of producing and that of destroying; that on the greater
part of the globe these two operations were performed
in the intervals of the two equinoxes; that is to
say, during the six months of summer every thing was
procreating and multiplying, and that during winter
everything languished and almost died; they supposed
in Nature two contrary powers, which were in a continual
state of contention and exertion; and considering the
celestial sphere in this view, they divided the images
which they figured upon it into two halves or hemispheres;
so that the constellations which were on the summer
heaven formed a direct and superior empire; and those
which were on the winter heaven composed an antipode
and inferior empire. Therefore, as the constellations
of summer accompanied the season of long, warm, and
unclouded days, and that of fruits and harvests, they
were considered as the powers of light, fecundity,
and creation; and, by a transition from a physical
to a moral sense, they became genii, angels of science,
of beneficence, of purity and virtue. And as
the constellations of winter were connected with long
nights and polar fogs, they were the genii of darkness,
of destruction, of death; and by transition, angels
of ignorance, of wickedness, of sin and vice.
By this arrangement the heaven was divided into two
domains, two factions; and the analogy of human ideas
already opened a vast field to the errors of imagination;
but the mistake and the illusion were determined,
if not occasioned by a particular circumstance. (Observe
plate Astrological Heaven of the Ancients.)
“In the projection of the celestial sphere,
as traced by the astronomical priests,* the zodiac
and the constellations, disposed in circular order,
presented their halves in diametrical opposition; the
hemisphere of winter, antipode of that of summer, was
adverse, contrary, opposed to it. By a continual
metaphor, these words acquired a moral sense; and
the adverse genii, or angels, became revolted enemies.**
From that moment all the astronomical history of the
constellations was changed into a political history;
the heavens became a human state, where things happened
as on the earth. Now, as the earthly states, the
greater part despotic, had already their monarchs,
and as the sun was apparently the monarch of the skies,
the summer hemisphere (empire of light) and its constellations
(a nation of white angels) had for king an enlightened
God, a creator intelligent and good. And as every
rebel faction must have its chief, the heaven of winter,
the subterranean empire of darkness and woe, and its
stars, a nation of black angels, giants and demons,
had for their chief a malignant genius, whose character
was applied by different people to the constellation
which to them was the most remarkable. In Egypt
it was at first the Scorpion, first zodiacal sign
after Libra, and for a long time chief of the winter
signs ; then it was the Bear, or the polar Ass, called
Typhon, that is to say, deluge,** on account of the