathematical precision by
science."[141:1]

The Rev. Dr. Geikie says, in his _Life of Christ_:[141:2]

"The Jews had already, long before Christ's day, dabbled
in astrology, and the various forms of magic which became
connected with it. . . . They were much given to cast horoscopes
from the numerical value of a name. Everywhere throughout the
whole Roman Empire, Jewish magicians, dream expounders, and
sorcerers, were found.

"'The life and portion of children,' says the _Talmud_, 'hang
not on righteousness, but on _their_ star.' 'The planet of the
day has no virtue, but the planet of the hour (of nativity)
has much.' 'When the Messiah is to be revealed,' says the book
_Sohar_, 'a star will rise in the east, shining in great
brightness, and _seven_ other stars round it will fight
against it on every side.' 'A star will rise in the east,
which is the star of the Messiah, and will remain in the east
fifteen days.'"

The moment of every man's birth being supposed to determine every
circumstance in his life, it was only necessary to find out in what mode
the _celestial bodies_--supposed to be the primary wheels to the
universal machine--operated at that moment, in order to discover all
that would happen to him afterward.

The regularity of the risings and settings of the fixed stars, though it
announced the changes of the seasons an