LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Annie Besant, 1885 Frontispiece

Horoscope of Annie Besant Page 12

Annie Besant, 1869 Facing page 86

Thomas Scott Facing page 112

Charles Bradlaugh, M.P. Facing page 212

Charles Bradlaugh and Henry Labouchere Facing page 254

Norwich branch of the socialist League Facing page 314

Strike committee of the matchmakers’ union Facing page 336

Members of the matchmakers’ union Facing page 338

CHAPTER I.

“OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO THE HERE.”

On October 1, 1847, I am credibly informed, my baby eyes opened to the light(?) of a London afternoon at 5.39.

A friendly astrologer has drawn for me the following chart, showing the position of the planets at this, to me fateful, moment; but I know nothing of astrology, so feel no wiser as I gaze upon my horoscope.

Keeping in view the way in which sun, moon, and planets influence the physical condition of the earth, there is nothing incongruous with the orderly course of nature in the view that they also influence the physical bodies of men, these being part of the physical earth, and largely moulded by its conditions.  Any one who knows the characteristics ascribed to those who are born under the several signs of the Zodiac, may very easily pick out the different types among his own acquaintances, and he may then get them to go to some astrologer and find out under what signs they were severally born.  He will very quickly discover that two men of completely opposed types are not born under the same sign, and the invariability of the concurrence will convince him that law, and not chance, is at work.  We are born into earthly life under certain conditions, just as we were physically affected by them pre-natally, and these will have their bearing on our subsequent physical evolution.  At the most, astrology, as it is now practised, can only calculate the interaction between these physical conditions at any given moment, and the conditions brought to them by a given person whose general constitution and natal condition are known.  It cannot say what the person will do, nor what will happen to him, but only what will be the physical district, so to speak, in which he will find himself, and the impulses that will play upon him from external nature and from his own body.  Even on those matters modern astrology is not quite reliable—­judging from the many blunders made—­or else its professors are very badly instructed; but that there is a real science of astrology I have no doubt, and there are some men who are past masters in it.