(16) Philostratus:  Apollonius of Tyana, Bk.  VIII, Chap.  VII, Phillimore’s transl., Oxford, 1912, ii, 233.  See, also, Justin:  Apologies, edited by Louis Pautigny, Paris, 1904, p. 39.

     (17) M. Jastrow:  Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
     in Babylonia and Assyria, New York, 1911, p. 210.

With the rationalizing influence of the Persians the hold of astrology weakened, and according to Jastrow it was this, in combination with Hebrew and Greek modes of thought, that led the priests in the three centuries following the Persian occupation, to exchange their profession of diviners for that of astronomers; and this, he says, marks the beginning of the conflict between religion and science.  At first an expression of primitive “science,” astrology became a superstition, from which the human mind has not yet escaped.  In contrast to divination, astrology does not seem to have made much impression on the Hebrews and definite references in the Bible are scanty.  From Babylonia it passed to Greece (without, however, exerting any particular influence upon Greek medicine).  Our own language is rich in words of astral significance derived from the Greek, e.g., disaster.

The introduction of astrology into Europe has a passing interest.  Apparently the Greeks had made important advances in astronomy before coming in contact with the Babylonians,—­who, in all probability, received from the former a scientific conception of the universe.  “In Babylonia and Assyria we have astrology first and astronomy afterwards, in Greece we have the sequence reversed—­astronomy first and astrology afterwards” (Jastrow).(18)

     (18) M. Jastrow:  Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
     in Babylonia and Assyria, New York, 1911, p. 256.

It is surprising to learn that, previous to their contact with the Greeks, astrology as relating to the individual—­that is to say, the reading of the stars to determine the conditions under which the individual was born—­had no place in the cult of the Babylonians and Assyrians.  The individualistic spirit led the Greek to make his gods take note of every action in his life, and his preordained fate might be read in the stars.—­“A connecting link between the individual and the movements in the heavens was found in an element which they shared in common.  Both man and stars moved in obedience to forces from which there was no escape.  An inexorable law controlling the planets corresponded to an equally inexorable fate ordained for every individual from his birth.  Man was a part of nature and subject to its laws.  The thought could therefore arise that, if the conditions in the heavens were studied under which a man was born, that man’s future could be determined in accord with the beliefs associated with the position of the planets rising or visible at the time of birth or, according to other views, at the time of conception.  These views take us